Outcomes Young Talent Project
Integrative Teaching
This is an article about the integration of instrumental teaching, aural skills and keyboard skills and music theory at the level of the young talent class. Team-teaching and crossovers between disciplines offer a possible solution to students’ inability to apply skills taught by specialists in separate fields. A personal development plan motivates students to direct their own learning process. A comparison of linguistic and music literacy enables us to outline the development of music literacy in four phases and understand the function of aural skills.
Integrative teaching - Robert Harris
Integrative teaching bibliography - Robert Harris
Robert Harris - Teacher Competences for working with young talent
Good Practices
David Berkman: "The more I teach, the more I think the only thing that has any value is integrating skills"
Jazz pianist David Berkman explains in this interview how he integrates theoretical and ear training aspects into his piano teaching. His basic approach is to teach students how to practice, developing various approaches to the same material. Practice is really about experimentation, he feels. Berkman prefers ear training and theoretical development at the instrument and sees ‘hearing mistakes’ as a great learning opportunity. He feels classical musicians would benefit from approaches like transcription, transposition, arranging and composition. Berkman is a great advocate of improvisation for classical musicians, arguing that the great role models in de classical field were all great improvisers. ‘Interpretation should be based on the performer’s being able to think like the composer.’ Although he cannot prove that there is any connection between theoretical knowledge and performance, he is convinced that great performers delineate the structure of the piece to the listener. Berkman calls the voice the musician’s ‘first instrument’ and stresses the importance of singing for instrumentalists. If he were redesigning a program he would make everybody into a singer and a drummer. Berkman points to the changing professional scene and encourages classical musicians to branch out into other styles and skills to guarantee employability in the future.
Interview David Berkman by Robert Harris
Rein Ferwerda: 'Music theory subjects cannot be seen as separate from each other' (interview in Dutch)
Rein Ferwerda would love to see segmented education as we know it disappear, so the interconnectedness of subjects becomes clear again. Ferwerda: "All in all, what counts is musical insight. We have to prevent that students can only play a few pieces. It is important that we train musicians comprehensively, so they also learn how to think creatively and know more about musical backgrounds."
You will find this interview on the Dutch part of this site.
Final Report Developing Young Talent
Three teachers of the Prince Claus Conservatoire did research into the collaboration between teachers of the conservatoire and teachers of music schools and between teachers of the conservatoire amongst themselves. Two of them (one with a background in jazz-, the other in classical music) researched the collaboration between teachers of the conservatoire and teachers of the Music school, with the intention to jointly train a pupil of a Young Talent Class in his preparation for the entrance examination for the preparatory- or first year of the Prince Claus Conservatoire. A third teacher investigated further integration of the (instrumental/vocal) principal subject with subjects like music theory, ear training and music history to support the principal subject in the preparatory year. The results of the research have led to concrete recommendations for improving the collaboration between teachers.
The general purpose of the pilot project was to improve conservatoire teachers’ research skills in the area of ‘action research’. Action research is an important tool for teachers to improve their own teaching and to shape their professional development. Teachers were supervised by the lector and one of the researchers of the lectorate Lifelong Learning in Music. The research was directed especially at the way teachers learn research skills and at the support they received in doing so. The outcomes of this research will be used for the improvement of future supervision programmes in this area.
Final Report: The Inquisitive Conservatoire Teacher, Peter Mak
Final Report Young Talent project PCC
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