【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the best experiences that a young child can have. Learning to play music begins with listening to others play music. A child's first experience with playing an instrument should be by ear, without the distraction of printed music. Playing by ear is the natural beginning for children. The ability to play by ear will help them throughout their lives, and it also enriches the experience of music making. But children should eventually learn to read music. So, when is the right time? And what's the best way for a child to learn how to read music? A lot of children start playing an instrument at the age of eight or nine. It's best for them to spend a couple of years playing by ear before the teacher introduces notation--printed music. Children should first be able to feel that their instrument is a part of them. Playing by ear is the best way for children to become comfortable-with their instrument. The teacher should introduce notation only when the child is ready. The right time is when the child feels a need for notation. This might be when the child has learned so many pieces it's sort of difficult to remember them all. Then the teacher can present the printed music as a memory aid, so learning to read music has a practical purpose and isn't just a meaningless task. A good time to teach notation is when a group of children play together. The printed score is a way to help them sort of keep track of who plays what and when. The score will organize their cooperative effort in a way that makes sense to them. Another good time is when the child wants to play music that's so complex it would be difficult to learn by ear. In this case, learning to read music is a natural step toward playing the music the child wants to play. The teacher should play the score for the child the first time through, and demonstrate how the notes on the page are transformed into music. The child listens as he or she looks at the printed notes. This way, the child car begin to see how the notes represent sound and a printed score becomes a piece of music. As the child listens--and maybe plays along--he or she begins to understand the shape of the new piece. For students who play a chord-producing instrument--the guitar, for example--a natural first step toward reading musiz is playing by chord symbols. Chord symbols are found in a lot of different styles of music--like pop and jazz--and at various levels of difficulty. Chord symbols are a simple form of written music--they're kind of a halfway point between playing by ear and reading a standard musical score. After children can play by ear, and then by chord symbcds, the next step is to read standard music notation. Although that's the natural order for children to learn, it doesn't mean that each successive step is better than the one that came before. The three methods of playing music--playing by ear, playing chords, and playing by standard notation--are all valuable in their own way. Some children will always prefer to play by ear. Others will like chord playing and have no desire to learn another method. And still others will find their musical home in the tradition of note reading. It's the job of the music teacher to fit the method to the needs of the students. The professor says: A child 's first experience with playing an instrument should be by ear, without the distraction of printed music.