Timothy Blunk

Brittany MacWilliams

MUS 538-06 String Pedagogy

11/4/15

Notes on Lesson Observations

This week I observed a non-degree guitar lesson between an undergrad and TA JB Taylor. It was

only a half hour lesson, but the time was divided effectively so a wide range of issues was addressed.

The lesson began with a viewing of a videotaped practice session by the student. The video showed a

performance of a Galliard by John Dowland. This seguwayed into a discussion about articulation and

technique. The student was bounching his wrist while playing block chords and this led to irregularities

in tone and technique. Before addressing this issue head on JB asked the student how will you clean

this up? The then discuss slow practice and it is during a demonstration of such that JB brings up the

issue of the right hand bounce. The slow practice emphasized the tension in the players hand that as

leading to the bounce. JB demonstrated what the student was doing vs. what correct practice looks like.

He then checked the students nails, as poor nail are often a contributing or even a leading factor in

issues like right hand bounce. The return to the section the previously worked though and did more

slow practice. This time the emphasis was on bringing out separate melodic voices. I thought this was a

nice touce, as the student got to address the same passage from different angles of study. JB asks the

student to sing individual lines within the three voice texture to shape the melodies better. The begin

with the top voice, then move to the middle and bass. Here JB makes a brief aside to note that the

student is preparing with his left hand, something I assume they were working on in a previous lesson.

Then they go back to singing melodic voices, this time beginning in the bass and moving up to the

soprano. A reoccurring phrase in this lesson was clean this up and a nice aside was made about the

music he was playing vs the piece to come. JB makes the case the renaissance/baroque music needs to
be very clean. And purity of tone is something to strive for. The next piece, an etude by Leo Brouwer,

wouldnt suffer tremendously from extraneous noise. As the round off the first half of this lesson JB

sets goals and asks for another video of his practice session. 15 minutes have elapsed. At the beginning

of this next piece JB asks the student am I going to be happy with this? at first I thought this was an

odd question to ask, but before the student can answer he JB asks him are you happy with this? and

the student says yes. They discuss what he was experienced playing this since the last lesson. They

pinpoint specific areas to work on. The first is a big six-note chord involving four fretted notes. The

student is having a challenge keeping all his fingers secure (not collapsing) and allowing all the notes

of the chord to ring true. More slow practice follows as well as some counting out loud. The issue of

his digits (paritcuarly his pinky finger) collapsing is dealt with in another section. This section uses

hammer-on fingerings and JB treats this as a physical exercise to build strength throughout the finger.

The previous chord is reassessed and this time they discuss how to play it legato and with proper

dynamic. JB demonstrates incorrect vs. correct execution. He then asks the student to come up with an

exercise to explore that technique. The lesson wraps up with more discussion of goals and another

request for a video performance of this piece.