Thomas J. West Music

Many students of music go through their entire career as a member of a public school music ensemble and never achieve true independence of ability on their instrument. They can only play their part if someone else is playing along with them, and even then there are still parts of the music that they have to either leave out or water down. Can an average music student ever develop true mastery?

Nature vs. Nurture

There is no doubt that music students with a higher musical aptitude are more musically independent and have a higher retention and success rate. For many of those students, however, regular practice is not necessary because they can play the required material in their school band or orchestra with little extra effort. Typically, these students do not reach their full potential unless they supplement their musical education outside of the normal school ensemble with private lessons, honors band/orchestra auditions, and similar challenges.

For the students with average musical aptitude, the music selected for their school ensemble is generally targeted at them. There is challenge present, but nothing that requires too much practice outside the school day. The repetitions generated in the course of a normal band/orchestra class period over the course of weeks prepares them adequately for the concert. They may be able to play their part well, but can they play in tune without others present? Can they read rhythms without having someone play the rhythms for them first?

For the students with low musical aptitude, every piece is a challenge, and the expectation is that they can be good contributing members of their school ensemble but not be able to stand on their own musically or perform material that is more than an intermediate level of difficulty. I have met many of these kind of students over the years. For a person with a high music aptitude such as myself, it is often challenging to help these students because they simply can't hear that they are not matching pitch or can't sense that they are off time rhythmically. For students such as these, they must have two to three times the amount of repetitions needed by the average student just to become proficient, let alone master a piece of music.

As the bell curve indicates, the majority of the students in any heterogeneous mix are going to fall in the middle 50% in terms of musical aptitude, with 25% possessing low music aptitude and 25% blessed with high music aptitude. This does not include "select" ensembles, auditioned groups or extra-curricular specialized organizations like an indoor drumline. In an average high school band, orchestra, or chorus, about 50% have the potential to play grade 3 or 4 literature with occasional forays into the low end of grade 5. This does not mean, however, that they can perform independently. Is it possible for the "average" player to become an independent musician?

Smarter than the Average Bear

An average music student can become a strong independent musician if they have the following:

1. Music teachers who teach and reinforce music basics
2. Music teachers who teach students how to become independent musicians
3. Students who take the time to apply what they learn from music teachers in regular practice sessions

Traditionally, music teachers do moderately well at teaching the basics. A vast minority teach their student effective practice techniques. Similarly, only a small amount of music teachers expect and demand that their students practice regularly and are held accountable for their progress. Therefore, the average student (and the advanced student who isn't challenged, and the below-average student who is overwhelmed) rarely practice outside of their normal band/orchestra rehearsal. Vocal students have even less reason to practice outside of the choral room than instrumentalists do. There are a myriad of reasons why music teachers do not demand more accountability from their students, which is a topic beyond the scope of this article.

If an average student is blessed with a music teacher that reinforces the basics, teaches independence, and demands results, they will have the skills they need to be "smarter than the average bear" and can become independent, self-sufficient musicians.

Becoming Your Own Music Teacher - Targeting Trouble Spots

The best music teachers, or any kind of teachers for that matter, are those that teach their students the skills and techniques necessary for the student to become self-sufficient. The goal of any master teacher is to empower the student to no longer need a teacher. In effect, when the student can do the teacher's job for them, or could teach another student the skills they have learned.

In order to become independent, a music student must learn the skills a music teacher already possesses. They must learn:

• to detect musical errors or inaccuracies
• to isolate errors to focus on for repetition
• to apply various techniques (a bag of tricks) that result in successful repetitions of the problematic passage
• to recognize an accurate performance when it occurs and repeat that performance until the neural pathways are established and the performance becomes "automatic."

In order to detect an error, a student must first know what an accurate performance is supposed to sound like. It amazes me how many music teachers never take the time in class to have their students experience what an in-tune major triad sounds and feels like. How are music students supposed to read and interpret musical rhythms if they never get a chance to drill and memorize common rhythmic patterns? How can students be expected to produce beautiful tone on their instrument if they are not exposed to quality role models for those sounds? How is a vocal student going to produce a beautiful, open tone if the only exposure to vocal music they have ever had is today's popular music?

Many average students are never taught practice methods either. The average untrained music student will simply start at the beginning of a song and muddle through it from beginning to end a few times. They do make improvements in this fashion, but the effectiveness is lessened greatly. Once error detection is possible by providing them enough experience to know what "good" sounds like, students must then learn to isolate and work on the errors as they are detected. There are many practice techiques that can be applied to difficult passages, such as the tips I've shared in previous posts. [1] [2] No matter what techniques a student uses, the most important part of mastering a difficult passage is performing the difficult passage successfully multiple times.

This means performing the physical skill correctly in isolation. "Unstacking" the music and taking away variables can isolate the problem. [3] For example, if a particular slur involving a string crossing in the middle of a difficult finger pattern is causing problems on the violin, the student could take away the printed rhythm, playing everything as quarter notes and focusing on the correct sequence of fingers and the timing of the fingers and bowing change. A slower tempo could be applied, giving the brain an opportunity to coordinate the complex variables correctly. The important thing is to perform the probelmatic skill correctly and to do that multiple times in succession. It is this repetition that is necessary for the neurons to network together in a way that makes the skill performable without conscious effort.

When a student is given training in how to detect errors, isolate problems, and perform successful repetitions, practicing their instrument becomes less of a chore and more like detective work. When the mind is absorbed in the detection and treatment process, it is quite easy to become lost in the effort and not realize the passage of time. Efficient, effective practicing such as this will have students making large leaps in proficiency in much shorter time spans and will create more independent, well-rounded musicians.

[1]Music Practice Tip #2: Don't Exceed Your Brain's Speed Limit

[2]Music Practice Tip #3: Five Ways to Make Music Practice Un-Boring

[3]Newsletter Issue 1: July 2008 "Unstack Your Music" to Focus on a Performance Problem

This article (c) 2009 Thomas J. West. If you wish to reprint this article on another website or offline, please contact the copyright holder before using.

  


If you find this website helpful, please leave a donation for Tom so you can enjoy the spirit of giving as well.

Visit the Site Map for a listing of blog entries by category.