Home
YouTube and YourStudio: Developing Critical Analytical Skills
YouTube and YourStudio: Developing Critical Analytical Skills
Blogs: Music Matters Blog
YouTube and YourStudio: Developing Critical Analytical Skills
Feb
21
7
YouTube and YourStudio: Developing Critical Analytical Skills
By Dr. Brad Mahon
I encourage my students to attend concerts, listen to recordings, and watch videos of players of all levels. My suggestions include experiencing the performance of a touring recitalist, listening to recording artists, or viewing some of the Internet’s countless videos demonstrating a vast range of abilities. It always surprises me when I receive resistance to this idea as students and their parents cite being “too busy” as grounds for missing out on this necessity. I will often rebut, “Imagine you’re an aspiring hockey player, yet you’ve never been to a game, or watched a game on television: how will you ever know what is possible?” Experiencing a professional performance can be a wonderful form of inspiration for both the developing student and skilled player alike. Listening to players of all levels also aids in the development and refinement of critical listening skills.
The Internet sensation, YouTube, has become nothing less than a worldwide, technological, pop culture phenomenon. While many of us immediately think of this media wonder as dominated by home videos, mobile camera-phone uploads, and TV and movie clips of questionable legality, as a pedagogical tool, YouTube can aid in the development of invaluable decisive listening and interpretative skills.
YouTube’s extensive and seemingly unlimited video archive is filled with professional-level performances of innumerable standard repertoire works. Furthermore, there is a myriad of uploads by strong amateur players, as well as less successful attempts and interpretations (let’s call those “works-in-progress”). By viewing videos of works that are within their own repertoire, our students can learn to develop an analytical sense.
As an exercise, consider presenting your pupils with a small buffet of contrasting, pre-screened videos of a piece they are working on for their critique. Encourage students to avoid simple value judgements such as, “I liked this video” or “I didn’t like that video;” press them to be more specific in their evaluation of the performance. For example, with younger or beginning students, ask them to comment on tempo, stage presence, and posture. While these fundamentals are always fair game for any critique, younger and beginning students will find this a more relatable area on which to exercise some type of authority. More experienced intermediate-level students will be better suited to comment on technical points, dynamics, and phrasing. Advanced students may also want to look for deeper interpretive elements such as performance practice, stylistic interpretation, ornamentation, musical depth, and technical flare.
This is not an exercise intended for students to copy what they see and hear; rather, this YouTube assignment is offered to confront the process of analysis and review that, when fully evolved, will benefit them as they critique their own playing. The development of a critical awareness is an essential tool in the successful advancement of any discipline, as it is the incorporation of this evaluation process that aids our own progress.
One final point: remember to promote parental supervision of these Internet sessions for younger students—after all, you never know what may pop up on the side bar!
Two suggested YouTube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI005i6pG-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThruwvV25nc
Dr. Brad Mahon is a member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s College of Examiners and instructs guitar in Calgary, Alberta at Mount Royal University and Ambrose University.
About the author
Music Matters Blog Team includes the blog monitors and administration.
What people are saying
Alexander Dunn
Feb 22, 2012
Good points. I do use Internet resources in my studio and also in classroom teaching, with excellent success with students. One of the best advantages of having a comparative resource is that students can feel enabled to play a piece in which its notation may seem unwieldy. Seeing and hearing a performance is a way for students to become empowered and take ownership of studying a work. But many times, I often hear copies of performances, intended or unintentional, where creative ideas and personalization are not fully explored. My experience has been that once a student becomes excited about a work, then the process of pitch awareness, hearing, internalizing rhythm, technical issues, and the rest of it may be necessary to instill. If that process is thorough, a student can feel that they have crafted their own interpretation from a video model. Indeed, a student who is over the moon with a particular performance, often come to distance themselves from it once a work has been internally processed.
Brad Mahon
Feb 22, 2012
Hi Alex. Thanks very much for reading and posting such a thoughtful comment. I must admit, about 20 years ago, I fell victim to this very same “musical plagiarism” by which you speak of when I tackled Benjamin Britten’s “Nocturnal.” As a young player, and not really understanding the music I was playing, I basically “borrowed” many of Julian Bream’s interpretive ideas, made famous from his recording of Britten’s guitar masterpiece. (Justice was served as a visiting clinician rightly called me on this during a masterclass performance). Fast-forward a few decades, and now on the other hand, I have several students who have only ever heard their repertoire “preformed” by me, and that’s during their weekly lessons. I guess I’m seeking/hoping for some type of balance, or happy medium, of trying to get students to listen to and watch other players and also be analytical as they process the experience.
Pat Feely
Feb 22, 2012
Hi Alex, I often learned pop tunes, as a kid, by "lifting" them off of records. I would listen and learn to mimic the instrumentalist, and after a while i could copy that persons sound and style. As I progressed i would learn to speak more with my own voice. Some times I will still channell my inner "Barrueco' or "Bream". I think it's critical that students have an inner rendition playing in their heads - either through recordings; and perhaps more so through video to guide them.
Janet Lopinski
Feb 21, 2012
These are great ideas Brad! It might be interesting to prepare a worksheet for the students to fill in with their comments on each of the aspects you've suggested - something like a listening log or diary, along the lines of a book report. It would certainly help focus their listening and fine-tune the critical listening skills. I think I'll try that!
