To strike a balance between knowledge from and outside the curriculum, informances, as

suggested by Zaffini, is feasible in current classroom and ensemble settings. It is a way to get
students involved in a more diverse learning environment and, at the same time, teachers are able to
include both the curriculum and extra knowledges in their lessons.

Under informances, students can learn while they are performing in concerts and by listening to
performances from their peers. For example, students can learn how to keep calm during their
performances even if they had made mistakes and learn how to cooperate with others as a group.
There skills are not included in the curriculum itself but are important for students to learn.
Informances, do not only be feasible in concert settings but also in classroom settings. As noted by
Zaffini, Creating, performing, responding, and connecting (P.28) are the significant elements for
achieving an effective informance.

As society plays an influential role to the change in majoritys perception towards learning general
music, music teachers should use informances in general music classes or even in ensembles. In the
article, Zaffini mentioned informances are an ideal way to shoe audience members what
students in general music classes are learning and how they are learning it. (P.28) People tend to
oppose or against some thoughts when they are lacking understanding towards the thoughts and
issues, as most people are reluctant to changes. Introducing general music through informances
provides opportunities for the community to know more about general music learning. This may
increase peoples understanding and reduce their worries to make changes.

In the case for informances in student concerts, students may feel uneasy to perform something
that they are not sure about and have not much confidence on it. Sometimes these performances
require students to come up with thoughts immediately to solve problems that occur suddenly. The

way they react are the skills and knowledges they are learning in classes. This is because students
have the ability to apply what they have learnt in classes subconsciously when accidents happened
during performances. This reveals what students have been learning in general music classes to the
audience.

Watching performances by peers can act as a tool for self-evaluation. Teachers, however, should
guide students to think positively rather than letting students comparing themselves to others.
Though comparison can be a drive for students to improve themselves, students may resulted in
having low self-esteem because of lacking self-confidence through over-comparing themselves to
someone who are better.

Citation: Zaffini, E. (2015). Using Informances in general music. General Music Today, 28(2),
13-17. doi:10.1177/1048371314555221