Five Ways to Empower Music Students Play Expressively RSS
Five Ways to Empower Music Students Play Expressively
Many music students can maintain sufficient note and rhythm accuracy, and fluency. Yet, a crucial element often remains elusive: expressiveness, the quality that truly animates music. Like a house that is well-constructed but not lived in, music without expression can feel incomplete.
As dedicated educators, we teach technique, such as poised strings bowing, good breath control, or how to keep a healthy piano hand position. While these technical foundations are essential, the ‘why’ of playing—the story, emotion, and purpose behind the music—is often underdeveloped.
Teaching expressiveness is not about an innate talent possessed by a select few; it's a skill that can be cultivated. Here are some approaches to guide students from simply playing music to truly feeling and communicating its essence.
1. Prioritise Active Listening
Before students can express, they must absorb. Avoid immediately jumping into technicalities; instead, immerse them in the piece's sound world.
• Curated Listening: Guide students through recordings with specific questions: ‘What emotions do you hear in this section?’ ‘How does the performer create urgency?’ ‘Can you identify moments of calm or tension?’ Play different interpretations and discuss their nuances.
• Active Engagement: Encourage students to move to the music, draw what they hear, or write a short story inspired by the piece. Engaging multiple senses deepens understanding.
2. Use the Power of Narrative
Music fundamentally tells a story. Even an abstract etude can have a narrative if explored.
• Beyond the Title: For pieces with descriptive titles, delve deeper. For instance, in ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, is the bumblebee happy, scared, or determined? For abstract pieces, help students create their own narratives: ‘Does this section sound like walking through a misty forest or like a grand celebration?’
• Character Development: Assign characters to musical lines. ‘Is the melody a brave lion? Is the bass line the lion’s friend?’ Giving musical lines ‘characters’ can unlock expressive possibilities.
3. Connect to Physicality
Music is a full-body experience. Physical tension translates to sound tension, while release allows for freedom and expressiveness.
• Physicality of Emotion: Ask students to physically embody a phrase's emotion. ‘Show sadness with your posture.’ ‘How would your hands move if you felt joyful?’ This connects physical sensation to musical intention.
• Breath and Phrasing: The breath is vital for musical phrasing. Teach students to breathe with the music, not just before it. Demonstrate how a relaxed breath can lead to a long, singing line, and how a short, sharp breath can create urgency.
4. Develop an Emotional and Expressive Vocabulary
Just as note names and rhythms are taught, so too should an emotional vocabulary and its translation into sound.
• Dynamics Beyond Loud and Soft: Explore sound quality. What defines a ‘sad forte’ versus an ‘angry forte’? How do you achieve a ’calm pianissimo’ compared to a ‘mischievous pianissimo’?
• Articulation as Expression: Staccato can convey playfulness, sharpness, or hesitation, not just brevity. Legato can be flowing, yearning, or calm, not just smooth. Help students understand the emotional impact of different articulations.
• Tempo as Emotion: A fast tempo can be exhilarating, rushed, or panicked. A slow tempo can be serene, sorrowful, or contemplative. Discuss how tempo choices affect a piece's emotional landscape.
5. Encourage Experimentation with ‘What If?’
Foster experimentation and risk-taking. There is no single ‘right’ way to be expressive.
• Improvisation on a Theme: Take a simple melody and ask students to play it in three different emotional ways: happy, sad, angry, for example.
• Empower students to be the ‘director’ of a piece. ‘If you were telling this story, how would you make this part sound more dramatic?’ ‘How would you convey a sense of hope here?’
6. Model and Mentor
Students learn significantly from what teachers do, not just what they say.
• Be Expressive Yourself: When demonstrating a phrase, play it with passion and intention. Let students witness your own connection to the music.
• Share Your Journey: Discuss pieces that move you and why. Share your own challenges in finding expressiveness in certain pieces. Humility can be a powerful teaching tool.
Teaching expressiveness empowers students to connect with music on a deeper level, find their own voice within the notes, and experience the profound joy of bringing music to life. This deeper connection is often the initial reason many fall in love with music.
Images by Angel Lopez and Nik at Unsplash