Finding the muse: Teaching musical expression to adolescents in the one-to-one studio environment

Abstract

One-to-one music lessons are a common and effective way of learning a musical instrument. This investigation into one-to-one music teaching at the secondary school level explores the teaching of musical expression by two instrumental music teachers of brass and strings. The lessons of the two teachers with two students each were video recorded over a six-week period. This data were transcribed, coded and content analyzed. The results showed that the teachers used a variety of strategies to teach musical expression and the teacher’s choice of approach seems less important than ensuring that the student has a good understanding of the approach. Furthermore, the traditional strategies for teaching musical expression may benefit from the inclusion of approaches designed to enable young students to begin to create personal meaning in their music making. Teachers, therefore, might consider reading research findings on creative learning and devise strategies for its application in their music studios.