Keys and Cords: A Comparison of Piano and Vocal Teaching Strategies
(2024)
author(s): Renske Luijten
published in: KC Research Portal
The profession of a music teacher has developed over the past years in a way where teachers are required to be more versitale and not focussed on one specific element. A lot of collegues of mine, including myself, work at a music school where they teach children not only their main instrument, but also a secondary instrument, in my case piano. This brings up interesting challanges as a lot of teaching strategies overlap, but there might also be approaches that differ between various instruments.
In this research, we explore how private vocal lessons compare to private piano lessons and what the specific teaching strategies are of these instruments. Following up on this, we analyze how these finding inspire my own teaching practice and how one instrument might benefit from the teaching strategies of the other instrument.
This research includes a dive into already existing literature, interviews with Conservatory teachers who specify in vocal and piano pedagogy and interviews with private school teachers. Additionally, observations were made of multiple vocal and piano lessons given by myself as well as the other teachers mentioned above.
Multispecies Vocal Weaving
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This artistic research project reflects on the hidden dimensions of nonhuman sounding and how to remain present to them without seeking to capture or define them. It asks: How can artistic and ecological approaches to sound support ways of being-with nonhuman sounding that remain present to its hidden dimensions within the mesh and entangled relations?
Working from the premise that certain nonhuman soundings are either inaudible (e.g., infrasound, ultrasound) or ineffable (sensed through relational, embodied presence but resistant to articulation) for humans, this research draws on the typology proposed by Farina, Elridge, and Li (2021), which distinguishes latent and sensed soundscapes. Rather than aiming to access or translate these phenomena, the project adopts a methodology grounded in situated presence, sonic relationality, and perceptual partiality.
This approach combines embodied listening practices, field recording (using hydrophones and geophones), spectrographic analysis, and reflective artistic methods, including video-art, photography, instrument-sculpture building, creative writing, and composition. These practices are framed as composting: a slow, durational process through which sonic encounters are digested, broken down, and recombined over time, continually shifting, decaying, and generating new knowledge and thinking, rather than being fully captured (Haraway 2016).
The research is situated within and contributes to what König (2024) describes as a polyphonic transformation in artistic practice: a shift away from centralized spectacle and global expansion toward small-scale, locally rooted artistic actions that cultivate resonant, relational exchange. Following Haraway’s (2016) call to “stay with the trouble,” this project does not seek resolution or revelation, but cultivates attentiveness to what remains unknowable and to the entangled conditions from which nonhuman sounding emerges.
Jon Hendricks: Pioneering Jazz Singer, Scat Innovator, and Master Lyricist
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Carolina Peña
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Jon Hendricks: Pioneering Jazz Singer, Scat Innovator and master Lyricist’s, is an article that highlights his roles as a trailblazing vocalist, an innovator in the use of scat singing as a form of improvisation and storytelling, and a masterful songwriter. It serves as an introduction to the rich and diverse legacy that Jon Hendricks left in the world of jazz.