Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• 3. Internal publication Research published in this issue are only for internal circulation within the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague.
• 2. Royal Conservatoire Investigations Royal Conservatoire Investigations
• 1. Master Research Projects All research in KC

• The effect of Mental Practice and Body Awareness on the daily practice of music students (2024) author(s): Juan Rodes Pintor Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  This research investigated the effect of mental practice tools and body awareness exercises, when correctly integrated in a practice routine. This type of practice is heavily used in sports but is yet to be completely discovered by musicians. This research proposed a one-month routine which implements tools like Imagery, Visualization, External focus, and Body awareness exercises amongst others, and investigated the effect it had on Imagery abilities, motor and cognitive learning, performance anxiety and enjoyment. Eight conservatory students from different countries and instruments followed this routine for one month practicing unfamiliar pieces. The data was collected using a mixed methodology composed of personal questionnaires, logbooks and the Bett’s Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery, a tool that helped keep track of the mental abilities of the participants before, during and after the intervention. The use of different imagery and visualization exercises reflected a twofold improvement in scores according to the Bett’s QMI criteria in the vast majority of participants, even though none of the participants mentioned feeling improvements in their mental abilities in the post-intervention questionnaire. Logbooks showed fewer levels of mental and physical anxiety after performing body awareness exercises and the personal questionnaires reflected a slight improvement in practice and performance enjoyment and motivation thanks to the goal setting strategies of the routine. The findings suggest that the use of mental practice and body awareness exercises should be used more in the musician’s daily life.
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• The Maestro concert (2024) author(s): Jeroen Ardesch Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  In this research I was able to turn the concept of the popular Dutch television program "Maestro" into a concept for all the amateur wind orchestras we have in the Netherlands. Here I looked at the different parts that are all in the TV program and in what way we can adopt these parts. I also looked at what the different reasons might be for organizing a maestro concert for a local music association and what exactly does such a maestro concert look like? To do this, I created three different packages called the light version, the medium version and the full package. Included in these packages are a list of possible costs for organizing the concert, a timeline for organizing the concert and marketing tricks to sell the concert. As an extra, I came up with different ways to spice up the concert or save costs. To test my concept, for my PIA I came up with the idea of organizing my own maestro concert based on my research. Unfortunately, the results of this PIA cannot be incorporated into this research because it takes place after the deadline. With this research, I hope to get more wind orchestras excited about organizing Maestro concerts for their neighbourhood!
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• The Demands of the Professional Orchestra Life: Strategies for Preparing Unfamiliar Repertoire before the First Rehearsal (2024) author(s): Afonso Esteves Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Playing in a professional orchestra is the dream of many young musicians, including myself. There’s no other sound equal to the sound of an orchestra. The emotions that this music evokes are something unique. But like everything that’s worthy, it requires a lot of work. One demanding aspect of this career is the amount of repertoire we have to prepare, in a short amount of time. Usually, orchestras change their programme every week, and even if we’re young and the repertoire is still new to us, we have to keep up. This research explains how to do this, how to be efficient in our practice so we are prepared in every first rehearsal. I interviewed professional musicians, collected information on practicing methods, and tested the strategies I’ve gathered to see if they would help in preparing orchestra repertoire. I’ve discovered that equally important to practicing with our instrument, is the part we do without it. By getting to know the piece and planning what we have to practice, the results improve, and we reduce the amount of practice time needed. Of course, how we practice the notes is of major importance, and it’s something I address in this research. I chose to present my work as an exposition because of the creative freedom that this format allows. Apart from having a lot of recordings from the testing process, I believe that is easier for the reader to understand the topic through media.
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  The 21st Century Tenor Trombonist (2024) author(s): Aaron Small Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Today’s orchestral auditions and positions nearly universally require trombonists to play more than one trombone at a high level. Nearly every principal trombone audition in Europe requires the trombonist to play alto trombone. However, there is not much material out there relating to maintaining or improving skills on a “secondary” instrument while still making good progress on the “primary” instrument. I hope that my study will help provide a new source of information on skill transference from instrument to instrument, as well as give an idea of how one can approach the differences between instruments. For instance, many people find it more difficult to play the lower tenor trombone after the alto trombone- why is this? Many people also feel that it is easier to play in the upper range on the alto trombone than on the tenor when your body physically does very similar things on each instrument. I hope that the exercises and other resources that I provide will help to come to conclusions on how to overcome these problems, as they have helped me.
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  The 18th Century flutes in Barcelona, Flutes and woodturners (2024) author(s): Daïna Mateu i López-Grado Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  We have some samples of flutes made in Barcelona in period, but they have not been widely studied. We can find several original models of catalan makers, but this are not copied by nowadays luthiers or used at all by professional early flute players, I’d like to contribute to the not very extense Barcelona’s musicology research and enlarge the history facts and information.
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  Stanislavski on singing, the tools we can use to help us stay better focused on Stage (2024) author(s): Juncai Zhang Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Being on stage and under full exposure is a scary thing. Many musicians including myself have experienced in our music life some level of stage fright, loss of focus, stage anxiety, self-judgment thoughts, and all other distractions. Such distractions are unfortunately unavoidable and most of the musicians just learn to better deal with such distractions by themselves with time and experience. In this research, I intend to find out and develop a way to help musicians, especially singers, to stay better focused on music while singing on stage, so that they feel more confident and less distracted by their own judgmental voice or the physical environment/emotional status. I was inspired by Stanislavski and his acting system. Stanislavski’s system was originally developed in the first half of the twentieth century. This system is still widely used in theatre schools or drama classes in conservatories. Its purpose is to train actors to bring out more believable actings on stage, to bring out true convincing emotions of the play's characters. Singers share a big common ground with stage actors. Their work is often based on text/script. They both need to move or sing on stage. They both are often in a given character. So, I thought learning from actors how to prepare for a role would be hugely beneficial for singers, and Stanislavski’s system has proven its effectiveness and efficiency in character-building throughout history. I will introduce and explain Stanislavski’s acting system in my thesis through 5 real case studies to prove its effectiveness in helping singers stay better focused while singing on stage.
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