Intention-based Piano Pedagogy

Bastiaan van der Waals

This research focuses on the guidance of students of piano methodology ("piano pedagogy") in acquiring didactic skills. More specifically, it aims to support them in understanding and applying research-based educational principles in their internship lessons. Recent scientific research on motor control and motor skill learning offers opportunities for evaluating current practices in piano pedagogy and coming up with innovative teaching approaches. Based on an extensive review of research results, I have formulated educational principles for achieving pianistic quality. I argue that mental auditory representations of intended musical outcomes ("musical intentions") iniate and steer musical motor control processes. Furthermore, I have summarized several research-supported teaching strategies that promote motor skill learning and presented examples of their practical application in piano pedagogy. I have applied several interventions aimed at enhancing conveyance of these educational principles to students of piano methodology. In the first place, I have created extensive study materials (booklets, videos, slide presentations) that both explain and show practical applications of these principles in piano pedagogy. Furthermore, I have introduced peer-to-peer learning: students observe and evaluate their own and each other's internship lessons. Results of this research show that further improvement of the methodology course is required in order to achieve its goals. Both the study material and the peer-learning opportunities have shown to be valuable additions. However, students still exhibit a lack of creativity in finding relevant teaching strategies within their internship lessons. I have formulated several additional interventions for further improvement.

Home

1. Introduction

2. Research contextualisation

3. Research methodology

4. Results

5. Conclusions

6. Directions for future improvement

Acknowledgements

References

Appendices

Thesis and syllabus in PDF

Video fragments

2. Listening assignments

3. In-between steps

Video fragments

On this page, I present examples of teaching strategies that play an important role in my research: movement analogies, in-between steps and listening assignments. In accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, I have obtained written consent for usage in this exposition from all persons shown in the videos of lessons.

1. Movement analogies

In this lesson excerpt, the pupil has to play the left hand part of his piece, replacing the bass notes by a vocally produced "sh"-sound. The purpose of this exercise is to experience the connections between the chords, without the difficulty of moving up and down the keyboard.

This video shows the application of a series of in-between steps for learning to play different articulations with both hands.

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The Jellyfish

Example of a movement analogy in a piano lesson. This pupil (a conservatory student who plays piano as a secondary instrument) finds a suitable movement metaphor by himself.

Pigeon Feathers

In this excerpt from the movie "Ballerina" (2016, written by Eric Summer), a miniature ballet lesson takes place. The first part of the lesson demonstrates manipulation of environmental constraints: the teacher designs a learning environment by means of hanging a bell in the tree and pouring a bucket of water on the ground. In the second part of the lesson, the learner discovers a decisive movement analogy by coincidence: the image of pigeon feathers dropping in the water elicits how to land in the water without splashing it.

The Bazooka

This movement analogy aims to facilitate the learning process of tonguing technique in recorder playing.

In this lesson excerpt, the pupil has to play a song and gradually increase the dynamic level. Meanwhile, he has to listen whether the pulse ("heart beat") of the music remains stable.

Kid on a Swing

This is an example of analogy motor learning in golf. Golf instructor Ron Sisson presents his movement analogy of accelerating a kid on a swing, which aims to assist learners in finding efficient coordination patterns for accelerating the club head.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnTheRealSwing/videos

This fragment shows the teacher imitating how the pupil played, followed up by a listening question. The goal of this approach is to let the pupil find out by herself what to change in the shape of the phrase, namely to continue building up the tension until the main note has been reached.

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