Keys and Cords: A Comparison of Piano and Vocal Teaching Strategies

Renske Luijten

The profession of a music teacher has developed over the past years in a way where teachers are required to be more versitale and not focussed on one specific element. A lot of collegues of mine, including myself, work at a music school where they teach children not only their main instrument, but also a secondary instrument, in my case piano. This brings up interesting challanges as a lot of teaching strategies overlap, but there might also be approaches that differ between various instruments. In this research, we explore how private vocal lessons compare to private piano lessons and what the specific teaching strategies are of these instruments. Following up on this, we analyze how these finding inspire my own teaching practice and how one instrument might benefit from the teaching strategies of the other instrument. This research includes a dive into already existing literature, interviews with Conservatory teachers who specify in vocal and piano pedagogy and interviews with private school teachers. Additionally, observations were made of multiple vocal and piano lessons given by myself as well as the other teachers mentioned above.

8. Acknowledgement

Writing this research has been a journey that I did not go through alone. I got support from a lot of people who I would like to thank. First of all I want to thank my supervisor Adri de Vugt. Adri inspired me multiple times during my masters. He helped contructing my ideas and shaped them into clear goals. His understanding for my questions gave me the confidence to persevere.

I am also very gratefull for the support of my boyfriend Yannick Jochems. He really supported me during hard times and made the work more manageable when I couldn't oversee it anymore.

Furthermore, I want to thank my sister who helped me to figure out the important parts of the research, my mother who supported me with her care and my father who read my whole research and gave me feedback.

Also important, I want to thank all the teachers that participated. The possibility to observe their lessons and pick their brains during the interviews was an important part of my reseach and I couldn't have done it without them.

In addition to that, I want to thank all the students that allowed me to oberve their lessons. I know it can be scary to be observed during a lesson, so I appreciate your bravery.

Lastly, I want to thank my peers, who helped me with all my questions and guided me to where I am now.

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