2006 Edition 2 (Issue 144) - Sasmt-savmo.org.za

An emphasis on performance
Combining a parent’s ignorance and a teacher’s misconceptions can result in
some bizarre ideas about a specific child’s musical development.
‘Why do people
go to recitals?
Partly to be
amazed by
the pole
vaulting,
but also
because they
hope the performer will break their heart.’ (A concert pianist,
London: December 2001)
‘But if my children were encouraged to use their imagination
and intellect, surely it would take them longer
to get through their music grades?’ (A parent, Oxford:
December 2001)
A problem
Performance can be wonderful. But it is also much
misunderstood. The pianist reminds us of the impact
– magic even – of live music performance. He speaks
of western classical music that is played at recitals, but
what he says could apply to almost any music. He is talking
about aspects of performance that come partly from
what a composer has written, and partly from what a
performer has done to bring the writing alive, but his
message could apply also where the performer is the
composer as well, where the music has never been written
down, or where music is improvised by one or more
musicians. A performance can amaze us and move us.
How better to give this to children than by teaching
them to be performers? And students who opt to take
instrumental lessons are saying that they want a taste
of this, a chance to do more performing of a particular
type than they would do otherwise.
The parent reminds us of what can go wrong when the
matter of ‘teaching children to be performers’ is misunderstood.
He sees examination certificates, rather than
performances, as the goal of performance training, and
limits his view of the process that his offspring should go
through accordingly. He sees the instrumental lesson as
something that should help his children assemble what
they need to the standard required by examiners, and
the use of their imagination or intellect as fripperies
that would slow this down. I think that it would also be
safe to say that he sees performance as something that
relates only to western classical music.
My conversation with this parent followed the broad
drift of many conversations with other parents over the
years. On learning that I work in music, the parent had
told me that one of his children was not hurling through
Janet Mills
her grades at quite the dizzying speed of the others because
she spends some of her practice time on improvisation.
What could he, as a parent who is interested in
music but, in his view, not musical, do about this? The
piano teacher had suggested that his daughter was not
as musical as his, more focused, other children — and
had hinted that she should give up lessons — but the
parent would like her to carry on, at least for a while,
even if she was not going to reach the high standards
of her brothers.
As usual in such conversations, I observed that it is
healthy and musical to want to apply one’s new musical
skills imaginatively and intelligently, and that perhaps
the piano teacher could be urged to capitalize on these
strengths of his daughter’s approach. Perhaps the parent
raised this thought with the piano teacher and she
took some action; perhaps he didn’t or she didn’t. Whatever
the outcome, at the time of our conversation, the
parent – and possibly also the piano teacher – shared
some misconceptions about performance and how it is
made. Even within the realm of western classical music,
the re-creation that is performance requires much more
than the ability to play the right notes in the right order.
Performances that are not quite note-perfect may occasionally
be preferred to ones that are, if the trade-off is
a higher degree of expression and communication. Performers
find ways of playing pieces that make sense, and
which communicate much more than a string of notes
to their audience. To do this, they draw on resources
that are not found on the printed score, and which they
develop through intellectual and imaginative engagement
with music, and through experience.
It is never too early to start to develop and build upon
a student’s intellectual and imaginative engagement
with music. When we watch a young child at play with
musical — or sound-making — materials, we can see
that this engagement comes naturally. Children frequently
focus intently as they experiment with different
ways of making sounds, different ways of making different
sounds, different ways of assembling sounds into
patterns of motifs, and as they try to repeat or re-create
sounds, patterns, or motifs that they made earlier. This
natural engagement can be drawn into education, and
developed through composing, listening, and musical
approaches to performing. Instrumental teaching that
is no more than repetitive drill or that consists, in effect,
of a list of instructions to follow, switches it off.
Reproduced from Music in the School by permission
of Oxford University Press (www.oup.com).
ISBN 0-19-322300-7
0 Suid-Afrikaanse Musiek Onderwyser |144 | November 2006