Teacher–student physical contact as an approach for teaching guitar in the master class context

Abstract

In this study, the role of physical contact between teachers and students in the process of teaching guitar was investigated in the master class context. Thirty-five videotaped guitar master classes were classified into five groups according to student performance level. The musical topics studied in these classes were categorised, and all moments of physical contact between teachers and students were identified. Analyses of variance and non-parametric tests were used to determine the relationship between use of physical contact as a teaching approach and student gender, student performance level, the teacher giving the lesson, and topic presented by the teacher. The results indicated that physical contact was significantly related to the teacher giving the lesson and to guitar performance topics of “nails”, “muscle relaxation”, and “body posture”. However, of these three topics, only “body posture” was significantly related to students’ performance level. Ultimately, the results suggest that the topic presented by the teacher is helpful in determining the gestural behaviour of teachers in a musical instrument class.

The Role of the Body in Instrumental and Vocal Music Pedagogy: A Dynamical Systems Theory Perspective on the Music Teacher's Bodily Engagement in Teaching and Learning

“…Next to action demonstration, physical modeling and pedagogical gestures, "haptic feedback" (Bremmer, 2015), "tactile modeling" (Metz, 1989) and "touch" (Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019) all are similar "embodied" teaching strategies of literally manipulating the learner's body, used to direct their attention to a new movement, a different posture, unnecessary tension in the body, or to achieve certain intended sound qualities (Bremmer, 2015;Simones et al, 2015;Simones, 2017;Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019). In general, teachers' touch goes through their hands, and it might be continuous (e.g., lasting for a few seconds) or discrete (Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019).…”

“…Although the use of the body could complement a language-based pedagogy, and although the way music teachers employ their body might be important in facilitating effective sensorimotor engagement with the voice or an instrument (Nafisi, 2013a;Simones et al, 2017;Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019), currently a solid framework about the role of the music teacher's body in instrumental and vocal music education is still lacking. We believe that dynamical systems theory could provide a starting point for developing such a framework.…”

“…We will argue that the self-organizing behavior of the instrumentalist and vocalist can be affected by different types of constraints introduced by the music teacher's engagement. In the second part, we will specifically discuss how physical modeling, gestures and touch can act as constraints in instrumental and vocal music learning, facilitating the learning process in non-verbal ways (Bremmer, 2015;Simones et al, 2017;Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019).…”

Understanding the Meaningfulness of Vocal and Instrumental Music Teachers' Hand Gestures Through the Teacher Behavior and Gesture Framework

“…Examples of this include instances where touch was examined (as a gesture) for teaching the essential haptic contact required to play a musical instrument, and as a form of establishing communication with others. Zorzal and Lorenzo (2019) consider the role of touch for teaching guitar in masterclass contexts, concluding that teachers use touch in accordance to their perception of students' performance problems, and also that touch has a role in teaching aspects inherent to playing the guitar, such as attaining appropriate body posture. Simones et al (2015b) in the piano teaching context revealed that touch proved to be an important tool in the context of piano teaching for communicating a variety of different elements: the type of movement and physical posture of the hand, fingers and body; the kinaesthetic sensation that should be felt and applied to the piano keys in order to produce the desired tone; preparing to start and/or end the sound producing gesture; and the weight of the hand for pressing keys.…”

“…Despite this importance, gesture is rarely afforded the pedagogical importance that it deserves in relation to instrumental and vocal teaching and learning processes. Even in light of recent critical interest in this area, and some persuasive findings on the roles of gesture in vocal (e.g., Davidson, 2005;Rahaim, 2012;Pearson, 2016) and instrumental music pedagogical contexts (e.g., Simones et al, 2015aSimones et al, , 2017Zorzal and Lorenzo, 2019), gesture remains mostly "unseen" to researchers in these contexts. Such invisibility constitutes a major impediment to understanding the meaningfulness of gesture and communication in general, especially in relation to vocal and instrumental music pedagogy.…”