Children can appreciate jazz too

varied as the students themselves. You hear some say hip-hop, others say reggae/dancehall or R‘n’B.
Judging from the responses that you normally get on music genres the need to create platforms that inspire and raise an appreciation of the diversity of musical expressions is a noble idea.
This goes a long way in generating a culture of informed, self-motivated and world-class performers.

Children are easy to mould into whatever you want. They are so receptive and raring to explore and so while they are still at this stage of development let’s introduce them to all types of musical styles.
The October International Jazz Festival scheduled to take place from tomorrow until October 15 has on its programme a unique opportunity for schoolchildren both in primary and secondary level to have a first class free jazz experience.

I am told Amanda e La Banda from Italy, Kunle Ayo from Nigeria and a host of other musicians will be coming to Harare as part of this annual jazz extravaganza.
The festival will afford schoolchildren the opportunity to sample jazz music from artistes coming from Nigeria, Mozambique, Italy and Zimbabwe as well as appreciate music as a source of livelihood.
As a young man there was a time I despised sungura, museve, classical music until I attended live shows where I came back converted as the Christians would say.

In the late 1980s I was part of group called Vanguard Posse doing some rap music. It was fun but guess I outlived the style thanks to the fact that I got exposed to other musical genres, which gave me continuity in my passion for music.

Listening to music on radio or television is a hobby that has and continues to inspire youngsters to take up music and appreciate different genres.
I believe watching the artistes live on stage has greater impact and goes a long way in shaping and developing a positive mind set.
Opportunities like that must be embraced by all music teachers, because it is easy to give children what we prefer against the varied musical styles from which they can select.

Just from observation you will notice that we all have a bias towards a certain genre and so naturally we develop our music programmes around our areas of strength.
This is okay but must not be the ultimate standard in teaching music. Every teacher must look out for other programmes that expose children to as many expressions as possible.

The music syllabus even goes to say that as part of appreciation you can invite a musician to come and play for the children besides playing them recorded material, for example CDs.
My daughter of three, I guess will become a jazz star. She spends most of her time improvising melodies about anything that she sees in the house to our amazement.