What Super Mario Brothers can teach us about music education

Guest post by Alper Tuzcu. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

Learning music is difficult. It takes time, patience and perspective. Learning an instrument at an advanced level takes years. Skills like critical listening or ear training take a long time to develop. In other words, being a good musician is tied to perseverance and trying again and again until you get to perfection.

In the world of education, there are different perspectives for styles of teaching. One of these perspectives argues that humans should be penalized for every mistake they make. This is where the concept of exams come from (of course) — the fear of “failure” is supposed to stimulate us to do better.

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