The Role of Music in Character Building.

The phenomenon of moral crisis in Indonesia is increasing quite rapidly for the past 20 years. Many experts believe that the crisis is indicator of failures in character and spiritual educations. Education has failed to build positive character . On the other hand selfishness, ignorance, aggressive and destructive behaviors become dominant in society. Therefore, appropriate educational solutions are needed to overcome this problem. Indonesia needs educational concepts, designs and implementations that can reintegrate aspects of cognitive, emotion, and spiritual intelligences. Music as one of aesthetic creations is believed to be able to positively contribute to the process of character building. This research aims to identify impacts of music on character building, and to identify its mechanism. Delphi technique was used in the process of collecting data. A group of experts consist of 3 academicians and 2 musicians were chosen as the data source and reference. Qualitative approach was used in analyzing the data and enhanced by comprehensive literature research. The research concluded that music influences various aspects of human; include physical, mental-spiritual, and behavior through its melody and harmony. The result strongly recommends music as medium in building the foundation of positive and noble characters. Therefore it is recommended to include music as part of instructional programs in every stage of education, most importantly in early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]