We examined approximately 25 hours of video recordings of private lessons taught by three internationally recognized artist-teachers: the oboist Richard Killmer, the violist Donald McInnes, and the pianist Nelita True. By creating detailed narrative descriptions of the lessons observed, we sought to determine whether there were elements of instruction that appeared in the teaching of all three pedagogues. We identified 19 such elements, which we organized in three broad categories: Goals and Expectations, Effecting Change, and Conveying Information. All of the 19 elements, which we describe in detail, were prominent features in the lessons taught by all three teachers.
Teachers make very fine discriminations about student performances; these are consistently articulated to the student, so that the student learns to make the same discriminations independently. It is clear that the teachers know precisely what they expect to see and hear from the students, which suggests that their vivid auditory images of the repertoire leads to their detecting even the smallest deviations from the images they have in mind. Teachers articulate clearly and directly what they hear, and their attention is focused primarily on tone production and musical expression (including all of the rhythmic and dynamic variables that contribute to expressive music making). This systematic feedback guides students to listen to themselves as their teacher listens, and shapes students’ ability to make independent discriminations about their own playing. Teachers further ensure that students are making appropriate, independent discriminations by asking them to verbalize those discriminations in lessons.
We are greatly indebted to the participants in this research, Don McInnes, Richard Killmer, Nelita True, and their students, all of whom graciously permitted us to observe and analyze their work. Their generosity has certainly contributed to our understanding of expertise in our discipline by providing us a window into their effectiveness as artist-teachers.
This research was funded by a grant from the Walter and Gina Ducloux Fine Arts Fellowship Endowment and by the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professorship in Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas at Austin.
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