Success in Class Teaching

By Clarence G. Hamilton
How to Conduct Special Classes in Musical Subjects

Recently I inquired of a group of fifteen young women music teachers how many were engaged in any form of class instruction. Of the seven found to be thus occupied, three had classes in two-piano sight-reading, one in solfeggio, one in orchestral practice, three in history, two in harmony, and one in what she termed "spontaneous work with children." Two had held from time to time "mothers' classes," in which the parents were advised how to superintend their children's practice, and what the effects of such practice should be--a procedure fraught with excellent results, it appeared.

Of those who did not hold classes the plea was lack of time. Their energies were so occupied, they asserted, in keeping pupils up to the mark in their private work, that it seems useless to attempt anything further. Most of these teachers, it is fair to state, give carefully-prepared pupil recitals from time to time, which are themselves a form of class work.

In the light of these discoveries, let us raise the question if class work is really worth while, entailing as it does, many sacrifices on the part of the teacher. To this question I answer unhesitatingly yes; for no form of activity is so eminently fitted to break up the dull routine of the teacher's life, and to bring him inevitably into touch with new ideas. A round of private lesson-giving continued year after year is certain to result in conventional and perfunctory work, unless the teacher takes care to absorb each season a new set of thoughts and new musical interests. Fortunately, music is a many-sided subject, and any one of a dozen or more of its phases can profitably be studied up and developed in connection with class work, to the lasting benefit of both teacher and pupils. Let us draw up a list of some of these phases.

Classes in Technic

First may be placed classes in technic, in which the finger motions involved in the manipulation of an instrument, or the "voice-placings" for vocal work are analyzed and systematized. Such classes naturally form an adjunct to private instruction, forestalling many mechanical details, and thus leaving room for more interpretative criticisms in private instruction. For this work the groups of pupils should generally be small, perhaps limited to three or four students apiece, in order that the needs of each one may adequately be met.

Next, there is the study of the rudiments of music, valuable work for preparing a solid background for private study and practice. Young pupils may be drilled upon such subjects as the construction of the staff, clef and time signatures, note formation and placing, elementary rhythms and scale formation; while more advanced pupils will be given some account of acoustics, as well as a more extensive discussion of melody, rhythm and harmony. An important feature of the course will be ear-training, which may be developed in connection with each phase of the subject as it arises.

Classes in Sight-Reading

Closely analogous to this work is that of sight-reading. The piano teacher may do worlds of good by drilling classes of four each in ensemble playing upon two pianos, in which not only eight-handed music, but also four-hand duets with each part doubled are read at sight at a moderate tempo and with merciless continuity. The violinist with his orchestral classes and the voice teacher with classes in part-singing have plenty of opportunity for splendid developments.

Some pupils are eager to grasp the meaning of musical theory. For this purpose classes in harmony, both elementary and advanced, and more rarely a class in counterpoint, may be provided. There is too the subject of musical form, limitless in its possibilities. All these classes give the teacher an opportunity to discover and encourage any latent talent for composition which may appear. The classes should be small, as their results depend largely upon individual criticism.

Classes in Interpretation

No species of class work, however, is more valuable than that of interpretation. Classes for the study of this subject may or may not have technical knowledge as a prerequisite. They give especially valuable aid in connection with the private instruction of pupils. Pieces which the latter are studying or have studied are brought to the class. Each is performed in turn, and afterwards analyzed. The composer is discussed, his epoch, his nationality, rank and style. Next, the general make-up of the piece is taken up, its metric, tempo, rhythmic and melodic details, large divisions and complete form. In the elementary classes in the simplest of these details are illuminated, while more advanced work includes the harmonic construction, aesthetic effects and other intimate characteristics of the composition.

These classes, however, are not necessarily confined to private pupils. Former pupils, too busy to continue strenuous work but anxious to keep up their practice, will find a ready means of absorbing new musical ideas. The teacher may assign definite work to each of these students, of which the results are discussed in the class.

For the general listener, the interpretation class assumes the role of a course in appreciation. The instructor cannot now rely upon immediate assistance from his students, but must furnish illustrations himself. A valuable aid toward the success of such a course may be provided by enlisting assistants from other branches of the musical fraternity. The piano teacher, for instance, may call upon his violinist or vocalist friend for special illustrative material. In giving this course it should be borne constantly in mind that the students wish to know what to listen for and how to listen to it. So the various factors of sound which are employed in music--tone, pitch, duration, intensity, color and the forms into which these are molded, should be explained seriatim, while their applications and values are noted in actual practice.

Classes in Musical History

Of wide application also, are the courses in music history. Young pupils can be made acquainted with the life stories and aims of the masters; while older students should penetrate more deeply into the causes of things, should study the evolution of the art in the early ages and the result of such evolution in the works of the great tone-poets. People wish to know, also, what is actually going on in the music world; so the course should extend to modern masters, with an account of their deeds and peculiarities and the probably significance of their accomplishments. Here again copious and typical illustrations are necessary to give vitality and meaning to the discussion. In treating of Bach, for instance, the instructor may play a Two-Part Invention and a Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavichord as examples of his contrapuntal style; a part of one of his Suites to show his exaltation of dance forms,; and some of the freer Preludes or even the Chromatic Fantasie as samples of his glimpses into the future.

Finally we should mention that advanced class work which may prove the most important of all, but which is necessarily dealt with only by an instructor of much experience--namely, that which aims to prepare teachers for their profession. It so often happens that young students plunge into the profession of teaching music without the slightest preparatory guidance, that the older instructors should consider it their solemn duty to guard against the dire results which follow such a procedure, so far as they may be able. Hence the class in which pedagogic principles are illuminated by the light of practical work with young pupils.

Such are some, at least, of the lines of activity open to the wide-awake teacher. "But," you say, "How am I to carry out any such elaborate scheme as this? Pupils come to me for private lessons, and do not propose to have all this extra material foisted upon them. Besides, I have neither the time nor strength to prepare such complicated courses." The point is well taken. Let us consider, however, how far class work may be practicable.

We premise that the various lines of work suggested simply offer material for selection. Three or four hours of class teaching per week are perhaps all that the average teacher can undertake with success. The subjects and materials for this work can be varied year by year, however, with the result that the teacher's enthusiasm is constantly whetted by the exploitation of new ideas, and that many of the same students are retrained for consecutive seasons.

Three conditions must be fulfilled in order that the courses may attain success; there must be a fair number of pupils; the work must not be made burdensome; and it must be so presented as to create and retain enthusiasm.

How to Get Up a Class

I. How to fill the classes is a perplexing but not insoluble problem. Many pupils spend all the time and money they can afford upon private lessons. But the teacher should point out to these that their progress will be much facilitated and their knowledge of music infinitely broadened by class training on certain fundamental lines, which must necessarily be worked out much more slowly in the private lessons, and must accordingly draw heavily upon the time therein spent. For instance, the structure of scales can be studied in class with a great saving in the individual lesson time. In the case of children, parents must be advised with and shown the benefits of having a child meet with others of the same age to make intimate acquaintance with the materials and composers of music. Outside one's own clientele the public may be appealed to by carefully-worded circulars for the general works in history or appreciation. Success, too, begets success; and after patrons have realized the advantages accruing from the classes, the continuance and enlargement of them will be easily effected.

Make the Work Inexpensive

II. Classes should not be burdensome to pupils through the expenditure of either money or time. The teacher should bear in mind that this department of his work is designed, first and foremost, to increase his own and his pupils' musical culture, and not as a scheme for financial enrichment. Let the price be fixed, certainly at the outset, at a minimum figure, which may be the same in the aggregate as that asked for private lessons; for instance, if the teacher's price for an individual lesson be two dollars, each one of a class of four may pay fifty cents for the same time. Later on, if the classes gain in popularity, a higher figure may be fixed; but care should be exercised that the fee be not pushed beyond reasonable limits, thus becoming prohibitive to the very pupils, perchance, who would prove most desirable.

One Meeting a Week

Under modern conditions the teacher cannot ordinarily hope to claim a class for more than one meeting per week. While in the short teaching season, with its many holiday interruptions, this limits the scope of one's accomplishments severely, let us bow gracefully to the inevitable, and arrange our work accordingly. It may even be necessary to place the class every other week. Ensemble work or interpretation study, both of which are naturally supplementary to the private lessons, can be carried on profitably in lessons somewhat infrequent; while a subject like harmony or history requires more continuous treatment, in order to become effective. Let the teacher carefully feel the pulse of his clients, putting upon them no more work than can be successfully executed, and remembering also that, while manifold meetings might well be productive of more profit, a few wisely guided lessons are certainly better than none at all.

As to the burden upon the teacher, we need say but little. Some sacrifices must be made, but the returns are so rich in added inspiration and knowledge as to be an ample recompense. Such work must carry with it the joy of accomplishment and an added breadth of view which should annul all semblance of irksomeness.

Enthusiasm and Earnestness

III. It is, indeed, this very enthusiasm and earnestness in the teacher which must be the most potent factor in winning and retaining the interest of the students. First of all, the instructor must be fully primed in regard to the subject which he is to teach. If he is to exploit Musical History, for example, he should gather together all the best books relating to the subject and study them diligently, perhaps during the previous summer vacation, making meanwhile copious notes from each authority. From these notes, and from added perusal of all other data available, he then sketches out a plan for a course which shall be properly apportioned to the number of lessons to be given. This plan may now be further developed in a syllabus which outlines distinctly the line of thought to be presented at each lesson. Thus he should be prepared to present each phase of his subject lucidly, and to answer pertinent questions concerning it.

Not only should each lesson represent a definite stage in the development of the subject chosen, but the course as a whole should have a unified design. A series of ten lessons upon Music in the Nineteenth Century, for instance, might be divided into ten epochs, beginning with the work of Beethoven and Schubert, and ending with that of Wagner and his followers. Thus the students will feel that they have been given a comprehensive outlook upon an important cycle of events.

In conducting the lessons, much should be made of punctuality both at the beginning and at the end of each. Lateness of the students should be frowned upon, and each lesson should begin upon the dot. Too much material, also, should not be prepared for the allotted time. The value of concentration and of terminating the lesson as scheduled is also all-important as a means for retaining interest; for nothing is more irksome to a class than the evident inability of a teacher to fit his ideas into their authorized limits.

Real interest in class work, however, must depend in the last analysis upon the continual mental activity of the students. They should seldom be allowed to sit back and passively listen; for through that gate their minds are sure to wander off to foreign fields. Rather let them be given something to do that will occupy their attention every moment. Let us see how this may be done.

Ensemble Classes

In ensemble classes, piano quartet, orchestra or vocal drill, this condition is already provided for. In other classes the teacher should spend a part of the time is asking questions of the students and in getting them to ask questions in return. Nothing is more stimulating than such a rapid-fire discussion. During the remainder of the time the students should take notes. In the History and Appreciation classes, for instance, each student should be provided with note-book and pencil, and should fill the former by writing down whatever strikes him as important, and also certain facts which the teacher definitely dictates. Similar methods can be followed in the classes in Technic and Fundamentals, while the time of the Harmony and Counterpoint classes may be occupied mainly by intimate criticisms of work presented, and general discussion of the same.

Nowhere will the teacher require so much tact, however, as in the conduct of the children's classes. Valuable as these may become, they must yet, as a rule, be carried on at a time when the pupils are either tired from school work, or else restive at the preemption of their holiday. Extraordinary means, therefore, must be devised in order that their attention may not swerve.

Our kindergarten friends have pointed out the value of frequently shifting the line of activity. A subject should not be dwelt upon till it becomes tiresome, but a single truth should be driven home and then an entirely new interest developed. The teacher, for instance, may discuss briefly the value of notes; then proceed to explain the form of a little piece which is played; then tell a story about its composer. Meanwhile the children must have something to do. While the teacher explains note-values, they may draw fac-similes of notes in their books, or cut them out of paper, or select them from a box of pasteboard notes already cut out. When the piece is played they may draw diagrams of its divisions, and be asked to explain what the music does in each of these; and when the story of the composer is told, they should be asked to listen and tell it after the teacher, or write it down if they are old enough.

Children, too must not be addressed by abstract truths, but by truths clothed in concrete form. The notes cut out of pasteboard, to which allusion has been made, are things to be seen and handled, and will therefore appeal directly to the small pupil's intelligence. Similarly, in treating of composers anecdotes and characteristics should be cited which the children can comprehend, because they come within the limits of their experience. Musical games are another available factor, appealing as they do to the play instinct. So the teacher must constantly keep an inventive mind at work, in order to make an effective connection between what is to be taught and the calibre of the mind which is to receive it.

It is very desirable that the children should have a definite end in view as a reward for their efforts. Let there be some way, therefore, of especially recognizing merit. The pupils may each have a car, for instance, upon which the teacher will paste stars when they are properly earned, a red one for attendance, a blue one for punctuality, and a gift one for a well-learned lesson. Then, when the term is up, a prize is given for the best showing of each color, a game for attendance, a musician's portrait for punctuality, a music satchel for good lessons.

Success in class teaching must be won, in a word, by perseverance, tact and enthusiasm. The material gains will not be great under the best of conditions; but the teacher will receive a more ample recompense in increased acquaintance with the various manifestations of music, in familiarity with the handling of its elusive materials, and in the joy of free intercourse with new spheres of intellectual activity. It is through such work, too, that the message of music is to be sped abroad, to beautify all phases of life by its humanizing influence.