Polyphony.

Q: What are some quick ways to brush up on the history of various composers and events surrounding their lives for points that will be interesting to students, without taking on a far-reaching investigation?

A: Several ways do come to mind, and yet, this response is sure to leave room for additions. The prefaces to the new composers editions from Frederick Harris, such as Celebrate Debussy, Celebrate Haydn and Celebrate Chopin, feature a wealth of information surrounding the composer's life and various circumstances around his writing for piano, especially as it relates to the compositions included. These prefaces animate the composers featured in each volume and provide enlightening background information for a study of works by that person. In addition, the prefaces to the time-tested Alfred Publishing piano music books of various composers such as Scarlatti: An Introduction to His Keyboard Works, Debussy: An Introduction to His Piano Music, and Schumann: An Introduction to His Piano Music all provide extensive background information on the composer and on performance practice at the time. The information included in the many volumes brings each composer and the music's time frame alive to the reader. The information is provided in a way that is easy to recall and incorporate into the teaching. Additional single-composer books with fine background material are available in other series as well, but these two stand out due to the number of the volumes included and the scholarly writing integrated. In addition, study of the individual composers sections in piano literature texts such as the Stewart Gordon A History of Keyboard Literature (Schirmer Books, New York, 1996) can also provide fine in-depth information on a single composer in a quickly readable format.

Q: How can we encourage college performance or artist teachers to promote independent teaching as a viable profession?

A: It is important for college performance or artist teachers to see, hear and ultimately understand the work of the independent teacher, and it can be helpful for local teachers to consciously provide to the college faculty members role models for the scope of their work and influence. I remember hearing of a creative independent teacher who invited a college piano major to play a solo work (preferably a brilliant one) as the final number on the spring recital (this teacher held two different recitals at the end of the year, and the same performer played twice and was paid a small sum). This gave the college student an important performance opportunity and an opportunity to be briefly part of an independent studio and to report back to the college teacher, and it gave the piano students a model of more advanced playing and repertoire.

Independent teachers often invite college teachers to be a part of a local association group as full members, and having them present meeting programs from time to time can help tie them to the local professional organization. Occasionally, independent teachers take a one or two-week vacation during the academic year, or even take a semester or year long sabbatical, during which they might ask for a college student to teach in their place for some payment. Willing and eager college students or graduates will many times take on responsibilities to help establish themselves in the field and gain hands-on experience. Allowing this to happen in a college community can be a step toward eliciting support from college faculty.

It comes down to this: it is the independent studio teacher who prepares and provides students for the college artist-teacher. It seems that many, perhaps most, college teachers want to expand the exposure of individuals to music in our society, especially through supporting and developing the pool of talented and inspired new independent teachers.

All in all, personalities do come into play. In the most difficult situations when it seems impossible to meld the two worlds, personal contact with the college community and attendance at various events can serve to link the two teaching situations in a basic way that can be helpful. Respect of another is a fundamental right that one hopes can be fostered in this and similar situations. For the independent teacher to retreat is probably not the answer.

Q: How can teachers be encouraged to include sight reading and composition in the weekly lesson?

A: I still recall a conversation with a colleague on the composition faculty at my school who said that she felt composition/improvisation was the most important skill we could teach piano students. At that time, I leaned heavily on the side of teaching sight reading as being paramount in the student's development. My friend tried to convince me that those who can compose and improvise at the piano use the skills on the spot that others strive to read. Was she even saying that improvisation was more important than sight reading, as I interpreted her to say? Fortunately, that is not the question, and both are essential in the curriculum of a well-developed pianist.

Most especially, those students who are encouraged to compose and/or improvise use the musical elements that we teach. A student who can use what they have learned and make it their own in a composition or improvisation demonstrates mastery of the art. Imagine if we only read books, but did not create stories or write. We would primarily interpret the ideas of someone else. Surely another step is needed for musicians beyond reading well to fully develop the musical mind and allow it to soar.

A primary hindrance to the teaching of improvisation and composition in the private lesson may be that many of us have not studied composition formally and hardly ever have we improvised formally. This only means that we can seek advice from a local teacher who is comfortable teaching these skills, that we take it upon ourselves to learn these skills and grow in these areas along with our students, and perhaps that we ask a college professor of composition for some advice and assistance.

What about sight reading? I am fond of saying that it is essential that our students who leave us--and all will leave us at some point--continue to play and make music on their own, without a teacher at that point. They need to be able to choose their own music and learn it satisfactorily alone when they leave us. What school-aged child would read a few books, memorize most of them, and then leave that grade not having increased his or her reading skills? Surely this is not an aspiration, and the same holds true in teaching music.

The original question asked how sight reading and composition could be encouraged in the weekly lesson. While this may sound far-fetched, I ask the following question: what if festivals or even competitions dealt with sight reading as one area of emphasis and composition as another area? Certainly if this happened, sight reading and composition would receive more focus in the lessons and in the practice. I am not advocating the elimination of performance competitions, but rather the addition, perhaps, of sight reading and composition as additional assessment areas for festivals or competitions. Doing this would emphasize to students and parents the importance of developing these both and also provide an opportunity to focus in-depth on them in preparation for the festival.

A few performance competitions already include sight reading as part of the total adjudication; they require success both in solo performance and sight reading. Maybe here lies another way to couple and enhance two inseparable skills.

Q: How can private lessons compete with soccer practice/tournaments?

A: Alas, so many factors come into play (no pun intended). Why should they need to compete, and yet the reality is that the focus of some, even many, families is more attuned to sports than it is to the arts. Music and sports should not be mutually exclusive. My response here will deal with two perspectives, the first relating to a perspective of the parent and perhaps the child, and the second addressing the way the music teacher establishes his role in the child's life to make music study indispensable for that student.

First of all, what are some of the reasons that athletics thrive in our society? Sports involve group activities with peers; many parents may have had successful and enriching sports experiences growing up and want the same for their children; many sports are glamorized on television and by universities and colleges; many athletes are placed on pedestals, glamorized and written up in magazines; many individuals believe that sports build self-esteem, ability for group work and confidence; and one could continue with other reasons that sports prevail. What if we (or a teachers' group) take the list above, and find ways to make as many of the elements contributing to the popularity of athletic activities work, too, in the private studio, and then let the community-at-large know of the benefits and also the parallels?

The importance of group activities in a private studio cannot be over-estimated or over-stated, especially since it has been shown that many pre-college students learn much more than imagined from their peers through interchanges and increased motivation; they grow more quickly through group stimulus. Parents and society need to understand the importance of arts development in the well-balanced education of a child. What a shame that I had little stimuli and encouragement in the way of drawing, painting and art appreciation as a child. How would someone be able to convince me to provide art/drawing lessons to my own child since I did not have that experience myself? There must be ways, but music teachers need to put their heads together to come up with ways to do just this in the community--to make an impact on the awareness of society of the value of arts and music education. One wishes to hear more frequent televised performances of local arts events from colleges--with background, explanation and some animation; more articles in the local and national news media are on artists and their paths, struggles and successes. Are there ways that we as independent teachers or as college teachers can help that happen and can even take some aspect of this on as an organizational or individual project? On a not unrelated point, we hear from time to time of the marvelous successes of mall marathons where students from many studios play for perhaps an entire day or more for shoppers, and garner large audiences and heightened public awareness of music study. The same is true for multi-piano concerts for large ensemble groups (sometimes called monster concerts) where attendance soars. In this realm, music making takes on a large group function, and observer responses to the experience are remembered.

Secondly, perhaps we want to establish our role clearly as teachers of an art that needs individual practice daily, that reaps untold rewards in heightened sensitivities and understanding and that produces effects that are lifelong and cumulative. We establish that we too are a community of growing artists with our own culture, climate and expectations--and overwhelmingly, we demonstrate the results through the impact of our students as growing musicians on the community.

All said, it is difficult to change the perceptions of society. Of course if we do not try, it will never happen. All change occurs one person at a time, with consistency, truth, consciousness of purpose, devotion and enthusiasm.

And we all see signs of change coming. A July 11, 2006, article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Lucky Pupils Learn to Love Classical Music," author Barymore Laurence Scherer discussed some directions that symphony orchestras are going to enhance music education for pre-college students and, as a by-product, enhance potential future audience members. The article cites an ambitious and effective school program for the New York-based Orchestra of St. Luke's whose educational program is multi-pronged in an effort to fill a void in the music education of those students. One such project was a concert during which a group of violinists from a public school in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn High School for the Arts stood onstage before an audience of students from their own and other schools. The students initially played the theme from the first movement of Vivaldi "The Seasons," after which the orchestra played the entire Vivaldi score, accompanied by an animated video that was created from drawings made by other students who were inspired by Vivaldi's music. The students were inexorably thrilled with seeing their own visuals combined with the music that stirred them in the first place.

MTNA local groups can be catalysts and take on similarly creative projects that not only increase visibility of the arts, but also allow the impact of music on the lives of many to be experienced and repeated unendingly. Teachers groups already are sharing stories of creative projects as they continue to provide transforming experiences for students, communities and individuals reflecting the importance musical study and experience. The change in perception is on the way, one person at a time.

Send Us Your Questions

Do you have a teaching question you would like to have answered? Perhaps you have a practice tip for students you would like to share or a studio idea you are trying differently this year. Questions and other items may be sent to: American Music Teacher, Attn: Polyphony; 441 Vine St., Ste. 505, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2811 fax [phone]; or e-mail to [e-mail].

Jane Magrath, NCTM, is internationally known as a pianist, author, clinician and teacher. She is professor and director of piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.