We know, as music educators, that technique and technical exercises are necessary elements of any well-rounded daily improvement process. However, we also know that technique should always exist in service to musicianship, and to that end, we should take every opportunity to have our students apply their technique to real, actual music. For this reason, music, meaning composed pieces, are excellent curricular resources, and especially when learning new techniques, new pieces can offer great “real-world” application opportunities. We do this as a matter of course with beginners – think Hot Cross Buns, Hunter’s Chorus, and a million other beginner-book etudes – however, with older students, solos offer a fantastic opportunity to apply new techniques. It also gives students practice with all the other elements of musicianship: learn new music, combine notes in new patterns, and work on melody, line, phrasing, balance, tone quality, etc. (While there are etude books that are collections of solos, each of which is focused on only one technique, I like to be able to draw from a myriad of sources and tailor my annual selections to the students in the program, so I can best meet their needs and address their strengths and weaknesses.)
We also, as musicians, tend to think that it is necessary for students to learn an entire piece of music, beginning to end, in order to “finish the process” or “do it justice” or what have you. However, when utilizing a piece of music as a curricular resource – when we’re just learning a solo in order to apply a new technique to real music – it’s really not necessary to learn the whole piece (especially in the keyboard realm, where it may take students longer to learn notes, and where access to instruments is often limited). Rather, you can think of it almost as a quick trip to the grocery store: get what you came for, and move on! This also allows students to experience more music, which may allow them exposure to more styles and types of pieces, in a given year.
I particularly like to do this when learning four-mallet skills with 7th& 8thgraders (intermediate percussionists). For example…
o Single Independent strokes: first page of “Fry” by Mark Ford
o Single Alternating strokes: “Sea Refractions” by Mitchell Peters (omit the chorale at the beginning; can cut end as well)
o Double Vertical Strokes: “Suite Mexicana,” mvt 1, by Keith Larson: mvt. 1, first page
o Combination Strokes: “Rain Dance” by Alice Gomez, first 2-4 lines
For my middle schoolers, I often set up a pass-off or testing system where we spend 2-3 weeks focused on each solo in turn. They can pass off a solo to me or to a lesson teacher; it doesn’t have to be memorized, but it does have to be correct, meaning, at or close to an assigned tempo, right notes and rhythms, and some musicality (dynamics/shaping) – just a straight, slow iteration of notes and rhythms is not enough. Alternatively, if I have a group that is not internally or competitively motivated, I’ll do graded tests of the material; students can still pass off with a lesson teacher in order to move on to the next solo for their festival assignment.
This approach allows students to play music that is fairly straightforward from a notes perspective, apply the new technique with a little challenge, and hopefully play something that is approachable and musical. And when it comes time to settle on a solo for a festival performance, students often feel empowered because they already have some partially learned pieces in their back pocket; some will go on to pick up a completely new piece, while some will want to complete something that was previously assigned but not fully learned. Either way, they’ve built confidence by learning real notes already.
This approach can be adapted to students of any scholastic or experience level, and to any instrument family, as long as sufficient time is allowed in the curriculum and the pieces at hand are selected intelligently based on the student’s abilities and needs.