Seeing yourself as others see you: developing personal attributes in the group rehearsal

Abstract

An important part of the process that enables us to improve ourselves as musicians in I n t r o d u c t i o n This is a study into group-work rehearsing of popular music students in rock bands, with a focus on their personal attributes in rehearsal. It explores how group members might develop a greater awareness of themselves, as they rehearse, through the use of students' personal attributes as peer assessment criteria. Following a brief survey of the relevant literature, this paper describes the development of a peer assessment project and participants' responses to it. A four-stage process model for peer assessment is proposed for group rehearsing, together with a consideration of the moral issues that

Student-chosen criteria for peer assessment of tertiary rock groups in rehearsal and performance: what's important?

“…• playing technique (Hunter & Russ, 1996;Lockett, 1996;Searby & Ewers, 1997;Burrack, 2002;Stanley et al, 2002;Green, 2002;Blom & Poole, 2004;Ryan, 2004); • fluency of performers/performing ability/agility (Lockett, 1996;Ryan, 2004;Pulman, 2009); • accuracy of playing notation (Hunter & Russ, 1996;Lockett, 1996;Burrack, 2002;Stanley et al, 2002;Ryan, 2004); • rhythmic accuracy (Lockett, 1996;Burrack, 2002;Thomas & Millard, 2006); • intonation (Lockett, 1996;Searby & Ewers, 1997;Burrack, 2002;Stanley et al, 2002; Price & Byo, 2002 -especially for secondary school students; Thomas & Millard, 2006); • playing in time (Hunter & Russ, 1996;Goodman, 2002); • tempo (Searby & Ewers, 1997;Burrack, 2002); • articulation (Lockett, 1996;Searby & Ewers, 1997;Burrack, 2002;Price & Byo, 2002 -especially for secondary school students; Thomas & Millard, 2006); • phrasing (Young & Colman, 1979;Hunter & Russ, 1996;Lockett, 1996;Searby & Ewers, 1997;Burrack, 2002;Price & Byo, 2002 -especially for secondary school students; …”

“…• social factors (Goodman, 2002), incorporating cooperative skills (Pulman, 2009), equal involvement (Davidson & King, 2004); • negotiation of shared musical goals (Davidson & King, 2004); • verbal interaction (Young & Colman, 1979); • interpersonal skills (Pulman, 2009), trust and respect (Davidson & King, 2004); • confrontation and compromise (Goodman, 2002;Davidson & King, 2004);…”

“…• regulating the ensemble (Kokotsaki, 2007), organisation skills (Pulman, 2009), operational principles of the ensemble (Davidson & King, 2004); • leadership/roles (Young & Colman, 1979;Goodman, 2002;Pulman, 2009).…”

“…• confidence/stage presence (Lockett, 1996;Searby & Ewers, 1997;Blom & Poole, 2004;Ryan, 2004;Thomas & Millard, 2006;Pulman, 2009) tends towards the soft skill-set, in particular, 'personal skills'; • musical communication to the audience (Searby & Ewers, 1997;Stanley et al, 2002;Blom & Poole, 2004); • musical effectiveness (Thomas & Millard, 2006);…”

“…While literature has discussed issues that arise in solo and group performance, this has been predominantly about classical music and few studies focus on assessing group musicmaking. One recent exception is Pulman's (2009) study of the rehearsal process of tertiarylevel popular music groups which finds that 'personal attributes' (p. 121) of individuals (such as punctuality, commitment, reliability, decision-making, organisational skills and feelings of artistic worth) and their impact on the dynamics of the group are emphasised when students contribute criteria as assessment parameters. Our study investigates what criteria tertiary music students choose for peer and self assessment of both the rehearsal process and performance outcome of their rock groups.…”