CT ABRSM
Project 1
Duet playing: Evaluation of a
video project
Hilary Haworth
Section
3: Sympathetic dynamics, articulation and style
This paper is an evaluation of a video made during sessions on duet playing in piano classes given by me in January 2006. The students are at a fairly early stage of their development as musicians being of Grade 1 and 2 standard, but have some experience of ensemble playing as they each play a single line instrument in school or church groups. They all had played duets before, when I had taken one part, but this was one of their first attempts at taking a part each. Before the sessions I had identified three main areas of learning:
1. the ‘demystification’ of some of the terms and conventions used in duet parts;
2. the importance of developing a shared sense of pulse;
3. balancing the parts appropriately
The sections of the video that were reviewed by the CT ABRSM peer group and mentor focus separately on those three areas. Detailed lesson plan objectives were that at the end of the course of lessons students should be able to:
Participants: Sara, Rebecca
Materials: Walking the Dog from Bill Readdy’s Jazz It!
Reflection: Most concepts were quickly grasped and well explained by the students. I was prepared to make reference to the ensemble work they do in school and church, but in fact this was not necessary. This was generally considered by my colleagues to be a useful discussion:
LD: Made sure they understood what the music meant before they began…
HC: Excellent discussion of terms makes them realise what problems they may encounter before they get there
CW: Good prior discussion away from the piano
RT: They were generally well equipped with necessary information
The “questioning and discussion with the duettists before they play” was also singled out by our mentor as a strong point of the lesson.
I felt myself that the rather ‘teacherly’ IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) format of my questions brought on school-type behaviours – raised hands, etc. – which changed the dynamics and the rapport a little, and we were all very conscious of the camera at this point. However, several colleagues praised the rapport and enthusiasm in the lesson:
LD: Good discussion, great enthusiasm, lovely rapport, having fun
RT: The pupils are really ‘at home’ with you
HC: Good rapport – they’re very enthusiastic
CW: Copes well with a fidgety student and takes notice of the quieter one
IR: Excellent rapport
Participants: Sara, Rebecca
Materials:
Reflection: Both thought the other had the more important part but agreed they were ‘equal but different’ after a brief discussion. Again I would not normally have been standing for a discussion like this and that had a slight effect on the way they interacted with me as the teacher.
HC asked: Could you ask whether they thought one
person should lead in terms of rhythm?
However I think the role of the secondo part as ‘rhythm section’ did come out in the discussion.
Participants: Sarah, Rebecca, Anne
Materials: Charles Beale, Jazz Piano from Scratch, CD track 7
Reflection: This excerpt is part of an exercise to feel the space of a bar or two in order to fit in an improvisation, and consists of two bars of music followed by two bars of silence for students to count or clap through, with the aim of coming in on the same beat as the backing track. This exercise was hard to do together. I had done this before the filming session with each of them individually and the learning was greater that way. In the group it may have achieved better results to take turns at doing the exercise separately and have the students evaluate each other. Also my use of ‘this’, ‘it’ etc was sometimes ambiguous – was I talking about the CD or their tempo as getting faster or slower?
Several of my peers agreed and felt this work needed to be extended:
LD: Not completely clear what they were trying to achieve…
LD: Not quite feeling the pulse – maybe a little more needed on this?
The students and I have looked at the video together since and did get some good learning points out of that experience, in terms of beating the eighth notes to keep better time and acknowledging that people were getting faster. In general the idea of using the CD was well received, Isabel for example noting that “incorporating a variety of activities in the lesson [is] good to learn a certain point – maintains their attention”.
The students then played the duet through together, this time playing alternate bars. And we tried it another time, but keeping silent for every other bar.
The “idea to play alternative bars so that each listens to the other’s part” was considered good by our mentor and some colleagues:
Demonstrated your point well…They enjoyed it…Good lesson in beat control for them and hence any ensemble playing.
HC
Good individual breakdown of parts…making them aware of each other’s parts and co-ordinating together
CW
There were some reservations however:
Wasn’t sure whether they fully appreciated the other person’s part as important as their own…Would they be able to swap parts to see what the other person was doing?
HC
Colleagues were not all convinced this part of the lesson was totally successful, for example Isabel and Louise suggested “perhaps tapping the pulse for them to help them keep the beat going”. This was an idea picked up on by my mentor:
Might have been a good idea to do the every other bar exercise more often – perhaps with you tapping the pulse to tighten up their rhythmic awareness
RB
On reflection I felt it might have been better to reverse these sections, ie have them play a bar together and then ‘miss’ a bar, rather than start playing alternate bars. (This would also have had the advantage of following on more clearly from the CD exercise.) Alternatively we could have gone back to the playing of alternate bars to see it the sense of pulse had improved for them, although several people noticed improvement over the course of the exercise:
This did improve when they played a bar together then remained silent for a bar; especially the second time they did this
RB
We had a discussion of the need to ‘count in’ the pulse. On reflection, I feel I should have made the ways to introduce the swing or triplet feel into the counting in more explicit (by verbalising it as “one-trip-let, two-trip-let” or “ten to two” as recommended by Beale, or by some other pattern of words of their own devising).
But generally the teaching style at this point was well received:
Good to question why the pulse didn’t quite work (and) pick them up on counting at the beginning… Good to question them on this
LD
RT’s reservations are cogent:
Rhythmic aspect – this area is still requiring attention – not always secure in both sets of pupils. Ensemble is an area that still requires some attention – often not ‘balanced’ – but this is a lesson in progress!
Participants: Anne, HH
Materials: Walter Carroll - On the Farm
Reflection: We used home made flash cards to pick out a style of playing which we then had to communicate to the other player, who had to emulate it in her own part. Some of the Italian terms such as pp and staccato were familiar to the student (who is pre-Grade 1 standard) but others were new – eg maestoso, alla marcia, accelerando, mesto. I was generally happy with this part of the session, but realise I should have congratulated Anne when on the first run through she slipped up but never lost the beat, instead of moving straight into the new task. CW also pointed out that Anne showed “very good eye contact with the music” throughout.
I felt this section showed a pleasing rapport, some thoughtful and responsive playing from Anne and a good deal of fun happening. In feedback from the mentor this was considered to be an “excellent communication and listening exercise”. Peers agreed:
Fun aspect with the cards – nice game
LD
Love the idea of cards changing the dynamics… pointing out aural skills - to listen carefully to what you are doing and following it
CW
Wonderful rapport… Good letting the pupil talk…A lot of laughter – fun lesson!
IR
Good questioning…Nice to ask her if it was fun at the end
LD
HC and RT also drew attention to the fact that Anne learnt some new Italian terms in a painless way, that I “fed the student with a lot of new information”. HC and Isabel also appreciated the sense of collaboration:
Liked her counting you in….Good for team work - would be useful to see if she could do that with another student – they don’t always feel as comfortable
HC
Good to let the pupil direct for once – swap roles
IR
Again, RT’s reservations are sobering:
Ensemble is an area that still requires some attention – often not ‘balanced’ – but this is a lesson in progress!
In general I agreed with the reservations of my colleagues on the learning achieved in the sections on a sense of pulse. Personally I was not prepared for how difficult the students found this part of the exercise, probably having underestimated the support they were getting from playing with others, with myself, or with a conductor in their ensemble playing in general. As a result of this I now make the beat much more explicit in instructions to most of my students, whether they are performing in duos or not.
Despite these reservations, the experience was a positive one for these students and they did get some real learning from watching the video afterwards as well as from the lessons themselves. As a result, I use duet work rather more, and to more serious purpose, in my teaching, having seen the clear - and productive – enjoyment it can bring. In addition I am building more work with recordings of students into their lessons, especially to give them reliable measures of improvement in their own performances and general musical knowledge and competencies.
Beale, Charles (1998) Jazz
Piano from Scratch: A How to guide for students and teachers, Associated Board,
Carroll, Walter Scenes from the Farm, Forsyth,
Readdy, Bill (2004) Jazz-It:
Easy Jazzy Piano Duets, Schott & Co,