A Case Study of Teaching Musical Expression to Young Performers

Abstract

What does it mean to teach musical expression to child performers? Is it teaching how to interpret a piece of music “correctly,” or is there more involved? In this case study, we explored the beliefs and practices of five teachers who specialized in teaching children to perform in a variety of musical performance areas, including violin, cello, piano, guitar, voice, and musical theater. To discover their pedagogy for teaching musical expressivity, we asked the initial questions, “How do these teachers define musical expression?” “What are the characteristics of an expressive performance for children?” and “Can musical expression be taught to children?” Data were collected through interviews with teachers and students, observations of lessons with children, and archival materials about each teacher’s studio practice. Transcripts of interviews, artifacts, and observed lessons were analyzed through emergent category coding and axial coding, using member checking and negative case analysis. Findings are discussed in relation to extant literature. Implications for teacher training and future research are explored.

Young Musicians' Learning of Expressive Performance: The Importance of Dialogic Teaching and Modeling

“…Tutors thought that instructional tools should be adapted to individual pupils because children have diverse strengths and weaknesses, and various factors affect the complex process of instrumental music learning. This is in line with recommendations by Hallam (1998Hallam ( , 2006 and tutors in Brenner and Strand's (2013) study, who mentioned that it is impossible to prescribe one ideal method for teaching all students since children develop at different rates.…”

“…Although the tutors thought that it is important to tailor methods to individual students (cf. Brenner and Strand, 2013) and situations, they acknowledged that they had often slipped into using one uniform approach for most pupils (cf. Carey et al, 2018).…”

“…Some small-scale studies explored methods for teaching children expressiveness through lesson observation and interviews. Brenner and Strand (2013) observed four tutors who used modeling, verbal instructions and task repetitions. These tutors tended to exaggerate dynamics and melodic contour, enlarge gestures, and overdo aural modeling in their work with children.…”

El aprendizaje expresivo y las diferencias de género en la Educación Superior de Música

“…La estrategia más habitual es la instruccional, sumida en el discurso del profesor (Young, Burwell y Pickup, 2003), y de ello dependerá la enseñanza explícita de la expresividad, dado que existen opiniones del profesorado de que las instrucciones verbales sobre factores específicos pueden alcanzar un resultado no natural o una expresividad simulada (Williamon, 2014). No hay que olvidar que la elección de una estrategia u otra del docente está influida por sus opiniones respecto a la propia naturaleza de la expresividad musical (Brenner y Strand, 2013) y esto se refleja directamente en la práctica (Juslin y Persson, 2002).…”

Expressiveness in musical performance: Pedagogic aspect

“…Једна струја наставника сматра да је "то нешто што се не може научити" објашњавајући музичку експресивност тален-том, док се с друге стране наставници труде да пронађу методе подучавања којима ће се унапредити интерпретација, па самим тим и експресивност као њен градивни део. Стратегије подучавања експресивности зависе од разумевања појма експре-сивности, педагошког стила, стратегије која се заступа и избора наставних метода (Brenner & Strand, 2013). Технике које наставници користе да би постигли експресив-но извођење ученика имају за циљ да обједине техничке вештине, интерпретацију и креативност.…”