Holly Miller Jones and Drs. Roger Drinkall and Dian Baker, Music
This research grant allowed me to spend time studying something with which I have been fascinated for years. As a long-time serious music student, I have seen a surprising disparity in the musical progress of students devoting comparable hours to practicing their instrument. I have been at times amazed at the musical proficiency of certain fellow students who spend two to four hours per day practicing; at other times, discouraged at the lack of musical proficiency of other fellow students, who spend up to twice that much time practicing.
Most music students receive private instruction once a week, usually lasting from a halfhour to an hour. Between these private lessons, however, there are hours and hours of practice time, where the student is left alone to solve the musical problems of his or her pieces. Therefore, the music student is his or her own teacher for the majority of the time he or she spends making music. Eventually, all music students will not have even weekly private lessons, and will need to become independent of a teacher, and totally capable of teaching themselves. As one author describes it:
“Practice is teaching yourself to be student and teacher at the same time; and success depends to a great extent on how well you teach yourself. Someone else can tell you and show you how to play the instrument, or inspire you by a beautiful interpretation. But even then, as performers, we still have to do our own practicing ourselves, most of the time alone and without help. Ultimately only the player can ‘teach’ himself the actual means of playing and performing.”1
My hypothesis was that, excepting rare cases of musical prodigies, musicianship is not the result of chance, or of number of years of study, or even of “musical talent,” as most people may think of it, but musicianship is the result of effective practicing. I believe that the music students who make the most progress and who show the most ability are practicing in an integrally different way than other student with comparable practice hours who do not show as much progress or ability. (The ability to practice effectively may be the real definition of “talent.”) I want to capture the methodology that the effective students are either consciously or unconsciously using in their practice time.
This topic is very relevant for music teachers who need to teach their students to be able to practice effectively. Whether a university professor or a neighborhood teacher, all teachers need to realize the importance of training their students to be independent musicians who are able to teach themselves. This study is also very relevant for students who will eventually be on their own musically. Before receiving this grant, and undertaking this project, I had largely gathered information of this type through observation or through my own trials-and-errors, never having taken an opportunity to conduct my own clinical research. As a result, I learned as much about doing this type of research as I did about the topic I chose. It was only in the process of doing that I realized which of the research methods initially proposed were realistic or helpful. I realized that in order to find results of any coherence or credibility, I needed to further focus my topic, and set some clarifying limits to my research methodology.
I decided to focus my research on memorization, which plays a role of significance especially to pianists, who ever since Liszt have traditionally performed only from memory. Memorization usually begins even with the most beginning of beginners, and grows in importance and in the amount of time it demands as the pianist advances in ability. Without good memorization during performance, all other good qualities of the music fade drastically or are lost altogether. Memory is a critical skill for the performing pianist of any age group.
I gathered information first from written sources, reading many books, articles, interviews and conference proceedings found in the BYU library and in the personal libraries of my mentors, Roger and Dian Drinkall. I found this reading provocative, and it helped me not only in furthering this project, but also in my own practicing. Reading a variety of materials helped me to see where there is ambiguity in research already done, and what methodologies had been successful in the past. I gathered the relevant information I found as I read. From this point, I broadened my research to include interviewing college-age students pursuing performing degrees. I experimented widely on the theories recommended by others by implementing them in my own practicing. I plan to gather more data by having others do the same, so the findings would be more useful to a broader population.
One of the most interesting facts that I found, is that most publications about practicing do not rely at all on organized research, but rely instead on the observations of the author either as performer or as teacher. I saw a definite lack of research in this area that involved systemized or scientific research methodologies. I think that there is a need for such research, and that there would be a ready audience to read it. This is especially useful and interesting information to me as I graduate and eventually begin my own career. I appreciated having the opportunity and challenge to work on a research project of this type. The experience has excited me to continue to explore this aspect of my chosen specialty.
References
- Gerle, R. 1983. p. 9. In: The Art of Practising the Violin.. Stainer & Bell Ltd, Great Britain.