Music as an embodied learning experience

Abstract

Making music is a physical act, leading, simultaneously, to an intangible output, since music is associated with sound and unfolds in time. When it comes to performance, or to the process of learning musical skills, the sensual spectrum necessarily expands from sound and hearing to embodiment, revealing more extensive possibilities of expression, all associated with music. Indeed, the process of learning and experiencing music, regardless of its social and cultural context, is essentially one that relates to physical practice. Music expresses itself socially and in the physical body at the same time, i.e. music lives from its social attributions, but certain instrumental techniques also depend directly on physical skills. Musical practices are always grounded in an embodied learning experience.