http://erickoch.ca/2009/12/29/music/ Sun, 27 May 2012 00:10:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://erickoch.ca/2009/12/29/music/#comment-296 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:39:16 +0000 http://erickoch.ca/?p=388#comment-296 I don’t think linguistics differences are a barrier. Various kinds of music are played by people speaking a wide variety of languages. Cultural differences — habituation to different kinds of music and different tonal systems — are likely to have an important effect. But the main cultural difference in this case is that, for instance, practically every Chinese kid in North America (certainly every Chinese girl I’ve ever known) has to learn piano, violin, or occasionally flute or something else growing up. And they have to practice hard. It’s a culture that really values excellence in music. And the music they learn is classical music. I think that such valuation of music and of achievement also holds true in China, and in Japan.

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