EVERYONE CAN MASTER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: IKEDIMMA OKEKE’S PROPOSED THEORY OF ADAPTIVE MUSICOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

‘Adaptive musicology’ is a novel theory proposed by the author in the quest for solution to the challenges of learning musical instruments among children and young learners. It posits that, ‘for a meaningful and fulfilling musical experience, learners should be guided through musical specialties which they are adaptable to by virtue of their respective native endowments’. This theory is drawn from the ‘theory of adaptation’ in the field of Animal Biology which sees adaptation as ‘the development of physical and behavioral characteristics that allow organisms to survive and reproduce in their habitat’. For instance, the possession of gills, fins, scales, cold blood, and streamlined bodies by most fishes represent their adaptive features which aid breathing, swimming, balance, body temperature, and moving with minimum resistance in water respectively. Fishes do not find it difficult to breathe and swim in water because it is most natural and native to them. Lions, tigers, and cheetahs develop specialized dentition, sharp vision, and speed which enable them to adapt in the wild. It follows that by nature the fish is programmed to live in the water just as the lion in the wild. The fish cannot survive on land neither can the lion adapt successfully in the water even though it can manage to swim through occasionally. The adaptive features of these animals come from their respective genomes. Relating this to humans we also discover that human features regarding height, dentition, body shape, tongue size, lip structure, finger and toe size, lung capacity, musculature, intelligence, temperament, voice timbre, etc., are basically a function of their genome for various adaptations in life. Applying this theory to the learning of musical instruments, it becomes interesting to argue that the potentiality to excel in a given musical instrument is traceable to the individual’s adaptive features. That is, the capability to adapt successfully to the learning and mastery of a given musical instrument is native to the individual. Because every musical instrument poses peculiar challenges in learning, it becomes necessary for the learner to be prepared for such peculiar demands and to choose the musical instrument/s that he or she can naturally adapt to. The piano demands long, thin, and strong fingers and learners with shallow and short breaths, under-bite, and cleft tongue should be guided away from the brasses and woodwinds because of their demands for good breathing, tonguing, and embouchure.