Instrumental teachers’ instructional strategies for facilitating children’s learning of expressive music performance: An exploratory study

This article presents findings from an action research project that investigated instrumental teachers’ strategies for facilitating children’s learning of expressive music performance. Nine teachers and 14 pupils (aged 9–15) participated in this project, which consisted of 10 weeks of teaching. At the beginning and end of this period pupils’ concerts were held and performances were audio-recorded. Participating teachers used various strategies for improving students’ expressive performance: teacher’s enquiry, discussion, explanation of expressive devices, gestures and movements, singing, imagery, modelling, “projected performance” and listening to own recordings. According to teachers these strategies had been useful in lessons. However, analysis of assessments of students’ performances did not show a significant improvement. Four out of five pupils who did improve their expressiveness were taught by teachers who used enquiry and discussion of musical character and instruction about modifying expressive devices. This project influenced the practice of participating tutors as they focused more on teaching expressive performance.