Jane Magrath is Professor of Music in Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. She has presented over 200 recitals, workshops and masterclasses in over forty states as well as in locations in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia. She is a regular writer of New Music Reviews for Clavier, and her articles have appeared in the major piano journals. She has written, compiled, and/or edited over 25 volumes including the multi-volume series Masterwork Classics, Practice and Performance, Technical Skills, Masterpieces With Flair, Melodius Masterpieces, and Encore for Alfred Publishing Company. Her major reference book The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature was published in 1995 by Alfred Publishing. She has served as Coordinator of Piano for the National Conventions of the Music Teachers National Association and in major capacities for other organizations including the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy. She has also served as the Rildia Bee Cliburn Lecturer at the Cliburn Piano Institute at TCU in Fort Worth, TX on two different occasions. A recipient of the University of Oklahoma Regent's Award for Superior Teaching and a two-time recipient of the Associate's Distinguished Lectureship, Dr. Magrath is a McCasland Foundation Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma where she serves as Chair of the Piano Department and teaches applied piano and courses in piano pedagogy.
Jane Magrath
School of Music
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 73019
jmagrath@ou.edu
405.325.4681
One issue I will consider here surrounds the amount of time in a college or university course that is devoted to the actual study of music literature. How do we provide a situation so that prospective teachers learn with some assurance that the music they select for teaching is appropriate for a student's specific musical and technical stage of development? While it is asserted commonly that we must know both "what to teach" and "how to teach," on occasion much time is spent in course settings studying the "how," and with less time is devoted to the "what." Nevertheless, if the literature is not chosen appropriately by the teacher, and if it does not lie at the right level for the student, no extent of "good teaching" can right the wrong. Since we assume that the music is the reason that the student is with a teacher, then the musical and technical goals must be obtainable for satisfactory performance to take place. In the piano pedagogy course offerings, ample experiences in learning the music, the teaching literature as a body, must be infused.
In terms of working with the standard music teaching literature in various pedagogy courses, it is critical to note that incorrect interpretations do exist, that tempi that are substantially too slow (or too fast) are incorrect, and that other various performance-related issues can be either right or wrong. In other words, we must avoid lapsing into a world that allows student teachers to be so creative in working out their own students' interpretations that the rubato is disproportionate, that a pulse is lacking, that the true character of the music is obliterated, and so on. Perhaps too many actual errors in performance everywhere are blamed on what is termed a "creative interpretation?!" Pianist Frederic Chiu recently performed a solo recital in Oklahoma City in which he opened with the Prokofiev Music for Children, Op. 65 followed by the Schumann Kinderscenen, Op. 15. What an elegant statement in favor of the artistic performance of the standard teaching literature!
Secondly, abetted by timely and skilled assistance from a highly knowledgeable associate in the field of injury prevention for pianists, we have incorporated a much too short but important segment on that topic in our graduate pedagogy course. Especially interesting have been the discussions surrounding why the topic is not part of so many pedagogy courses. Simply speaking, if one has not been injured as a performing pianist, he tends to shy away from the topic, leaving it perhaps for the less fortunate who have been injured to educate us once their own rehabilitation has taken place. Nevertheless, teachers face the risk of allowing, abetting, perhaps even encouraging performance-related injuries in their students when they are improperly taught or when they are allowed to continue with bad habits in their playing. Should that not be sufficient cause to include the information in our courses on a regular basis? In fact the Committee on the Prevention of Medical Problems from the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, chaired by Gail Berenson, provided a fine resource tool for teachers and students in an effort to address performance anxiety and medical problems that musicians often develop during their careers, formalizing the work into an extensive bibliography that was published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, 1994-95, pps. 293-296. An extension of that bibliography by Linda Cockey recently appeared in the December/January 1997/98 issue of The American Music Teacher, pp. 28-43. In fact certain technical practices and playing habits, allowed to continue unchecked, can and will result in performance-related injuries. Again, while some room for interpretation of motions and movements at the keyboard exists, and while various schools of piano playing exist today as they have for decades, a wrong way of playing the piano can result in injury and even cessation of activity as an amateur or professional pianist.
Finally, and certainly at the core of teacher training in any pedagogy class, is for the pedagogy student to develop his philosophy of teaching. This is the set of beliefs upon which the individuals from our classes go forth and enhance the cause for music learning and study; or, perhaps they go forth and teach as they were taught, sometimes for the better, but sometimes for the worse. I sometimes intentionally will shake up a young teacher with the reminder that every student with whom they come in contact ideally leaves the teacher loving music just a bit more than when they began the study. To allow, or promote, less than that is a crime. In fact, every individual leaves a class, our classes and lessons, with a changed outlook on the subject, as well as with increased skill and knowledge surrounding the course topics. The music - be it classical, jazz, functional harmony, music from a beginning tutor or method, and or otherwise - and its character and its communication must remain at the center of all courses in piano pedagogy and music teaching.
- Jane Magrath
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