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Title

An Exploratory Study: Improvement of musical expression to students in instrumental


teaching
Abstract This paper describes research regarding the effective way of learning a
musical instrument. This research explores the teaching process of musical
expression through instrumental teachers.

Keywords music, student, expression, teaching strategies

CHAPTER1: Introduction
To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is
unforgivable(Ludwig van Beethoven)
Nowadays, there is a common misunderstanding in the music learning process. Many
students and teachers only pursue performance skills during the learning process
but ignored musical expression. Music students often feel that it is more
challenging to develop an expressive performance than to play the correct notes and
rhythms because the rhythms and notes are obviously to play right or wrong.
However, emotional expression is more individual Emotional expression has been
regarded as one of the essential criteria for the aesthetic value of
music(Juslin,2013). Musical expression is the ability of the performer to interpret
the composer's notes on the score and transmit the emotion to the audience through
fertile imagination and deep inner feelings.
Significance, value or worth
In musical performance, if performers play the notes in the correct rhythm,
separate the music from the techniques, focus on the music performance, be
insensitive to emotions, and lack imagination. Such a performance cannot impress
the performer themselves, and it is even less likely to impress the audience.
Therefore, teachers should guide students to be good at thinking, diligent
research, and improve their performance ability in many aspects. In the teaching
process, not only should students pay attention to the rigorous training of
students' playing techniques, but also pay attention to the cultivation of
students' artistic accomplishment and musical expression.
Research purpose statement
The goal of this research is to explore music education should train students to
complete their performance passionately. Teachers should change the expressive
power of music as an essential idea of music teaching and help students analyze
emotional factors in music, thereby helping them can perform more expressively.

This paper begins with the importance of improving musical expression. It is


divided into three aspects to elaborate: First, it briefly describes the related
concepts of music expression. The second is the method and suggestions to enhance
students' musical expression ability in music teaching. The third is a and analysis
of improving the expressive capacity of music in high school music teaching.
Research questions/hypotheses
Research purpose statement

CHAPTER2: Literature review


The importance of musical expression
Expression in music performance is a multilevel phenomenon, consisting of various
aspects of expressiveness(Fabian, Timmers, & Schubert, 2014)Many evidence in music
education research that suggests that expression cannot be ignored. Music, like
sentences, is composed of elements (such as notes and chords) that are organized
into a whole (such as melody) according to specific rules and habits. From these
aspects, music as symbolic of emotional experience, but not as a fully developed
language(Ahlberg, 1994). Therefore, an essential goal for students to master is the
skill of musical expression, and one should expect instrumental teachers need to
spend a lot of time to develop this skill. Expressivity is generally regarded as a
crucial component of successful musical performance(Laukka*, 2004) Therefore, to
interpret a piece of music successfully, students must control not only their
performance but also display abundant musical connotations. In the practice of
daily instrumental teaching, the teacher should carry out comprehensive and
systematic training on the professional skills of the students. The ultimate goal
is to reflect the composer's original intentions, convey the emotional connotation
of the music, and show the profound thoughts of the music. It is not difficult to
see that the essence of music teaching is actually to help students master the ways
and techniques of expressing music.(Wigram, 2004)
The foundation of musical expression
Music expression contains two factors: performance techniques and emotional
performance(Juslin & Laukka, 2003)Firstly, Adept performance skills are a
precondition for improving musical expression(Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer,
1993) Mastering the correct performance techniques is an effective method to help
the performer to express music. The more types of skills students master, the more
comprehensive and skilled techniques they master, the more they can express their
musical styles and feelings. Secondly, the reading of sheet music is the basis for
playing a piece of music. (Cogo‐Moreira et al., 2012) There are many severe
expressions on the scores, including notes and rhythms. These are closely related
to the correct understanding and profound meanings of the music. These musical
expressions show the requirements of the music created by the composer.Words can't
express music. Therefore, the composer has a specific purpose in marking each note,
the duration of the rest, and every musical term, and hopes to accurately convey
the music emotions to the performer through the notation.
Another aspect of the foundation of musical expression is the expression of
emotion(Juslin & Laukka, 2003). Poon and Shutz (Poon & Schutz, 2015)reveal that
different musical effects such as pitch, tempo, timing, intonation, dynamics,
articulation, timbre, decay and rhythmic variations directly correlated with
emotions. For example, many audiences agreed that major keys caused happiness, and
minor keys often caused sadness.
In this research, the musical expression is defined as one in which the performer
communicates the compositional instructions and musical characters to the listener.
Music character is about the emotions, affects.characters and atmosphere
represented in music performance(Paddison, 1991). Therefore, music teaching is
different from other disciplines. Teachers not only need to teach theoretical
knowledge but more importantly, they should cultivate and develop students' ability
to feel and express their musical language, so that students can correctly and
creatively shape the music character. Another point is to learn to deal with many
detailed changes in music. For example, whether the melody in the music have
fluctuant changes, whether the connections between the phrases are natural, whether
the rhythms have fluctuations, cresc, dim, breathing, musical terms, correct use of
the pedals, and so on. This kind of music can be more impressive.
Strategies for teaching expressive performance
Instructional strategies found in studies conducted with tertiary students are
verbal teaching, explanation, modeling, gestures, and movements, singing, imagery,
which is an effective way to improve expressiveness(Woody, 2006). Teachers must
first have an exquisite sense of music, which is necessary for students to
understand the emotions of music truly. It is up to the teacher to sincerely
explain, analyze, and demonstrate from the perspective of music. The more vivid the
teacher's language, the more vibrant the artistic imagination, the more things that
can be given to the students.
Furthermore, practical feedback from the teacher can be a useful tool for improving
expressivity.(Calissendorff, 2006) The teacher's language is a tool that can't
replace what affects the student's mind.(Tan & Wang, 2011) Teaching feedback is a
comprehensive summary of the students' learning process, and the musical emotions
and knowledge can be transmitted to the students correctly and effectively.
Broomhead(Broomhead, 2004)discover that a teacher's encouragement can motivate
students'initiative, and problem-solving opportunities can facilitate expressive
performance. Many teachers often emphasized the significance of students should
listen to a recording of the class. This is because, after class, students can
review the knowledge they have learned in class. Teachers can grasp the key points.
When recording, they will slow down the performance according to the students'
different degrees, clear the key points and difficulties, and be more suitable and
effective for students to practice.
Interactive teaching of performance expression
Traditionally, instrumental lessons are based on teacher's instruction and
apprentice model. Students should follow the teacher's direction and play the music
determined by the teacher, musically, and technically. (Harnoncourt, 1988).Teachers
often expect their student's compliance instruction, only allow them little space
to explore their ideals.

CHAPTER2: Method
Design and methodology
This paper conducts a study that aimed to identify whether teachers do teach the
knowledge of musical expression in class.
The conceptual structure was based on the qualitative(case study) research. Each
student-teacher relationship in the music class is a naturally" case study," and
this approach is one maximizes information collection.
Sampling, Participants, Setting
The study sampling is purposeful selection, and it observed the teaching of two
instrumental teachers(piano and strings)with moderate experience(four to six
teaching years)over five weeks.
The participating teachers were: Qing Zhang, a 31-year-old pianist, and teacher,
who has been teaching for five years; and XIN LI, a 26-year-old cellist and string
teacher who is currently completing her final year of Master of Music studies and
has been teaching four years. Qing's students are Lei and Yu, both who have been
learning piano for two years. Xin's students are Shan Lin and Bing, both who have
been learning for 16 months. All of participating teachers and students worked and
studied in a Midwestern music school. All participants have been given pseudonyms
for this research to protect their privacy.
As I am a director of this music school, I got permission from the school
administrator.
Data collection procedures
Data collection was gathered throughout the three steps of the study.
Firstly,the participating teachers have interviewed some open-ended questions which
are relevant to this research focused on musical expression.
1 Tell me about your teaching goal?
2 What kinds of approaches, strategies, and techniques do you use in lessons?
3 How do you teach students about musical expression?
Secondly, the videotaping was used throughout the experiment to record the
performance of participant students in a five-week lesson. Finally, the students
were given a short interview. Questions were:
1 In the five weeks, which performance do you like the most and What do you feel
about this piece?
2 How would you transmit your feeling to the audience?
3 How did your teacher ask you to practice this piece of music?
Videotapes of lessons are regarded as one of the most effective approaches to
collect data in a teaching environment. (Swanwick, 2002) Because it allowed the
data collection could be reviewed many times. Therefore, this approach is more
systematic than separate ordinary observations. In the whole process of this
research, a log was developed to keep a record of documents collected for analysis
in the study.
Seventeen codes drafted from the interviews from the teacher and the observation of
video lessons.All codes outlined from the interview were seen in the videotaping
lessons
Table 1

Code from teacher interviews Code from observation of videos


Tone
Musical expression-dynamics
Musical expression-attack
Musical expression-rubato
Strategizing practice
Instrumental technique
Teacher teaching as they were taught
Student makes decisions
Ensemble playing Pitch
Breathing and support
Teacher modeling
Body language and physical position
Instrument maintenance
Rhythm or pulse
Finger placement over note position.
Music theory

Data collection for teaching musical expression to piano students


In an interview, Qing, the piano teacher, shown a speech parabole to introduce the
musical expression to her students. She used it to demonstrate how a change in
pitch and volume can make speech exciting and asked students to draw their
paracole. She also mentioned that it is significant for the students to develop
their interpretation of music that they are working on. (This speech was used in
Lei's third lesson)
Qing: You don't want to play music like other people. We had an interesting teacher
that said some words loudly, softly, oddly. I want you to do that with
music(videotaping lesson number2-Lei)
Qing suggested that her students use deliberately added dynamics to have some fun
with the expression of a piece of music and to find a freedom choice regarding
dynamics. In Yu's lessons, musical expression is the dynamics and articulation.
(This speech occurred in Yu"second lesson while playing Scale Study and Flexibility
Study by Bay)

Qing: Not bad. But there are a few dynamics that you need to sort out. Make a
crescendo at the end and make the accents as short as possible.
Yu: I wasn't bothering with dynamics
Qing: Dynamics are the foundation. You need it!
Qing used parabolical language to explain for Lei. Both of Qing and Lei discussed
"Coconut Calypso by Wedgwood" this piece of music in terms of the expressive
position that the composer gave on the score.
Lei: What does the gentle breeze mean?
Qing: Actually, I don't know, I think maybe they want you to be on an island boat……
with a breeze, sailing(videotaping lesson number4-Lei)
All of these language strategies were discussed, and the student was not ask to
play after the discussions, which is difficult to show how well they worked for the
students. Qing used parabolical language such as "enjoyable" and "relaxed" to
effect the performance of students.
In the interview, both students were asked to explain how their favorite piece of
music made them feel and how they transmit this feeling to an audience. Both of
them stated different pieces.
However, both of them felt that these different pieces transmitted the same
expressive qualities. Yu thought Scale Study and Flexibility Study was 'fun and
bright' and Lei chose Coconut Calypso by Wedgwood and thought it is 'joyful, happy
and freedom.'When asked how they would transmit these kinds of feelings to the
audience, both students suggested only use dynamics.
Data collection for teaching musical expression to string students
In the interview, XIN, the cello teacher, mentioned that she often encourages the
student to consider phrasing by adding the required expressive characters into the
music. She explained that marking in the activity of the bow and marking how much
bow could be used helped students to play with nuance. She told that her favorite
strategy was to get students to record themselves. (This speech was used in Shan
Lin's third lesson)
XIN: One of my favorite strategy is to pull out their phones and record themselves
on those, I know that they have them and they can review at home(interview question
2)
She mentioned that it is crucial for the students to understand their pieces to a
certain standard where they can concentrate on what they sound like rather than
what the note is. When they perform, they could play the music without reading
every note on the score. At the end of the course of video-taping, it occurred that
XIN prioritized the intonation and tone about musical expression; However, on a
recent examination, it appear as if she taught interpretation from a beginning
point of a beautiful tone and consistent intonation. Upon playing a new piece,
Arioso by J.S.Bach:
Xin: It is excellent and slowish, but it is difficult to make sound beautiful(This
speech was used in Shan Lin's third lesson)
And in the same lesson:
Xin: Make sure that your whole bow in the bouncy bits. It is more ring.
After tone and intonation, Xin, like Qing, also mentioned dynamics and attack to be
a vital tool when accessing musical expression. She told that these could be marked
into the students'music; However, she also asked the students for their input and
gave them a choice regarding the expressive characters of music.
Xin: It(Andante Sostenuto by Dotzauer)doesn't have big dynamics, but it has a
gradual growth. I suggest you note in some dynamics that you think would work.
Bin: How many?
Xin: Like four, don't go overboard, because there is a couple of spots that the
melody repeats itself, mark them! And mark the spots where it changes. Three or
four, it all depends on your thinking. (videotaping lesson number4-Bin)

Data analysis and interpretation


STEP1
STEP2
STEP3

Reflexivity (Qualitative)
Research ethics and considerations
Ethical validation was obtained through the standard music school review process.
Participating students and their parents received information letters and signed
the consent forms.
As I am a director of this music school, I got permission from the school
administrator. It is inevitable that participating teachers and students under
close observation would feel uncomfortable. In order to minimize this impact, I
emphasized the cooperative factors of the research and explained a lot of research
intentions with the teacher at the beginning. In the conclusion of the study, I
shared all of the study results and materials with the participants. This was the
first research project conducted at this school. In research of music expression,
the attitudes of students and teachers are both interested and enthusiastic. All of
them involved in this study thought it as a rare opportunity for their professional
development.

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