Does Every Good Boy really do fine?
The system of teaching theory brings more chaos to our children’s minds. For example, the mnemonically based formula ‘Every Good Boy Does Fine’ slows the development of the recognition, differentiation and reading of music notes. The sounds of music move up and down in the forwards and backwards directions freely, and the preset sequence of English words (FACE) or sentences (All Cows Eat Grass) loses impact when flipped around. In fact, it prevents the development of fluent reading in beginners’ minds. ‘Good does boy every fine’, ‘fine every does good boy,’ or ‘ECAF,’ just does not make any sense to students, who are aligned to the logic of speech. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessarily for every beginner to know the order of music sounds and music keys back and forth, from any point on the Grand Staff the way we know our own room’s plan enough to move through it in total darkness. We need to know this sequence in order to possess an awareness of music space and to be able to
