Steve Bettsis Associate Professor of Music at Southern Nazarene University. His articles have appeared in The Journal of Research in Music Education, The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Keyboard Companion, and Keys, and in 2001 he served as the Executive Director of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. He is the lead author of the Time to Begin Activities Book and co-author of the Activities Books for Music Tree 1, 2A, and 2B, all for The Frances Clark Library for Piano Students.
Steve Betts
Department of Music
Southern Nazarene University
6729 NW 39th Expressway
Bethany, OK 73008
405.491.6340
sbetts@snu.edu
Video Excerpts of American Group Piano Pioneers, presented by Connie Arrau Sturm, featured portions of videotaped lessons by five group piano teachers. The videotapes were made in the late 1980s as part of Sturm's Ph.d. dissertation research.1 Her research involved surveying group piano teachers listed in the CMS Directory of Music Faculties in Colleges and Universities to determine those group piano teachers who were regarded as "exemplary." The survey results indicated twelve teachers who received significantly more votes than others. Of these twelve, six agreed to participate in Sturm's study: Guy Duckworth, Martha Hilley, James Lyke, Larry Rast, Joan Reist, and Marienne Uszler. Two others of the twelve, AnnaBelle Bognar and Frances Larimer, agreed to participate in Sturm's pilot study. Through her analysis of the tapes Arrau was able to identify characteristic behaviors of these teachers. In her session Sturm used tapes of five of these teachers: Martha Hilley, Frances Larimer, James Lyke, Larry Rast, and Marienne Uszler.
The first video shown was of Frances Larimer, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University, teaching a class of non-music majors. The concept taught involved the staff and intervals of seconds and thirds. Arrau used this segment to highlight one of the findings of her research - the teaching sequence of teacher direction, followed by student keyboard performance, followed by either more directions and performance or by a teacher question. The characteristic demonstrated by the exemplary teachers is that the sequence is fast paced and the directions are often short.
Larry Rast was the teacher shown in the second video. The students in this class at Northern Illinois University were learning major scales in tetrachord position. The students progressed around the circle of fifths, using the top tetrachord of the previous scale to become the bottom tetrachord of the next scale. The students discovered that the right hand fourth finger always played the new sharp. Arrau highlighted Rast's use of "Discovery Learning" and stated that the students were more apt to remember the information due to the teaching strategy.
The third video was of Martha Hilley, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Arrau stated her first reason for showing this tape involved students receiving different forms of information simultaneously and being asked to perform skills involving two of more simultaneous behaviors. In her research Arrau found that approximately one-third of lesson time involved activities of this nature.
The second reason Arrau mentioned for showing a tape of Hilley was the use of humor during the class.2 Comments such as "If you don't shift both hands at the same time, you'll end up holding hands with yourself," or activities such as improvising a Country & Western song to demonstrate the I-vi-ii-V-I progression, added enjoyment to the class. Arrau did additional study of the videotapes to investigate the use of humor.
The longest excerpt showed Marienne Uszler, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California teaching a class for whom it was only their second session. After showing the tape, Arrau asked for audience comments regarding the teaching. Responses included comments concerning Uszler's enthusiasm, organization, use of student involvement, teaching the students to teach themselves, moving around the classroom, rapid pace, and holding students to high standards of musicianship.
The last tape showed a class taught by James Lyke at the University of Illinois. Of the five tapes, the physical setting of this class was unique, in that two acoustic pianos were used with the class gathered around them. The tape demonstrated one of Arrau's findings - exemplary teachers praised student behavior more than twice as often as they criticized or corrected it. The class maintained a positive atmosphere while making constructive suggestions for each performance. Additionally, Lyke was able to maintain involvement by the whole class, even though not everyone was playing.
Other findings listed on a handout distributed at the session included:
References
1. Connie Arrau, Classroom Behavior of Exemplary Group Piano Teachers in American Colleges and Universities (Ph.d. diss., University of Oklahoma, 1990).
2. Connie Arrau Sturm, "Use Humor in Music Teaching and Get the Last Laugh," American Music Teacher 43 (October/November 1993): 12-15.
3. Connie Arrau Sturm, handout distributed at Video Excerpts of American Group Piano Pioneers, presented at the National Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum, 03 August, 2002, Cincinnati, OH.
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