Towards the attainment of mindful bodily relations in music education

Recent studies of female guitar students in upper secondary school ensemble education suggestthat girls behave, and are encouraged to behave, in more immanent ways than boys. They seem toreceive less encouragement to stretch their bodies and become full musical human beings. Insteadthey become the second musical sex. During the course of my work with the problem of how to createspace for girls playing the electric guitar in educational settings, I have continually found myselfwondering how to create educational spaces and relations in ways that let all pupils, independent ofsex, realize ideas, transcend as musical bodies, and become what they already are. If teachers andpupils are interrelated bodies, teachers must be aware of how they use their bodies when it comes tocreating space for all pupils to develop and stretch out their bodies. The actions of the music teacher,as a musical body, must be balanced in relation to the other musical bodies in the room, as well as tophysical preconditions, goals, visions, and expectations of the students. In this article, I want to delveinto the subject of bodily interaction, teachers’ responsibilities, and questions of intentional educationalbodily relations. The aim is to share my close reading of Young’s philosophical thinking regardinggender structures and especially female comportment, motility, and spatiality, and develop a set ofprerequisites for intentional bodily (music) educational relations. With a starting point in researchbasedinspiration and motivation for conducting the current philosophical investigation, I share myclose reading of Young’s theories regarding female situated bodies. Continually I relate to excerpts fromtwo interviews with female guitar students, exemplifying musical body-relational experiences. Finally Ishare and reflect upon a developed thinking about mindful bodily (music) educational relations.