Music teaching as culture: introducing the pontes approach

Abstract

The pontes (bridges) approach may be viewed as a teaching guide for action in music education. It may help music teachers to articulate the different aspects that surround the teaching–learning process, especially those related to cultural interfaces, such as: the student’s personal characteristics, the elements and essence of the sociocultural context, student’s knowledge and previous musical experiences, and the new knowledge to be learned. The pontesapproach implies significant musical encounters between the student and the music. Pontesrelates to: positive attitude, observation, naturalness, technique, expressiveness and sensibilities. This article is based on the partial results of a study about the music pedagogical knowledge of the masters of musical oral traditions. It is organized in two sections: (a) the theoretical basis for the proposed practices; and (b) specific examples for the use of pontes.