Free Essay: The Role of Child Psychology in Piano Pedagogy

Children between the ages of 7 and 10 years tend to be independent and have a strong sense of right and wrong. In most cases, the children in that age bracket are beginning to develop self-awareness and are aware of the future. Their understanding of their place and role in the world (Jacobs, 1994). They are more attentive to new friendships and can work effectively as a team. With their improved reading and writing, they can learn faster because the can describe their experiences, thoughts, and their feelings. These children are also susceptible to peer pressure that is why they need support more often to reinforce the lessons learned (Hong, 2018). To cultivate creativity in the piano classroom, the teacher must create a compassionate environment, which the students can find accepting as the children struggle to create their music. The teacher should encourage autonomy among students by allowing them to try new tunes, or practices in the absence of the teacher (Hatta & Ejiri, 1989). These students would also get timely feedback from the teacher on their creativity. This way, they would know what to correct and to improve on (Gardiner, 2017). Most of the piano teachers understand the importance of helping the students to determine when and how to be creative. Creative thinking will also be promoted by way of assignments and projects.

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Piano Pedagogy

Piano pedagogy refers to the study and teaching of piano playing. Piano pedagogy is developed around the teaching of musical skills to the students who pursue paying playing as a course. The piano pedagogy must include the course syllabus, piano lesson plans, assignments, and piano assessments (Gamlath, 2008). These curriculum products should be age-appropriate and culturally appropriate even thigh the children are taught to be independent.

There are five main pedagogical approaches. Peggy refers to the methods of teaching and in most cases; it has been defined as the practices of teaching (Marantz et al., 2018). Pedagogy includes teaching styles, teaching theory as well as the assessment of teaching, learning, and feedback. Music teachers especially the piano teaches learn pedagogy to know how to properly deliver count of the piano curriculum to the students (Fisk, 2002). However, apart from developing the curriculum, teachers should learn the importance of different learning styles. They should also learn that each learner has a distinct learning style that must be understood to help in developing tailored teaching styles (Duff, 2015). In the current inclusive classes, the teacher must adopt age and culturally-appropriate teaching strategies.

Developing and Implementing the Age-Appropriate Teaching Style

Five pedagogical approaches can be used in teaching piano. The teacher must select the most appropriate pedagogical approaches. For example, while behaviorism is concerned with the use of the theory of behaviorism, Constructivism promotes learning through experiences and reflection. The behaviorist approach considers the teacher as the sole authority figure and constructivism is learner-centered and involves project works and is mainly inquiry-based (Auer, 1991). The pother approaches include social constructivism and liberationist.

Whether the instructor is teaching rhythm and reading or teaching elementary performance and study repertoire, the Reacher should teach the students how to develop musicality in elementary students because mood, emotion, character, music literary, creativity and ensemble playing all play a major role in music learning. The focus is on introducing experiences that can effectively contribute to piano playing (Burrack, 2017). The children will discover the role of music in communicating mood and emotion and as such, it contributes to character development. The children will learn how to create and listen to their music as well as analyze their music or play an ensemble...

Creativity in Music

Creativity is used in music to refer to a wide range of divergent and conventional through the process. These through processes are usually enacted in solo music and ensemble music leading to novel and useful musical products. Creativity in music is considered in the context of a specific socio-cultural environment and is mainly manifested by direct specific modes of musicianship (Rundles & Webster, 2013). In some cases, the combination of modes such as improvisation, composition, performance, analysis, and listening (Rundles & Webster, 2013).

The 20th century marked the most important point in the history of music profession music education focuses on the practical, theoretical, and research-based music education. The goals for music education have always focused on the products and processes of teaching and learning music (Chmurzynska, 2012). Over the past decades, music professionals have focused and invested a lot in nurturing the fine solo performances and the increased interest in the ensemble performance has led to the reconsideration of the music learning from a creativity perspective where music education is given a comprehensive approach (Sholl, 2006). The current study of creativity in music education covers topics such as improvisation, music listening, cultural context (Carmichael, 2014). In American, creativity in music is, mainly considered in terms of its relationship to other arts. The comprehensive musician project was the first program to focus on music from that creativity perspective. The Manhattan Ville curriculum project came second to focus on how to promote creativity in music followed by Yale, Tanglewood, and Ann Arbor symposia.

The music teachers cannot only be successful by teaching their students about performing the music of others. Music teachers have to teach their students how to create music, which comprises playing the piano, and arrangement, composition (Sweet et al., 2018). The teachers have to teach the students how to develop aesthetics decision making and creativity. Aesthetics in music is not taught in class but comes from creativity and in some cases trial and error and this entails teaching the students the art of musical independence. Creativity in music requires the adoption of educational philosophy such as constructivists approach

Piaget and Dewey proposed constructionist thinking because it emphasizes creativity to motivate learning. Learning creativity in music requires motivation through activity, which means that learners are taught how to take part or engage actively in music creation, and problems solve. The music teachers especially the piano teachers can effectively teach creativity by acting as guides on the side and not lecturers. Additionally, in the recent past, there have been many developments in music technology to aid music instruction. The use of piano in learning music will be effective in promoting creativity as students get to interact with the piano in the presence and without the presence of the teachers. Children can learn music notation, sequencing, as well as digital audio software that can be run on the currently affordable computers and other digital devices.

Models of Creativity

There are several models of creativity, the most commonly cited model of creativity include the Four C Model of Creativity, Wallas’ model of the creative process, Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity, Urban’s Componential Model of Creativity as well as the Divergent thinking and the Six P’s of Creativity. These models define creativity in different components, and stage. They also cover a wide spectrum of creativity including Mini-c: denoting then person learning to play the guitar. The little c denotes the person starting to play in bands with other people. Pro- C that means the well-known guitar player in a famous band followed by the Big-C denoting the guitar player who can change the method of playing a musical instrument. On the other hand, Wallas’ theory is a model of creativity that argues that the process of creative thinking started from envisaging a solution to the problem. The creation process starts with Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification. On the other hand, the Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity is based on the arguments that creativity happens through the interaction between one's thought and their sociocultural thought in the sociocultural context. Creativity is deemed systemic as opposed to an individual phenomenon. The Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model is made up of three major components including the domain, the field and the individual or person.

The Six P’s of Creativity was developed because the Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model failed to address all the aspects of creativity. Therefore, the Six P’s of Creativity will significantly complement the Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model. The six Ps model proposes, “The four Ps of creativity" that was proposed by James M. Rhodes including aspects such as process, product, person and place, persuasion and potential.

References

Auker, P. (1991). Pupil Talk, Musical Learning, and Creativity. British Journal Of Music Education, 8(2), 161-166. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0265051700008263

Burrack, F. (2017). Developing Creativity, Communication, and Teamwork in Engineering. International Symposium For Innovative Teaching And Learning, 11(12). https://doi.org/10.4148/2573-4911.1001

Carmichael, A. (2014). Learning to Play: Cognitive and Physical Development of Children and the Requirements of Playing the Piano. Musical Offerings, 5(1), 15-36. https://doi.org/10.15385/jmo.2014.5.1.2

Chmurzynska, M. (2012). How (not) to Discourage Youngsters from Playing the Piano. On Bad and Good Piano Teaching. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 45, 306-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.567

Duff, S. (2015). Fran C. Blumberg (Ed.), Learning by Playing: Video Gaming in Education. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 14(1), 77-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725714565261

Fisk, C. (2002). Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion, and: Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas (review). Notes, 59(2), 344-346. https://doi.org/10.1353/not.2002.0168

Gamlath, S. (2008). Creativity in Teaching and Learning: A Global Economic Perspective. SSRN Electronic Journal, 12(14). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1280118

Gardiner, P. (2017). Rethinking feedback: Playwriting pedagogy as teaching and learning for creativity. Teaching And Teacher Education, 65, 117-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.03.009

Hatta, T., & Ejiri, A. (1989). Learning effects of piano playing on tactile recognition of sequential stimuli. Neuropsychologia, 27(11-12), 1345-1356. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(89)90129-2

Hong, S. (2018). Creativity Enhancement in Music Class; Focused on Teaching Strategy of Korean General Music Class, Elementary Level. International Journal Of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research, 17(10), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.10.8

Hong, S. (2018). Creativity Enhancement in Music Class; Focused on Teaching Strategy of Korean General Music Class, Elementary Level. International Journal Of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research, 17(10), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.10.8

Jacobs, C. (1994). Playing Jane Campion's Piano: Politically. MLN, 109(5), 757. https://doi.org/10.2307/2904706

Nerantzi, C., Jackson, N., Mouratoglou, N., & Baff, D. (2018). Learning and teaching partnership narratives relating to the open course ‘Creativity for Learning in Higher Education’ (#creativeHE). Compass: Journal Of Learning And Teaching, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.21100/compass.v11i2.794