Lisa Zdechlik, is Assistant Professor of Class Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Arizona. An active performer, educator and clinician, she has presented workshops on pedagogical topics at the state and national levels. Her research involves the interaction between music analysis and performance and the applications of current technologies to music learning. Former faculty appointments include San Diego State University, Grossmont College and San Diego Mesa College. Dr. Zdechlik holds a D.M.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, where she was recently awarded the 2002 Dissertation Prize in Education, Fine Arts and the Professions for her dissertation, Texture and Pedaling in Selected Nocturnes of Frederic Chopin.
Lisa Zdechlik
School of Music
University of Arizona
Tuscon, AZ 85721
520.626.9523
zdechlik@email.arizona.edu
Ann Milliman Gipson's session, Facilitating Group Interaction Within the Piano Class, provided participants with an expert model of dynamic ways to facilitate group interaction within the group piano class. Ann led the participants through multiple activities to demonstrate ways to structure the learning environment in a keyboard laboratory to promote collaboration, independence, and confidence in playing.
Ann opened her session with a discussion of the benefits of group interaction including variety in the lesson, motivation, and musical independence. Ann prefers variety in student groupings (individuals, pairs, small groups, large groups) and in the musical activities presented within a lesson (sight reading, harmonization, improvisation, technique, repertoire, and ensembles). Another reason to facilitate group interaction is for purely motivational reasons - because not all students particularly care to be in piano, group activities are a great motivator, bringing humor and laughter into the learning process as well as creating energy in the room. Anxiety is often dispelled when students interact with each other. Group activities provide students with opportunities to relax so they aren't as focused and intense, helping them to develop a more positive outlook in their progress. Group activities also promote musical independence, especially for secondary students who often depend on the teacher too much. Having to respond in a group and share in the learning process allows students to claim ownership for their own learning.
Ann set forth considerations to take into account when grouping students in the class piano environment. Personalities, musical and technical abilities, balancing group activities with individual work, and environmental issues all need to be carefully thought-out. The teacher must be sensitive to personality conflicts and the ways students interact and communicate with each other. In grouping students with respect to musical and technical abilities, it is advantageous to experiment with different pairings. Pairing a quicker student with one who is having problems is helpful because it gives the quicker learner an opportunity to verbally communicate and teach, while giving the slower learner a different perspective on the learning at hand. The fourth consideration in planning for an effective group lesson is awareness of environmental factors, including the previous class students are coming from, the temperature of the room, and the weather.
Ann followed this discussion with a teaching demonstration using a chord progression to illustrate how one might structure a lesson plan to provide for group interaction in different combinations: the full group, small groups, partners, and individually. Structured to be covered during three consecutive class periods, the lesson plan incorporates a variety of musical activities (harmonization, sight-reading, technique, improvisation, analysis, and repertoire) to effectively reinforce both musical concepts and group interaction.
On the first day of the projected plan, Ann begins with an introduction of the chord progression using Roman numerals (I - V4/3 - V6/5 - I - vi - ii6 - V7 - I) and a partner activity. In the workshop session, she instructed us to work with our partners and convert the Roman numeral symbols to letter names in the key of A major. As we worked out the chord progression, Ann strolled around the classroom, helping with difficulties that were encountered but also subtly staying out of the way of the concentrated learning occurring between partners. Ann then brought the class back together to discuss and confirm answers.
The next activity involved the actual playing of the chords; our instructions were to play from chord to chord without looking at our hands. Here, Ann's questioning of us was extremely effective, a reminder that students learn best when they are led to discover concepts, movements, etc. for themselves. Ann remarked, "think through how you are getting from chord to chord," which focused our attention on our hand movements. She continued to focus our attention by questioning, "What are you using as pivot notes or pivot fingers?" Ann indicated that at this point in the lesson, she would pair students and ask them to discuss the most challenging chords in the progression, perhaps guiding their discussions with comments and questions such as, "a difficult change is the move from the A major to the F# minor chord. How would you get there?" When she asked us that question, one solution that the class offered was to simply pick up the hand and move it down; another solution was to use the bottom note as a pivot; and yet another solution was to use the thumb to move. Abundant discussion ensued as the hand-movement problem was solved in a number of ways. The collaborative problem solving and divergent questioning employed in this activity opened the door for many "right" answers, and served as a reminder that what works for one student may not work for another one. At this point, Ann explained that students would be given time to individually practice the progression, applying different rhythms, e.g., a half-note rhythm in quadruple, then triple meter.
On the second day of the lesson plan, Ann reviews the progression in triple meter as the class plays with headphones unplugged. Their next task is to learn to play the chord progression without looking at the hands. To help us understand this process, we were again assigned a partner; partner A was the designated "player," while partner B's task was to watch partner A's eyes and count how many times partner A looked at the hands. Then, we switched roles. The outcome? The groupÕs eye-consciousness was raised to a higher level - if you have someone staring into your eyes, it makes you very aware of what you are doing with your own eyes.
Once the class was able to play the chord progression smoothly without looking down, Ann introduced an improvisation activity. Ann requested that one partner play the chord progression while the other experiment with the melody. To focus students' listening on the interaction between the melodic improvisation and the harmonic progression, Ann suggested further discussion and exploration concerning what was happening in the improvisation: (1) If the chord progression gets to the end, but the melody doesn't sound like it got to the end, ask what the melodic partner might do to adapt the melody and (2) listen to see if the melody tones fit the chord tones. In this way, students are both listening and evaluating the interaction between the improvised melody and the chord progression.
On the third day of the lesson plan, after students have had an opportunity to practice their improvisations, they share these creative adventures in small groups. Although Ann doesn't necessarily advocate using peer grading, she suggested that students be given the opportunity to listen, play, and evaluate the improvisations of their fellow students. Hence, students learn to evaluate the group process from different perspectives, playing the role of listener-evaluator, improviser, or harmonic accompanist. At the end of this activity, a member from each group would be selected to play for the entire class.
After the improvisation activity, the Beethoven German Dance was introduced.
Ann asked the group to compare Beethoven's chord progression with the chord progression we had been practicing. Because of the way that Ann had intricately developed the learning in this lesson, students now possessed the musical understanding and skills to make this comparative analysis and to critically analyze the interaction between the melody and the harmony. This lesson was a dynamic example of spiral learning, each activity creating a more profound level of understanding so that when students are ready to play the Beethoven German Dance, they already have a built-in knowledge of the composition.
After critical discussion, an ensemble activity ensued with the class divided into trios (using headsets) to play three parts: (1) the right-hand part (the melody played as written), (2) the left-hand part, (played as written or as the chord progression), and (3) a counter melody (generated from the improvisation activity). Before we began to rehearse, Ann established groundwork for the evaluation of the group ensemble. She asked, "What does a conductor listen to when listening to his/her ensemble?" The group responded, (1) keeping everyone together, (2) balance, (3) orchestration options, and (4) in this case, a melody with an active rhythm; hence, for the person improvising the countermelody, the challenge is to find something that complements the given melody. As students rehearsed the ensemble, the laughter and all-embracing energy in the room was an indisputable indication of the value of group interaction and learning. From the teacher's console, Ann listened to each group, gave feedback, and invited one group to share their ensemble with the whole group.
Ann summarized this session with the advantages of structuring learning in different combinations. In small groups, students can listen for corrects notes and rhythm and appropriate and steady tempo. As well, they can check for memory, hand position, and posture. In pairs, students can discuss fingering, compare chord choices in harmonization activities, and create accompaniment patterns. In large ensembles, students can work on developing continuity and steadiness. This session provided participants with a wealth of ideas and techniques to structure learning that promotes interaction within group piano courses. The musical activities and group techniques that Ann presented were engaging and creatively implemented, providing for collaborative learning, taking into account individual learning styles, and promoting independence in learning.
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|---|