“Play with me”: Student perspectives on collaborative chamber music instruction

Abstract

This article reports on a pilot project conducted in Australia and Norway evaluating new approaches to collaborative chamber music instruction in higher education settings. Following suggestions from the literature on collaborative and group learning in music, chamber music tuition was chosen as a suitable context to examine the possibility of teaching-through-playing and the impact of such an approach on students’ collaborative learning and their induction into the professional music community. Two groups of staff and students in each institution volunteered to participate in the project and implemented their own rehearsal schedule. Student focus group interviews were conducted after the final performance of rehearsed repertoire, and transcripts were analyzed by two researchers independently for the emerging themes and refined through iterative discussions. Key findings include students being inspired by working with experienced staff in a professional setting, learning the skills of ensemble playing such as effective rehearsal techniques, understanding of stylistic conventions, specific technical, musical and co-ordination skills, greater experimentation, positive impact of group discussions, and a more collaborative atmosphere. Students found it challenging to alter power roles, as the ingrained attitudes of teacher-led approaches prevailed. This project has shown that teaching-through-playing chamber music is a viable approach for developing students’ musical and social skills by providing them with authentic professional experiences. We propose an alternative model of higher education performance teaching that is more collaborative and participatory.

Let’s play together: teacher perspectives on collaborative chamber music instruction

“…All students identified positive outcomes of the instructional process, which is an interesting contrast to the teachers in the present study who are uncertain whether inexperienced students would benefit from the approach. The comparison of findings from Zhukov and Saetre (2021) and this study demonstrates that both students and teachers identified similar challenges. It seems to be hard to alter traditional teacher-student power relations and to accomplish student involvement, even in explicit collaborative settings.…”

“…Furthermore, the approach seems to demonstrate competences needed in professional work. The claims presented in this article are supported by the insights from the student interviews reported in Zhukov and Saetre (2021). The participating students were inspired by working with experienced staff in a professional and collaborative setting, and their learning of a range of musical, social and collaborative skills was accelerated by the participatory teaching-through-playing approach and the authentic professional experience.…”

“…Power issues were however present in this study as well. The rehearsals were typically teacherled, most evident in the group with three teachers (A1) and the group with young female students (A2) (Zhukov and Saetre 2021). The A2 teacher reported to be concerned that he had an 'intimidating effect' on the four female students.…”

“…Empirical data was collected from individual and focus group interviews of students and staff separately. Students reported being inspired by working with teachers on professional footing, learning effective rehearsal techniques, improving their understanding of styles and developing a range of performance skills (Zhukov and Saetre 2021). While this approach to chamber music instruction generated a more collaborative learning environment for students, including more experimentation and group discussion, their perceptions of traditional master-apprentice roles were barely challenged.…”

Signature Pedagogies in Collaborative Creative Learning in Advanced Music Training, Education and Professional Development: A Meta-Synthesis

“…Several researchers have explored and piloted innovative pedagogies that challenge the traditional apprenticeship model associated with instrumental teaching and learning (e.g., Rakena, 2016;Treacy and Gaunt, 2021;Zhukov and Saetre, 2022). For example, Treacy and Gaunt (2021) explored the role of reflection in making explicit artistic values, traditions, practices and aspirations.…”