Group lessons = positive results.

Regardless of the age, ability level or instrument, a students musical growth can benefit from a group-oriented learning environment. Adding a group component to the typical private-lesson format allows students to work together, learn from each other and be more actively involved in decisions regarding their musical performances. Throughout the musical experience, students develop higher expectations, increased motivation and musical independence. Although the following lesson experience involved piano-secondary students, the approach can be modified to fit any studio.

Many voice and instrumental music majors consider the requirement to study piano as a secondary instrument a necessary evil. Group piano teachers across the country bemoan the struggle to motivate these students throughout their semesters of piano stud> The goal for many students is simply to finish the required coursework as soon as possible and pass the piano proficiency exam, if one is required. Generally, while most of these students pass this test in a timely manner, the majority seem to find little musical enjoyment or satisfaction in the process. For those who choose to continue piano study after passing the proficiency, either by choice or requirement, the musical progress and sense of musical achievement may continue to be unfulfilling.

A New Lesson Format

During a recent semester, in an attempt to improve student attitudes throughout the semester, as well as enhance their musical performances at the final semester exam, I restructured the piano lessons of all piano-secondary students in my studio. Twelve students were organized into groups of three, based primarily on the flexibility of their schedules. As a result, most groups were comprised of various levels of playing ability. Some students entered college with no previous piano study but had completed the university's four-semester class piano sequence. Other students had studied piano prior to entering college, with an experience level ranging from a few years during elementary school to more lengthy study of eight to 12 years throughout the pre-college years. Repertoire was carefully chosen for each student based on individual reading ability, previous musical study and semester goals.

Students met in assigned groups for the first lesson of the semester, at which time the structure and rationale of the changed lesson format was explained and discussed. Instead of the typical 30-minute weekly private lesson, the new lesson format consisted of meeting in assigned small groups every three weeks. In the two weeks following each of these 60-minute group lessons, students had their customary 30-minute private lesson. The group lesson served as the due date for meeting specific musical goals throughout the semester. During the private lessons, the student and I established those goals for the next group lesson and worked on specific problems encountered during practice sessions between lessons. Lessons were organized in this manner throughout the first two-thirds of the semester. To gain more performance experience in preparation for the final semester exam, students met in their assigned groups for each of the last three weeks of the term.

An Outline of Study

At the first group lesson, students were provided a general outline of musical goals that would be due during each group lesson throughout the semester. The semester was divided into three phases of study: the Learning Phase, the Musical Development Phase and the Musical Artistry Phase. Throughout the Learning Phase, the first six weeks of the semester, students were expected to carefully learn the four to five assigned repertoire pieces at a slow to moderate tempo. By the end of the first six weeks, students were expected to carefully work out and comfortably learn all notes, rhythms, fingerings, dynamics and articulations. In addition, students were expected to address balance issues and include any pedaling. At the end of the six-week period, students were expected to demonstrate an ability to perform all assigned pieces, including all musical elements, without stops or hesitations. Although many students were able to surpass these expectations, mid-term grades were based on how well the student accomplished this initial, minimum musical goal.

During the Musical Development Phase, spanning the next three to four weeks, musical goals included securing memorization, increasing tempo, developing continuity and longer musical lines and focusing more attention on the piece's musical style and character. At the end of this period of study, students were expected to demonstrate an ability to play pieces from memory. This expectation only applied to the one or two assigned memory pieces, since not all pieces played on the final semester jury were to be performed from memory. The musical goals regarding tempo and musical style established for each student also were assessed at this point of the semester.

During the remaining three to four weeks of the semester, the Musical Artistry Phase, attention was given to polishing the musical details of the piece and increasing the musicality level of the performance. At each group lesson, students evaluated the performances for appropriate tempo, style and character and quality of the musical sound.

The process of learning a piece of music often can seem endless and overwhelming for many students, especially piano-secondary students who may not feel as comfortable at the piano as on their primary instrument. Some students procrastinate learning their music seemingly in hopes that by some miracle they either will not have to play before a jury or will learn the music by osmosis. Even highly motivated students can become bogged down in the details and lose sight of the musical art and sound that should be the ultimate goal. When students are provided clearly defined and realistic goals throughout the semester, they can be more motivated to meet those goals. When specific goals are clearly established to help students pace the learning of music in a timely manner, they have more time to focus on the musical quality of the performance and are more readily able to achieve a higher level of musicianship and artistry. The results of this semester's study suggested this was indeed the fact with these students.

Accountability for Musical Progress

Three primary goals served as the impetus for the lesson format change. The first goal was to create an environment in which students were held more accountable for their practice and musical progress between lessons. While piano lessons in my studio have always emphasized helping students define specific musical goals for each piece, establishing goals for the next lesson and determining practice steps to reach those goals, some students are incapable or unwilling to make musical judgments and decisions beyond the assigned task. In many cases, students struggle with the same musical and technical issues from week to week despite the varied approaches to practice suggested and experienced in the lesson. Even conscientious students, who were concerned about their grade and thus devoted proper time to practice, routinely would come to a lesson having made little or no progress since the last lesson. Some students were more than willing to accept an average or below average grade for slow progress. It finally occurred to me that I actually was giving them too much "instruction." I was working much harder at teaching than the students were at learning. It was time for them to shoulder more of the responsibility for their own musical progress.

In an attempt to stop the "spoon-feeding" pattern of teaching and create an atmosphere in which the students were more accountable for their individual practice, each student was assigned a practice partner. At least once during each week of the semester, students were instructed to meet with their practice partner for a minimum of one 15-minute practice session to share feedback on goal achievement, assist one another with finding practice solutions to musical problems and make suggestions for future musical and technical gods. Then, during each group or private lesson, students were asked to demonstrate practice techniques or solutions to problems that were discussed during their practice-partner sessions. On a weekly basis, students submitted a brief written summary of the practice-partner activities, giving attention to the most useful practice techniques employed. Musical and technical goals discussed during the practice session also were summarized and submitted to me.

As a result, students began to think more independently when seeking musical solutions to the problems they encountered. The process of playing for and learning from their peers lead to increased motivation to practice and increased levels of excitement about their musical progress. Students came to private lessons with a clearer awareness of their musical progress and were more willing to accept criticism about other aspects of study that needed improvement.

Developing Higher Expectations

The second goal in changing the lesson format was to help students develop higher expectations of musical achievement in their own piano performance and strengthen their perception of themselves as a pianist and musician. During the initial group lesson, students discussed their views about being a musician and how those views related to their perception of themselves as a pianist. Regardless of playing ability, the majority of students did not think of themselves as a pianist, but identified themselves as only a voice or flute major and so forth. Possibly due in part to the "piano-secondary" label, these students considered only their peers majoring in piano worthy of the "pianist" label. While the majority of students acknowledged a definite distinction between their level of pianistic skills when compared to their piano-major peers, they generally viewed themselves equal to each other regardless of their level of secondary piano ability. Although levels of piano ability varied greatly, ranging from early-intermediate to early-advanced, they generally perceived themselves of similar ability due to the "piano-secondary" label.

As a result of these discussions, it became clear that when students perceived their pianistic skills as "secondary," the musical expectations of their piano performance also was secondary. The need to improve technical skills, motivation to practice and desire to communicate a musical idea were viewed as irrelevant to their music study. Many were content to maintain a lower expectation of musical achievement at the piano, than on their major applied instrument.

Although many students were skeptical at first, I challenged them throughout the semester to think of themselves as pianists. As we considered the meaning of the word "musician," I asked them to consider a more broad and encompassing definition of the term "musician." Many questions considered during the semester included:

* How do you define "musician"?

* How do you define "pianist"?

* Who do you consider to be pianists?

* Do you consider yourself to be a pianist?

* Is it possible to think of yourself as a pianist?

* Is it possible to think of yourself as a musician and a pianist who is playing appropriate literature at a high level of musicianship?

I hoped they would conclude that a true musician is one who performs at a high level of musicianship regardless of the repertoire's difficulty. Anyone who performs piano literature at a high level of musical artistry can be considered a pianist.

While individual musical progress throughout the semester helped change the self-perception of several students, the experience of listening to recordings of their assigned repertoire provided a strong vehicle for changing the expectations of their musical achievement. During each group lesson, students listened to a recording of a piano work. Occasionally, the group heard a recording of a piano piece being studied by just one of the students, but usually the recording represented the musical style of repertoire being studied by several students. As the group lessons focused on the musical elements of the recordings that so clearly defined a given musical style, students showed more appreciation for their own piano repertoire and became more acutely aware of the musical ideas to be communicated in them, regardless of the difficulty level. Students' attitudes about piano and the literature they were studying vastly improved. Instead of negatively comparing themselves to piano majors, they began to consider their own assigned repertoire as having musical value worthy of attention and worthy of being communicated.

Once students started thinking of themselves as pianists and perceived the value of the piano literature they were studying, they also became more willing to expect a heightened musical performance from themselves and others. Additionally, they became more willing to embrace a more rigorous grading scale based on the quality of a musical performance, not just their ability to play the notes, make significant musical progress or merely show up for a lesson. While many teachers base grades on a variety of criteria, I established a hierarchy of grading elements with the quality of the musical performance having the greatest impact on the grade. Many students assumed that "learning the notes" was sufficient for a piano-secondary student. When students were asked to think like a pianist and given specific musical models for comparing their own performances, they were more willing to understand the high value given to the quality of the musical performance when assigning a grade.

The Approach to Grading Lessons and Performances

Since attendance at lessons and learning the music were considered only starting points for meeting the semester's musical goals, these items were given the least amount of importance on the grading scale. A student's attitude towards learning and his "teachability" were ranked at a higher level. Not seeing the need to improve musical sound or a specific technical aspect of playing, or an unwillingness to try new approaches or make changes in playing became a detriment to some students' overall musical progress. Listing the importance of attitude and teachability served as a reminder to students that openness to new ideas and approaches could assist musical progress and was, indeed, an expectation of the teacher.

Encouraging a student's ability to take ownership of her learning and musical growth was the catalyst for a lesson format change. To emphasize the importance of this aspect of the learning process, "Musical Progress/Growth" and "Independent Learning/Practice" were listed as the next most important aspects of the grading criteria, placed near the top of the grading hierarchy, just below the "Quality of the Musical Performance." Those students who always depended on the teacher to provide the motivation for learning had the most difficult time adjusting to this aspect of the grading criteria and struggled to modify previous approaches to practice and learning. Other students enjoyed the sense of freedom to try things independently and adapted more quickly to the new criteria.

Although the final grade was not based solely on a student's ability to accurately perform the notes, rhythms and musical directions on the page, the final grade was based largely on one's ability to achieve a musical performance as close to the musical model as possible. To stress the importance of this aspect of the grade, "Quality of the Musical Performance" was placed at the top of the grading hierarchy. Students were expected to critically listen to their performances and work toward a "quality" sound, for example, not simply playing loudly, but playing with a rich, singing, full tone, appropriate for a given composer and musical style.

Developing Independent Musicians

The third goal in the private/group lesson format was to develop musicians with more independence who could assess their own piano progress and make wise musical decisions leading to a more successful musical product. When students graduate with a music degree, they will most likely use their music skills either in a full-time or part-time capacity. Whether teaching, directing an ensemble or performing, as a musician they will be expected to make musical judgments, assess musical performances, find ways to improve technical and musical problems and take the musical performance to its highest musical and artistic level. Developing musical independence includes many skills: an independent musician must possess a clear, aural image of the desired musical goal, have the ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a musical performance and use a variety of practice techniques to approach the areas in need of improvement.

The private/group lesson format provided a natural vehicle in which students could develop musical independence. To help students with the most difficult passages, pieces often were not heard in their entirety at each private lesson, but rather in sections, allowing time to be spent addressing the student's concerns about specific musical and technical difficulties encountered during practice. Students were required to work independently on sections of their repertoire. Practice-partners provided motivation and support throughout the week and offered an opportunity for students to experiment with musical ideas, assess strengths and weaknesses in a musical performance and offer suggestions for improvement and practice.

Although specific musical and technical problems were addressed during each private lesson, the group lesson served as the due date for meeting specific musical goals throughout the semester. During the group lesson, each student was graded by both their peers and me on their success in reaching their musical goal for that group lesson. Only the grade I gave was recorded and averaged into the semester's final grade. Additionally, except for the teacher's grade, all other grades were anonymous.

Critically listening to piano recordings of a musically artistic caliber, set the stage for students' expectations of themselves and their musical performances. The experience of listening to recordings and discussing the aspects of musical style as it related to their repertoire, resulted in more clearly defined musical goals.

Positive Results

Reflecting on the results of" the semester's experience, the learning environment was richer and more fulfilling. Instead of rehashing the same technical issues, incorrect rhythms or sloppy articulations, these students began to assume more responsibility for those details. Group lessons began to focus on topics that moved well beyond the pedantic stages of learning to the more substantive ideas of musical artistry.

As a result, performances in the group lessons and, again, at the final semester jury, were a higher musical quality than the previous semester. By taking more responsibility for their musical progress, these students had stretched their musical minds and pianistic skills. Expecting a higher level of musical achievement from themselves and their peers served to motivate their practice and learning. A group lesson component added to the traditional private-lesson format provided a more fulfilling and musically rewarding experience for both the students and myself.

A combination of group and private instruction can provide an ideal learning environment for students at any level of study. As students exchange ideas about practice techniques, musical style and interpretation, they not only grow as performers but also gain a greater perspective about the teaching process. On the road to musical independence, a group and private lesson combination can provide a learning environment that fosters the highest levels of musical artistry achievable.

Ann Milliman Gipson is associate professor of music and director of piano pedagogy studies at Texas Christian University She has held faculty positions at Baylor University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Delta State University and the University of Kentucky. Gipson holds a B.M. degree from Eastern Illinois University, and M.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oklahoma.