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
405.325.4681
jmagrath@ou.edu
Few of us could come to grips with the fact that Chronister could be that ill, and only rarely did his demeanor betray his illness during his last months to those who saw him publicly. He had been such a rock and mainstay in the field of elementary piano pedagogy, and it never occurred that he would not be here to spur us onward. Chronister always had a hand in whatever activity was taking place, and he left an indelible mark on the profession. Because of him we all are more skillful and more thoughtful teachers.
During the fall of 1998 Chronister presented one of his last public workshops at the University of Oklahoma to an audience of enthusiastic piano students and teachers who clung to his enlightened presentation. While corresponding with me prior to that occasion, Chronister, surprisingly like many of us, was concerned about reaching his audience, concerned about doing a good job. We had several conversations about what he would present. He tackled the challenge of a four-hour workshop like the most conscientious new comer to the field, striving to be thorough, poignant, and timely. It was a reflection of the way he had lived his professional life, with concepts and points to make clearly focused and directed.
This article will present several points made by Chronister at that workshop on August 29, 1998 at the University of Oklahoma in public lecture, and as such, it provide a reference point as to where he was in his thinking at the time. At the outset Chronister stressed that there are three points to consider to be an effective teacher: knowing what to teach, knowing how to teach, and knowing why to teach. When our students fail to learn a concept, we assume that it is the student who is just not talented. Is it perhaps not that our teaching has failed? When students fail, one should first ask what went wrong with him/herself, since, after all, it is the teacher's job to start each student's mind working.
Chronister then followed with discussion of eight fallacies in teaching that have found their way into the mainstream of piano teaching. He stated the first fallacy as the belief that "I've told you, now you know." He reiterated that teaching is not telling and that one would not expect a student to remember everything we say. Excellent teachers create the situation in which students can experience what we want them to know. One example, he said, would be to create a situation where the student must remind himself to add the dynamics. The student should know what the teacher will always ask first, and that question should be, "Show me what you did at home." In teaching we need to fix the concept rather than just fixing the piece. In fact, the main role of the teacher is to make the student want to play the pieces. When a teacher's mouth is open, learning is probably not going on. The teacher's words prepare students and help them think, but it is only what the students tell themselves when we are not around that really counts.
Fallacy No. 2: The best way to present material is in a mass of fragments. To the contrary, it is the context of the whole that provides meaning.
Fallacy No. 3: We assume the fragment is the same to the student as it is to us. The problem in this area centers on the teacher's use of imprecise words.
Fallacy No. 4: It is more important to measure than it is to teach. Chronister goes on to state that much of our educational system proves this. In the system the teacher assigns and the student studies, then recites, followed by the teacher who measures and grades. Students need many pieces studied in a row with the same new element to reinforce a concept. Just because they can accomplish a new concept in one piece does not mean that they necessarily know the concept. To the contrary, it is important that students have the opportunity to measure themselves. Teachers should assign to the students pieces to learn on their own to help in thwarting this fallacy and to help students learn to measure their own progress.
Fallacy No. 5: The teacher furnishes the motivation. To the contrary, a good teacher makes use of the motivation that already exists in the student. The teacher finds and expands existing motivation. What we choose to teach a student should have a direct impact on motivation. The music we teach at every level must have a satisfying sound and a satisfying feeling if we want students to be motivated to play it.
Fallacy No. 6: The answer is more important than the process by which it is reached. It is unfortunate that students who understand process but make a little mistake along the way get the lower grades in life. A year-end recital does not really show what a student understands, but only what the teacher was able to get him to do. The teacher's job is to create a situation in which a student understands how a piece is made and then in which the student practices in that way.
Fallacy No. 7: Working on tasks devoid of purpose is good discipline. Tasks without purpose make no sense and lead students to hate practice. Only tasks that feed purpose can be called good discipline. Much of your studentsâ practice is to solidify. Do not ask them to practice something until you know they can do it.
Fallacy No. 8: Education is preparation for life. As we all know, a real education is not preparation for life, but it is life itself. Would you go to a piano teacher for lessons even now, and then listen to recordings and lectures, but never play the piano yourself? Of course not.
Chronister never let up the pressure. The development of the teacher was his passion and his plea.
Richard Chronister was a cofounder of Keyboard Companion Magazine, a quarterly periodical on early-level piano study, and served as its editor and publisher until his death. He also was cofounder, president, and educational director of National Keyboard Arts Associates, an organization active in developing, testing, and publishing piano education materials for elementary and intermediate students. Chronister was cofounder and executive director of The National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, a foundation whose aim was the promotion of communication among those who work in the field of piano teacher training. Chronister served as a faculty member of The University of Tulsa (Oklahoma), Westminster Choir College and the New School for Music Study (Princeton, New Jersey), William Jewell College (Liberty, Missouri), the University of Southern California, and the Colburn School of Performing Arts (Los Angeles, California). With Keyboard Arts cofounder, David Kraehenbuehl, Mr. Chronister concertized as a team for more than 25 years, performing much of the two-piano and four-hand piano literature. He was active in developing piano teacher training programs for more than 40 years and was known throughout the world for his frequent lecture tours and many contributions to the field of piano pedagogy. Chronister passed away on December 31, 1999 in Los Angeles, California.
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