From music student to professional: the process of transition

This article addresses the question of whether higher education music courses adequately prepare young musicians for the critical transition from music undergraduate to professional. Thematic analyses of interviews with 27 undergraduate and portfolio career musicians representing four musical genres were compared. The evidence suggests that the process of transition into professional life for musicians across the four focus genres may be facilitated when higher education experiences include mentoring that continues after graduation, the development of strong multi-genre peer networks, the provision of many and varied performance opportunities and support for developing self-discipline and autonomy in relation to the acquisition of musical expertise. Implications for higher education curricula are discussed. © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Cabaret Story-Telling: Building Your Act

This thesis adduces the benefits in teaching undergraduate theatre majors the competency to create a cabaret. It expostulates that doing so during college gives students an advantage in marketing themselves professionally. It substantiates the general lack of cohesive undergraduate training in this area. The results of a survey of casting directors, assessing the worth of implementing the study of cabaret into theatre curricula, are incorporated. Those that responded agreed that performing cabarets can play a role in a performer’s career, even if the opinions varied as to what that specific role is. There was general agreement that the study of cabaret could benefit students in ways which potentially go beyond securing immediate employment. I have included a sample syllabus for a course focusing on the construction, and performance of a cabaret. It is anticipated this would serve for a performance class taught during a student’s fourth year of undergraduate study

Pianism: performance communication and the playing technique

Os movimentos de um pianista são fundamentais para a produção dos sons musicais e os movimentos expressivos do tronco e dos braços que comunicam as informações estruturais e emocionais da música, tornando válio para essa revisão examinar o movimento da parte superior do corpo no processo de desempenho em combinação com os fatores importantes na aquisição de habilidades. A técnica de apoio subjacente deve ser eficiente com o uso econômico da musculatura, usando segmentos do corpo de acordo com seu design e potencial de movimento com os segmentos do braço mecanicamente ligados para produzir movimento coordenado e fluente. Duas ações fisiológica e pianisticamente importantes propostas pelos primeiros cientistas da música envolvem soltar a mão dos ombros para as teclas através de uma ação ondulatória, com as articulações ativadas sequencialmente, e rotação do antebraço para posicionar os dedos para a tecla, uma ação seguida de cotovelo e braço girando na direção oposta. Ambas as ações poupam os músculos do antebraço, gerando a energia necessária nos principais músculos do ombro. A mão na posição de jogar tem uma palma curva através da ação das articulações metacárpicas (dedos) e dedos curvos. A postura de palma e dedo controla a qualidade do som para uma articulação de legato mais suave, e para um desempenho eficaz, os antebraços devem se inclinar em direção ao teclado. A técnica deve ser automática através da prática sistemática que desenvolve as habilidades motoras para um toque proficiente, com a duração moderada da prática para reduzir o risco de causar lesões através do uso excessivo dos músculos do antebraço. Padrões de movimentos eficientes e relaxamento muscular estratégico, que resultam em movimentos mais rápidos, são realizados apenas por meio de treinamento extensivo. Os movimentos constantes da cabeça e do tronco e o movimento fluído do braço com movimentos manuais frequentes e movimentos rotacionais do cotovelo, embora gerados na produção da técnica de toque, ressoam com os membros da plateia que os percebem como expressivos, criando neles um empatia com a música. . Propõe-se que os estudantes de música sejam treinados nos aspectos mecânicos do uso da parte superior do corpo na técnica do brincar, e pratiquem estratégias, com pedagogia especializada para que crianças desenvolvam habilidades motoras para brincar eficientemente e métodos de treinamento que promovam uma apreciação dos aspectos comunicativos na performance musical.A pianist’s movements are fundamental to music-making by producing the musical sounds and the expressive movements of the trunk and arms which communicate the music’s structural and emotional information making it valuable for this review to examine upper-body movement in the performance process in combination with the factors important in skill acquisition. The underpinning playing technique must be efficient with economic muscle use by using body segments according to their design and movement potential with the arm segments mechanically linked to produce coordinated and fluent movement. Two physiologically and pianistically important actions proposed by early music scientists to deliver the keystroke involve dropping the hand from the shoulders towards the keys via a wave action with the joints activated sequentially, and forearm rotation to position the fingers for the keystroke, an action followed by the elbow/upper-arm rotating in the opposite direction. Both actions spare the forearm muscles by generating the energy needed in the larger shoulder muscles. The hand in the playing position has a curved palm through action of the metacarpal (knuckle) joints and curved fingers. Palm/finger posture controls sound quality from loud, high tempo sounds to a more mellow legato articulation, and to perform effectively the forearms should slope down towards the keyboard. The technique must be automatic through systematic practice which develops the motor skills for proficient playing, with practice duration tempered to reduce the risk of causing injury through overuse of the forearm muscles. Efficient movement patterns and strategic muscle relaxation which results in faster movement are realized only through extensive training. The constant movements of the head and trunk, and flowing arm movement with frequent hand lifts and rotational elbow movements, although generated in producing the playing technique, resonate with audience members who perceive them as expressive and thereby creating in them an empathic engagement with the music. It was proposed that music students be trained in the mechanical aspects of upper-body use in the playing technique, and practice strategies, with specialist pedagogy for children to develop motor skills for efficient playing, and training methods fostering an appreciation of the communicative aspects of music performance

Talents and Interests: A Hegelian Moral Psychology

One of the reasons why there is no Hegelian school in contemporary ethics in the way that there are Kantian, Humean and Aristotelian schools is because Hegelians have been unable to clearly articulate the Hegelian alternative to those schools’ moral psychologies, i.e., to present a Hegelian model of the motivation to, perception of, and responsibility for moral action. Here it is argued that in its most basic terms Hegel's model can be understood as follows: the agent acts in a responsible and thus paradigmatic sense when she identifies as reasons those motivations which are grounded in his or her talents and support actions that are likely to develop those talents in ways suggested by his or her interests

Driving the Bow

Publisher PD

Creative musical instrument teaching and learning:participatory ethnographic research in Finland

Abstract. Private musical instrument education is common in many countries, including Finland. However, there are extremely high dropouts from the lessons and teachers often face challenges in motivating the children to continue learning. The main goal of this study was to find the most important factors in creative music teaching. In order to achieve the aims of this master’s thesis, the following research questions have been used: 1. What can be taught and what creative methods should be used while teaching music to children with various music skills? 2. How to motivate and encourage children to learn playing musical instrument? 3. What influence do the teachers, parents, peers and other social factors have in the children’s musical skills development? The theoretical framework of this study provides the understanding about the creativity as a concept and musical skills development. Besides, it describes the education system, music and musical instrument teaching in Finland. This research gives attention to the ideas of Burnard, P. (2006), Hallam, S. (2009), McPherson, G. & Hallam, S. (2009), Robinson K. (2016) and many other authors. A qualitative approach and participatory ethnography is used as the research method. Data was collected during the year of 2017 by a music teacher from twelve children, who were attending weekly private musical instrument lessons for at least one year. The main data consists of reflective journals, observations and conversations. As a starting point of data analysis, the colour coding was used in order to organize the data into themes and categories. A qualitative thematic data analysis was chosen as a final data analysis. The findings revealed three main themes based on the data analysis: Planning the lessons and performance, Creative musical instrument teaching and developing musical skills and Motivating and encouraging children to learn musical instrument. The last theme was divided into 2 sub-themes: teacher-child interactions and practicing at home and parental support. As the result, there were seven main factors found for creative teaching and learning. An objective research perspective is used in this study. However, this research cannot be generalized as it is done in a specific environment with the unique participants. Hopefully, this study will be useful for the music educators and parents

Statistical Piano Reduction Controlling Performance Difficulty

We present a statistical-modelling method for piano reduction, i.e. converting an ensemble score into piano scores, that can control performance difficulty. While previous studies have focused on describing the condition for playable piano scores, it depends on player's skill and can change continuously with the tempo. We thus computationally quantify performance difficulty as well as musical fidelity to the original score, and formulate the problem as optimization of musical fidelity under constraints on difficulty values. First, performance difficulty measures are developed by means of probabilistic generative models for piano scores and the relation to the rate of performance errors is studied. Second, to describe musical fidelity, we construct a probabilistic model integrating a prior piano-score model and a model representing how ensemble scores are likely to be edited. An iterative optimization algorithm for piano reduction is developed based on statistical inference of the model. We confirm the effect of the iterative procedure; we find that subjective difficulty and musical fidelity monotonically increase with controlled difficulty values; and we show that incorporating sequential dependence of pitches and fingering motion in the piano-score model improves the quality of reduction scores in high-difficulty cases.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, version accepted to APSIPA Transactions on Signal and Information Processin

Healthy Piano Technique and the Prevention of Professional Injuries: An Exploration of the Schmidt-Shklovskaya-Minsker Method and its Implementation in Piano Pedagogy

This research focuses on the teaching method developed by two piano pedagogues whose work with pianists' professional injuries is widely known and appreciated in Russia. Anna Schmidt-Shklovskaya based her system on the views and practice of Ivan Kryzhanovsky, a musician and medical doctor who studied piano-related injuries. Her student Galina Minsker brought a new perspective to the Schmidt-Shklovskaya method by studying the theory of multi-levelled motor control, as authored by Russian neuroscientist Nicholai Bernstein, and applying it to her practical work with piano students. A variety of ideas that were dominant in piano pedagogy throughout the 300-year history of the instrument are also examined with a particular emphasis on healthy piano technique in the context of the mind-body-instrument relationship. An application of "The Schmidt-Shklovskaya-Minsker Method" to general piano pedagogy is described, and the benefits of the method for students' musical and technical development are explored