6.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses and synthesizes the information and ideas that were expressed by the ten teachers in the interviews presented in the previous chapter. The interviews centered on three major topics: the teachers’ philosophy of music education and, in particular, piano teaching; their principles of piano teaching; and the
methodologies they employ in teaching various aspects of piano performance. In the following discussion, each of these topics is discussed in relation to the interviews and analysed from a number of perspectives. The discussion highlights particular findings of the research, which are supported by quotes from the teachers as extracted from the transcripts of the interviews. The analysis reveals a close relationship between the teachers’ philosophy, principles, and methodologies of teaching piano performance.
6.2 Philosophy
This section discusses firstly the expressed philosophies of the teachers as they relate to rationalism, empiricism, and pragmatism. Following this, the discussion moves on to consider three overriding issues that emerged from the literature review and the teacher interviews.
In looking at teachers’ beliefs and approaches to teaching piano in relation to three major philosophies the first part of this section begins by considering the particular characteristics of each philosophy. The philosophy of rationalism holds that music is a form of knowledge that is built from a rational aspect, and therefore two analogous ideas about the teaching of performance can be identified: the importance of understanding the historical background of music, and the importance of an analytical approach to the music. Empiricism, with respect to this study, is concerned with four related ideas: the importance of teaching experience; the importance of performance experience for students; the role of life experience in relation to musical or artistic understanding; and the integral role of listening in all aspects of teaching and learning music. The study has identified three relevant ideas derived from pragmatism: pedagogical approaches to teaching are not ‘fixed’ or permanent; students should be taught to be independent learners and problem-solvers; and different students should be taught differently, that is, there is no single approach that is appropriate for all students.
The second part of this section looks at three overriding philosophical issues that are not limited to any single philosophy. These are the importance of helping students to develop the capacity to enjoy and love music; the importance of nurturing and developing personal qualities or characteristics in students; and the importance of transmitting knowledge and insights to others: teacher to student, and performer to audience.
6.2.1 Rationalism
As discussed in the literature review, there is a range of definitions of rationalism. In general, rationalists believe that knowledge is comprised of facts, truths, and definitions. Stubley (1992) stated that “knowledge is conceived as a fixed body of immutable, fundamental truths relevant to all times and places” (p. 4). Abeles, Hoffer and Klotman (1994) agreed: “the central thesis of rationalism is that
knowledge is a fixed body of truth that applies in all times and places” (p. 48). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1993) defines rationalism as “the doctrine or theory that reason rather than sense-experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge” (p. 2482). Stubley (1992) in turn suggested that rationalism is “knowledge that is discovered and elaborated through rational analysis of ideas independent of empirical data or authoritative pronouncements” (p. 4) and stated that “rationalism defined the initial content of music education as a distinct branch of knowledge and led to the
development of a scholarly discipline dedicated to deepening and broadening this concept of music as subject matter” (p. 6). Rationalists believe that knowledge is discovered and elaborated through rational and systematic analysis.
The interviews suggest that to varying degrees the teachers involved in this study use aspects of rationalism in their teaching. There is a sense in which they would appear to believe that to some extent at least knowledge of music comes from rational analysis, and for some there was an implication that music is a branch of knowledge concerned with rules and facts that do not change. More specifically, two ideas belonging to the rationalist tradition are paramount: the importance of
understanding music within an historical context, and the importance of undertaking a theoretical analysis of the music.
6.2.1.1 Placing music in its historical context
Eight of the ten teachers commented on the importance of students
understanding the historical background of a piece of music if they are to perform it to a higher standard. Teacher One stated: “I have to introduce the students to what is known about the way people played in the days when the pieces were written.” He
added that he teaches students the basic ground rules of style in relation to particular periods, and explained that “Certain music, like that of Mozart, requires a particular style of playing. If the performer diverges from that style, then it does not really sound like Mozart.” He also opined that to perform Mozart well the player needs to
understand not only performance requirements relating specifically to Mozart, but, more broadly, prevailing stylistic approaches to performance that were prevalent at the time. Teacher Three suggested that style is best taught by approaching it from an historical perspective: “It is hard to teach style. I would say that history comes first.” Teacher Five stated: “I ask them to read books about composers’ lives, and to have an understanding of the instruments that were prominent at the time. They should know the characteristics of the instruments of different periods, such as Mozart’s piano, Beethoven’s piano, and twentieth-century pianos.” Teacher Six suggested: “One must know the social background and environment that moulded the personality of the composer and his works.” Teacher Seven put it: “They [students] should have knowledge of the relevant history and cultural background as a means of stimulating their thinking about stylistic interpretation.” Teacher Eight said, “I insist that students know about the historical background and lives of the composers who they perform. They benefit from an understanding of the compositional style of individual
composers.” Teacher Nine suggested that historical information increases one’s ability to understand music in a logical and rational way: “The style and structure of baroque, classical, and romantic music – all of these the students can learn from history.” He went on: “Speaking of Brahms, I like to tell the story about him and Clara Schumann; in fact, it is very important. Opp. 116, 117, and 118, for example, why are they
important? Because Clara Schumann was old and Brahms wrote some brief pieces especially for her. Why is each note filled with emotion? Because of their long relationship. Students can perform better after they hear about the background and feel touched by it.” Teacher Ten drew attention to the importance of understanding the historical development of instruments as a means of understanding stylistic
performance practices of a particular period: “Starting from Bach, quavers need to be detached . . . because of the development of the [keyboard] instrument.” It might be concluded that statements such as these attest to the importance of having an
intellectual understanding of history in relation to piano teaching and learning. Teacher Ten believes that an intellectual understanding of history is important to understand musical styles: “starting from Bach, quavers need to be detached . . . I tell them [my students] why this should be so – because of the development of the instrument.” As a consequence he acquaints his students with the nature and development of the keyboard over the centuries as a means of improving their interpretive and performance skills.
6.2.1.2 Undertaking a theoretical analysis of the music
All ten teachers supported the importance of students analyzing the music they perform. Teacher One asserted: “I also tell my students that they must analyze the chords and know the structure of the piece.” Teacher Two stated that the theory of harmony is important as it “help[s] them to understand that the harmonies of Bach, Chopin, and Debussy are all different.” She further opined that an analysis of the chords is essential in coming to terms with the style of a work and that the different rules and features of the styles of different periods are reflected in harmony. She stressed that “earning to analyze and understand the score is important. Each note the composer wrote has its own meaning and function in the music.” Teacher Three suggested that analysis is important for a number of reasons, including the fact that it helps students to memorize their pieces. Teacher Four requires her students to have an intellectual understanding of the pieces they play: “I expect my students to analyze theoretically . . . [to analyse] the score as soon as they get a new piece.” Teacher Five stated: “I teach them to recognize the harmony. Many sixteenth-note musical patterns are the same . . . Once the students feel the chords and understand the harmonic progressions, then they can grasp the piece quickly.” Teacher Six spoke in a similar vein, “I teach my students to memorize the score in many ways, such as the harmonic progression . . . and melodic lines.” In terms of the final stage of memorization, Teacher Seven remarked: “[I tell them to] analyse the score theoretically and memorize the forms, structure, texture, and harmonic progressions.” Teacher Eight stated: “I ask them [students] to find the exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. I teach them to analyze the chords and first and second subjects, and to
recognize the fingering sequences.” Teacher Nine spoke of the importance of his students being able “to analyse and memorize harmonic progressions.” Teacher Ten argued: “Analyzing the patterns and the structure makes it a lot simpler and easier for students to understand the music.” In summary, all of the teachers strongly agreed that an understanding of music theory and analysis are of great benefit to students with respect to piano performance.
6.2.2 Empiricism
Definitions of empiricism stress that practice is based on experiment and observation. For empiricists, further, “concepts and statements have meaning only in relation to sense-experience” (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical
Principles, 1993, p. 809). Propositions, according to them, “express interrelationships
between sensory impressions in the form of empirical generalizations or theoretical constructs abstracted from the specific contexts in which they are originally
identified” (Stubley, 1992, p. 4). The main characteristics of this theory are that knowledge is essentially derived from sense-experience, and that people rely on observation to obtain knowledge; this in turn underscores the importance of
experience in general. Lacey (1976) stated that “our concepts or our knowledge are, wholly or partly, based on experience through the senses and introspection” (p. 55). Sense experience, experiment and observation, and life experience are the vital features of empiricism. The following discussion of empiricism in relation to the teaching and learning of piano performance is based on four ideas: the importance of teaching experience; a belief that performance experience is a sine qua non; a
conviction that life experience contributes to artistic development and maturity with respect to teaching, learning, and performing; and the paramount importance of acute listening.
6.2.2.1 The importance of teaching experience
Eight of the teachers agreed that teaching experience is invaluable and that there is no substitute for it. Teacher One stated that the “great influence on the way I teach comes not from books but from the teaching experience that I have gained throughout the years . . . the more frequently I teach, the more easily I can tell whether the student has certain qualities or abilities that are essential for a real performer.” Teacher Three offered: “I learn a lot from my students as I teach,” adding that he learns even more than his students when he finds a solution to help them. Teacher Four said that her pedagogical ideas derive mostly from her teaching experience: “[they are] not based on any books, purely from my experience,” adding that “sometimes stimulation [for teaching methods] comes from my students.” Teacher Five reflected that “a method book may help, but I think [teaching] experience is much more important than a book.” She added that the process of teaching stimulates her to look for new ideas and insights. This was reinforced by Teacher Seven who stated that “through the teaching process teachers can learn how to teach different people to deepen their learning of . . . the music.” Teacher Eight, in acknowledging the importance of teaching experience, said that she loves to read method books and journals to acquire information on piano teaching: “it is good for sharing teaching experiences and methods, and for discussing teaching matters.” Teacher Nine stressed that “teaching must be a practical and interactive experience,” and said that he
acquired knowledge of pedagogy from teaching piano performance. Teacher Ten reflected: “I learn while I teach and absorb different experiences, such as recognizing problems and mistakes that my students or others have made as they perform.” In line with their belief in learning from teaching, three of the teachers mentioned requiring their students to have some teaching experience. They suggested that in demonstrating
their own teaching abilities students also reflect their own musical understanding. Teacher Four said “I ask them to think about how they would teach their students if they ran into problems [such as those that they have encountered].” Teacher Nine spoke of asking students “how to teach legato, reversing my role with theirs. Let them teach me how to do it.” Teacher Ten stated that “sometimes I ask the senior students to teach scales to the junior students. In this way, I can observe how much they know and their skills from the way they teach.”
6.2.2.2 Performance experience is a sine qua non
Five of the teachers argued the importance of performance experience. Teacher One mentioned it firstly with respect to the teacher: “performance experience informs the teacher’s own teaching tremendously,” adding, “if the teacher is
experienced in performance, then he will teach performance students effectively.” He went on to stress the importance of performance experience for students and to this end he encourages them to avail themselves of any opportunity to perform, including master classes. Teacher Four suggested that “teachers should encourage students to perform more often in different situations.” Teacher Seven stated that “they [students] need to gain more experience of performing.” She emphasised that students need to develop a positive attitude of wanting to share their musical experience rather than merely approaching performance as a means of showing off what they have learnt. Teacher Eight also stressed the importance of students having “more chances to perform in front of audiences” and, like Teacher One, suggested performing in master classes. Whilst Teacher Ten also encourages his students to participate in master classes he suggested that “the way [one performs] in front of a group of people in a master class is very different from a concert setting.” At the same time he
acknowledged that any performance provides a great learning opportunity: “I ask students to attend more performances and to find more chances to perform”. To this end he organizes student concerts. Overall, teacher responses reinforced, explicitly or implicitly, the importance of student performance.
6.2.2.3 The importance of life experience
Eight teachers commented on the positive effects of a broadened life experience on a student’s artistic development and maturity, suggesting that a relatively rich life experience assists students in making the transition from the concrete to the abstract.
In discussing the teaching of music, Teacher Six argued that it went beyond showing students “how to play the music faster or slower, longer or shorter, stronger or lighter. This is not music at all.” At a mature level, he said, teaching music
involves using a student’s life experience to bring out the essence of the music. To put it differently, he suggested that life experience contributes to “artistic feeling”.
Teacher Seven commented: “I love to create methods of teaching through my personal daily experience.” Teacher Ten reflected on the importance of exchanging ideas and engaging in discussion with other teachers based on shared experiences as an effective means of acquiring a deeper understanding of teaching in its many facets. The sharing of teaching experiences and life experiences is an important means of developing personal teaching methods, he said.
In discussing music learning, Teacher Four opined: “I like performance students to exchange ideas. It is quite difficult; their experiences are so different. Some grow up in a good environment and it isn’t easy for them to understand feelings of desperation. I can only tell them to talk to each other, to observe more, and to stimulate their imagination, and one day they may become more mature.” In this way, she argued, students have a broader life palette from which to draw in expressing artistic feeling or meaning. In acknowledging the abstract nature of artistic feeling, she offered a refreshing insight: “Sometimes I tell them [students] to watch more movies, read more books, and engage in more arts experiences. If they don't know the context of the music they are playing, then it will be hard for them to imagine and play well.” She suggested that when students have the relevant understanding, it is relatively easy for them to express the abstract meaning of music. Teacher Five commented that most students cannot play Beethoven and Brahms ‘perfectly’ as they do not have enough life experience to enable them to feel and understand the music. “Even when you do have that feeling, it is still difficult no matter what you do. Once you get older, however, experience definitely does help your playing.” Teacher Nine was another who argued the importance of students having a rich life experience: “how can one understand Brahms’ deep feelings if one is a young girl who doesn't know much about the world and hasn’t got much insight? [In this case] I tell her about something personal to stimulate her feelings . . . this is exactly what my teacher said about passion being connected with real life.”
Regarding performance, Teacher Two stated that “personal experience enables you to perceive and express artistic feeling in music. Teacher Eight said, “When you perform music, it should not be machine-like, but rather a live
experience.” The importance of life experience with respect to performance was also implicit in most if not all of the conversations of the other teachers.
6.2.2.4 Learning from listening
All of the teachers spoke of the importance of acute listening. This section presents a summary quote from each of them. In discussing technique, Teacher One
said that when he practises technical exercises he is conscious of the quality of the sound he is producing: “I simply sit there and think about the quality of the sound and the way to turn the physical exercise into a musical experience.” He added that he built up his technique by listening with care. Teacher Two opined that in teaching technique, “listening comes before practice.” Students perform well, she said, “when [they] have an understanding of sound and are well prepared both intellectually and technically.” Teacher Three drew attention to the close relationship between sound