Teaching a Partwork Piece on Barred Instruments
I’ve always had trouble teaching a two part or more song to students and was wondering if you have any insight on how to do it successfully?
Blog Post: Scaffolding Mallet Instruction
Before the Lesson: Prep
Play all the parts yourself.
What feels tricky? What is the sticking you want students to use?
In the Moment: Teacher Demeanor
Keep your demeanor upbeat.
It can be frustrating to see students struggle with something you think should be easy. Take it as information from the students.
Ask the students: What about this is difficult for you? What should we do? What do you need from me? Students think their answer, discuss with a shoulder partner, and share out. Students are intuitive. We don’t need to solve everything for them all the time. We can help them identify challenges. This is a tie-in with universal design for learning, and with social and emotional learning (self-management). Sometimes we just need more practice.
Guidelines to Teaching Partwork
Every Student Learns Every Part
Music is for everyone - there aren’t special parts for special musicians or the strongest players. This helps partwork and listening skills as well.
What if you were a flute player and you knew what to listen for in the low brass line? How would that help the ensemble? How many times as a student did you hear the director say, “listen back” without clarifying what to listen for?
The Body is the First Instrument
This is why we play the parts ourselves before we teach it.
If we can do it off the instruments, we can play it on the instruments. Use speech and movement.
What is the purpose of the piece? What is the pedagogical goal? How can we use that understanding to help the performance?
Practice Partwork Off the Instruments
Vary the groupings and the independence required for each group to be successful. The smaller you make the groups, or the more distance you have between groups, the more partwork independence practice students will get.
Start with the whole class doing one part and you doing another. Gradually progress to three student groups.
Random Tips:
Keep your eyes up!
Turn the instrument.
