4. Results
In this chapter the results of the observations and interviews will be discussed. The results will be organized according to the interview questions, followed by separate findings. With each question, differences and similarities between piano lessons and vocal lessons were found. In this chapter only the relevant findings will be discussed.
4.1 Structure of the lesson
4.1.1 Mental check
In both singing and piano lessons, teachers started their lessons with a mental check to see what the state of mind of the student was. The questions asked in the singing lesson were more thorough than the questions asked in the piano lessons. Teacher CV1 and CV2 also emphasized the importance of the checkup at the beginning of the lessons. They stated that they needed this checkup to see how challenging the lessons could be and that if something came up during the lessons, they would already know the cause of it.
Teacher CV1: “Maar als ik weet dat bijvoorbeeld iemand niet lekker in z'n vel zit, omdat ze slecht geslapen hebben, dan kan dat iets verklaren, halverwege de les bijvoorbeeld als ik iets tegenkom. En waar ik me dan niet per se direct zorgen over hoef te maken als ik weet dat er iets is.”
Teacher CV2: “You have a student coming in, and you see how they are doing this week, that’s why I ask: ‘how are you, did you have a cold?’ And if I hear that something is going on. So, I look technical how far I can go. But there is always this kind of like connection even before you sing, just to see how far you can go and what is the tension.”
This corresponds with the research of Burwell (2006), as she found that health is more discussed during vocal lessons. It can also be connected to the research of Welch & Sundberg (2002) as they state that your physical and mental state influences your voice behavior. A logical result is thus to talk more about the mental and physical state of the student, as is shown, and even more, that the technical level of the lesson is determined from this mental check. This last result is an interesting addition as it didn’t occur in the piano lessons and wasn’t discussed in any of the research.
4.1.2 Warm-up
A warmup was used in the singing lessons, this warmup was not used in the piano lessons. Teacher AV stated that she didn’t just do a warm-up, but that she always connected this to the technical exercises that would be needed for the lesson. The other singing teachers later also stated this.
4.1.3 Repertoire
In all the lessons, working on the repertoire took up a big part. While working on this repertoire, technical exercises and expression exercises were added to enhance the repertoire. All the piano teachers stated that it was important to be diverse in the lessons and that the repertoire should be addressed in different ways.
Teacher CP1 “Maar variatie is wel een ding dat ik gewoon heel belangrijk vind.”
As Hallam (2018) already found that more lesson elements as playing by ear and improvisation are added to the lessons nowadays, it is a nice addition from CP1 to always try to be diverse in the piano lessons and be creative with the material that is offered. It is interesting to see that none of these additional lesson elements were mentioned by vocal teachers in this research or any other research.
4.1.4 Harmony
Musical harmony played a substantial part in the piano lessons while harmony was not addressed in the vocal lessons. Teacher CP1 stated this multiple times in the interview.
Teacher CP1: “Dus harmonie is een heel belangrijke component van piano leren spelen, ook al in een beginnend niveau.”
The only time a bit of harmony was used in the lessons, was when a vocal student had to sing a warmup exercise on a certain chord. Teacher CV1 did add that if there was more time, implementing harmony would be a nice addition to the lessons.
Teacher CV1: “En daar kunnen we nog meer de diepte in gaan. Zodat je het ook nog meer kan hebben over expressie, presentatie, maar ook, hoe kleur je nou met dat akkoord? Waarom is het als je bijvoorbeeld een G moet zingen. Waarom klinkt hij nu hier anders dan daar, terwijl het dezelfde toon is.”
4.1.5 Improvisation
During the observed vocal lessons, improvisation wasn’t a part of the lesson. Teacher AV even stated that she didn’t implement improvisation into her lessons. Even though improvisation also wasn’t used in the piano lesson at the conservatory, the piano teachers did mention it and it was a significant part of the piano lessons in the amateur realm. In every lesson, the teacher would conclude with an improvisation, where the teacher played some chords, and the student could improvise. This also corresponds to the research of Hallam (2018) and has the same interesting remark as stated earlier, the absence of the improvisation during the vocal lessons.
4.1.6 Studying
In the piano lessons there was also some attention for the way of studying. Teacher CP2 explained that piano is an instrument you can study for eight hours a day and it is important this happens in the effective way.
Teacher CP2: “Een enkele conservatoriumdocent besteedt een substantieel deel aan het begeleiden van het oefenen. Wat in de zin bij het piano echt heel erg terecht is, want het zijn heel erg veel uren, meer zo meer uren dan je als zanger überhaupt kunt maken.
This corresponds with the Hallam (2018) as she talks about the necessity of commitment and practice in order to learn to play an instrument, and also with Williams (2019) who writes not only about the importance of practice, but about the importance of quality practice.
4.1.7 End of the lesson
All lessons would conclude in repeating the learned skills and discussing the homework. This is in line with the Herbert as written by Baker-Jordan (2004) where the importance of repetition is emphasized. This last repetition at the end of the lesson contributes to this theory.
4.2. Giving instructions
4.2.1 Examples
All observed lessons showed that instructions were mostly given by making an example. All teachers would try to explain something and would then first demonstrate how the exercise or instruction was meant to be executed. Teacher AP, CP2 and CV1 also used a lot of questions to initiate their instructions.
4.2.2 Sheet music
In all piano lessons, sheet music was used to clarify the instructions and intentions. Student and teacher would both look at the sheets and point out or discuss certain aspect, followed by a sheet music-based instruction from the teacher. These kinds of instructions weren’t used in any of the singing lessons.
4.2.3 Finding the right instruction.
In the singing lessons, the teachers sometimes had to think about the right way to formulate the instructions to make it fit the needs of the students. Teacher CV1 explained that it is sometimes hard to be specific, because every voice and every body is different and some instructions work with one student, but do absolutely not work with another student.
Teacher CV1: “Want het is met zingen soms heel moeilijk om heel specifiek te zijn … Iedereen heeft zijn eigen instrument natuurlijk bij zich … Want wat voor de ene werkt, werkt voor de ander totaal niet … Dus dat, ja, dat is een beetje een onderzoek. Je bent gewoon aan het onderzoeken.”
It was expressed during the interview that also the invisibility of the voice sometimes makes it difficult to be specific. As a teacher you cannot see how it feels for your students, so you have to ask how it felt and go on from that.
Neither of the difficulties described above were found in the observations of the piano lessons, nor in the interviews with the piano teachers.
These results are explainable when looking at the literature, where is already written that well developed eyes and ears are needed in order to diagnose what is going on with the voice and what the student is doing. The perceived obstacles are a reasonable consequence.
4.2.4 Metaphors
Metaphors were used as a way to give instructions in all lessons, vocal and piano, conservatory and amateur. However, none of the teachers talked about it during the interviews, only teacher AV stated that she still uses metaphors, but that she tries to be a bit more technical. As discussed in the literature, using metaphors in instruction is connected to two theories, implicit motor learning theory and the theory of external focus. Williams (2018) already stated that implicit motor learning is a successful theory for learning and performing music. Thus, seeing the use of metaphors was to be expected. Burwell (2006) did find the use of metaphors more present in vocal lessons, compared to instrumental lessons. Looking at our study, we cannot contradict that, because we did not specifically look at the frequency metaphors were used, but we can only conclude that metaphors are present in both vocal and piano lessons.
4.2.5 Small steps
In both singing and piano lessons, the teachers made sure that the instructions were given in small steps. However, the reasons for this appeared to be different for both instrumental teachers. Teacher CV2 explained that there had to be small steps in order to let the student feel, hear, understand and physically process all the given information.
Teacher CV2: “Dus dat is een combinatie van het voelen, horen en vervolgens technisch verwerken en begrijpen. En soms juist komen die puntjes samen omdat je dat begrijpt.”
Teacher CP2 elaborated that the small steps were needed to make the motoric challenge more manageable, because of the coordination between two hands.
Teacher CP2: “Want het gaat om die lastige coördinatie en dan kun je, denk ik, veel beter tussenstappen zoeken … Dus er zijn specifiek voor de piano, bijvoorbeeld gekoppeld aan de moeilijkheid van het coördineren van twee of meer dingen, zijn er specifieke instructies of werkvormen of oefenvormen te vinden die veel minder een rol spelen bij een melodie-instrument. “
The small steps of the vocal lessons correspond with the results of Welch & Sundberg (2002), who stated that bigger steps can result in anxious and sensitive students, as bigger vocal tasks are harder to interpreted, so simpler vocal tasks are advised. With the results of our study, we come to the same conclusion, although we go a bit deeper and find another explanation for the smaller steps, namely the connection between voice and all the muscles in the body.
As the piano teachers also use smaller steps, needed for the connection or the coordination between two components (two hands in this case), this lesson element is important for both instruments. It is interesting to see that dosing the explanation can serve multiple purposes with different instruments.
4.3. Giving feedback
4.3.1 Structured feedback
When giving feedback, all teachers agreed in giving feedback in a constructive way. While the pillars of Hattie’s concept were not seen very consciously, “feed back”, “feed up” and “feed forward” were seen in all lessons. They were not given very structured, but more ‘between the lines’ of the lesson. Whereas this way of giving feedback was used in all lessons, only the singing teachers emphasized the important of constructive feedback and made clear that feedback should never be given directly about the person itself, but only about the way of doing something. Teacher CV2 also made a distinction between good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, and convincing and not convincing. The singing teachers explained that this way of giving feedback was important, not only to make the feedback constructive, but to also take into account that the voice is a very personal and emotional instrument and is connected to you as a person.
Teacher CV2: “De vocale klank is iets dat echt verbonden is met je eigen identiteit, als mens … De spreekstem is hoe iemand is, maar met technische aanwijzingen kan je iemand feedback geven zonder dat je iemand zijn stem beledigt … Want spreekstem is alles dat je van huis meeneemt en hoe je bent als persoon.”
“The Voice is a very emotional instrument. And it's a very personal thing, as you mentioned yourself. So, I take into account to make as neutral comments as possible.”
Welch & Sundberg (2002) state that the voice is an essential element of self-identity, it is a logical result that feedback is given with care.
4.3.2 Asking questions
In both piano and singing lessons, teachers tried to give feedback by asking questions to the student, and as a result, the student would then give itself feedback by self-reflection.
4.3.3 Mirroring
In singing lessons, feedback was given by mirroring: repeating the example and let the student listen and find out what happened. This technique was also used in the piano lessons, but less frequently. Teacher CV1 also emphasized the use of mirroring in the interview.
4.4. Choice of repertoire
There was a big difference in obtaining the repertoire between the instrumental and vocal lessons. None of the singing teachers used a music method book or a book with song connected to a learning-curve. All the repertoire used in the lessons was selected by either the student or the teacher. Teacher CV1 and CV2 explained that half of the repertoire was chosen by the student and half by the teacher, teacher AV stated that 75% came from the students. All three teachers made clear that it was important that students could choose their own songs. In contrast to the singing teachers, the piano teachers stated that a songbook was often used, especially in the amateur lessons. Even though the conservatory teachers didn’t use the methods for their own lessons, they made it clear that using a method is very common in piano lessons. Besides the methods, piano teachers also let students bring their own songs and sometimes suggest songs. Teacher AP explained that 75% of the repertoire comes from a music-method and that the rest is filled in with songs the student brings or suggestion the teacher gives.
4.5. Physical position of the teacher
The position of the piano teachers during the observation of the lessons was quite clear: next to the student. However, teacher CP1 answered that he was ‘all over the room’ during the lessons. The position of the singing teachers was also quite similar, they all switch between behind the piano, in front of the student, next to the student and behind the student. Teacher CV1 emphasized that it was important to move during the lessons, to not be stuck behind the piano and to make sure that every aspect of the body was observed.
Teacher CV1: “Het is dus heel belangrijk, denk ik, voor mij zeker, om af en toe inderdaad daar te gaan staan. Omdat je dan soms ook weer dingen opvallen die je niet ziet van alleen maar de voorkant.”
For singing teachers, sitting behind the piano most of the time also resulted in playing the piano, which made it harder for the teacher to look at the student. CV1 also explained that to be able to fully focus on the student, getting away from the piano was necessary.
In all the lessons, teachers touched the students to clarify certain aspects, but only after asking if it was alright.
4.6. Miscellaneous results
Apart from the results above, there were some other interesting observations and answers during the lessons and interviews. The following results are not categorized in any way but presented randomly.
4.6.1 Goofiness
One of the results that stood out during the observations, was the goofiness of the vocal teachers during the lessons and the corresponding relaxed environment that came with it. A lot of the vocal students had to make weird sounds in order to achieve a certain sound, and this was sometimes found embarrassing by them. To get rid of this embarrassment, the teachers would give an example of the silly sounds themselves, resulting in a fun interaction between the student and the teacher. Teacher CV1 later explained that it is important for the teacher to appear sillier than the student, to make sure the students feel comfortable to try new things.
Teacher CV1: “En voor sommige leerlingen is dat raar. Dus dan zeg ik altijd van Ja, maar ik ben nog veel raarder dan jij … Ja, dat is altijd een enorme opluchting dat ik veel vreemder ben dan de leerling zelf.”
This kind of behavior was not seen in the piano lessons and was also not addressed by any of the piano teachers during the interviews.
The goofiness might be a way for the vocal teachers to get rid of some of the tension of anxious students (Howard 1982) and can also be explained by Serra-Dawa (2014) as she stated that ‘vocal teachers and student tend to behave more according to their personal and psychological characterization’. Reading this, it makes sense that vocal teachers behave a bit goofy. The lack of goofiness in the piano lessons can be explained by the lesser present connection between instrument and personality.
4.6.2 Wellbeing
For both piano and vocal lessons, the physical wellbeing of the student was important. All teachers made comments about the responsibility as a teacher to monitor and talk about the physical health of the students and that, to be a good teacher, you need to be aware of all the physical expects that come with playing the instruments. Teacher CV2 also added that, because the voice is an instrument that you cannot see, it is even more important to make sure that you know what’s going on inside a student and that the invisibility of the instruments doesn’t discharge you from this responsibility.
Teacher CV2: “I believe this is just a responsibly, sport teachers have it, piano teachers have it, violin teachers have it, if you have some disfunction with your back, they would not tell you to play that, and just because you cannot see our instrument, it doesn’t mean that it releases you as a teacher from responsibility and knowing the anatomy to absolutely top notch levels.”
This corresponds with the findings of Burwell (2006), Bigler & Osborne (2021), and Papageorgi & Kopiez (2018) all stating the importance of physical (and mental) health.
4.6.3 Sheet music and Reading notes
A noticeable result is the difference between the use of sheet music and additionally reading notes. Sheet music was used in none of the vocal lessons, while in all the piano lessons, student and teacher did work with it. As stated earlier, the use of sheet music played a role in giving instructions, but apart from that, it was also used as a way to indicate what had to be played. While vocal students only worked with their ears to learn new music, piano student could use their ears and additionally read the sheet music. The translation from music notes, to note names, to keys on the piano played a substantial part in the piano lessons, especially with beginner students. Teacher AP explained that it is quite hard for students to make this translation (a triangle as she called it) between written notes, audible tones and keys on the piano.
Teacher AP: “Je moet een noot kunnen lezen en je moet het vinden op de piano en dan moet je nog weten hoe dat heet ook. Dus je hebt echt, ik wil bijna zeggen, een driehoek of zo.”
4.6.4 Text and Lyrics
In addition to using sheet music, the use of lyrics during the lesson was also a clear outcome. In all the vocal lessons, text or lyrics was used while singing. All the repertoire played had lyrics in it and used it to express the emotion of the song. Burwell (2006) found this as well as she found the connection between interpretation and poetic and dramatic text and stated that a poetic or dramatic text must be understood, internalized, and communicated. While in the piano lessons lyrics was not directly used to play the repertoire, text was still used. A lot of written comments in the sheet music made it clear for the student how to play a certain piece of repertoire. Furthermore, the beginner piano student did use a lot of text or lyrics to play the music and also to express the music. Sometimes even without playing the notes and only playing the rhythm of the lyrics. For the vocal students and the beginner piano students, the lyrics is an important way of expression, telling a story with the music. For the advanced piano students, lyrics isn’t really used as a way of expression.
4.6.5 Accompanying
During one of the interviews, teacher CV1 highlighted an intriguing point: the challenges of simultaneously teaching and playing the piano. Accompanying the students during the lesson happened in every observed vocal lesson and was sometimes described as challenging. This corresponds with the results of Bigler & Osborne (2021). Additionally to the findings of Bigler & Osborne, most of the students in this study didn’t bring any lead sheets or chords to the lesson, so the teacher had to figure out how to accompany the students. Besides being able to play the piano, this adds another layer of harmonic and ear training capability to the teachers skill box. Teacher AV mentioned that she used a karaoke track if a piece is too difficult to play. Teacher CV1 revealed that it could sometimes be a distraction to have to play the piano and focus on the student.
Teacher CV1: “Dan moet dan inderdaad een klein beetje meespelen. Maar op het moment dat ik dat doe, ik ben geen pianist, duidelijk niet, dan merk ik toch dat ik heel erg gefocust ben op wat er voor me staat en minder op de leerling.”
While accompanying the student, the vocal teachers also had to listen to the students and give feedback, so a high level of multitasking was needed to accomplish this. This was experienced as a challenge, even for the experienced conservatory teachers. In contrast to this, all the piano teachers could solely listen to the students when they were playing something and didn’t have to multitask.
4.6.6 Asked preparation
The final result is the difference in expectation of preparation before the lessons. When the piano student and teacher would start with a new song, this song was, most of the times, started together in the lesson. Figuring out the new song would be done in the ‘repertoire-part’ of the lesson and when the lesson ended, the teachers asked the student to continue working on the song at home. Next lesson, the teacher would see how the students progressed and they would work again on the song. In contrast to this, when a vocal student started with a new song, it was expected that the student would already know the song, before coming to the lesson. Teacher AV even said that it would be a waste of time to learn the song in the lesson together.
Teacher AV: “Ja, verwacht ik dat wel ja. Dat gebeurt echt niet altijd. Want soms komen leerlingen wel eens hier en dan willen ze een lied doen en dan denk ik, ja, je hebt dit niet ingestudeerd. Gaan we dat nu een half uur samen instuderen? Vind ik dan echt zonde van de les.”
While piano students can learn a new song in the lessons and figure out the notes together with the teachers, vocal students have to figure out the new song on their own and come to the lesson knowing the song, sometimes even knowing it by heart. They would still work on the song in the lesson, but there won’t be any time spend to figure out the notes of the song.
4.7 Own teaching compared to the results
As my research started with observing my own practice, it is interesting to look back at that first observation and compare my teaching with the results above. To keep this chapter compact and uncluttered, only the noticeable differences will be explained.
4.7.1 Lesson structure
The slight difference in mental check at the beginning of the lesson, stated above being more thorough in vocal lessons than in piano lessons, wasn’t seen in my own lessons. Both piano and vocal students were asked almost exactly the same kind of questions. Another interesting difference is the quantity of repertoire in my vocal lessons. As teacher CP1 stated that variation in a lesson is important, I see the correspondence with my own piano lessons. Most of the time, 3 songs or more are covered in the lesson, while in my singing lessons, we sometimes work the whole lesson on one song.
4.7.2 Repertoire
A noticeable difference between my own teaching and the results above is the lack of expression in my piano lessons. The observed teachers stated that expression is an important part of working with the repertoire, in singing lessons as well as in piano lessons. But looking at my own lessons, working with expression only emerges in my vocal lessons, and not in my piano lessons. When working on the piano songs, correct notes and rhythms are gauges to decide whether to move on to the next song, and in singing lessons, also expression and interpretation is most of the times what is decisive for the continuation in repertoire.
4.7.3 Continuation of the lessons
In de vocal lessons, teacher CV1, CV2 and AV state that it can be a challenge to play the piano during the lesson. However, this did not influence the continuance of their lessons. They also stated that it can be difficult to find the right instruction that fits the student, but this also didn’t influence their lessonflow. When looking at my own lesson, it is clearly observable that the lesson flow is sometimes interrupted when I need to figure out some chords or when I need to think about certain instructions or feedback. In the piano lessons, this did not happen. The time when a student plays something on the piano gives me space to write things down, look things up or listen to the student and figure out where to go next.
4.7.4 Feedback
During my piano lessons the feedback that is given is less specific compared to my vocal lessons and compared to the conservatoire and private teachers. In my piano lessons, I tend to give feedback in a more general way on the student's playing whereas in my vocal lessons, I go more indepth into specific elements of the technique or sound.
Another observation is the caution with which the feedback is given. In the results above, the importance of being cautious while giving feedback to vocal students, emerges. In my own lessons, it is visible that this same cautiousness is implemented in both vocal and piano lessons. No distinction is made in the way of giving feedback, in both lessons, the way of giving feedback matches the approached of the vocal conservatoire teachers.
4.7.5 Goofiness
Concerning the goofiness presented above, this emerges in both my piano and vocal lessons. Compared to the results from the observations at the conservatoire, this differs as the goofiness was only found in vocal lessons.
4.8 Implementations from the other instrument
One of the topics that interested me at the beginning of the research is the implementation of teaching strategies from one instrumental to the other and visa versa. As Burwell (2006) concludes in the literature, instrumentalist can maybe adapt the approaches used in vocal lessons to enhance their teaching practice, as the voice is the most natural instrument. But not only the implementation from vocal to piano is interesting, it could work both ways. When reading this chapter, you should know that only our results and some of the theory where concluded. It is important to mention that what can be implemented in the strategies of the other instrument hasn’t been researched. So, the suggestions in this chapter are solely based on the comparison of the results above and can only suggest what might be interesting to implement from the other instrument. Keeping this in mind, there are a few interesting topics to discuss.
4.8.1 Warmup
As stated, a warmup was found in the vocal lessons, but not in the piano lessons. The vocal teachers used this warmup not only to literally warm up the voice, but to also implement technical exercises already. This might be an interesting addition to piano lessons. As in this way, the technical exercises are more implemented into the structure of the lesson. Apart from that, the warmup is often also seen as a mental warmup, where the students prepare itself for the work in the lesson. Implementing this could be a nice addition to the assurance of the mental health, as Papageorgi & Kopiez (2018) allocate this responsibility to the teachers.
4.8.2 Mental check
In addition to the chapter above, the mental check at the beginning of the lessons could also be a nice addition in piano lessons. As written, the mental check does occur in the piano lessons, but is less thorough. Moreover, the consideration of health in constructing the lesson plan could be a more valuable implementation from the other instrument, as vocal teachers take the mental and physical health of the student into account and construct the structure of the lesson according to this information. It would be a wonderful addition to also see this in piano lessons.
4.8.2 Variety of approaching the repertoire
The different teaching approaches regarding the repertoire in piano lessons can be an inspiration for the vocal lessons. As seen and heard during the interviews, piano teachers bring more variety into dealing with the repertoire and also emphasize the importance. It could be a nice addition in vocal lessons to find more ways to address the repertoire and bring more variation into the lesson.
4.8.3 Implementing harmony and improvisation
As written, harmony, music notes and improvisation play an important part in the piano lessons. Unfortunately, these elements were almost never found in the vocal lessons. It could be very beneficial to also implement these subjects into the vocal lessons. As teacher AV stated, the discomfort of improvisation restrains her from implementing this topic when she teaches. As the question to why this is uncomfortable to her wasn’t asked, we cannot conclude if it has anything to do with the lack of improvisation in her own prior vocal lessons. But one can imagine that the lack of something in one's background, results in the lack of that topic when reproducing your background. By starting to implement harmony and improvisation, vocal lessons can be enriched.
4.8.4 Focus on studying
In piano lessons, the focus on how to study is well represented. Even though vocal students do not study as long as piano student, as their instruments prohibit this, it could still be beneficial to put more focus on how to study and how to do this efficiently. Adding more focus on studying into vocal lessons could be a nice addition.
4.8.5 Physical position of the teacher
The physical position of the teacher in vocal lessons was much more mobile than in piano lessons. As most vocal teachers walk around to see the body of the student better, it could also be interesting for piano teachers to do this. The more information you get from the student about their playing, the better. I wanted to implement this already into my teaching and decided to just try and move more during my piano lessons. It was a nice addition as, I could see the position of the body of my students in a different way and I discovered some tension in his elbow that I hadn't notice before.
4.8.6 Lyrics
It is shown in the results and also in the literature that text and lyrics is used a lot in vocal lessons and almost never in de piano lessons. Only teacher AP used text to sing along with the beginner students. It could be interesting to see what happens when you implement text into the piano lessons, maybe self-made text, but text nonetheless. Or what happens when you take out the text in vocal lessons, and only work with sounds without words.
4.8.7 Goofiness
As vocal teachers appear to behave sillier during the lessons, resulting in a more relaxed learning environment, implementing this goofy behavior into the piano lessons could be a nice addition to improve the learning environment.
4.8.8 Asked preparation
Lastly, the difference in the asked preparation of repertoire at home might be an interesting strategy to look at. As piano teachers always first address the new repertoire in the lesson, before giving it as homework, it would be interesting to see what would happen if this would be also implemented in vocal lessons. The more thorough preparation of a song could lead to a faster learning curve and a more sufficient handling of struggles and difficulties in a song. This could also work visa versa, if piano students already learn the new song at home, there might be more time in the lesson to work on for instance expression, technique and articulation.