Music Education Facing New Challenges

This article focuses on finding new bases for Finnish school music education. It outlines current music education and points out difficulties that are caused by rapid changes in music culture. Due to these changes, Finnish music curriculum must find new starting points. We explore the main ideas about music education and compare them to each other through the historical development. The conclusions suggest that music education today should be built on music making and listening. It can no longer be based on traditional frames because it is not familiar to children of today. Music education should be based on research and new ways of teaching and learning musical skills and knowledge should guide its practice.