Discovering Dr.Benjamin Bloom’s learning objectives taxonomy was an exceptionally clarifying moment for me…

… to understand and categorize learning and teaching knowing how he has already classified the stages for us to understand our path and process.

Any learning involves categorization and going meta to know why we are doing what etc.

Dr. Bloom did the meta of meta and his taxonomy helps us see our paths and processes in a clear light, helping us learn and understand better by giving categories, heirarchies and even verbs.

Naturally, I use it in my work with Indian music playing and to help my students achieve better and faster goals.

There are two parallel paths to it:

  1. the playing part – where one first remembers the notes, then starts understanding why we are playing where, then the phrasing logic, so that one can adapt and find better ways to play the phrases, ending with creating ones on ways of playing the phrases or being able to come up with efficient phrasing with any new song or solo one comes across
  2. understanding why you are playing what. The meta side also has a heirarchy. First we are playing by remembering the notes. Then comes the idea of connecting them to form words – not just usually existing phrases etc, but the scale side of it. then the idea can be used for transposing, knowing where a note is in the scale structure etc. then comes adapting parts, where one is even changing scales or changing notes to improvise. coming to the last stage where the product can be called ones own composition.

From the teacher’ side, one of the examples given in the heirarchy chart for the adaptation part is: teacher being able to make lesson plans tailor made to the student.

in the creation stage a teacher makes full curriculum for the subject: maybe like i did with Raga leads course…

… and with the one to one classes (or the video correction part of raga leads course) where i first ask the interest and goals of the student and we are able to customize a complete syllabus based on the final playing goals.

Even before i knew these heirarchies existed, i was trying to make my own stages, by telling students how there is the note finding phase, then the phrase or word phase, connecting to the sentence or phrase connecting and delay reduction stage, coming to the final but always existing part of feedback and listening to oneself and constantly correcting.