CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

Of the five approaches trialled, the first was self-learning, using the piece Tell Me in

the Morning. Students were tasked with the responsibility of managing their own

development towards a performance of the whole, or section of the piece. This explores previous arguments, such as Lebler, who argues for “a pedagogical approach based on the creation of a scaffolded self-directed learning community, a master less studio” (2007, abstract), suggesting the current focus on individual tuition may be more limited than some within the HIPME community may like to admit. Within the student group, its benefits to HIPME were reflected on.

Student C

I feel as though the self-learning is a good concept, in a way, because it gives you a sense of freedom to explore your own ideas, etc., and really come to terms with your own stylistic elements.

Student D:

I could just fully concentrate on the stuff that I wanted to concentrate on (…) I only focussed on the bit I found interesting or the bits that I

found were in the same vein of what I like playing or the styles I like playing.

There were also negative aspectsstemming from a pre-existing expectation regarding where responsibilities lie for guiding development:

Student B:

I’m not so sure about being left on your own to do your own thing for a long period of time. (...) if you’re going to be left to your own devices, why go on a course and you can do that when not registered and when not enrolled on a course? You can be developing and doing your own things, as many musicians do so. I guess if I am on a course, I do have the expectation that I’m being shown stuff regularly and, yes, I’m not expecting that the tutor’s going to teach me everything that I need to know but will definitely give me the foundational ideas and concepts.

Student D:

It doesn’t take you out of your comfort zone really. It’s not something that… I didn’t sit down thinking, “Right, I’m going to choose something I’m not very good at and try and improve on my weaknesses.

Student A:

I'd question how successful it would be on its own.

It is not clear whether student A is referring to the individual piece or the approach to learning, but there is evidence to support the argument that students enter HIPME to be taught and have a reasonable expectation for that tuition to come from

professional educators, instead of it being reliant solely on what an individual can teach themselves.

A necessary component of self-learning is the maintenance of self-motivation,

although some responses suggested that students didn’t necessarily see themselves as responsible for developing and maintaining their own self-motivation.

Student A:

You've got to be very self-motivated for that to be effective. I think it helps if you're learning about something that really interests you because that motivation tends to drop if it doesn't, which is where sometimes you need that little push from a peer or a teacher… That's not going to apply to everyone but if it applies to me, it must apply to some other people.

self-motivation, are valuable skills, especially for musicians who often pursue self- employment opportunities. Compositional activity developing those skills would perhaps mirror life after study; this supports the use of self-learning strategies within HIPME. Increasingly, today’s HIPME graduates have portfolio careers, where time management skills are essential, along with an ability to successfully trapeze the line between work and life and co-ordinate both. Teague and Smith identify the need “to gain a deeper understanding of work-life balance for musicians and that pedagogical approaches in higher music education could more effectively help students to

prepare for their futures in a more holistic way” (2015, abstract), suggesting that a self-learning approach enables students to integrate their learning into their existing life patterns.

Student A:

I like the fact that I could allocate time in my working day to just sit down and research something about drums that I haven't been told to do. I can go, "I want to do that," so I'm going to research that. I think it made it more enjoyable on some levels because it's almost taken something that I might do in my leisure time and putting it into my working time.

Tell Me in the Morning presents an opportunity for a deeper understanding of how

repertoire for HIPME performance and tuition can be composed to facilitate students’ learning, not only for specific tasks, but learning in a way that is compatible with a career and the life choices of its students. Popular musicians often use self-learning as a primary component of their development, therefore it seems logical that within repertoire for HIPME this existing self-learning paradigm should be more widely explored.