Hermann J. Kaiser:

A comment on Sture Brändström's article Music learning as social activity

In his elucidative essay Sture Brändström picks up my distinction between musical and music-reiated experience. He draws attention to the fact that additional explanations are needed. 1. The distinction between musical and music-related experience refers to a phenomenologically gained distinction . It emphasises a difference between an internal (the individual's who gains an experience) and an external (the observer's or researcher's who "looks" at somebody's experience) point of view. 2. 1 insist on a difference between learning and experiencing. In my opinion, the latter is characterised by a reflective reference. This means that the subject has to refer to him/herself and his/her learning process as well as to the results of this process in order to produce a music-related experience. 3. 1 agree with Sture when he emphasises the fact that music learning means a social process and has to be distinguished from other areas of learning. But I would like to strengthen his argument that music learning differs from other areas of learning by its (musical) content: Music learning differs from other processes of learning by a specific mode of learning.