3. Own Teaching Practice

a. Description

Besides analysing methods and observing lessons, my daily portion of research has been my teaching. To teach has a continuous touch of research for me: always on the lookout for material, beautiful pieces, new insights and approaches. This investigating mentality, which I think is characteristic for the profession, made me sign up for a Master "Music Education According to the Kodály Concept" in the first place.

Since I followed the course "Muziek als Vak" in 2013-2014 I am using a lot of tools from the Kodály Concept in my lessons. Gradually I included also more principles, like the sense of sequencing the repertoire (which seems a logic thing to do, but you have to be aware of the musical characteristics in all layers of a certain song, and have the ability the analyse properly). In this I found the PPP principle very helpful. Because it is in fact needed for the technical build up, I tried to look for the perfect combinations in a song: suitable for the next technical step ánd for the next ‘musical’ step. My aim with my pupils is in fact to secure that everything is prepared: the musical and the technical content.

From just using the tools, I gradually started to feel free to be creative and design my own preparatory exercises. These include clapping games, dances, body percussion, ostinato’s etcetera.

Over the last three years, I worked with individual pupils as well as with groups of cellists, or heterogeneous groups. I work mostly with children, and few adults. I will describe my teaching situations one by one below in short. I will present the way I work with ideas from the Kodály concept mainly in the chapter about PI, because it is there that I work with the beginners, and that I have the great advantage to work with groups of pupils, which makes it easier to implement aspects of the Kodály concept. In the other descriptions I have the same approach, but sometimes the execution is complicated by the nature of the lesson form and duration.

PI

I work with 5-7 year olds in the PI-programme. Every Saturday the PI children have lessons in their instruments (piano, percussion, violin, cello and recorder) in small groups, and a general musicianship lesson in a bigger group of 20-30 children. The instruments are grouped together: piano and percussion are together, and violin, cello and recorder. In this setting I teach groups of 3/4 children for 45 minutes (PI 1) and groups of 2/3 children 45 minutes (PI 2). Apart from the general musicianship lesson (BMO: Brede muzikale ontwikkeling) they have also an ‘orchestra lesson’, where they play together with the other instrumentalists in their group. They play with other instruments in smaller ensembles regularly and have (informal) performances during the year. The children are admitted after a test. The parents are present at all the lessons and are asked to help the children to play at home.

For most children, PI 1 is the very start in their musical carriers. Of course some children bring more experience than others, especially if they have had older siblings in the programme, but most of them are new to music and have to learn all its facets.

In my cello lessons I have two objectives: 1) to set up for a healthy posture and playing technique, and 2) to develop the musicianship skills needed for playing the cello. These skills include: singing, inner hearing, steady beat, accurate rhythm, feeling of metre, sense of phrasing and form, sense of harmony, part-hearing/polyphonic skills. The tools I use are relative solmisation and handsigns, rhythm syllables and especially physical movement. I use props as spots, hoops, balls, hand puppets, little percussion instruments, etcetera.

Singing

The children sing the songs they are going to play on their instruments usually first in the big group lesson. They are taught the songs by rote. Still I have to reinforce significantly in the small-group cello lesson. Sometimes the text (words and thus rhythm) was not clear to everybody, or the melodic shape. Besides, some pupils have to work on their singing skills as such. They have problems with matching the pitch, singing in tune, correct use of their singing voice. Because PI is an auditive method, singing skills should be central: to develop auditory discrimination, a solid vocal training is necessary.

To be able to work systematically on the development of singing skills with my PI pupils, I listed the following points of attention, including some practical examples:

1. A cappella singing

When children sing a cappella, there is assessment possible on what is actually sounding. The pupils get autonomy, being independent of an accompaniment. A cappella singing allows work and development on intonation, rhythm and beat, and improves the sound of the group. If the singing is to be accompanied, for instance, with a piano, then the accompaniment should serve the singing.

2. Voice training

When children drone, or cannot sing high, first they have to learn to listen, and discern that their voice sounds different. After that singing games can be offered to develop these skills.

• Use of a varied repertoire of a cappella singing games
• Vocal activities to activate for instance the higher register (imitating animals: sing like a mouse, or a seagull), or work on breathing: flow of breath and breath support by putting Ffff-Ffff-Ffff or Vvvv to a rhyme.
• Use of movement: improve singing posture
• Discernment of timbre: games with pointing in one direction, or recognising the timbre of a voice

The children should be challenged to sing at the same pitch as the teacher of the other pupils. The ability to immediately start at the correct pitch and remain in tune, should be practiced.

• The teacher stimulates the awareness of the difference in pitch, for example by working with a hand puppet who sings the phrase on a different pitch, or to adjust his pitch to the pupil’s pitch. The teacher has to ask questions like “are our voices matching now?”
• Sing an introduction-phrase to prepare the right pitch.

Individual singing gives the pupil the opportunely to discover his own voice, and, when practiced regularly, develops confidence in singing. The teacher is able to assess te individual’s skills and give specific feedback.

• Singing games with a special role for the ‘soloist’.
• Echo singing, responsorial singing
• Listening games (who has the ball/coin/handkerchief?)

Inner hearing

Inner hearing is of the utmost importance for the young cellists. If they have to find a song on their cello, their only source is their ear. Singing developes inner hearing and guides the fingers on the fingerboard. The cello has no frets and the distances are quite big. Inner hearing is continually needed to adjust the intonation. It is very important that the child knows the song very well, and has the inner hearing of the song prepared. This can be done in games (like the radio game, where when te volume is off the song has to be sung ‘in thinking voice’), or by dividing a song over the group, or by clapping only the words, but not singing out loud. Solmisation can help to memorize the song and its use gets the pupil more conscious of the direction and contour of the melody, and the intervals (scales, or jumps). When these activities are mastered, the child can start finding the song on the cello. In the beginning the keys suitable for this are D major and e minor, also easy keys for singing. The song should be transposed when played in tune in the original key.

Steady beat, accurate rhythm, feeling of metre

In the BMO lesson a lot of work is done on the parameters of beat and rhythm. Nevertheless, in the cello lessons I experience that when the big body of the instrument comes in, and the pupil has to conduct the bow, the action of playing distracts from keeping a steady beat and performing an accurate rhythm and can greatly affect the performance.

Here again the importance of knowing the song and its rhythm very well should be stressed. In the small group of cellists, I work on beat through physical movement, clapping games, and body percussion. Walking the beat, or tapping the beat on the knees is a good start. When the polyphonic skill of walking the beat while singing is still difficult I let them walk and I sing, or I divide the group. I also use the presence of the parents to sing, or perform the beat. Walking the beat during a circle game, or performing the beat together with a partner in a clapping game helps the less advanced pupil to come along and catch up with the group. As a visual representation of the beat I use hoops and spots to walk on, different colours indicating the time signature, or the heavy and weaker beats. This is also a start in presenting notation of rhythm: you can visualize the rhythm on top of the beats/hoops/spots in the form of sticks. This of course only after ‘experiencing’ the amount of sticks on one spot, for instance by walking the spots and clapping the rhythm.

Body percussion is an excellent tool to establish a sense of metre in keeping the steady beat: the possibility to place heavy beats on body parts with a bigger sound, and the grouping of beats, marked by a certain percussion pattern, help to feel on what the place in the bar you are. This is very helpful in the distribution of the bow in cello playing: long bows of three beats are presented in the mind as a full pattern, and this gives the pupil overview.

To transfer the beat and metre to the cello is done by playing accompaniments on the open strings. Only on the tonic of the song, or in a very simple bass-pattern d-s-d-s. This can be played pizzicato for a clear attack and stable sound, thus avoiding the difficult string crossings needed to play this fifth.

The rhythm of the song can be practiced by clapping the rhythm along with the song, along with humming the song, and with singing the song in ‘thinking voice’. The clapped rhythm can be translated to rhythm syllables, to help the pupil get a clear overview on the patterns used, and to help memorising them. A big advantage of the syllables is that they can express duration, because they are voiced. In clapping, only the attack of the notes is sounding. Rhythmic elements can be prepared separately by echo clapping, or copy games with body percussion or on the cello (drummed on the body of the instrument, played pizzicato, or bowed). Rhythm flashcards can be used to process the rhythm while reading.

It is evident that rhythm is only possible when linked to steady beat, so the rhythm has to be consciously combined with the sounding/felt beat. This can be achieved by alternately walking or tapping the beat and saying or clapping the rhythm. If coordination allows, combine the two in one person: walk the beat, clap the rhythm. By using the Takadimi system (87) for rhythm syllables, the beat is always ‘ta’. This gives the advantage that all beats are easy to notice, but the disadvantage that the point of duration can be missed, and the rhythm syllables become a staccato sounding percussive language. It is important to stimulate the pupils to say or sing the syllables in a phrasing way, with length and direction, and to model this as a teacher (88).

Playing rhythms on the cello can be a complex task. The repertoire should be carefully chosen concerning its rhythmic features. In the beginning only regular and symmetrical rhythms, following on the development and growth of the child. The arms are still short and there is not yet a very differentiated use of the muscles. No whole bows in the beginning, but only smaller strokes, ‘ta’s’ and ‘tadi’s’ on the lower half of the bow. To transfer the practiced rhythms to the cello, the pupil can first bow the rhythm in the air. Also good for practicing the bow hold and the free movement of the arm (without the resistance of the string).

Sense of phrasing and form

To develop sense of phrasing and form I use songs where the phrasing or the form are easy to distinguish. To experience the phrasing or form also in movement helps the pupil to understand the song, or the piece of music. This can start from a very simple change of direction at the start of a new phrase, while walking the beat in a circle, to more complex patterns or a dance. Movement translates the form. Clapping games can also be designed to show the phrasing or the form. In both cases there is the advantage of the possibility to include the beat at the same time, which helps also to feel the phrase length. In singing there are a lot of songs with texts suggesting the phrasing. For example, when the new phrase is an answer to the first, sung by a different character in the song. In such cases it is obvious that the phrases are distributed over two parties: teacher versus children, group divided in two, group versus one solo-singer. If you have done this several times, it could be done with all kinds of songs: four pupils sing alternately one phrase of the song, like in an estafette, while walking the beat.

This is easily transferred to cello playing. I establish first the sense of a two bar period of four beats by playing a copy-me game on open strings. In the beginning I have to point toward myself while I am playing, and then, when it is their turn, point towards the pupils, showing the beat at the same time. Later on, they anticipate the length of the phrase, and then I do not have to conduct anymore. This game starts with only adjacent open strings, and gets more complex in the first year, from including harmonics, to stopped notes, to percussive elements or sound effects on the cello. As long as the pupils can follow while keeping a steady beat, I will challenge them. I use this warming-up game  as well to prepare for rhythms, or strings crossings, that come back later in the repertoire of that lesson. In the second year the copy-game includes all fingers and can be done in several keys. Then I use it as well to establish the tone set for the next song, or to prepare the intervals/fingerings.

The next step of this exercise is to not exactly copy, but ‘answer’ the phrase I played. Again this starts simple with open strings in PI 1. Now the children improvise their part, but keep to the same phrase length. This cannot be done by the group at the same time, but either I play a phrase for every individual pupil, or we make a longer conversation-song and play after each other. After the alternately singing of a phrase in a typical responsorial song, it can be tried on the cello, again, in different settings. Also the estafette game can be played on the cello. It is important to have done this first singing and walking/tapping the beat. In cello playing there is more to prepare: the children have to sit correctly when they enter, they have to put their bows on the right string, have to prepare their fingers. If it is not yet their turn, they still have to be actively participating, ‘inner play’ the phrases of their peers.

In Pi 2, where the children sometimes play arrangements of pieces, and form gets more complex, I use dances to illustrate the form, and provide sometimes visual information, to give the pupils more insight in the different parts of a piece.

Sense of harmony

In the above mentioned games to develop sense of phrasing, inevitably also harmony is involved. In playing musical questions and answers the pupil experiences the ‘opening’ and the ‘closing’ of the phrases. Some guidance is needed from time to time, by asking the pupil if his phrase sounded really as an answer, or in a longer improvisation, you can ask if the song sounded ‘finished’. By limiting the amount of notes to choose from, they will sooner get the feel for this.

Unconscious harmonic training happens in singing and playing two-part songs or canons. The children experience the intervals or chords and have to adjust their intonation to the bass-line.

Part-playing and polyphonic skills

Part-playing – or singing – requires a cognitive level of discernment of polyphony of the pupil: being able to hear the other voice against/together with his own voice, to hear what sounds together. It requires a long and thoughtful build-up in the methodology, for polyphony to become a developed skill in the children. The pupil has to be able to hold on to a shared steady beat: and this is already a challenge in playing in unison. A lot of practice takes place to establish this listening skill, and open their ears for the other player.

The development of polyphonic skills starts immediately in the first lesson, as the pupil sings on the sounding beat (performed by the teacher, the parents, other pupils). Later he is able to sing and perform the beat at the same time. Rhythm can be combined with singing, or with the beat, or both. Pupils can learn how to sustain a rhythmic, and later also a melodic, ostinato during a song. They practice their skills further in singing quod libets and canons, although this can be very difficult for an individual pupil.

In cello playing they learn to accompany a song by playing alternately ‘do’ and ‘so’. Sometimes I divide the group in two, accompaniment and melody of a song, or one pupil plays the accompaniment, the rest the melody, or I make duo’s. Another first step is the combination of two open string songs (rhymes on one string only, with complementary rhythms). A good way to create polyphony in the cello playing is the use of an ostinato. From a very simple one, on one string, to a rhythmic pattern over several notes. The children can sing the song and play the ostinato, as they did with singing and clapping.

In canon or two-part playing it is important to start with relatively easy songs, concerning cello technique, so the pupil can focus on what is sounding.

In PI 2 also polyphonic instrumental repertoire is played. Not all parts of this repertoire can be sung (for instance a bass-lines on the C string). Here I use to prepare the parts with solmisation, and prepare the polyphony from a rhythmic perspective, for instance through body percussion. This method I also use with the Junior 1 pupils.

Junior

Junior is a continuation of PI for the motivated and musically talented children. They are 7-9 years old. The programme consists of a general musicianship lesson (BMO) and an ensemble lesson. I teach the children in an individual cello lesson 40 minutes a week.

These children are used to play on their ears and to play in a group (89). When entering Junior they have individual lessons for the first time. They continue building their musicianship skills in the BMO lesson and work in this way on their instruments in the ensemble lesson. The individual cello lesson has a different setting as in PI. Firstly, the pupil is ‘alone’, secondly the repertoire changes and there is more reading involved. To make a smooth transition from the predominantly aural approach in PI, to side reading, the tools of relative solmisation and rhythm syllables are very useful. First children learn to read/recognize songs they already can play, then they read songs they know from singing. A totally new musical piece at hand can be prepared by playing a song in the same tone set or key, or playing a scale, or a copy-me exercise with elements of the new song. Then, if possible, the pupil sings the new song first from the score, on solmisation, finds out the key, taps the beat, decides on the metre, says and/or claps the rhythm. I often have the pupil look for similarities and differences in the form and the phrasing. First after having been well prepared to understand the notation, play the song/piece on the cello. To prepare for the metre I sometimes let them walk or dance. The initial songs to be read should not contain new techniques, finger patterns, or be otherwise complex.

When reading goes relatively well in the course of Junior 1 (that is: reading will not be on their level of playing, we should not underestimate the power of the note-action/fingering relation, thus reading will not always be ‘with comprehension’). From this point solmisation and rhythm syllables can be used to prepare and introduce new elements in melody and rhythm and, mistakes can be avoided or sometimes corrected by practicing a certain passage in solmisation or rhythm syllables.

In the sporadic group lessons with this group I do much more polyphonic work, work on beat, rhythm and metre.

Young Talent Class

A notable fact about the five pupils in my Young Talent Class is that four of them have a PI background. Not surprising perhaps that I have done the most musicianship activities with the one that did not have an auditive background. I had to work a lot more on rhythmical accuracy, metre and phrasing, harmony, but most work was on intonation.

Of course these children are on a higher level in their playing and their musicianship, but even here they do not make the connection automatically. I sometimes catch them playing without listening; playing without any idea of what they are doing. Then I stop them and let them sing, clap, say rhythm names, perform a body percussion, depending on what is needed.

Unfortunately, I do not see these children in a regular group lesson.

Music School

Teaching music in a music school is a different ballgame. The time is very short, sometimes only 20 minutes a week, including unpacking and tuning the instrument. The average pupil comes in with very little experience in music: this is a very big challenge! Although circumstances are not ideal, there is a very fertile soil for Kodály principles. Only the introduction of singing alone makes an enormous difference. Also, pupils have never tapped the beat on their knees while listening to a piece, they have never clapped along with the rhythm. Just by starting with introducing such simple things, the music becomes more accessible.

I took over this practice form a colleague two years ago, and introduced singing in the lesson, with the younger pupils, and work on beat and rhythm. The tool of rhythm syllables I just gradually ‘sneaked in’ and with some pupils I made a cautious start with solmisation.

Private students

I have a few private students, and with them I use the same approach: start from singing to playing. I do a lot of preparatory work on beat and rhythm, use ostinatos, and canons for polyphony. Reading comes in earlier then in the PI group lessons. There is much more time and attention for one individual pupil. Nevertheless, I experience more difficulties in developing steady beat and accurate rhythm, the one-to-one situation is perhaps less effective than a small group, where listening is essential to come along. I have developed some beat and rhythm-games to be performed just by teacher and pupil, but singing games in general work better in a (small) group.

In reading I use the same steps: from known material to the reading very simple melodies, first singing them on solmisation, or note names, and tapping the beat, and clapping or saying the rhythm syllables. I use the rhythm syllables as well as ‘normal’ counting.