Sing Us a Song; You’re the Piano Man: The Patriarchal Discourse of Music Education

Abstract

This article examines the discourse of music education within the paradigm of the social structure of patriarchy. It argues that this system, which, in sociologist Allan G. Johnson’s words, “promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified, and male centered,” is so pervasive in music education that even a music lesson in which both participants are female does not escape the effects. Through analysis of a transcript of an all-female music lesson, with particular focus on pedagogy, physical indoctrination, and metaphor, the experience will be revealed for what it truly is: a subconscious indoctrination into a patriarchal system.