El Sistema and attachment to defamiliarization: teaching and learning of symphonic music in Santa Rosa de Agua, Venezuela

Based on an ethnographic investigation carried out in 2015 within El Sistema, a Venezuelan program for teaching symphonic music, this article is a pragmatic analysis (Dewey, 2010) of what it is to teach and learn music in this context. The results reveal concrete social interactions between students and teachers, specific to the symphonic context. Data analysis is based on the concept of ‘attachment’ (Hennion, 2004) to what is familiar and comforting, and the concept of ‘defamiliarization’ (Shklovsky, 2008) in view of what is strange and unfamiliar.
Paradoxically, these two conceptualizations are simultaneously interdependent and in constant tension. Contrasts are experienced every day, which can strengthen social cohesion and the continuation of music schools.