Duke, R. A., & Simmons, A. L. (2006). The nature of expertise: Narrative descriptions of 19 common elements observed in the lessons of three renowned artist-teachers. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, (170), 7-19.
February, 10th 2019
During the introduction of the article one of the first rhetorical questions asked caught my attention; “How do experts turn poor musicians into good ones?” And then “How do they turn good musicians into great ones?” Personally I would have never thought about these questions, I would have jumped straight into specifics. I would have asked about the techniques and similar things, before looking at the big picture. This important outlook allows you to see the overall direction the author takes throughout the writing. Overall, they were looking for the sources of the positive change in the students.
Once the researchers had reviewed the video material of the teachers in lessons with their students, they organized the elements of their teaching into three broad categories; Goals and Expectations, Effecting Change, and Conveying Information.
First the article looked at the Goals and Expectations category. The first and one of the most interesting elements is that fact that when these teachers assigned repertoire, it was “well within their technical capabilities”. The students did not struggle with the notes of the piece and came to the lesson having the notes learned with their own interpretation. I had always thought that instructors assigned pieces just within the players reach, at an attainable point but the student would have to work hard and reach for it. It makes sense to assign these more attainable pieces because of the time being allocated to the technique as a trade off. An interesting concept I will keep in mind in my own lessons and ones I possibly teach in the future.
Next, Effecting Change was looked at in detail. What surprised me here was that when a student is playing something in a lesson, the teacher will interrupt their playing every time there is a mistake. During a lesson my teacher will do the same but it seems that it is not every mistake. If I could speak to the author I would love to ask them what specifically were instances of stopping, was it just for wrong notes and rhythms? or would they also stop if there was misinterpreted dynamics? The concept of correcting a mistake immediately is necessary but I wonder what ‘level’ of mistake merits an interruption because it was deemed a mistake.
Written by Jessalyn Shein
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