Music Education in Finland

Today I'm observing a sixth grade music lesson in Finland. The students are working on a pop song. Ten girls are gathered around four microphones, four girls are at two keyboards behind them, two boys are on conga and bongos, one boy is on drum set, one boy is playing a bell tree, and the rest of the students are at desks playing shakers, recorders, and tambourines. The music teacher is walking around trying to keep everyone together and the classroom teacher is at the piano. The song begins and ends with a recorder melody played by the kids in the class and the girls at the mic. Various combinations of accompaniments are used with the verses and chorus of the song. The music teacher creates the arrangements from tablature and by writing out some parts using Sibelius software. During this 45-minute class, they ran through this song about five times. The biggest issue the students were having was staying on the beat, especially the drums and tambourines. [Keeping the beat really is the fundamental skill in music teaching and learning and should be reinforced constantly.] Anyway, what is music education like in Finland? Well, this is just one class that I visited today, but it does reflect the value Finns place on popular music and musical expression. The classroom which serves grades 1 through 9 has a set of guitars, electronic keyboards, and percussion. Here's a picture. 

On the other side of the room, underneath more guitars, were some kantele's, a Finnish traditional stringed instrument on the order of a psaltery, zither, or dulcimer. I have added a picture here on the right. The teacher said that all the students learn this instrument as well. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day in a Finnish school, learning about similarities and differences between Finnish and American education.