scholarly journals Innovation and experimentation in percussion instruments

1977 ◽  
Vol 61 (S1) ◽  
pp. S21-S21
Author(s):  
Stacey Bowers ◽  
Garry Kvistad ◽  
Allen Otte
2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald M. Taylor

The purpose of this study was to examine teaching effectiveness in an elementary music setting using student achievement as a dependent measure. Because Orff Schulwerk instruction is one of the most prevalent pedagogies in elementary music education, this study examined the rehearsal strategies of recognized Orff Schulwerk teachers as they worked to refine learned repertoire for percussion instruments. Eight instructors and their upper elementary students were videotaped in four regular rehearsals each. Systematic analyses of rehearsal frames in which teachers were working to improve student performance revealed fast teacher pacing and a predominance of instructional directives that were procedural (e.g., where to begin playing) rather than musical (e.g., how to perform more accurately or expressively). The majority of students' performance problems were related to precision, often caused by rushing the underlying pulse. Instructional targets were most often related to technique. Students successfully accomplished proximal goals in 63 % of the performance trials in which the targets were verbalized by the teacher prior to performance and in 74 % of the performance trials when the targets were verbalized by the teachers while students were playing. Students were most successful when teachers used clear, explicit directives and positive modeling.


Neurocase ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Kohlmetz ◽  
S. V. Müller ◽  
W. Nager ◽  
T. F. Münte ◽  
E. Altenmüller

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
Debbie Rohwer

Because issues involved with playing an instrument may be complicated by the aging process, age may be an important variable to investigate in health studies. The current study examined the perceived health challenges of a group of adult instrumental musicians and possible accommodations for these challenges. Participants included 83 adult white musicians, aged 47 to 91 yrs, 52 females and 31 males, who were attending a national summer senior band camp. Fifty-two played woodwind and 31 brass or percussion instruments. The participants were given a questionnaire asking about (1) the degree of trouble with vision, hearing, finger/hand, arm/neck, back/leg, and other physical ailments while playing their instrument; (2) whether any pain experienced was greater when playing music than in everyday life; and (3) accommodations they may have found for any physical troubles they experienced. Visual problems when reading music were noted as the participants' greatest challenge, followed by finger/joint pain, hearing speech, and hand pain. Visual problems when reading music were a top concern across all instrument subgroups, followed by finger/joint pain for woodwind players, hearing speech for brass players, and both hand and finger/ joint pain for percussionists. Accommodations for vision problems most commonly included placing the lens line higher on bifocal lenses so that both the conductor and music could be seen. Accommodations for ailments centered around two general issues: things a musician could buy (e.g., ear plugs, instrument rests, cushions) or things they could do to avoid pain (e.g., education, stretching).


Author(s):  
Inese Žune

The aim of the article is to highlight the creative work of the outstanding 20th- century Latvian conductor and pedagogue Leonīds Vīgners in the field of composition. The facts are based on the materials of Leonīds Vīgners’s archives found in the Museum of Literature and Music, which allows tracing the entire, versatile activities of the musician. Leonīds’s understanding of music, much like that of his sisters Beatrise, Meta, and prematurely deceased brother Vitālis, developed early in childhood, when they became the examples of the success of the new practical method of absolute musical hearing championed by their father Vīgneru Ernests. Later, the talented musician received a comprehensive musical education at the Latvian Conservatory. In addition to conducting the orchestra, playing the organ and percussion instruments, he also graduated from the composition class of Jāzeps Vītols. In the 1920s and 1930s, Leonīds Vīgners composed a range of instrumental works, from simple minuets to an extensive form of a piano sonata. In total, the museum’s collection contains 16 manuscripts of his instrumental works. The largest part of Leonīds Vīgners’s work consists of his solo and choir songs composed or reworked in different periods of time. He has mentioned that he has composed about 80 solo and 300 choir songs, but some of them perished during the war. Examining the manuscripts of Leonīds Vīgners’s songs, as well as many drafts that have been included in the collection of the Museum of Literature and Music, it can be concluded that he attached great importance to the words that evoked his musical ideas. Leonīds Vīgners always remained himself, with his own views on music and Latvian nationalism. However, behind his seemingly harsh exterior, there was a sensitive and fragile soul, which is truly revealed in his compositions with the plastic, bittersweet sense of melody characteristic to the Romantics and at times the impressionistic freshness and subtlety of his harmonies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Gruenhagen ◽  
Rachel Whitcomb

Despite historic and ongoing support for the inclusion of improvisation in the elementary general music curriculum, music educators consistently report challenges with implementation of improvisational activities in their classes. This study was designed to examine (a) the extent to which improvisational activities were occurring in the participants’ elementary general music classrooms, (b) the nature of these improvisational activities, and (c) participants’ perceptions of the quality of their students’ improvisations. The most common improvisational activities reported by these teachers were question-and-answer singing, improvising on unpitched and pitched percussion instruments, and improvising rhythmic patterns using instruments. Analysis of their reflections on these activities revealed three broad themes: (a) process, practice, and experience, (b) sequencing, scaffolding, and modeling in instruction; and (c) collaboration, reflection, and creation. These teachers stated they were most interested in the quality of the improvisational process rather than with the product and indicated that sequencing was crucial in the instruction of improvisation. While some put less importance and priority on improvisation, the majority perceived it as necessary to the development of students’ musical skills, as an important way for students to show musical understanding, and as an empowering creative process that produces independent thinkers and musicians.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Murow

Music therapy in Mexico is only beginning. Though there is a lot of interest in what it is and on its effect on health and personal growth, there are also a lot of misconceptions about what it really is. I have encountered that one of the obstacles for the growth of music therapy in Mexico is what I call the myths about what it is. I am sure some of them are well known to my colleagues around the world: if you play a music tape the client gets well, or just get some percussion instruments and have the children play and you are doing music therapy. I think one of the worst misconceptions here is that some people believe there is no need for professional training and education to practice music therapy. Being a music therapist has been a real struggle not to mention trying to educate health and education professionals about music therapy, and that it is a real profession in other Countries! On the other hand, there are many musicians and health professionals who are very interested in music therapy and its use.


Author(s):  
Ganna Ralo

About 100 years have passed since the first classes of percussion instruments appeared. In the early days, when professional training intended for percussion performers dated to, teachers faced a large number of problems, in particular, lack of a full set of percussion instruments in the classroom, the availability of instructive, educational, pedagogical and concert repertoire alongside scientific and methodological literature. As a result, the work of the first educators was based, first of all, on their personal pedagogical experience and many years of performing practice. In this regard, the appearance of the first teaching aids was a milestone in the development of professional training in playing percussion instruments. For a century-long period, not so much educational and methodological literature has appeared, which was conditioned by a number of objective and subjective factors. At the same time, each methodological manual has taken its rightful place in the development of teaching methods for playing the percussion instruments. However, time is relentlessly moving forward and, unfortunately, today, they have become less in demand, as they do not always meet the modern requirements and approaches to teaching how to play the percussion instruments. Today, Ukrainian scientists and teachers have free access to a large amount of information. Therefore, they have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with interesting developments of our foreign colleagues. However, in most cases, they cannot be used in domestic pedagogical practice, as they are not adapted to the current realities of the educational system of Ukraine due to various socio-economic and cultural factors. Thus, the issues related to the need to search for the most effective forms, methods, and approaches to teaching how to play the percussion instruments is of particular importance and relevance. The article is devoted to the methods based on the playing form of instructions which are used in schools of aesthetic education and, in particular, at the classes of percussion instruments. The purpose of the work is to present new promising areas in teaching percussion playing, based on the author’s pedagogical practice. These methods were used in the study: analysis, observation, deduction and induction. The following issues are considered in the article: the influence of learners’ age characteristics on the choice of teaching methods, the essence of the group form of training and its importance for activating the pedagogical process, traditional and non-traditional approaches to teaching / learning, as well as the analysis of the methods that are widely used in the author’s teaching practice at the classes of the percussion instruments playing. As a result of the study, some new ideas were proposed related to the training at the initial stage and the ways of their implementation by introducing the methods of collective listening, imitation, “playing with the ball”, “sweet tooth”, etc. into the pedagogical practice.


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