This project focused on the design and implementation of a set of accessible on-line (web-based) tutorials based around the ‘Listening with Understanding’ sections of the Associated Board’s aural tests, with specific emphasis on the skills required for intermediate and advanced piano examinations (Grades 5 to 8).

Rationale and conceptual framework

Why this?

Aural training is time-consuming to do well, especially for those more advanced students of the piano who despite their technical maturity may not be studying music at school, nor necessarily in the habit of listening to a wide range of repertoire. Preparing and performing - or sourcing appropriate recordings of - piano works from an adequate range of styles, composers and periods call for quite high levels of preparation time for piano teachers who will often feel they need to concentrate on the technical development of their students.

Not all piano specialist teachers even to higher technical grades are equipped with appropriate levels of general music knowledge to present the student with ways to discuss the period and style, structure, and texture of a wide variety of music, as is required at Grade V and beyond. Those teachers who do have these competences themselves, might see advantages in setting on-line lessons as homework.

Working from a text book, however accessible it is, can mean that students are tempted to treat listening with understanding as a more cerebral and cognitive task than it should be – and set about learning formulae for various musical forms for example. Even the instruction to listen to an identified track on an accompanying CD may be skipped. By having written explanations and audio tracks on the same web pages the learner is encouraged to listen, read and reflect at the same time. Also since s/he can stop and start or repeat the track wherever and as many times as necessary, possibly the extracts will be listened to more than once.

Why is it significant?

While these skills command only a few marks in the practical exams themselves, the benefits to students’ lifelong musical learning of developing aural skills are potentially very great. While a package of on-line learning can only have a limited effect on listening habits, it just might open windows on areas of music students have resisted tuning into in other ways (such as concert going, Radio 3, etc).

Relevant ideas

The underlying principle is to teach music through the instrument (Swanwick,2002). Reference has been made to pieces or composers that should be familiar to piano teachers and students. The lessons are not meant to be self-contained but also encourage off screen activities– for example, to note down examples of contrapuntal texture from the students own repertoire.

These sections can be identified in the pages by the notepad graphic:

I also take the approach of ‘scaffolded’ learning. This idea is taken from theories of socio-cultural learning (see for example Vygotsky, 1984 or Bruner, 1966), and simply means the gradual removal of support from learners as they engage in new practices. The Grade 8 test pages are designed to be less didactic than at earlier grades to encourage wider listening and exploration.

I have also tried to foster ‘Learner-directed’ study, in that the audio files are properly referenced, encouraging individual investigations and extension work not always possible in an instrumental lesson. With access to on-line sources it is possible for the learner to choose his or her own direction and not be limited to the CD collection and tastes of the teacher. This is not ‘drill and practice’. I have avoided the ubiquitous multiple choice quizzes and ‘Try again’ responses of some on-line learning input screens. I want to encourage reflection, not guesswork.

Evaluation of published materials

Hofnotes (www.hofnote.co.uk) produce on-line aural training as a subscription service. I evaluated this as part of my project. It is a well produced product with clear, measurable learning goals: teachers are invited to input student scores in previous aural tests, the date of the exam, and the points achieved after the hofnotes training has been completed. Tests are organized by grade and most of the questions are covered. However the approach is purely based on practice tests, many of which are multiple choice, which restricts the amount of new information that can be communicated and I felt this limited its usefulness to the lower grades. The hofnotes quizzes also rely on reading notation, for example in spotting melodic or rhythmic differences, or checking the accuracy of your sight singing, which discourages trusting to the ear alone. The audio files themselves are very short and of low quality in terms of performances. These evaluations helped me in the scoping, scaling and design of my own project. I abandoned my early idea of using web form-based tests, and decided to produce an education and training package.

This experience and the search for serviceable audio resources on-line also convinced me of the need to present high quality listening experiences in terms of the pieces and performances selected. Many classical midi and mp3 services, even those requiring subscriptions, are either very lackluster performances (see for example www.classicalarchives.com) or played by machines (see www.mfiles.com). As a result, I felt I had to use quality, copyright recordings, and these have not yet been cleared for on/line publishing in their current format. Instead I plan to use them for my own students, , rather than launching a profitable new sideline for global consumption!

Description and specification

Interface

The training is accessed via a CD with a web browser working off-line. Audio files use Windows Media Player. The pages have been successfully tested in Internet Explorer at a range of resolutions and connection speeds.

Pages work at several levels:

Overt instruction Definition of terms and key concepts; facts about musical structure; relevant history of composers and instruments; downloadable excerpts of musical examples

Situated practice Students are encouraged to listen to or to play music and give free-format responses.

Practice tests A guide to the requirements of Listening with Understanding sections at each grade. Examples of questions are still under construction.

Scale

There are currently approximately 50 pages in the site (3.86 mB). The hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1, follows the design of the Associated Board tests, and is structured under the headings of texture, form, style and period.

Figure 1: Hierarchy diagram

Design and delivery method

As discussed, the hierarchy follows the structure of the Grade test questions. A Table of Contents is included to aid navigation through the pages. Links can be made vertically through content (from instruction to the test pages) or horizontally (by reading instruction pages on several different musical eras for example). I have also paid attention to cross referencing (for example the Rondo Form page within the Form section references out to the Medieval Period page within Musical Periods at the level of the rondeau.

The web site was designed and developed in Microsoft Front Page, and does not use frames. As it stands this is a private site and has not been published. If published in the future, this would be a ‘members-only’ site with password protection. However issues with copyright are likely to make this unfeasible. The page has been tested with Explorer 6 and checked for accessibility using Front Page diagnostic tools.

It is delivered on CD.

To run

Start Internet Explorer

If a connection screen appears, click Work offline (you do not need to be connected to an ISP)

On the menu bar, click File and then Open

In the new window, click Browse

Select My Computer and the CD drive (D:/ or E:/)

Double click the file index.htm

Featured performances

Featured performers include:

Dufay Collective works by medieval composers

Canctus Cölln works by JS Bach

New London Consort works by Susato

Raymond Banning works by Mendelssohn and Chopin

Vladimir Horowitz works by Scarlatti, Chopin and Beethoven

Sir Neville Marriner works by Bach

Libor Novacek works by Debussy, Ravel, Martinu and Janacek

Sokolov works by Beethoven

Hirohisa Tsuji works by Britten

Other composers whose work is represented include Purcell, Glière, and Liszt.

The project as a learning experience

This project has developed - or perhaps resuscitated – my own knowledge of musical form, and challenged me to think about the terminology I use to describe elements of music to my pupils. It is easy to think that it is “natural” to talk about texture and style of music and think we all understand each other: but it does not come at all naturally to many piano students.

It is also easy to assume a level of background knowledge about the history of music in general and the piano in particular that simply is not there. In asking my students to comment on early prototypes of these web pages, I realized I had not adequately thought about the level at which to pitch my language and approach.

This is still a work in progress, and I am not content that I have resolved these issues as yet. However it is a good step to have taken, and has encouraged me to start conversations with students about their pieces’ background and context, form and style, earlier in their careers than I might have done previously.

I am encouraged by this project to use more of the skills of musical analysis, at however elementary a level, to help with other skills in piano playing too. The ability to “read” the texture of a piece at a glance helps with sight reading skills, for example, and harmonic understanding provides hooks for the development of memorizing ability.

Conclusions

These web pages, and others I develop in the future to supplement them, are not intended to replace face to face discussions and realistic practice for the aural test in the exams. Indeed, many of the exercises contained within them are left quite open-ended, to encourage questions and discussion in lessons that follow. However, they may be attractive to students, offering a little privacy while they equip themselves with basic understandings and terminology required.

This project has been of necessity limited in scale. Its aims were not to produce a comprehensive guide to the piano music of the past, or to provide examples of all the types of music that might be encountered in the Associated Board aural tests. In effect its ambitions were to open a number of doors onto ways of critically listening to and talking about music, and in this it is already proving to be successful and worthwhile.

Bibliography

Bruner, J. (1966) Towards a Theory of Instruction

Carroll, W. (publication date not known) Notes on Musical Form

Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Smith, Ronald (1995) Aural Training in Practice, Books II and III, London: Associated Board

Swanwick, Keith (2002) ‘Instrumental Teaching as Music Teaching’ in Gary Spruce (ed.) Teaching Music in Secondary schools: A reader, London: RoutledgeFarmer

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes