Teaching music theory to novices requires special considerations
This study reminded me that the idea of approaching and contemplating music from an academically critical perspective -- as would be done with literature, history or psychology -- is entirely new to the students, and an attempt needs to be made to foster a climate of curiosity and exploration from the first semester onward. It is not the case that novices, such as the students in this study, were simply lacking in knowledge and information, it is that they were lacking in perspective, in an approach to musicianship that combines aural experiences and reactions, technical expertise with the materials of music and an intellectual desire to synthesize them all and communicate coherently about them. The most obvious example for this is their inability (more than two-thirds in Listening 01) to bridge the chorale's obvious division into phrases with the idea of "musical organization" or "sectionalization".
How my research will inform my teaching
Student use of language reflected how foreign basic musical terminology was to them (at this early stage in their college career) and how much effort is required on the part of the teacher to clarify even the most basic ideas. It seems to me that in addition to activities that are entirely tied to the musical staff and the little black blotches we put on them (called notes!), more attention needs to be given to language-based activities that test and refine the students' grasp of various terms. I personally plan to:
- Exploring new ways of explaining and demonstrating the use of musical terminology in spoken or written language.
- Provide multiple and repeated examples of the way in which terms are used in scholarly and non-scholarly settings.
- Ask student to use terms in sentences and short prose responses.
- Ask students to verbally compare and differentiate between similar terms.
Music is different from other academic disciplines
This study reinforced (if there ever was a need to) the uniqueness of music as a discipline, in that it requires students to rely on both intellectual methods of learning (reasoning, memorizing, analyzing, thinking) as well as aural expertise. While this may sound obvious at first, it is nothing but matter-of-fact when an instructor suddenly asks you to use your "ear" instead of simply your eyes and your brain. The uncertainty involved in ear training (or aural perception) -- not being able to tell for sure where things are because you only hear them, fleetingly -- can be rather stressful. Students quickly feel inadequate if they are unable to hear things with complete certainty. It is the instructor's role, in part, to convey the message that true musicianship has an element of intangibility, and that it is not an all-or-nothing skill but rather a lifelong process and that progress can be made. Furthermore there is an innate resistance in the students perception of the connection between aural and verbal (or intellectual) issues. Students often cannot and do not want to acknowledge a connection between things they learn and things they hear. They tend to think that what they hear is innate and immutable, and that it is not directly related to what they learn (about music).
The study helped me re-identify the components of success in a first-semester music theory course and, although not providing clear cut solutions, it reinforced the steps needed and the emphases required to create good outcomes by the end of the term.
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