Teachers’ strategies for playing by ear in one-to-one instrumental lessons: a case-study in Spain

ABSTRACT

Although playing by ear has important benefits for the development of musicianship, one-to-one instrumental teaching has traditionally overlooked it. The current research describes the strategies applied by three woodwind teachers with their students in a Spanish music school through a multiple-case embedded study. Data were collected through multiple choice questionnaires, interviews and the observation of lessons. They were analysed according to the strategies applied, the teachers’ expertise in playing by ear as performers, and the inclusion of playing by ear in their regular teaching as a result of participating in this research. The results show that the strategies of these teachers, when including some pre-designed tasks in their lessons to develop playing by ear, were influenced by the teachers’ biographies and teaching styles. Ultimately, the description of these features may be useful in prospective design of teaching methods aimed at developing playing by ear in instrumental lessons.

KEYWORDS:

• Playing by ear
• music teaching
• aural skills
• instrumental teaching
• teaching style
• informal learning

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the cooperation of Professor Lucy Green, Dr. David Baker and Dr. Maria Varvarigou in this research, to whom we express our most sincere thanks, as well as to Dr. Hilary McQueen, for her patient assistance in preparing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Alejandra Pacheco-Costa is PhD in Education. She’s currently Lecturer in Music Education at the Arts Education Department, at the University of Sevilla (Spain). She has been guest lecturer in the Universities of Ruse (Bulgaria) and Pablo de Olavide (Spain), among others. She has developed research on Informal Learnings in Music Education and History of Piano Teaching in Spain. She also takes part in research about the interactions between Music and Language and Literacy development. She has developed her research in institutions such as the Institute of Education (University of London), the Foundation for Iberian Music (CUNY, New York), the Instituto de Investigación en Educación (University of Costa Rica) or the Hochschule für Musik (Basel, Switzerland). She has received funding and grants for her research activity from the Spanish Government, the University of Sevilla or the Fulbright Foundation. She has presented her research in international conferences, such as ||EERA-ECER (2016, 2017) or EAS (2015), and as a guest lecturer in Europe and America. As a pianist, she develops an active career, with solo and chamber music recitals in Europe, USA and South America.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte under a Estancias de Movilidad en el Extranjero “Jose Castillejo” Grant [CAS15/00195].