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
I recently sat on a doctoral dissertation defense for a paper on adult music programs in Community Music Schools in the United States. Ramona Graessle, then Ph.D. candidate, had investigated the status of programs and educational opportunities for adults in the community music schools. We as committee members reflected upon the large number of schools reporting increased demands for adults offerings in their programs, particularly as the baby boomers begin to come of age. No one was surprised. Almost without exception, the schools reported that the success of the various programs hinged almost in full on the effectiveness of the instructor. Yet, these schools in general seemed at a loss to know where to go to find teachers specifically trained directly in the speciality of teaching adults.
Increasingly, pedagogues acknowledge the growing appreciation of the importance of life-long learning for adults. The Elderhostel programs and their growing popularity certainly verify this trend. Even now almost any college or university could offer a well-taught adult piano course for an Elderhostel program at their institution and be assured of an enthusiastic response with filled classes. Music study for older adults is just that much in demand. We continued to muse as to why teachers who specialize in teaching adults were so hard find. Certainly most pedagogy programs train students to teach college level students in groups. Could older adults be so different to teach? Even if the issue of working for grades was factored in, why isn't the teaching of adults a highly lucrative area for a speciality?
Charles Leonhard in his 1952 book Recreation Through Music (New York, The Ronald Press) reminded us that the primary objective of any recreational experience is to experience pleasure and enjoyment. Certainly "pleasure and enjoyment" are goals of most music teachers for their students, but how many of us normally think of piano instruction as "recreational experience?" Should we?
A distinguished teacher of piano in Savannah, GA, Naegeli Metcalf, has made a speciality of teaching adults and seems to thrive on providing the balancing force of music study with its joys, rewards, frustrations, and inevitable inspiration of the music itself. She is willing and enthusiastic in working with the ups and downs of her students' busy professional careers, in finding just the music to motivate them that can satisfy her high musical standards and fulfill their goals, and in setting up home musicales where the students share their accomplishments with their friends. She is instrumental in helping these adults fulfill their dreams. Many of us, however, have acquaintances who feel that they don't have the patience to teach adults, or that they are not able to teach some of the music that adults want to play, or that they aren't able to work with adults who want to play much more difficult music than they are able to handle. (By the way, Ms. Metcalf had an earlier career teaching advanced performance majors in a college setting.)
In fact, could it be that some adult students study music largely for the reward through the process of the study? These adults perhaps have little need to reach a (teacher-desired) performance goal. Could it be also that some of today's teachers who work with adults are working under the same assumptions upon which we work in teaching the university student, or the class piano student, or the pre-college student - that is, while the process is quite important, the end product also is critical in the analysis of success in task?
How can this be compromised - and can it be? Perhaps the realization of the process-oriented adult may be the key toward bringing teachers of adults closer to the goals of their students. For me the sound, the product, is extremely important, as is the process. Yet, the adult who is focused on the process in large part can practice a highly challenging work that he/she chooses for himself that is far beyond the technical and musical skill level, and yet feel a sense of reward in working out that piece. Certainly Noah Adams helped us realize that in his wonderful book Piano Lessons. Take a look if you have not had a chance. Here is a portrayal of a person completely and passionately engaged in the love of music, fully enthralled with the process.
It occurs to me that we might look at the goals of the adult student in the educational process later in life, even with the urgency of the fixes taking place surrounding the Y2K computer projections. In no way am I suggesting that all adult students are only interested in the process. What I am suggesting is that some may be, and that is why they let themselves get by with differing musical goals from their teachers who are focused on artistic goals. I now realize why the adult student who I coached in a master class six or seven years ago, and who was playing the Rachmaninoff Polichinelle which was far beyond his technical and musical ability, was thriving on every small step of the working out process. It seemed to me as if the artistic image was so far removed. That student was playing for himself, and for no one else. While I focused on artistic image, he focused on the process.
Does not the art of teaching deal with proportionate focus on both the process and the product? Should the balance of process and product within some reason relate to the pianist's goals for himself and for his reason for study. Of course it is important to set goals, and to achieve and appreciate accomplishment, no matter who the student. In essence, an adaptive approach in all circumstances perhaps is ultimately the best.
- Jane Magrath
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