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International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art 01 2020 - 06 2020 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 Accademia Musicale Studio Musica Via Andrea Gritti, 25 - 31100 Treviso (Italy)
Facilitating Learning through Collaborative Ensemble Performance
Jihong Cai1,*, Nikita Mamedov2,*
1 Department of Music Education, North America International School
2 Department of Music Education, North America International School
Corresponding author: [email protected], [email protected]
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BSTRACTEducators in K-12 learning aim to expand and diversify performance opportunities for the students to cultivate their musicianship. Schools incorporate various teaching phi- losophies, including, but not limited to, student-centered and project-based pedagog- ies. An establishment of ensemble performance programs (bands, orchestras, and smaller-scale chamber groups) as part of music curriculum or extracurricular activities will undoubtfully create project-based opportunities in which students may partici- pate. This research discusses the strategies to arrange popular, classical, and tradi- tional music for K-12 ensembles, allowing instructors to include students of all play- ing levels in one performance group. This study also defines educational, technologi- cal, and organizational pitfalls of the music performance program.
Copyright © 2020 Author et al., licensed to IJIEST. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
1 Introduction
As an essential component of the K-12 curriculum, music performance courses, a part of the aesthetic education, can cultivate critical thinking, imagination, and creativity in addition to the cultivation of musical, aesthetic skills, and other transferable skills [1]. In instrumental performance classes, students perform in both small and large-scale ensembles, such as choirs, or- chestras, and chamber groups. Many schools find it challenging to incorporate students with a plethora of performance abilities and expertise into a collaborative large-scale ensemble due to music performance gaps, which leads to some students receiving more performance experience than others. It is detrimental for one’s general learning to have music education without instru- mental performance-related courses [2]. The lack of an all-inclusive performance program may also hinder the school’s devel- opment, vision, and teaching philosophies.
This paper presents the purpose of integrating music arrangements to facilitate students’ learning and the teaching philoso- phies behind it, discussing potential issues within individual lessons and rehearsals. The study also analyses the ways to arrange classical, popular, and traditional music to assist students in enhancing their performance abilities. One shall seek to extract accompanimental structures, melodic patterns, and links between harmony and counterpoint when making arrangements. The inclusion of students of all performance levels in an ensemble setting will foster and develop skills in reasoning, memory, language, productivity, and engagement [3].
2 Music Performance in K-12 Education
Music performance has a long history. Enheduanna is the earliest music composer, traced back to Babylonian civilization. At the same time, instrumental ensembles expand and diversify as history progresses from the antique world. From the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians, to the modern-day orchestras and jazz bands, the performance traditions of ensembles greatly vary [4, 5]. In K-12 education, music performance class is popular among students. Instructors try to imple- ment various types of ensembles into the school’s curriculum or extracurricular activities [6]. Small-scale ensembles are per- formance groups, such as duets, trios, and quartets, which are different from large-size ensembles, such as orchestras, chamber
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Received: March 30, 2020 Accepted: April 10, 2020 Published: April 16, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48293/IJMSTA-59 ___________________________________________
Keywords:
Instrumental ensemble K-12 education Music arranging Music performance
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interesting. Cultivating a student-centred teaching philosophy can foster students’ interests in learning new musical content by customizing teaching materials according to their interests and preferences. Because music is an elective, ensemble instructors need to guide students to develop their interests in music rather than only inform students in performance techniques through lecturing.
Choir, utilizing the earliest instrument that human have, the voice, is one of the most popular performance classes in the K- 12 music curriculum. Instructors introduce choir to the school as the simplest form of ensemble. Expanding the music program starting from the choir could potentially develop into a more comprehensive music curriculum. Some schools struggle to es- tablish and expand the music program and music ensemble due to differences in students' performance levels. By adopting a project-based pedagogy and arranging concert-like events, the schools can incorporate music courses, extracurricular activities, concerts, and competitions to better support students who are interested in music. By employing music arrangement, it enables the instructor to integrate and diversify all the curriculum and extracurricular activities together to set a large-scale ensemble and expand the music program to facilitate students’ learning.
Another type of ensemble class in an educational setting is the percussion ensemble. One of the best ways to teach rhythm is through collaborative performances on percussion instruments. The performance material for percussion music may vary depending on the culture. It is ideal for students to explore different traditional music through percussion performances.
3 Music Performance Gaps
By integrating project-based teaching philosophy, a concert is an ideal opportunity for students to present their work in front of the school and express their musical talents and interpretations to the public. Concerts are project-based events that require coordination between instructors, organizers, and administrators. Student musicians in the ensemble class might have diverse musical expertise from prior performance experiences. Therefore, instructors might find it challenging to find repertoire that contains all the instruments, which students play. Another complexity that may arise is the technology. Integrating technology to prepare for a concert performance allows solving problems with sound.
Instructors introduce diverse music pedagogies and teaching philosophies when it comes to secondary school music ensem- ble courses. Since there is a limited number of students who intend to become music majors, the performance abilities among students and the efforts students put into the ensemble practice will vary. This creates a music performance gap, often called an achievement gap – the difference between the ‘theoretical’ and ‘realistic’ situations in an educational environment. The performance gap demonstrates the performance ability of individuals and their prior knowledge regarding instrumental perfor- mance. Therefore, many instructors struggle to adopt appropriate pedagogy to put students with such diverse instrumental abilities together. This is why instructors aim to have music ensembles with students of similar or near-similar playing levels.
Established music programs may offer students a variety of performance opportunities at various levels. This may include a course, such as Fundamentals of Band Performance (for beginners) or Honours Band (for advanced musicians) [14]. However, not all schools have an established music program. Some schools may not have a student body necessary to create a large ensemble. Arranging previously-composed works allow pedagogues to close the performance gap by customizing sheet music according to the pedagogical needs of each student. Music performance gaps vary when comparing individual students [15].
The difference between students’ performance abilities and their expected outcome is what is defined as the music performance gap. Each student is evaluated on a percentile scale. Students need to achieve their expected outcomes throughout the academic year. Depending on the students’ performance abilities, instructors can create realistic expectations. The following two figures show two graphs that represent performance gaps for two separate students.
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Figure 1. Music Performance Gap 1.
Figure 2. Music Performance Gap 2.
In Figure 1, the student’s performance ability is higher than the expected outcome. This represents a personal achievement, which creates positive results. For this student, the short-term/long-term goal reveals students’ future potential to achieve a particular instrumental performance level. Figure 2 demonstrates the opposite situation, as seen with a student whose music performance level as not as high as the expected outcome. To better facilitate students learning, instructors should aim to close the performance gap in various methods. Music arrangement enables instructors to individualize and customize teaching ma- terials according to students’ needs, which is also the reason why it is such effective and essential pedagogy. The arranged music should also be in instructive and informative nature, allowing the student to increase their artistry, technique, and musi- cianship. By adapting music arrangement, students have a chance to cultivate their skills in music, all while developing interests in instrumental performance.
4 Music Arrangement: La Cumparsita
Arrangements are essential in music literature in both pedagogical and performative circles. Historically prominent works go through a variety of revisions and changes in arrangement, allowing different performance groups to play music outside the scope of their oeuvre [16-18]. In the context of music education, musical arrangements decrease the achievement gaps. Musical arrangements with a pedagogical emphasis – through changes in technique, musicianship, and artistry – will create rehearsal and performance opportunities for students. A pedagogical emphasis likewise includes making a particular arrangement edu- cationally informative, enthusiastic, and challenging. For K-12 arrangements, it is essential to subdivide the music content into the following: (1) primary thematical material; (2) secondary thematic material; (3) accompanimental material; (4) rhythmic material. The difficulty level of the arrangement will depend on the combination of the instrumental capabilities of the students and each student’s performance gap.
Figures 3 and 4 show the instrumental ensemble arrangement of the opening twelve measures of La Cumparsita, composed by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez [19]. The arrangement is scored for saxophones, French horns, diatonic xylophones (soprano and alto), timpani, triangles, cymbal, piano, guitars, bass guitars, violins, and erhus.
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Figure 3. Instrumental ensemble arrangement of La Cumparsita, mm. 1-6.
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Figure 2. Instrumental ensemble arrangement of La Cumparsita, mm. 7-12.
Horns and erhus play the primary melody of the tango while the violins play the subordinary thematic material. The music played by the violins is simpler than the music played by erhus, saxophones, and horns. For instance, in mm. 1-8, eleven of the
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5 Conclusions
It is essential to recognize that instrumental performance class, unlike other academic classes, such as music history and music theory, should provide students a platform to cultivate their interest in performance practice. To achieve that, the music teachers should integrate their methods of instruction with student-centred pedagogy under project-based teaching philosophy. It is important to recognize the significance of the classroom environment. Project-based teaching method can not only provide students with the content-based knowledge educator want to instruct, but also provide students opportunities to put the knowledge they have in action. By adopting student-centred teaching philosophy, students can focus on learning the concepts that they want to explore. A student-centred teaching philosophy can also foster students’ interests in learning new musical content since instructors can customize teaching materials according to the interests and preferences of the students.
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