The preparation of a piano repertoire according to Elliot’s musical knowledge model: Three case studies

In academic education, undergraduate students develop musical knowledge through the preparation of a repertoire within the western classical music tradition during a certain period of formal music practice. During the practice, the student makes choices and deals with personal strategies that assume forms of thinking and, therefore, differentiated and complementary forms of musical knowledge. Elliot’s musical knowledge model allows us to identify the distinct nature of the strategies associated with the preparation of a piano repertoire by three undergraduate students at different academic levels: the first, fifth and eighth semesters. Based on a phenomenological approach, the repertoire of these students was followed during an academic semester and examined in two forms: repertoire preparation and reflection on one’s preparation. Four complementary research techniques were employed: a semi-structured interview, a video observation of the performance of the musical pieces, a non-structured interview about the repertoire under preparation and a recall-stimulated interview in which the student reflected on his own performance (recorded on video and audio tape in the previous sessions). The five forms of Elliot’s musical knowledge (formal, informal, impressionistic, supervisory and procedural) were identified in the verbal and instrumental statements about the repertoire preparation of the three students in different intensity, depending on the musical-instrumental expertise level as well as on their idiosyncrasies. For supervisory knowledge, a relationship between this kind of knowledge and level of music expertise was found: manipulation of supervisory knowledge seemed to increase with academic level.