Situated musical thinking and knowing

Figure 4-55_Situated positive

Know-how in a specific musical practice is taught occurred frequently, as all instruments in this study were viewed as musical practices: keyboard, recorder, violin, piano and saxophone. An example is when L4 of Anne (1:152, Figure 4-56) started paging to the next piece while the previous one was still ending. She giggled shyly. Anne: “You must get in the habit of keeping your hands there.

Otherwise I will think that things are just happening by themselves. If only that was so.” This refers to when the keyboard is playing an outro, and L4 should wait until it is completely done before taking her hand away. This is appropriate to keyboard playing, as the outro should still be treated as part of the performance. Makes learner aware of actions was also assigned, which will also contribute positively towards musical understanding.

Figure 4-56_Anne_Know-how

The following is a recorder example where Anne (1:99) said to L3 “just be aware of your intonation on this note.” She wrote something in pencil. Anne said she is making an arrow, because she feels that the tendency will be to play that note too sharp. “Just listen carefully...” In recorder playing, it is appropriate to listen carefully to intonation, as one can control this by means of embouchure. L4 of Beth (3:264) said she waited too long _{in one place in her piece (which is why it was also assigned} Learner finds problems), to which Beth responded, “yes, but it is a breathing place, I will wait for you”. In recorder playing it is also important to find sensible breathing places; preferably at the end of phrases. L6 of Beth (3:434) checked a G against the open G string, as it is an octave apart, so it is an indication of whether her intonation is right. This is an appropriate way of taking care of intonation in violin playing. Chris (5:21) said to L1 “then I want you to lift your violin”. He told her that her shoulder and her head hold the violin. In between he said that she said she needed a new chin rest. “But not now, [while correcting her left-hand position again] with your next pocket money you can buy a new chin rest as well.” It is an important principle in violin playing to not hold it with fingers and hands, so that those can move freely if necessary. The comment about L1 needing a new shoulder rest was assigned Specific musical practice related requirement, as one’s instrument needs to be maintained. Beth (3:312) reminded L5 to have round fingers on the piano, and adjusted her fingers. Dea (7:388) said to L4, a piano learner: “let's start again, let’s do it soft, firm fingertips”. Dea teaches the correct technical skill to play softly effectively. It is also an example of Musical works

approached in more than one dimension, as she includes dynamics and how to do it. Dea (7:420) also teaches saxophone, and she said to L5 “just careful on you low G, just listen to your intonation going too low”. Dea played those three notes. She said, “when you go to the low one, don’t relax too much”. Intonation is important on the saxophone, and Dea helped L5 with how to pitch his lower notes correctly and effectively by using lip tension.

Significance of the real-life context is acknowledged could be seen in the following example where Chris (5:106) makes sure L2 approaches an upcoming assembly playing opportunity like a real-life performance:

Chris: “[…] but when you end, you have to end.” L2 plays the ending again.

Chris [gets his violin]: “When you want to keep the audience captured.” L2 plays again.

Chris: “No, when you end you got to end.”

He demonstrates how it should be by playing an upbow and keeping his bow in the air. He says something inaudible, because L2 was playing when he spoke. He says L2 is going to end on an upbow. Chris plays the last few bars now. At the end, he keeps the bow in the air a few seconds and then breathes out.

L2 plays the same part now, and at the end, Chris lifts up his arms, and says “in the air”. L2 lets her bow arm fall down soon after the ending.

Chris: “You wait there, you wait [keeping his hand in the air], look at everybody, and then, I will say yeeeees! [in a smug roaring voice]”.

Specific musical practice related requirement refers to anything not directly related to the music itself, but which is important in the practice. Anne (1:53) made a comment about L2’s nails which w_{ere too long for keyboard playing. This does not relate directly to musical understanding, but is} something that is required to play this specific instrument. Beth (3:299;3:321) reminded piano

learners to keep their feet flat while sitting in front of the piano. She also reminded L5 (3:375) to relax her violin. Chris (5:48;5:5:57) reminded his learners to have a good posture while playing violin. Dea said to L2 (7:117) he must clean his saxophone, which he did by sucking, and L5 (7:415) adjusted his reed on the saxophone when he struggled with sound.

Figure 4-57_Codes_Situated negative

A specific musical practice is not taught appropriately is shown in the following example by Beth (3:19) with L1:

Beth: “It’s the same as D.”

L1: “You said there’s something different.”

Beth: “No, it’s exactly the same. [Beth pages to D major.] You just start one note lower and end one note lower.”

L1 plays and makes a mistake.

Beth: “No, there’s no F sharp.” She moves L1’s left hand around slightly, while saying the note names of the fingers that she is touching on L1’s hand. “Start again from the C.”

It is understandable that Beth made an association between the two scales, as those two shift to the same position. Saying they are exactly the same, except for starting and ending on different notes, is however not accurate, as the different key signatures are thereby not acknowledged. That may be why the learner incorrectly played an F sharp that the teacher corrected. This can also lead to the kind of thinking in string playing in terms of hand positions without awareness of notes. In the same lesson (3:20), Beth made a ‘no’ sound and shook her head. “Now you’re playing an E flat.” She told L1 that it is her normal position: far-close-far. In this case, it was only a word-choice that was inappropriate to the musical practice. Position in string playing implies where on the string one plays a passage/note (first position, second position, etc.). What the teacher was referring to was the placement of the fingers in relation to each other. It would have been more appropriate to refer to it as pattern. Beth however possibly knows this, but did not notice that she said it wrong. It can cause confusion for a learner.

For Teacher is uninformed of what a practice requires there was the following example from Beth (3:373):

Beth: “How’s your tuning?” L6: “Normal, hopefully.” Beth: “Let’s try.”

They play their strings one by one together to hear if it sounds the same. Then she asks L6 to play two strings together. When L6 plays D and G together, Beth asks her to do it again. She then plays the G on the piano, and asks L6 to play just the G. “Go up”.

L6 stops to turn the fine tuner, and then listens again. Next is E, then E and A together. Beth says, “that’s good”.

It is good that Beth teaches L6 to be able to tune her own violin, as it is a requirement for the practice of violin playing. It was therefore also assigned Specific musical practice related requirement. It is, however, important to do that before starting to play, and in this case Beth only checked it later in the lesson when a note sounded out of tune. L6 was also touching other strings accidently while playing, which Beth (3:395) assessed incorrectly: “I think you need to control your bow.” L6: “Yeeah.” Beth: “Bow a bit harder.” Even though the problem is related to bow control, the solution is not to add pressure, but to adapt the angle of the elbow, as Beth correctly said earlier in the lesson. In this scenario, she was unable to correctly identify what was required. When uncertain of what the problem is, it can also be helpful for a teacher to play on the learner’s instrument and find out if it is particularly challenging on that specific violin, as there are slight differences between different violins.