Bringing More Out of the Music: Student Led Practice, Critique, and Active Listening

I write this as I and countless other teachers are in the throws of concert season. Teachers are tirelessly rehearsing, practicing, and striving to coax every bit of music out of their students. In our preparation, we have made clear plans and goals for student success and mastery of the music. We have organized their learning, we have pushed, and encouraged them as much as we can. If you are like me though, at a certain point, I feel as though my group and I hit a wall. I begin to ask myself, “what else can I pull out of these students?” “What more can be done?” I strive to look for ways to push my students just a little more. Ways to polish and refine the music just a little more. In an effort to keep classroom time engaging, the music still fresh, and dig as deep as we can into the music I may utilize various concepts and activities to get my students to  analyze, critique, and evaluate their own performances and practice time prior to the concert performance.

Student Led Practice and Small Groups

In the days and weeks leading up to the performance I may organize students into small groups or sectionals during our class period. The focus and goal is for the students to assess, critique, and solve difficulties in their music together. Prior to breaking the students up I will set clear expectations for behavior. We will discuss and model appropriate language and how to offer helpful critiques. I will make sure students understand the goal for working together in a small group. As students are working together I will circle around to various groups to help them and monitor their progress.

What I love about student led practice is that it puts the ownership of music making on the students. It emboldens them to think critically, problem solve, work together, and dig deeper into the music. They must assess their performance, critique, and find ways to make it better. They must identify challenges in the music and work together to improve those challenges. Generally speaking I have found that students love to work together in small groups and are highly motivated when doing so. They want the music to sound good! They want to improve and be proud of their music making!

“Musical Barometer”

This next concept is also a student led assessment strategy which I call the “musical barometer.” The concept is simple. I invite a student or several students to come up to the front of the room to listen to the ensemble and be our “musical barometer.” Their task is to assess and critique our musicality! For example, I may ask the student or group of students to listen to our dynamic contrasts in a specific section of music or for accuracy of pitch. I may ask them to offer up a general critique of the music, what might need to be improved, or what we are doing well. Again, this type of activity puts the students in charge of their music making, engages their knowledge of musical concepts, encourages them to actively assess and make evaluations of the music. Additionally, students love getting up in front of the class and having a chance to hear the group. It’s a new perspective and exciting for them to get a sense of what it feels and looks like to lead a group.

Record and Critique

In an effort to dig deeper and get tangible feedback on our performances and practice I will record our practice sessions or rehearsals. I may record one song, a short fragment, or the whole rehearsal. We will then listen back to the recording as a class. In some cases I may just have the students critique their music making informally or I may have some guided questions for them to answer. I may ask them to focus on the dynamics, balance, blend, or our intonation. I may have students write their responses in the form of a formal reflection or have them simply listen and then provide feedback informally in class. In the past I have also created worksheets that guide the students toward reflecting on their recorded performances. Again, these may be in the form of guided questions or I may ask students to comment on several musical elements like our rhythm, intonation, dynamics and expressiveness.

Similarly, I have created mock scoring rubrics much like one might see at an honors ensemble audition or music festival. With this idea the students listen to their performance and score it on a rubric. We will then discuss their scores and critiques and focus our practice on the specific areas the students identified as being problematic.

Lastly, I will also ask the students what are doing well. I will not only use the recordings as a time to reflect on what we need to improve but also to celebrate our music making and celebrate what we are doing well as an ensemble.

Focused Ensemble Listening Exercises

The next three ideas are to help facilitate focused listening in the students when performing. First, I may have the students turn their music stands around and play without any music. At first the students often don’t think they can do it, but they are generally surprised by how much of the music they have memorized. This is a huge challenge to them and creates a strong sense of pride when they realize they can perform without their music. Prior to having them turn their stands around I will tell them that the goal is for them to listen hard to each other and play together. Similarly, this same exercise can be used to help students focus on conducting gestures rather than have their eyes completely on their music.

Secondly, I may ask the students to arrange themselves around the room in any position. At first the room will look chaotic – a bassist next to a violinist, a student turned around with their back to another student, but the goal is for them to listen and play together. I will tell the students that I am going to count them off and I want them to play together. I keep the directions simple so that the goal is on actively listening to one another. I have found that after these exercises the students playing is much more focused.

Lastly, we may listen to a recording of one of our pieces and comment on what we noticed. We may discuss dynamics, articulations, and the overall style and approach of the performance. We will then work to “recreate” the performance and play with the concepts we discussed applied to our music making.

Conclusion

Organizing students to lead, assess, and critique their progress and performances is extremely powerful.  It gives students the change to actively apply their knowledge, it empowers them, and as a result, they take more ownership of their music making. What student led strategies have you used to bring more out of the music leading up to a concert? What ways have you had students critique on their progress and performances?