Extract
Over the past few years, instrumental performance has been subject to considerable research in this journal and elsewhere. A great deal of this research has concentrated on the practice strategies and individual lessons, which most students undertake in preparing as performers. Little has been done on raising standards of performance on a larger scale within the context of a large music department.
This article describes the outcomes of a two-year programme undertaken with undergraduates at Barnsley College. It looks specifically at the scope for curriculum changes over that period and the way the various individual aspects of performance lessons are brought together through a weekly class which focuses on the demands of a public performance and the strategies required to prepare for that event.
Introduction
Many music students and teachers would agree with the view that performance should be central to the development of a musical education. The National Curriculum ensures that all children are provided with performing opportunities, while the Associated Board for over a century through its graded practical examinations, has done so much to foster musical performance.
Instrumental teaching in schools, colleges and universities is still predominantly based upon the one-to-one single weekly lesson. Pressure of time can focus much of this teaching on the preparation of pieces for public examinations, assessments or the next concert, plus the learning of technical exercises and studies. There is rarely enough time to learn a wider repertoire or to develop other performance experiences. Students typically learn in a vacuum: one-to-one lessons and individual practice ± usually a solitary existence. These conditions are quite the opposite of what they are ostensibly being prepared for: a public performance.
Of course, students share their music-making with others through playing in large ensembles and bands, and singing in choirs. While this enriches their experiences, the focus here is usually on the ensemble rather than on the individual; for example, what is being rehearsed for performance is not normally the same piece that is being learned in the student's individual lesson.
Similarly, we can also recognize the loneliness of the long-distance visiting instrumental tutors: teach their students individually, prepare each for an examination in which they have no input to the assessment process, and usually not present when the student takes the exam. Within a limited number of lessons, they are required to prepare their students for assessments often based upon a syllabus in which they have had no input. Their absence of any involvement or ownership of the assessment process or performing context contributes to their isolation.
Not only is this an unsatisfactory position in terms of developing a team of staff to deliver a coherent part of a degree syllabus, but, more importantly, it often leads to confusion on the part of the student as staff either guess at examination requirements or provide interpretations of the syllabus which did not reflect the philosophy of the department.
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