Bridging the gap: Harp teachers on teaching orchestral playing

Abstract

Although orchestral playing is a dominant practice within Western classical music, and one that many students participate in from a young age, some students do not have adequate opportunities to participate. Since harp students often come to orchestral playing later than other instrumentalists, harp teachers are concerned with enabling their students to learn orchestral playing in a relatively short time. For this study, six orchestral harpists who are also teachers were interviewed. The findings show that harp teachers intentionally taught orchestral playing during one-to-one lessons, aiming to prepare their students to continue learning within the orchestral context. They aimed to bridge the gap between lessons and practice, methodically preparing them musically, technically, practically and emotionally for the complex orchestral environment. While students of other instruments might acquire this complex knowledge from extended orchestral experience, student harpists must learn it in a relatively short time. These harp teachers’ descriptions of their teaching practice shed light on how orchestral playing is learned by all instrumentalists.

Benefits, co-operation and development—The relationship between a music academy and four amateur symphony orchestras

“…The only exception, which was geared toward students’ musical development, was the course previously given in one of the amateur orchestras. This probably meant that the conductor had identified the same need for musical development as was addressed in Lonnert (2019a). Nevertheless, all interviewees in the study advocated that students learn outside of their formal education (see Folkestad, 2006), and students were encouraged to take all opportunities to learn.…”

“…However, they might need knowledge of orchestral playing in their professional life as teachers. This might be problematic if they did not obtain that knowledge during their study, since orchestral playing mainly is learnt through participation (see Dobson and Gaunt, 2015; Harrison et al, 2013; Hager and Johnsson, 2009; Lonnert, 2019a; Luff and Lebler, 2013). If they participated in academy orchestral playing while in the education stream it was due to the needs of the academy orchestra, for example, the orchestra needing extra string players, rather than the students’ needs.…”

“…The second issue, students' desire to have specific musical challenges, was identified by the interviewees as an important reason to participate in amateur orchestras. Luff and Lebler (2013), Harrison et al (2013), Hager and Johnsson (2009), Dobson and Gaunt (2015) and Lonnert (2019a) all describe differences between learning at lessons and learning in the orchestra. It is possible that these differences were a concern for students, and that they chose to participate in amateur orchestras to learn orchestral playing.…”

“…Thus, there are differences between contextualised learning in the orchestra and traditional one-to-one learning as shown in studies by Hager and Johnsson (2009) and Harrison et al (2013), who base their study on Hager and Johnsson’s concepts. Even though Lonnert (2019a) shows that teachers may deliberately try to bridge the gap between one-to-one lessons and orchestral playing, she claims that it cannot replace learning in the orchestral context.…”

An Introduction to the Innovative Path and Exploration of the Teaching Reform of Ethnic Vocal Music

“…Literature [13], through field classroom observations and interviews with experienced music classrooms, suggests that teaching improvisational repertoire makes innovative practices that improve classroom interaction and can be categorized as skillful teaching in education. Literature [14] analyzed through the interview method, organizing the information, and the results showed that by orchestral experience students can gain complex knowledge of other instruments from their rich orchestral experience.…”