General Music appreciation, along with learning to play the piano ?

[m1469]

I have recently had all of my students listen to Bolero and The Four Seasons and gave a number of them an assignment to do some kind of art work while listening.

One of my students (a mature woman) said in our last meeting that she did not really understand why I wanted them to listen to this.  Well, part of me feels like, "if you don't get it, how can I possibly explain it ?"  But, probably that is not fair.  I suppose I can see how somebody might thins this way.  So, I was thinking about it and, I wonder how one does explain it... 


These are the reasons I want my students to be exposed to music other than just piano :

1.  I am wishing for them to develop a broad base of music appreciation to help themselves as musicians (and as persons) and to help the field in general.  I want them to appreciate local concerts of both well-known pieces as well as less-known pieces.  I want them to be somewhat educated listeners.

2.  For their sub-conscious to become more immersed with music in general; instrumentation, musicality.

3.  Because the piano is like an orchestra at our finger-tips, I feel it is important for the student to become familiar with different registers, timbres, etc...  also, composers like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven often thought symphonically.  I feel it is important for the pianist to have a concept of these instrumental sounds that might be imitated in a sonata, for example.


These are the main things that I can think of,  and it is what I explained to my student who then came back with :  "Well, I am attracted to piano music.  That's why I am interested in Chopin and Liszt, they were primarily composers for the piano."

hmmmm... I actually got pretty angry inside (it makes me want to scream, actually), and that's not that great...


My questions regarding this are :

1.  How do you explain to a student why you might have them listen to orchestral, opera, other instrumental music ?  Or even music in general, for that matter.

2.  Do you have a list of things you would like your students to listen for while they listen ?

3.  How do you go about giving them listening assignments ? Do you have some kind of list of pieces you would like for them to know, and then some sort of order to have them listened to ?

I am a bit frustrated.... I am not organized enough yet to have a list of pieces I feel they should know, and then I do not have any organization in terms of the order they may learn.  Maybe I would be smarter to start with chant (I don't have any) ?  If you wish to add any kind of suggestion toward my project... heh... I am incredibly hungry for it. 



Thank you very much for your time,

m1469

[abell88]

I think it's good, although I don't actively do it with my students. However, inexperience will not deter me from giving an opinion. I would say, don't start with chant, as it's too removed from most people's current experience. I'd suggest starting with romantic -- something with great (and obvious) melodies...a Tchaikovsky ballet, perhaps?

My son's piano teacher has a large collection of CDs which he lends out, as well as some videos. He has them all categorized so that when they are in Grade 3 piano, for example, they listen to the RCM's Grade 3 pieces, several Bach Inventions and Sinfonias, some Bartok for children, some Tchaikovsky piano music, Vivaldi's Four seasons, a Beethoven collection, Tchaikovsky's hits, some Ravel, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and some folk music. He has a chart for each grade, and the CDs are checked off as they are listened to (this guy is so organized!). As far as I know, he doesn't expect anything other than listening/watching.

[m1469]

Oh, this is great information abell.  This is a very smart way to go about it. 

Thanks,

m1469

[abell88]

You're welcome...a few years ago a friend of mine arranged for several of her students (8-9 years old) to go see a production of the Magic Flute...perhaps it was shortened, and I'm sure it was either sung in English or sub-titled. Also, a student of mine is in the Canadian Children Opera Chorus, and his mother has told me that I could arrange to bring students to a dress rehearsal (of any opera) for a very reasonable fee...I don't think Verdi's Macbeth, currently playing, is a good one to start with, but Rossini is great fun.

[Bob]

I would like my students to know a little about the period and a little about the composer (if it's a piece they're sitting on for awhile). 

Whether they listen to a recording of the piece they work on.... that's up in the air.  If they listen to recordings of other pieces, that would be ok.

Maybe also if they knew and heard the most famous works by a composer they're playing.  They might not be playing the same piece, but just the top pieces that one wrote.

And even pieces they're not working on.  Top pieces of top composers.  I would try to cover every style.  I would limit it to piano though.  I think piano is broad enough for almost every style and since they take piano lessons, they can listen to piano recordings.

If they want a broader view, I might suggest a music appreciation textbook and CD set.  If they're looking for that knowledge, it's probably slightly beyond what I would cover in piano lessons.  Good for them to have.  I also don't see why an adult student couldn't read and listen through a music appreciation book by themself if they really want to know all that.

[galonia]

Hmm... well, my philosophy about it is that music is only one form of expressing the human experience, and piano music is only one subset of music.  So I will take it even further than what you have said, m1469, and suggest that students should also have a broad knowledge of many art forms - literature, history, the visual arts, other performing arts, etc.

After all, concepts such as nationalism influenced composers as well as other artists.  Laws and customs affect what can and cannot be expressed and in which way.  Technology affects the creation of musical instruments, which in turn affect the style of music which can be written and the way it is performed.  The role of musicians in society has changed over time, and without doing some reading, you could not even begin to have a vague understanding of that.

All of this contributes to an educated interpretation of music, whether you are performing it or just listening to it.

So listening to music other than piano music, I feel, is only a small part of it, and just the very start of your students' education.  I think students who are reluctant to do the extra listening just haven't found something they like; it just means you may have to search further and try more different things to find out what they do like, and start from there to slowly expand their horizons.

[dmk]

I try and get all my student's to listen to other music in a similar way to Abell.

If I am teaching something like Schubert or Britten we might listen to Schubert Leider or Britten Art Songs just to have listen to their lyrical line and style and generally works or composers which influenced their style. 

I suppose I try to give students a context for the work they are playing, even from an early age.

[asyncopated]

I think that music appreciation must form a good portion of your music education no matter what instrument you play. 

I just wanted to point out one thing.  For a person who only has listened only to pop music and has little or no exposure whatsoever to classical music, most of them think that classical music is boring.  And to them it is.  That is because on an intellectual level, they have become very insensitive to thinking about what they are listening to and just accept what they hear.  Perhaps the trick is to try and get them to start their brains working again, and to think about sound.

To do this, sometimes I find that saying the most obvious thing (to me) helps.  For example, take Malya's homework, I've was discussing Bolero with a friend when it was played over the radio in the car.  The conversation went something like this :-

-- What do you think of that? (Me)

-- Yae... it's quite a cool piece?

-- What do you mean by that?

-- I don't know.

-- But don't you think it's boring?  He (Ravel) wrote the same thing over again 13 times!

-- Nah, but it still sounds good, better than some of the modern stuff...

-- Actually at that time.  It was written as an experiment in ochestration...  to show what differnent sounds you can make, and how the different instruments can carry the same tune in slighly differnt ways.  (the obvious thing.)

-- Ohh ya, I didn't hear that before!

Strange but true.


al.