Pilot sessions

What took place

Over the course of the research several activities were organized and performed to experience the working with the material (the ‘testing of the cake’), gain insight in how this work is received at the student’s side and what the educational potential of it is. The activities were of various formats: pilot-sessions with students, workshops for colleagues and guest-students, one-to-one violin lessons with students at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, one-to-one violin lessons with pre-college students from the Academie Muzikaal Talent in Utrecht (age 11 – 15 years old) and sparring-sessions with colleagues.

The violin students at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague that were involved in pilot-sessions are mostly students that have violin as a secondary subject – they come from different departments: Preparatory Year, Music Education, Composition, Theory of Music, Practicum Musicae1, Jazz department  and Art of Sound. A few Bachelor Violin students took part in the pilot-sessions as well. The Academie Muzikaal Talent  (Academy of Musical Talent, AMT) is a school for highly talented youngsters between 8 and 18 years of age. Lessons take place at the Utrecht Conservatoire, that is generously offering hospitality to the AMT. Many ex-students of the AMT have found their way to a music study at one of the Dutch conservatoires or to a successful career as a musician. A small percentage moves on to an academic career (having a deep love for music inside them, mostly spending a lot of time on it still).

An overview of what took place:                                                                                                                     

Feedback from students

There were three options for gathering feedback information: a questionnaire, narrative interviews, and reflective talks.

The chosen format has been reflective talks, meaning that the feedback was communicated directly from the students in an open moment of reflection after the sessions took place. A questionnaire would have been too formal, therefore creating distance to the ‘heart of the feedback’. A narrative interview would have been the ‘bigger brother’ of the reflective talks and could have been a suitable tool as well. The choice for the reflective talks is based on the advantage that lies in their spontaneity and the flexible possibilities of when to let them happen. Information is still fresh,  not ‘censored’ or thought about too much beforehand and it leaves space for ‘communication between the lines’.

Another way of gathering feedback on pilot-sessions is the presence of an observer during sessions. This has happened on two occasions: the workshop in Finland has been attended by my research supervisor Bert Mooiman and discussed afterwards. The renown Dutch violinist and violin pedagogue Jaring Walta (faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire) observed  in a pilot-session  with one of his bachelor violin students. Because of time limitations, more opportunities to work with the presence of an observer could not be created, but there is an intention to do so in the future.The masterclasses at the Tristan Keuris Chamber Music Competition were open to public and the response of members of the public has been a useful source of feedback as well.

Thoughts and remarks from the reflective talks with students and observers:

• “What we did with Beethoven’s Romance – to ‘take of its cloths and then improvise on that’ – helped so much, because for the first time I sensed what knowledge of harmony can mean for the repertoire I am performing. Otherwise it stays so separated from the playing itself and therefore you lose interest more easily.” (Liesbeth van Dingenen, Music Education, year 1)

• “In comparison with last year I feel that the violin has much more become an integrated part of myself when I play and I believe the improvisation work that we did helped a lot in that respect.” (Eva Lagemaat, Practicum Musicae, year 2)

• “I have the feeling that I do not know the music I play well enough – I stay at the surface, because of lack of harmonic understanding. When I learned harmony it is too much calculating the chords, but that does not connect with my playing”…. “Some people tell you a chord is tonic, third, fifth, just three notes, but it is not that, it is much more than that.” (Joosep Ahun, Master Viola student year  1 -  he had followed the bachelor study and theoretical training at another institution. This was not a reflection after a pilot-session we did together, but a spontaneous ‘general reflection’ that underlined the urgency of the present research)

• “I was not expecting to have improvisation in my violin classes, but I like it so much. It brings out the creativity and phantasy and gives me more sense of freedom.” (Wera Wrozsek, Art of Sound, year 1)

• “You ‘touched the right tone’ in this class. Sometimes the steps you tried to make were too big for the participants to go along with.” (Bert Mooiman, after observing the workshop in Finland)

• “It is difficult to improvise tonally, but I sense that it is a very good thing to do.” (Marjolein Spruit, Bachelor Violin student, year 2)

• “Her sound was significantly more relaxed  during those improvisation exercises than normally during her playing” …. “I do believe strongly in working on Bach movements in the way that was happening here – I am ‘standing behind it’!” (Jaring Walta, violinist and violin pedagogue at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, after observing a session with a Bachelor 2 violin student)

• “That is so nice – because then you experience what the things we learn in harmony class are in ‘real life'". (Merel van der Meulen, Preparatory year, referring to the work on Rode etude nr 8)

• “It was really difficult to do. For my voice it was not the best thing, because it did not free my voice well, because of the difficulty to find the harmony". But it was interesting to discover about harmony in this way (participant in Improvisation Intensive)

• “When will we have our next improvisation class again….!? Because that was real fun…!” (Alan Mukriani, 13 year old violin student in the Academie Muzikaal Talent)

Regarding pilot sessions, the following things have not been taken place yet and are intended to happen in the future:

• a series of sessions/lessons with the same group of students on the material.
• a series of lessons with youngsters devoted to the development of harmonic awareness over a longer period of time.
• work on the bass line for Bach with the same students over a longer period of time.