Music in Japan is more than learning how to sing like in
American schools, they actually learn how to play instruments
namely the recorder and a pianika. A pianika is about twelve
inches long, four inches wide, with a piano keyboard that is
held vertically (or horizontally in some cases) and played like
an accordion keyboard. It is powered by wind through a long
plastic tube on one end. From first grade, students are taught
how to read music, play songs with the pianika, recorder, and
some other instruments, and sing songs like the school song. To
be more specific on reading music, first graders are taught how
to count the beats in a measure, the concept of rests, and the
timing of notes. Each year, the lessons will build on one
another successively. There was two pieces of information that I
thought was very interesting. The first is that students learn
how to write music notation after hearing a few notes and the
second is that they are also expected to identify a pitch or
note that the teacher has played o