A
Structured Method for the Teaching and Learning
of Difficult
Pieces and Passages
presented to
string music educators of the
Houston I.S.D. Job-Alike Conference, August 19, 2008;
format revised
for presentation at 2009 Convention of the
by J.
Marshall Bevil, Ph.D.
Fostering growth by having students
confront music that is at or perhaps even a little beyond their current level
of advancement can be a difficult task for the teacher. Too often, teachers’
efforts to overcome students’ mental blocks in the face of complexities focus
early, if not immediately, on the details of dense, intricate, or otherwise
demanding music, with the only adjustment being perhaps a slowing of the tempo.
Widespread recognition of the way in which the mind processes data in blocks
rather than in individual units, usually described as holistic processing,
dates from no later than the middle of the last century, which was marked by
the rise to popularity of Gestalt psychology, named after the German word for shape or outline. However, many who teach music continue to take the older
connectionist approach that emphasizes getting it all right, down to the last
detail, from the start. While that is workable for the student or ensemble
reading an easy or relatively easy piece or section, it can and usually does
create problems when the music is difficult.
This
presentation sets forth a method of reducing a complex piece, section, or
passage to graduated levels of complexity, from the elemental through the broad
details to the specific details. The procedure, which is based in part on my
research into oral melodic transmission of folksong and partly on my teaching
experiences, uses objective, consistently applicable criteria and is easy for
teachers to use. In addition, it is not overly difficult for students with
basic theoretical knowledge to incorporate the methodology into their
individual preparation outside of class and not depend entirely on the teacher
to do simplifications for them.