MUSIC PEDAGOGY FOR THE ADULT LEARNER
Since I started to work in different institutions as a music teacher, my big concern was to get some literature on music skill acquisition for youth. That was very hard, and today it is still difficult to find enough information about it. As a result of this unsuccessful search, I decided to put together some musical problems that I thought were important when starting studies in music. These musical problems are: Motivation, learning process, memory, rhythmic reading, good tuning, and cognitive skills.
Everyone knows that the best moment to start studying music is at an early stage of life, the sooner the better. But starting at an early age is not always possible or at least easy for everyone. Each individual, as we know well, has certain musical aptitudes, some more than others, and musical skills that have to be developed and trained in order to achieve certain level of musical understanding, and even more, competence in playing and instrument. This leads us to think about how youth is willing to learn and how learning happens.
Without a doubt, motivation in musical learning and playing an instrument is an aspect that everyone should be provided with it. Learning music and learning how to play an instrument should not be an unpleasant experience. Instead, it should be a very delightful and enjoyable time. Studies by Howe and John Sloboda show that children who have been raised in an environment in which parents and teachers are giving them a high motivational experience, learn quickly and easily. (Ivaldi 2011, 208) . Studies conducted by Howe and Sloboda in children’s learning process of playing an instrument show that motivation plays a fundamental role. In addition to the key factors such as family, teachers, and practice, the experience of performing an instrument is influenced by their own beliefs concerning ability, and musical values. Ability beliefs are related to self-perception and expectancy for success, which means that the way the student feels about a particular activity influences the process. On the other hand, values are related to three main aspects: the level of importance when achieving a task well done; intrinsic motivation such as how much a task is enjoyed; and extrinsic utility value such as how useful he or she finds the musical task (Ivaldi 2011, 209)
By using these two indicators (ability beliefs and values) Sloboda (2005) found that children who played instruments had higher ability in self-perception and values than those who did not. Even more, they had higher values than self-perception for instrumental music.
Many people are interested in just have fun playing with friends or playing alone. Not all of them are interested in performing music live, studying music as a major, or being involved with music at a professional level. There are many kinds of “musicians” who spend a lot of time, money, and patience getting a certain level of proficiency at playing an instrument. These individuals are simply overwhelmed by the complexity of music and the lack of support offered by institutions. Universities, conservatories, and other institutions, should giving them the confidence to approach music from a perspective that addresses the process to gain the sufficient skills for playing an instrument in a band, group, orchestra, etc. If they are enjoying themselves while playing music, music will be easier for them. On the other hand, if they tend to be less interested doing music, this shows that music has to be something that causes pleasure.
We have to acknowledge that: “The learning process begins with spontaneous and immediate perception”(Zimmerman 1982) . As mentioned above, musicians at some point in their careers will play in a group, band or orchestra something which require playing in time, being in the right rhythm, and having good intonation, good reflexes, and even good eyesight (Eckart Altenmuller 2006, 26) . This also happens when musicians are playing alone. Each one of these characteristics are involved in a process in which memory plays a very important role. How could memory affect our performance? Many times we have heard stories about how famous, or even normal, musicians have had an episodes of amnesia or memory failure. Well, these mild memory losses are very common and fortunately there are many different exercises that help the brain to recover from these bad episodes. Research into the long-term-memory suggests that: “The more effectively we encode material into long-term memory, the greater the likelihood of retrieving it ” (JP, et al. 2005) .
Perhaps the most debated issue, which is subject to criticism, may be the way that teachers insist a lot on taking precautions when performing technical exercises (Hallam and Creech 2010, 93) . This requirement is based on the need to attain standard levels of proficiency in technical, aural, cognitive, and performance skills such as: Articulation, intonation, tuning, reading music, and sound quality, among others. This method of repeating many times will give the pupil enough time to encode the proper fingering patterns in every technical aspect, increasing the chances of playing properly (Hallam and Creech 2010, 94) . A musician could improve their skills playing often the same musical phrase starting slowly and then gradually increasing tempo, or even better, playing the same musical phrase with different rhythms and different articulations, and playing them in different keys.
Also, as academic musicians, we know that scales come in different categories, modes, grades, tonalities, levels of difficulties, etc. Working with scales would give us a good sense of higher and lower pitch, articulation, and fingering technique as well. It is our concern to guide the student through the precise technique of playing scales, and how to play them well since it is very easy to make mistakes that give a false sense of confidence. It is very important to play for any audience, whether they know music or not. It is enough if they enjoy whatever you are playing. This will help fingering and confidence.
Rhythmic reading, among other musical elements, has to be understood carefully when learning to read music. The accuracy of reading music is the foundation of a good musical interpretation (Kohut 1973, 18) . After working with different methods and looking through a great deal of literature on rhythm, I was finally able to find a method which works with onomatopoeia. This method consists mainly of giving names to different rhythmical patterns. Each syllable represents one beat inside a pattern as shown below (See Pattern No 1 to Patron No 6).
Pattern No 1
The beat
Pattern No 2
Eighths
Pattern No 3
Sixteenths
Pattern No 4
Combination of eighths and sixteenths
Pattern No 5
Pattern No 6
Triplets
These rhythmic patterns can apply to different length values preserving the onomatopoeia. For example:
Triplets
or
Musicians should have the ability to understand and solve any rhythmical problems facing them throughout their career. This will happen if they have a mental image of the beat. Even though this method is not necessary for some scholars, it works for others so it could be considered a matter of opinion. Knowing different rhythmic patterns, singing and playing these sequences on percussions instruments or just clapping them, will give the ability to read music notation fluently. Once the correct rhythm has been achieved, the interpreter will acquire the enough confidence to allow him to focus on other musical aspects such as intonation, articulation, accentuation, breathing, etc.
Here are some examples, for the purpose of showing graphically how the subdivision works, and how the sense of pulse is asserted (See examples No 1 to No 3).
Division and subdivision of the beat:
No 1
No 2
No 3
Daily practice makes a good performer. This proverb refers to the discipline the pupils must have. If students are not motivated to learn, they are going to quit very fast. They would not be willing to accept the effort that is required to learn, the sacrifice that daily practice involves, and we know that talent is 15 percent of a musician; the other 85 percent is practice, practice, and practice. Again, motivational aspects are the most important issues that we need to be aware of achieving in order to fulfill the requirements for good learning.
Good tuning
Many excellent books have being written about good intonation, explaining how develop a good sense of tone, a good ear, and how to sing a song without going off key. However, none of them have the last word. Listening to music carefully would help a lot in finding a good sense of tuning. “The major source of the player’s problems stems from poor listening habits” (Kohut 1973, 99) . It does not matter what kind of instrument you are playing it could be a wood wind, brass wind, bowed string, even percussion, all of them have to be in tune. Each type of instrument has their rules to follow in order to be played. Tuning up them is the first step to playing in concordance with other instruments. In wind instruments we find that performer’s physical condition is an important factor that must be addressed. The shape of the mouth, the size of the lips, the size of the lungs, and the rib cage capacity, among others, are factors that influence in various ways the performance of the tuning. Studies by Daniel Kohut on embouchure suggest that there are three principal factors that will affect tone quality and intonation: First of all embouchure formation and the tension applied to it; second of all the velocity of the air that is being blown; and finally the size of the mouth cavity (Kohut 1973) . Proper embouchure involves placing the lips correctly, blowing across the edge of the opening, and allowing the air to flow as a column without pressure, but with enough velocity to produce the sound as we see when the flute is being played. Controlling the pressure in the lungs is key to controlling the sound and tuning. High velocity or too much pressure will make the sound go up in tune. Slow velocity or poor pressure will make the tune go down. Also, the quality of sound will be affected by these circumstances as well. Additionally, instruments that require the use of reeds to produce sound will be affected in one way or another by the hardness or the softness of the reed. At the same time, the amount of pressure in the lips will produce good tone or good intonation if it is well performed. In addition, we know that when playing an instrument performers have a lot of things to do. In other words, they have to be aware of every aspect that is involved in playing. Not only embouchure, but also breath support, correct posture, vibrato, the notes being played, interpretation, etc.
Understanding theory
Music theory involves different cognitive processes, which are interconnected with each other. Achieving a high level in theory guarantees that we will acquire a vast musical knowledge. Understanding how music works is important for musicians as well as for psychologists, pedagogues, neuroscientists, etc. Everyone who is interested in playing an instrument professionally will have to know theory even if it is not a rule. Many people who do not know theory can play an instrument and with a lot of practice they can play very well. Others, who know a lot of theory cannot play an instrument. Music has many branches and they are studied independently but they are strongly tied together.
There are many points of view about how to make music, and none of them is the best. However, many of them are deeply studied in music theory: tonality, articulation, music notation, phrasing, transportation, dynamics, styles, composition etc., are common aspects in music theory, and all of them will give us a good sense of what the music is about.
It is worth knowing that there is not only one method to learn music. Many of them emphasize different issues of learning. Some tend towards how the brain works and how our perception would influence our performance. Others tend towards the learning of music from a different point of view that may include how to introduce, perform and understand music from an early age.
As already mentioned above, none of these studies have the last word. As Susan Hallam and Andrea Creech said “Combination of methods may be the most effective” (Hallam and Creech 2010) .
To conclude, it is important to acknowledge that the most important thing about music is to be willing to put some effort and dedication into it while being aware of the aspects that this paper is discussing. This work is not in any way the last word but going through it could help people who are interested in the way music is learned by academic and not academics musicians. For instance it may be important to consider what makes us elude music when we are not university students but enthusiastic musicians? This question is a matter of concern for scholars who are interested in researching about how people can approach and achieve good levels of playing instruments, and getting involved with music without the pressure that comes with being a professional performer. In my opinion, this does not mean that these musicians do not have enough responsibilities to learn music in an appropriate way. On the contrary, it will give them more confidence and thus they will get much better in their musical learning.
References
Eckart Altenmuller, Mario Wiesendanger, Jurg Kesselring. 2006. Music, Motor Control And The Brain. Edited by Mario Wiesendanger, Jurg Kesselring Eckart Altenmuller. New York: Oxford University press.
Hallam, Susan, and Andrea Creech. 2010. "Learning to play an instrument." In Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom: Achievements, analysis and aspirations, edited by Susan Hallam and Andrea Creech, 85-104. London: University of London.
Ivaldi, Antonia. 2011. "Routes to adolescent musical expertise." In Music and te Mind: Essays in honour of John Sloboda, edited by Irene Deliege and Jane W. Davidson, 205-224. New York: Oxford University Press.
JP, Van Overschelde, Rawson K.A, Dunlosky J, and Hunt R.R. 2005. "Distinctive processing underlies skilled memory." Psychological Science, no. 16 (5): 358- 361.
Kohut, Daniel. 1973. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PEDAGOGY: Teaching Techniques for School Band and Orchestra Directors. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall of Canada, LTD Toronto.
W.Passer, Michael, Ronald E. Smith, Michael L. Atkinson, John B. Mitchel, and Darwin W. Muir. 2008. Psychology: Frontierws and Aplications. Third Canadian Edition. Edited by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. Nicole Lukach.
Zimmerman, M. P. 1982. Developmental processes in music learning. Symposium in Music Education. Edited by R. Colwell. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.