Educating the Reflective Practitioner

Dr Mary LennonDIT Conservatory of Music & Drama

Dublin

Overview

Instrumental Pedagogy

Focus on Student Learning

Focus on Process

Learning to Perform: The Role of Reflection

Reflecting on Performance

Reflecting on Practice

Educating the Reflective Performer

A Shifting Pedagogical

Discourse…….

Student (Teacher)

Process (Product)

Learning (Teaching)

Focus on Student Learning

Independence

Self-correction

Self-evaluation and appraisal

Focus on Student Learning

Self-reflection

Self-directed learning

Self-efficacy

Focus on the Process of

Performance

By and large, performers will say they do not really know how they do what they do when they function, by their own lights, properly…the hidden knowledge is called ‘artistry’, and a fear of losing it is built into the core of Western musical life. Dunsby, 1995: 35

Focus on the Process of

Performance

“Performer’s Analysis”

The performers who do tell us about performance tend to record their views, as we have seen, at the thin end of the wedge, naturally preferring to concentrate on the fleeting goal, the product, rather than on the journey, the substantial process by which they arrive at the goal (Rink, 2002: 234)

Learning to Perform: The Role of

Reflection

BMus

Performance Discussion Seminar

MMus

Analysis and Performance Practice

Reflecting on PerformanceFocus on Process

give a general response to the performance

comment on the piece and any particular technical and interpretative challenges it may present

comment on how the performance might be improved

identify difficulties/problems and diagnose possible causes

suggest ways of addressing problem describe the approach to practice

Reflecting on Performance

Focus on Student Feedback

critical listening skills ability to express and articulate

musical views wide range of repertoire different viewpoints opportunities to perform increased confidence

Reflecting on Performance

Besides becoming familiar with a large repertoire, I learned how to listen critically and gained an idea of what people look for in a performance. This helps when I am practising as I know what aspects to concentrate on. By commenting on my peers’ performance I feel more capable to express and articulate my points of view and this washes over into other parts of the course. I become more confident in my own opinions and the way I express them

Reflecting on Performance

At first I had very little to say about any performance and found it difficult to comment, but I feel a lot more capable now of commenting on any performance and being able to think of ways that it could be improved. There is a huge difference! …I have learned to listen differently when I am listening to CDs and I can understand much more how I would like to hear certain piano pieces interpreted and what I like and what I don’t like.

Reflecting on Performance

We often learn different ways of practising our pieces in our classes and in watching other people's classes, we also learn new technique. We have discussions about how to practise or other helpful topics. These all influence the way I practise and I've become better at knowing from the beginning of getting a new piece, how to set out practising in an organised way and to always listen from the early stages.

Learning to Perform: The Role of Reflection

MMus

Analysis and Performance Practice

Reflecting on Practice

how the performance emerges the issues addressed in practice interpreting the score the influence of factors outside

the score preparing for performance

Reflecting on Practice

instrumental/vocal concerns general approach analysis, background and

context technical issues nature of interpretation and role

of the performer recordings teachers, repetiteurs

Reflecting on Practice

General Approach

Technical, musical and contextual aspects come together to help break down and restructure the piece in performance. I was also interested at the number of resources I used. Things like books, teachers, repetiteurs, other musicians, recording etc. all contributed to the learning experience.

Reflecting on Practice

Analysis, Background and Context

Experiment with various tempi. How relevant is the ‘Andante’ marking? Is this original or editorial? What speed works best for the text and the music? Context might help this question. This piece is from Act 111 of Samson……..An Israelite woman sings joyfully of the angels united in their praise of Samson – they welcome him and rejoice at this heroic life. This context adds to the joyful and exuberant interpretation I was moving towards anyway.

Reflecting on Practice

Technical Issues

The start of line two proved awkward to produce effectively as the low C needs slight flattening and more air than the shapes really allow. I had to break each one up and blew through on the mouthpiece as glisses, then slowly on trumpet as tenuto to force accurate note changes and links, then at pace but omitting problem notes and so on.

Educating the Reflective Performer

Our knowing is ordinarily tacit, implicit in our patterns of action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing. It seems right to say that our knowing is in our action Schon, 1983: 49

The performance of a piece of music is…the actualization of an analytic act - even though such analysis may have been intuitive and unsystematic Meyer, 1973: 2

Educating the Reflective Performer

Reflective Practice Focus on Musical Processes “Performer’s Analysis” “Informed Intuition” Ways of Thinking Expanded View of Knowledge