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
Martha Hilley is Professor of Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and coauthor of Piano for the Developing Musician (PDM), now in its 5th Edition. She has created a groundbreaking website for the UT Austin group piano program that coordinates with the PDM text. In this session, Martha demonstrated the philosophies, techniques, and software underlying this innovative web-based instructional support, stressing that the techniques and ideas she was presenting could be used to create a website for any curriculum. She also suggested that pedagogy teachers incorporate this technology into their pedagogy courses because independent teachers of tomorrow need to know how to create a website for their studio as well as personalize tutorial help for their private students.
The principal software programs used in creating this website include DreamWeaver, Flash, Shockwave, Peak, Director, and Powerpoint. Martha gave a quick synopsis of the benefits and uses of each of these programs. DreamWeaver, web authoring software by Macromedia, was recommended because of its ease of use in creating a website. Icon driven, DreamWeaver displays a split screen that shows you what the icon does and displays HTML code at the same time. Hence, if something doesn't work, HTML code allows you to see why it is not working. Director is multimedia authoring software by which you can create sophisticated animation, video, and audio clips. Director plays off of Shockwave, a format for animation programs that allows files created with Director to be compatible with the web. With Peak, produced by Bias, you can import sound files from a digital keyboard into a computer. If you have Director, Peak allows you to save a sound file as an mp3 file. Martha also highly recommended using Finale or Sibelius, music notation programs, so students can notate their compositions. The program, Premiere, enables one to capture video and import it into a website; however the problem with this program is that the files are so large, e.g., two minutes of a video file is approximately 519 megabytes. Figuring out how to compress this type of file and still maintain quality needs to be worked out. Martha stressed the need for all musicians to know how to use PowerPoint, acknowledging this software as one of the most powerful teaching tools available to the music profession. Martha believes so strongly in PowerPoint that in advance of the conference, she sent a step-by-step tutorial, "Microsoft PowerPoint As a Resource," via email to all participants. This tutorial explained how to construct a studio page, develop a tutorial on the major pentascale, and import picture and sound files.
The PDM website is used to reinforce concepts that are already being taught in the group piano curriculum. Martha demonstrated some of the tutorials she has developed that focus on improvisation, sight-reading, harmonization, and keyboard theory. She began by showing the web pages that support the preliminary chapters of the text. The website is a dynamic tool for students at this stage in their learning because it reinforces concepts and skills that students are responsible for understanding in the preliminary chapters and it provides additional exercises and practice drills. "The horrific page of whole notes," appropriately named by Martha's students, is an example of a reading exercise from these preliminary pages. In this tutorial, the screen first displays three rows of whole notes. A visual "tutor" in the form of a red square moves across the screen from measure to measure, highlighting each note to be read. Moving across the screen ahead of time, the red square prompts the student's eye and mind to move ahead to the next note. For students who have a tendency to get lost, the red square draws their eyes to each note and keeps them moving ahead, as well as training their eye-hand coordination. The program Director was used to create this shockwave movie.
Improvisation
In Chapter One of PDM, improvisation on the black keys is introduced with the intent to get students to respond to a given rhythm and play back an improvisation that imitates the rhythm. Sitting at their keyboard and computer, students see and hear the webpage. The webpage cues them to "Listen," to the musical question of two measures. This is followed by the cue "Play," which flashes on the screen to prompt students to answer with their improvisation. The tutorial was easy to follow and perfectly timed in audio and visual cues. For a student intimidated by improvisation, this activity presented a non-threatening way to develop improvisational skills.
Sight-reading
A problem familiar to all who teach group piano is that of never having enough sight-reading examples for students. Martha has solved this problem by compiling a sight-reading library of 3000 fourŠsix bar items for all four levels of group piano at UT Austin. The library includes original compositions written by Martha and her teaching assistants as well as several student compositions. Roland's Visual Music Tutor is used to generate these examples because it allows one to play a piece on the digital keyboard, save it on disk as a Standard MIDI file, open it on a PC in Visual Music Tutor and in the end - it shows up as manuscript, ready to be added to the sight-reading library.
Harmonization
The harmonization tutorials help students see relationships between a given melody and its harmonic possibilities. For instance, when students begin harmonizing with the I, IV and V chords, the web page allows students to interact with the melody and determine the harmonic options for each melodic note. When you click on a measure of the melody, a caption pops up above a specific note that reads, "I could use a I chord because A is the fifth of the chord; I could use a iii chord because A is the third of the chord; or, I could a V chord because A is the root of the chord." The point is to present to the student that s/he has options and that once the options are acknowledged, it is up to her/his ear and theory sense to decide which chord fits best. This tutorial also doubles as an ear-training exercise: when students click on "play," they can listen to the melody and harmonization with a background accompaniment. Another click allows students to see the Roman numerals used in the harmonization.
Keyboard Theory
Martha illustrated a keyboard theory tutorial that addresses the use of the common tones in chord progressions, helping students to see and hear common tones between chords. In this tutorial, three options are given: (1) spell the chord, (2) see the common tones, or (3) play the progression. In the first case, a progression is shown on the screen (I IV ii V7 I) and students are asked to spell the chord in "sync" with a background rhythm. In the second case, students see the progression notated on the screen and are cued to "listen as the progression is played." As the progression plays, a "circle", marking the common tone between each chord, moves ahead prompting the student's thinking to link chord tone to chord tone and see/hear the common tone between chords. Lastly, students are asked to play the progression.
Use of PowerPoint in Individual Instruction
Martha demonstrated how she uses PowerPoint in the individual studio lesson to provide personalized feedback throughout the week. Margaret Morris, a mythical high school student, is working on Gurlitt's Whirlwind. After Margaret's lesson, Martha sends a PowerPoint email intended to tap into Margaret's thinking and practicing of Whirlwind. The email revolves around what happened in the previous lesson and then gives suggestions or questions for Margaret to think about or focus on in her practicing. The message to Margaret reads, "After you left yesterday Margaret, I was thinking about the problems you had with the rhythm on pp. 28-29 of your Lesson Book. Why don't you get out your book and take a second look at this." Martha also makes specific comments about what was good in the lesson and what needs to be worked on. Most impressive is that embedded in the PowerPoint email is a sound file of an ensemble part for Margaret to rehearse with in her practice sessions. The instructions from Martha read, "click on the next listening icon when you are ready to hear the ensemble part I have written for you." Through this ingenious use of PowerPoint, Martha has built a library of tailor-made email messages that can be used with any student.
For those who are concerned that technology is going to destroy the human element and touch in learning, Martha's presentation was a perfect example of the way that technology and human touch can be creatively merged to create a learning environment that powerfully addresses individual differences and needs. I have no doubt that all participants left this session inspired to return to their schools to launch web-based instructional support for their group piano curricula and individual lessons.
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