12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 1 of 55
MUSICAL CREATIVITY AND PIANO PEDAGOGY: A STUDY OF SELECTED
COMPOSITIONS BY AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL-AGE PIANO STUDENTS FROM
THE YAMAHA JUNIOR ORIGINAL CONCERT (JOC) PROGRAM AND THE
TEAM OF PIANISTS’ 2011 CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS
Robert Chamberlain
ABSTRACT
This presentation explores two contrasting composition programs for school-age piano students in Australia. Selected compositions from the Yamaha Music School Junior Original Concert program and Team of Pianists’ Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshops are presented. The skills, challenges and achievements of students and teachers in these programs are assessed, as examples of possible ways to integrate ‘musical creativity’ into piano pedagogy in 21st century Australia.
OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. Two Composition Pathways for School-age Piano Students
3. Yamaha Musical Foundation Junior Original Concert (JOC) Compositions –
snapshot from 1979, examples from 2000 onwards
4. Team of Pianists Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshop for
Composition Make your own motif, make your own melody with Keiko Fujii
5. Conclusion: assessing the success of such programs, and further questions
6. References
7. Appendix: scores
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RECORDINGS AND SCORES
Scores of Musical Examples 1-3 from the Yamaha JOC program are contained in
the Appendix to this paper. Musical Examples 4-9 from the Spring Piano School
2011 do not have scores, they are recordings only, accessible using the link
below.
Recordings by the young composers of all Musical Examples (downloadable mp3 files) are at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4TXJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
If the link does not function, please contact the author:
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PAPER
1. Introduction
Piano teaching and piano pedagogy are areas ripe for developing ‘musical
creativity’. In past centuries, it has been normal for musicians to be skilled in the
creative aspects of music, to work as composers, improvisers, arrangers as well
as performers and teachers. This is illustrated by major figures in the canon of
traditional piano repertoire, such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt etc.,
as well as by numerous less well-known but highly trained and talented
composer/pianist/teachers such as Clara Schumann (née Wieck, 1819–96).
Only in the later-20th century, when piano tuition became widely available and
affordable across more socio-economic strata of western societies, and the
number of competent pianists in developed countries exploded, did the creative
skills of composition and improvisation, often become separated from performing
and teaching roles. By the late-20th century, an average highly trained pianist
may well not have been trained in improvisation or composition. Today traditional
piano teaching rarely includes these creative skills. However, increasing numbers
of music educators now argue for a style of piano teaching that incorporates more
creativity (e.g. Sykes 2009), while others such as Kotchie (2013) and Milne
(2009) include creative elements in their publications and methods. Griffin (2013
p.106) considers improvising and composing to be ‘the pinnacle of musical
creativity’.
The early-21st century in Australia is an interesting time to consider musical
creativity and piano teaching. The digital revolution of the last two decades offers
challenges but also many great opportunities for musical creativity, with software
tools such as GarageBand, Cubase, Sibelius, and instant accessibility to all kinds
of music via YouTube, SoundCloud and other sharing platforms. Many piano
examination syllabi, such as Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts (ANZCA)
Modern Piano, Yamaha Piano Grade exams, Trinity College London, and the
Australian Music Examination Board’s Contemporary Popular Music course seek to
incorporate creative skills into their requirements. Some local eisteddfods and
competitions include ‘own composition performance sections’ and there are
increasing numbers of locally written teaching repertoire books and tutor method
books which seek to either embed creative experiences into the learning process
or deal directly with improvisation at the keyboard.
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I will examine two contrasting examples of composition programs for school age
piano students in Australia. First, the Yamaha Junior Original Concert (JOC)
Composition Program, beginning with a snapshot of this program from its early
days in 1979, followed by examples from Australian students of Yamaha JOC
compositions from between 2000 and 2010. Secondly, I will present student
recordings of some compositions from Team of Pianists’ (TOP) Spring Piano
School (SPS) Creativity Workshops in 2011, a creative program on a much more
modest scale than the Yamaha JOC program. Selected compositions from both
programs will be presented and the skills, challenges and achievements of the
students and teachers in these programs will be presented and assessed. This
study represents a small part of my interest in the following question: Is it is
possible, or advisable, to integrate musical creativity (defined here as ‘the use of
imagination and musical skills to create original music’) into early-21st century
piano teaching in this country? If so, how?
2. Two Composition Pathways for School-age Piano Students
Imagine you are the proud parent of a ten-year-old piano student who is onstage
in a major recital hall in another country, perhaps Taiwan, Hong Kong or Bangkok
in Thailand, performing to a large audience of parents, teachers, other children
and members of the public. Concert promoters and school music departments
know that parents love to watch their children perform. Perhaps you would be
prouder still if your child were also representing their country and performing
their own composition at the same time—performer, composer and national
representative—all rolled into one!
This is the experience for a small number of parents each year, as selected
children take part in Yamaha Music Foundation’s annual Asia-Pacific Junior
Original Concert (APJOC). This concert is the regional pinnacle of Yamaha’s
annual Junior Original Concert programs, ‘presenting personal sentiments through
original compositions’.1 Additional to their normal classes, those young students
lucky enough to have been selected will have spent many hours with teachers
and tutors honing their composition and its performance, initially perhaps in their
music class, then within their music school, quite possibly at a national level and
ultimately at this international level.
1 Yamaha Music Foundation - Junior Original Concerts, accessed 6 January 2014, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/events/joc/index.html
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At a more modest local level, imagine your primary-school-age child has attended
the Team of Pianists school holiday piano program Spring Piano School 2011 in
Melbourne for two and a half days, to work in groups with other children of
similar age on repertoire, piano skills, and creativity, and to enjoy playing with
new friends in the grounds of Glenfern during recess and lunch. On the second
day, your child comes home with their own composition, perhaps titled Monkey or
Snake. This creation, only a minute or less in duration, might be notated on a
scrap of paper scrunched up at the bottom of the school-bag, and has been
created during a short 90 to 120-minute group class of 5–6 other children and
one teacher. A few days later you receive by email an mp3 file of your child’s
performance of their little composition as part of a suite of works by all the
children in their workshop group. Hopefully, you would be a little bit proud, even
though your child has only been composing for 90 to 120 minutes!
These two contrasting programs are examples of musical creativity using
composition in piano pedagogy. I will consider the teaching modes and methods
used, the skills required of the teachers and of the students, the commitment
that parents and students must make, the quality of the resulting compositions
and the potential benefits for the students and their teachers. Also, I would like
to consider how the success or otherwise of these programs could be measured
objectively. I believe these two contrasting composition pathways, one of long
standing with considerable resources and achievements and the other quite
modest, invite us to reflect on our own teaching practice and on the current focus
of piano teaching in Australia. I would argue that they are useful examples of the
integration of musical creativity into piano teaching. I also believe they
demonstrate some very interesting creative work that deserves to be more widely
known.
3. Yamaha Musical Foundation Junior Original Concert (JOC)
Compositions: snapshot from 1979, examples from 2000 onwards
The Yamaha Music Foundation (YMF) has been an international music education
provider for many decades. Continuing a program of music classes begun by
Yamaha Music Corporation in 1954, Yamaha Music Foundation was established in
Japan in 1966 as ‘a public interest corporation’ with approval from the Ministry of
Education. Its founding objectives were:
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to explore fundamental issues of educational activities pertaining to music that serve as a basis to cultivate a rich sense of humanity in toddlers, young children, youths and adults, to purse the popularization of music and contribute widely to the promotion of social education, and endeavour to improve musical culture in Japan and other countries (Yamaha Music Foundation – Purpose of Establishment, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/about/establishment.html accessed January 2014)
The Junior Original Concert (JOC) program was established in 1972 through a
proposal by Mr Genichi Kawakami, then President of the Yamaha Music
Foundation2 for children aged 15 or younger ‘to perform their own compositions
in public’. A JOC concert was designed to be
a unique event at which children perform their own compositions and share their joy in musical expression with others. (The Source of Young Music – Junior Original Concert essay in Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People)
Musical creativity was further emphasised by the inclusion of motif improvisation
in every Junior Original Concert. This distinctive skill, which is part of the Yamaha
Music education system, relies on sound knowledge of harmony, confident
executive skills and regular training, but is presented as,
intended to bring out the spontaneous creative talent of the children. (The Source of Young Music – Junior Original Concert essay in Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People)
By 1979, Yamaha Music Schools and music courses, as well as the JOC program
had expanded internationally, including into Australia. In that year Yamaha Music
Foundation’s Mr Kawakami produced a 5-LP boxed set of student compositions,
mostly performed live, from the 1979 Junior Original Concert in Japan, including a
booklet with scores, photos, commentaries and introductory articles. This
provides a fascinating snapshot of the early days of the JOC program and is a
vivid example of how musical creativity, in this case, composition has been
incorporated into a pedagogical context. Table 1 lists the compositions included,
as both scores and recordings, in this boxed set.
2 Mr Kawakami was also President of Yamaha Corporation from 1950 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1983.
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Table 1 – Student Compositions from the boxed set Junior Original Concert (JOC) 1979, Yamaha Music Foundation
Title Composer Country Age in years Gender Instrument Instruments, if
ensemble Duration Movement Titles
Recorded live at the JOC?
1 Jumping Squirrel Jany Danuwidjaja Indonesia 7 girl Electone 2'43" y (y = yes)
2 When the Snow Falls Lightly Michiko Shobuke Japan 12 girl Piano 7'11"
3 Fantasy Noriko Hayashi Japan 13 girl Piano 5'35" y
4 The Morning Glow Kazuhiro Oguma Japan 15 boy Ensemble Piano/SS-30/SS-30/Flute (2 synthesiser lines & Flute)
6'35" y
5 Selection from the Suite "Dances" Ami Fujiwara Japan 8 girl Piano 5'46"
1- Comical Doll, 2- Ländler, 3- Ballerina
6 Cheerful Sonata Mika Yamashita Japan 11 girl Electone 4'11" y
7 Impromptu Atsuko Honma Japan 12 girl Piano 4'32"
8 Bagatelle Ghen (?Glen) Maynard USA 13 boy Piano 4'06" y
9 At the Ball Mikako Marumo Japan 10 girl Ensemble Piano Duet 3'11"
10 Indian Dance Nobutaka Kurogo Japan 9 boy Piano 3'21" y
11 Rising Sun Michiko Namikawa Japan 10 girl Piano 5'49"
12 Fantasy Kumi Yabuhara Japan 12 girl Piano 8'31" y
13 Blue Sky Misa Ito Japan 15 girl Ensemble E-70/Piano/Drums 4'29" y
14 A Walk in the Field Azusa Ono Japan 8 girl Electone 3'50"
15 Peter Pan Yasuko Minakata Japan 11 girl Piano 5'34"
16 Galloping Horse Yukie Nishimura Japan 12 girl Piano 5'08" y
17 Rhapsodia Mexicana Toshiyuki Torii Japan 16 boy Piano 7'25" y
18 Child of the Wind Mamiko Furui Japan 9 girl Piano 2'36"
19 Apollo Yoko Kawano Japan 12 girl Piano 5'09" y
20 Night at Haimurubushi Nobuko Iwasawa Japan 12 girl Electone 7'06" y
21 Ode to the Sea Mio Isako Japan 15 ?boy Piano 7'08"
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22 Doves Caroline Marie Almonte Australia 11 girl Piano 6'35"
inspired by seagulls, has the title been mistranslated to Doves?
y
23 Journey on a Balloon Kiyoko Ogino Japan 12 girl Electone 5'51" y
24 Dance of the Happy Matador Kiyoko Annen Japan 13 girl Piano 5'38" y
25 Sunshine Paul Liang Singapore 11 boy Ensemble ?/GX-1 6'00" y
26 The Dancing Piano Junko Ushida Japan 12 girl Piano 10'42"
27 Young Heart in Bacrav Street Yasuyuki Kasori Japan 15 boy Electone 3'31" y
28 Rainbow Tadashi Narisawa Japan 15 boy Ensemble ?/Piano 7'06" y
29 Little Moving Moments Michelle Anne Hill Australia 10 girl Piano 5'52"
1- Train, 2- Hang Glider 3- Camel, 4- Swan
y
30 Sonatina (movements 1- 3) Kaori Sato Japan 12 girl Piano 5'25"
31 Ambition Miki Hino Japan 15 girl Ensemble ?/GX-1 10'50 y
32 Boat Song Takuya Yokoyama Japan 11 boy Piano 4'37"
33 Serenade Kwah Eng Ann Singapore 15 boy Electone 7'46" y
34 Rainbow Fantasy Manae Kurokawa Japan 13 girl Piano 9'12" y
35 Bacarolle Tokiko Tsunoda Japan 11 girl Piano 7'28"
36 Far Distance Yukiko Matsuo Japan 13 girl Piano 6'00" y
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Thirty-six young composer/performers were selected for the 1979 5-LP boxed
set. Thirty were from Japan, one from Indonesia, two from Australia, one from
the USA and two were from Singapore. Their ages ranged from 7 to 16 years and
the mode and mean of the children’s ages was 12 years. Of the 23 performances
recorded live at the concert, 35% were by boys and 65% by girls, 52% were
piano solos, 26% were electone 3 solos and 22% were ensembles. Thirteen
performances were not recorded at the actual concert and when the total 36
performances, including those recorded live and those recorded at a different
time are considered, 25% were by boys, 75% by girls, 64% for piano solo, 19%
for electone and 17% for ensemble. Thus, the live JOC concert had a more equal
gender distribution and a slight increase in electone use than the boxed set as a
whole.
The balance between piano solos, electone solos and ensemble works appears to
have been considered carefully when putting together the selections for this
boxed set. The running order of the tracks on the LPs has also been chosen to
maximise contrast, variety and effect. 1979 was declared by the United Nations
as the International Year of the Child and the 1979 Junior Original Concert in
Japan, as represented by this document, appears to have been a showcase for
Yamaha education and Yamaha technology, particularly the electone, and for
Japanese corporate achievement. This collection is not only a valuable record of
musical creativity but also an interesting example of soft-power diplomacy from a
Japanese multinational corporation.
In both the compositions and their performance there is great emphasis on
virtuosity and the executive achievement of the young players. Many of the
compositions have been modelled on technically exciting and virtuosic templates,
particularly in the Coda and return of ‘A’ sections, where fast-tempo-works often
have exciting RH passage-work. This, combined with the uniformly accurate and
secure performance level, makes the overall mood of the five-LP boxed set very
upbeat and exciting. Small segments of applause have been recorded after many
of the performances and it is easy to imagine that, at times, the audience was
reacting more to the virtuosity of the performance than to the creative skills of
the young composer.
3 The electone is an electronic organ-like instrument, with two or three manuals, pedal board, rhythm and drum section, touch sensitivity (in recent years at least) and a range of registrations to imitate acoustic instruments including orchestral timbres, allowing one players to simulate many of the elements of an orchestral texture or small ensemble.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 10 of 55
The compositions in this collection have a very polished sense of structure and a
refined harmonic language within their respective styles. This is evidence of a
huge investment in coaching the performances and tutoring the compositions,
reflecting the way that harmonic knowledge—by hearing, by singing and then by
playing—is embedded the Yamaha system of education. It is also clear that the
composition tutors, whose names do not appear in the booklet and whose efforts
are only mentioned in passing,4 had a fine knowledge of the harmonic language,
the textures, gestures and forms of many styles and periods of music. The
compositions are either for piano, electone or various ensemble combinations,
some using both electone and piano. The best compositions are personally
expressive and strikingly original. The actual performances by such young
children show very high standards of accuracy, technique and characterisation.
The piano solo compositions from 1979 are in a range of styles, from Classical-
period style, recalling Mozart or early Beethoven, to 19th century styles in the
idiom of Chopin or Liszt and even of Rachmaninoff, as well as some 20th century
styles. The electone solos and the ensemble works using that instrument are
equally eclectic, the harmony, rhythms and registrations of Blue Sky by 15-year-
old Misa Ito recalls 1970’s progressive-rock keyboard work of Peter Gabriel/Tony
Banks-era Genesis. Other electone compositions survey a range of modern
popular styles such as jazz-rock, rhumba, samba, while others use the electone’s
colourful registration palette as a substitute orchestra, with winds, strings and
brass working together in a quasi-orchestral texture.
The Yamaha JOC compositions demonstrate a strong sense of form and structure.
A common structure for larger scale compositions, particularly in the 1979
recordings, is:
Introduction, contrasting in tempo or mood to the A section A - comprising a b a’ optional bridge passage B - comprising c d c’ Return of A usually in a shorter version Coda - building excitement
Another plan is to have a suite of short pieces, each in a simpler ternary form,
whereby the contrast is achieved between movements. Michelle Ann Hill’s Little 4 Email 23/1/2015 from Dr Hiroko Hashimoto to the author. Dr Hashimoto read both the English and Japanese text and commentary in the booklet and reported that no acknowledgement of teachers may be found in the Japanese text and that only three students indicated in passing the existence of a teacher! The particular Yamaha Music Schools at which each student studied, and their current course level is, however, clearly indicated.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 11 of 55
Moving Moments (1979), representing Australia, is an example of this. Variation
technique is also used to extend a structure, at times within the large A or large B
sections.
Motif-based composition is clearly important in Yamaha JOC compositions. This
allows small ideas to be expanded and varied in a conscious fashion and also
allows the composition teachers to guide the students to build a large structure
from small beginnings. The first theme of a JOC composition has a characteristic
motif, with a strong harmonic basis and a distinctive melody, texture or rhythmic
feature. In works by the younger children, simple diatonic harmonies are often
heard e.g. I moving to V perhaps via iib, with an LH chordal accompaniment
providing rhythmic propulsion. In some of the larger pieces a wider harmonic
palette is used for the initial motif, with VI and other chords substituted into
diatonic progressions for harmonic variety, while tonalities for contrasting
subsections may be located a third away from the tonic. Moving the tonal centre
up a minor second (Neapolitan harmony) is a popular extension device, and some
of the more complex pieces delve into chromatic harmony, particularly in cadenza
sections. Modes and scales such as whole tone occasionally appear as well.
Large B sections often contrast strongly by meter, tempo, texture, as well as in
tonality or mood. Some of the works where the initial theme does not have a
particularly strong harmonic, melodic and textural character, such as The Morning
Glow (Table 1, Piece 4) composed by flute player Kazuhiro Oguma, for piano, two
synthesizer lines (SS-30) and flute, are less successful overall, largely because
there is less potential for musical development of the initial theme and strong
contrasts between sections.
Ten-year-old Australian girl Michelle Anne Hill’s Little Moving Moments (1979)
shows interesting and unusual choices of musical language, guided perhaps by
her class teacher or composition tutor/s. Like so many of the JOC pieces, the idea
of movement provides an initial imaginative stimulus for the four movements in
this composition. A train, a hang glider, a camel and a swan all move in different
fashions, something that a child can easily imagine. However, the 20th century-
style rhythmic, harmonic and melodic techniques with which this sense of motion
is depicted makes this suite stand out from many other compositions in the 1979
collection.
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Musical Example 1 - Movement 1 Train and Movement 2 Hang Glider from
Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, ten years, from
Australia; score in Appendix and recordings by the performer
(downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Train has the irregular time signature 8/8 divided into 3 + 3 + 2/8, with a
variable tempo. It begins Lento with an accelerando to the Allegro main theme
using a whole tone scale. At the end, it decelerates from Allegro molto to Lento
molto as the train slows-up again. Black note versus white note clusters and
many 7th chords, based on the whole tone scale are striking. Hang Glider is a
beautiful ternary form miniature using Dorian mode on D, with a floating rhythm
in 3/4 time. Camel uses 6/8 meter to create the sense of a bumpy camel ride,
white note clusters are a feature here and add to the sense of bumpy movement.
Swan has a slow tempo, 7th chords are used to create a harmonic ostinato while
chromatic melodies evoke the smooth movement of a swan on the water. These
are miniatures with a very sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic language,
beyond what I believe would have been taught in the Yamaha classes in the early
years of tuition. It is clear that young Michelle Marie Hill (now Michelle Madder -
an owner and director of Australian Music Schools in Sydney) had a very fine set
of tutors and guides back in 1979 and a very receptive musical mind!
Musical Example 2 - Movement 3 Camel and Movement 4 Swan from
Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, ten years, from
Australia; score in Appendix and recordings by the performer
(downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
The teaching modes by which polished and accomplished works such as this are
achieved vary according to the budget, personnel and program structure at the
time. They are often additional to the class program or private lessons and
require additional commitment from the parents and the student.
Teaching modes for JOC compositions that I have observed since 2000 in
Australia include:
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-work in group classes, especially in the courses after the Junior Music
Course;
-workshops, either introductory workshops to stimulate the creativity of
the children and to get them to create the germ of a future composition,
or workshops to develop the composition further, once the initial idea and
structure are underway, both taken by guest teachers or Yamaha
teachers;
-one-to-one composition lessons with specialist composition tutors over a
sustained period of up to six months;
-polishing workshops and lessons in short intensive bursts, often with
visiting teachers from Japan.
While Yamaha class teachers are encouraged to develop teaching skills to
undertake this creative work, most of the workshops I observed have been taken
by specialist creative teachers, either local teachers such as Keiko Fujii and Peter
Hurley, or guest teachers from Japan. These teachers are highly trained in
harmony and composition or improvisation. They can provide not only immediate
feedback on what the child has done, but can also demonstrate at the keyboard
and describe in words many different ways in which an initial idea could be
extended, varied or altered. These teachers can also immediately demonstrate,
from their aural memory, numerous relevant examples of a harmonic progression
or structure from many genres, including classical orchestral music, film music,
jazz, rock music, etc. When the child’s composition gets to the polishing stage,
much time may be spent on small details, such as the choice of a single note, or
chord, or the voicing of a chord. These small details may well affect the structure
of the piece as a whole and ultimately contribute to a polished well-constructed
composition, which will charm the audience in live performance.
The JOC program from Yamaha Music Education is predicated on the notion that
every child can become a composer to express themselves personally through
music creation and performance. Thus, the teaching methods and teaching skills
for the JOC composition program are particularly interesting!
In their presentation The Benefits of Composition in Teaching Young Piano
Students (March 2, 2014 VMTA Piano Day, Melbourne), Margarita Krupina & Keiko
Fujii demonstrated a possible sequence and some of the teaching methods for
this very structured form of musical composition:
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Aim: to make a motif Creative exercises:
• make some sounds with voice and at keyboard e.g. a lion, march of a lion, birds in the morning
Solfège exercises: call and response (question and answer) • Question (Q) from teacher) & Answer (A) from student, using a
familiar (known) song, then with a different (unknown) song • Accompanied sequence singing e.g. response up a tone (Q & A), or
reverse singing - response is the motif backwards • Q to be “continuous”, A to be “conclusive” • Q + A1 Q + A 2
Composing an 8 bar melody using motif composition: • Motif of 2 bars • Motif – Answer – Motif again – different answer (this time
conclusive) • LH single note (from I & V) • Accompaniment using known harmonic vocabulary eg. in the early
stages I – iib - V - I = eight bar composition!
When considering how to expand the composition beyond eight bars or to extend
ideas, Keiki and Margarita outlined how a homework assignment could be used:
Aim: how to extend ideas e.g. by Homework assignment:
Teacher gives chords or bass line, student to make a melody Teacher gives melody, student to add harmony (from known
vocabulary) ‘Theme and Variations’ is an easy-to-introduce technique for extending ideas
Example 1 and Musical Example 3 show how these teaching processes may work
to build a large-scale piece. The Electronic Dance Machine (EDM) was composed
by my son, Christopher Chamberlain, when he was ten years of age and taking
part in the JOC program. As a family member, I could observe the processes and
challenges of the JOC composition process and I would like to share some
insights and opinions with you.
JOC children normally write a description of their work, including the challenges
they faced in the composition process before the piece is recorded or performed.
Chris wrote:
I wanted to call my piece The Electronic Dance Machine because of an idea I had for a story about an Electronic Dance Machine (EDM), which I have tried to integrate into my piece. The Electronic Dance Machine is a huge machine that creates dance music. In the A section of my piece, the EDM is running along normally, and then as the piece evolves into the B section, the EDM becomes tired and it plays quieter and more gentle music. As it returns to the A section there are changes – evolving from this it malfunctions and with the dramatic ending it explodes.
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Chris’ main composition teacher Keiko Fujii encouraged him to compose for the
Apple digital music application GarageBand (included since 2002 as part of some
OS X and iOS operating systems) plus live performance. In performance, this
required a laptop computer connected to an amp and speakers plus two
electronic keyboards, one for each hand, so that it looked ‘cooler’. Whilst
composing, a Yamaha PSR1500 keyboard, with a wide range of sounds, was
connected to a computer running GarageBand plus Sibelius to produce a printed
score. This brought together this boy’s fascination with technology and computers
and with music. Example 1 shows the large number of GarageBand sounds that
are used in this piece, as well as the first page of the Sibelius score. While I am
now informed that GarageBand sounds are of amateur quality compared to
serious applications such as Cubase, there was certainly plenty of colour and
variety within GarageBand in 2010 to stimulate a young aural imagination. It is
also interesting that the Sibelius score does not include all the GarageBand or
dance music features of the piece, such as the beats, the reverb and the filter
effects. In this sense the GarageBand file must perhaps be considered the Urtext
score.
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Example 1 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for GarageBand plus
live performance by Christopher Chamberlain, ten years, from Australia,
image of part of the GarageBand score and the Sibelius score page 1.
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I suggest the main melodic theme of The Electronic Dance Machine (EDM), bars
31-38, was subconsciously influenced by Axel F, the theme music by Harold
Faltermeyer to the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, which appeared on YouTube some
years ago backing Crazy Frog videos. Christopher loved both the Axel F song and
the Crazy Frog videos and at the age of six or seven years taught himself to play
a version of Axel F on a PSR1500 keyboard, complete with drum backing tracks
and head-banging movements. Three to four years later we find that the main
melodic them of EDM shares the same tonality of f minor, similar syncopated
jaunty rhythms and a melodic structure that also features the intervals F–A flat, F
–B flat, F–C and F–D flat, as well as stepwise movement back to the tonic F from
lower-neighbour tone E flat and upper-neighbour tone G. This theme is also
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typical of the motif-based composition technique encouraged within the JOC
program. It demonstrates balance between the phrases, bars 31–34 spanning E
flat to C, generally rising in contour are balanced by bars 35–38 with a wider
range of lower E flat to higher F, generally falling in contour, and it also fits the
‘call-and-response’ or ‘question-and-answer’ structure. This syncopated theme
has been harmonized with a simple but strong bass line F–D flat–E flat. At the
age of ten, Chris required help to notate some the syncopated rhythms of this
melodic theme: he could play what he wanted but couldn’t figure out how to
notate the syncopations. Another important thematic element is the two-bar
rhythmic riff, bars 19–20, which is played six times before the main melodic
theme appears. Used as an ostinato in the introduction, this combines well with
the melodic theme during the recapitulation, bars 133 onwards. Here motifs from
the melodic theme also appear in canon or close imitation, bars 133–135, and the
sense of excitement is heightened by the shortened iteration of the main melodic
theme. Composition techniques from popular or dance music include what Keiko
Fujii described as ‘chicken stock’; that is, background lines that ‘improve flavour’
but the listener may not hear clearly e.g. b.51 onwards Bondi Breath sound.
Some of the soaring descant lines were created intuitively—for the Aquatic
Sunbeam line b. 121 onwards Christopher sang along to the texture and notated
what he sang. The piece is in ternary form. The ‘B’ section (b. 47 onwards)
contrasts with the ‘A’ section in tonality – it is in A Flat minor (minor 3rd from F
minor, in Axel F the contrasting section moves to A flat major) and also features
slowly moving chords with chromatically moving voices and no syncopated
rhythms.
Three teachers guided Christopher’s composition of this piece. As well as regular
lessons with Keiko Fujii, he had workshops with composer Nicholas Buc and with
Peter Hurley, whose guidance he acknowledges in the idea of chords with
chromatically moving voices in the B section.
Musical Example 3 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for
GarageBand plus live performance by Chris Chamberlain, ten years, from
Australia; Sibelius score in Appendix and GarageBand recording
(downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 19 of 55
To create pieces of this scale and complexity, as well as to perform them on
multiple occasions, requires a substantial commitment of time and resources from
parents, the student, and the teachers. The composition process may span many
months of any given year and if a child were to participate in the JOC program
over a number of years the degree of commitment can be quite large. This is
demonstrated by Tables 2, 3 & 4, which show the JOC compositions by Katrina,
Gregory and Daniel Liston, siblings from a Melbourne family, who were involved
in the Yamaha music education system from their early childhood and who
became my piano students at secondary school and beyond. Between the years
2000 and about 2007, both Liston parents, who are highly qualified teachers of
chemistry and of mathematics, gave considerable support to this creative aspect
of their children’s music education, in addition to normal piano and class music
lessons! Each child created at least one significant composition per year and
some of these were performed at JOC concerts, including international level.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 20 of 55
Table 2 – JOC compositions by Katrina Liston b. 1994 Title (piano solo unless indicated)
Movements Year of composition & age
Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s (if recalled)
Toy Stories 1- Licky Licorice’s Scary March 2- Dolphin Lullaby 3- Prancing Ponies
2002, 7 yrs JOC, Sydney
Svetlana Mik, Rebecca Stewart?
Running Free
2003 locally ?
Sunset on the River Moyne
2004 locally Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival Tutor - Melissa Perrin?
The Minnow 2005 JOC, Taiwan
Tutors – Keiko Fujii, Melissa Perrin
Illusions - Three Days in April
2006 local Became April
Amber 2007 local unfinished
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 21 of 55
Table 3 – JOC compositions by Gregory Liston (b. 1992) Title (piano solo unless indicated)
Movements Year of composition & age
Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s
The Happy Circus
1- Opening Ceremony 2- The Clown 3- The Trapeze
2000 or 2001, 8 or 9 yrs
?
The Castle 1- Entrance March 2- The Whirling Spell 3- Lost in the Mist
2002, 9 or 10 yrs
locally ?
To the Centre of the Earth
1- Starting Out – the Trek Begins 2- The Crystal Caves 3- The Underground Passage
2003, 10 or 11 yrs
Asia Pacific JOC in Hong Kong
?
The Crags (piano duet)
2004, 11 or 12 yrs
APJOC in Taiwan, with brother Daniel
Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival
The Wolf 2006 local ?
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 22 of 55
Table 4 – JOC compositions by Daniel Liston (b. 1989) Title (piano solo unless indicated)
Movements Year of composition & age
Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s
Hunt for the Red Ruby
1- The Hunt Begins 2- No Water and no Ruby 3- Discovery and Dance for Joy
1999 9 yrs ? John Corlett, Freddie Fujiwara (from Japan)
Ancient Wonders
1- Pyramids 2- Lighthouse 3-Hanging Gardens 4- Colussus
2001, 11 yrs
locally ?
Excalibur 1- The Sword in the Lake 2- The Knights Gather 3-The Battle 4- Lament for the dead King
2002, 12 yrs
John Corlett, Freddie Fujiwara
Andalusia Quintet in f minor, fl, ob, vln, vcl, pno
2003, 13 yrs
JOC Taiwan Melissa Perrin, Freddie Fujiwara. Became Andalusia duo for vcl & pno 2004 (age 14 yrs)
Merrijig Inn 2004, 14 yrs
local Melissa Perrin. Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival
Aeolus 2006, 16 yrs
local Melissa Perrin, Rebecca Stewart, Keiko Fujii
Examples 2 & 3 give an insight into how the teacher and/or parents may prompt
the initial idea for a composition and help to stimulate the child’s creativity. These
show preparatory drawings for and the final cover page to Katrina Liston’s Toy
Stories (2002 aged seven years). She has drawn some of her toys and given each
a speech bubble, so they may have a voice to outline their character. Three of the
toys shown in Example 2, Licky Licorice, Dolphin and Horses, made it into the Toy
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 23 of 55
Stories, as Licky Licorice’s Scary March, Dolphin Lullaby which uses a black note
pentatonic mode, and Prancing Ponies, a tarantella style composition with a
whole tone introduction.
Example 2 – preparatory drawing of toys for composition Toy Stories by
Katrina Liston
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 24 of 55
Example 3 – drawing for the cover of the score of Toy Stories by Katrina
Liston
Such sustained immersion in structured creative musical activity, additional to
‘normal’ piano lessons, can bring many benefits to the children involved and
would be a fertile area to research in a rigorous fashion. In The Benefits of
Composition in Teaching Young Piano Students – (Victorian Music Teachers
Association Piano Day, Sunday March 2, 2014 at 1.50pm at Exclusive Piano
Group, 169 Chapel St, Windsor, Melbourne) Margarita Krupina provided a
comprehensive list of potential benefits for primary and lower secondary school
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 25 of 55
age students undertaking composition, based on her many years of teaching
experience:
•a tool for self-expression •motivation to study •student ownership of own work (similar to art) •development of aural abilities (singing), including intervallic, rhythmic and metrical abilities •first-hand experience of music structure, e.g. ABA form •training of memory •understanding of harmonic vocabulary e.g. V – I, I – V •a tool for technical development – you have to play your own piece well! •enhance dynamic range •multiple opportunities to play, playing own piece boosts confidence •notation useful for theory studies •adds color and vibrancy to the lesson •creating music is special! (Just ask the parents!)
My interviews with and questionnaires completed by some of the JOC children
whose performances I have coached since 2000, supports these ideas. When the
child is both composer and performer with ownership of their own piece, not only
do they have first hand experience of manipulating harmony, melody and form,
but there can also be a great feeling of achievement for student, teacher and
parent. Yamaha also emphasizes this program as an opportunity for ‘personal
expression’. Whether this aspect is more important in Japanese society that in
Australian, where the right to personal expression is often taken for granted but
not often focussed in such an intense way, could be considered and explored
further.
Yamaha’s Junior Original Composition (JOC) program is a large-scale, multi-
faceted highly structured project. It incorporates many musical skills, and
parents, students and teachers must be well organised to meet various deadlines.
We should consider the role of the composition tutors carefully. Can these
complex, sophisticated works be considered to be a true result of the children’s
own creativity?
This program is based on the notion that creativity can be learnt and taught to all
piano students, therefore the teacher’s roles in the creative process is vital,
although not always overtly acknowledged, and could range from teaching the
fundamental skills of singing, playing and writing harmonic vocabulary, to
creative guidance, such as suggesting which works the children listen to, which
musical models they will study, to an overly prescriptive or directed approach -
effectively composing part of the work for the child. Deadlines for submission of
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 26 of 55
the score and recordings for possible selection may well lead towards a
prescriptive approach, as may the competitive aspect of comparing the work of
each child and their teachers with others of similar age. Certainly, within the
thirty-six JOC compositions from the 1979 boxed set one can hear a wide range
of musical models and surmise the hand of many different composition tutors. We
may also glean to a certain extent, by the interplay between form, harmony and
thematic ideas, and from the performance itself, which pieces appear somewhat
prescribed by the composition tutor, and which ones are more creatively original.
While the compositions are always presented as the work of the young children,
there can be no doubt as to the skill of the teacher and tutors, who must judge
how best to facilitate the musical creativity of each individual child in each lesson.
Their skills are quite admirable and for those of us who are not highly skilled in
composition, improvisation or harmony at the keyboard, these teachers and their
skills provide an insight into a highly creative aspect of piano pedagogy.
4. Team of Pianists Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshops for
Composition Make your own motif, make your own melody with Keiko
Fujii
The 2011 Spring Piano School Creativity Workshops were three short one-off
sessions, at the other end of a scale of commitment and complexity when
compared to Yamaha’s JOC program. However, there was one important shared
factor with the JOC program, in that an experienced Yamaha teacher, Keiko Fujii,
also taught the Spring Piano School workshops.
These workshops formed the creativity strand of the 2011 Team of Pianists’
Spring Piano School, from 2004 to 2013 and again in 2015, an annual non-
residential school holiday program for primary and secondary school age piano
students, held at the National Trust property Glenfern in East St Kilda, Melbourne.
As Director of the Spring School from 2004 to 2013, I was keen to supplement
the program of repertoire coaching and executive skills development workshops,
with creativity workshops on composition and improvisation. This was possible in
2010, 2011, and 2013, with various workshops taught by outstanding local
teachers Peter Hurley and Keiko Fujii.
For the 2011 creativity workshops, the young piano students were organised into
three groups with six or seven students per group. Each student would compose,
perform and record their own piano piece, all within a single 90-minute session
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 27 of 55
for the younger children, or within a 120-minute session for the older, more
experienced students. These compact composition workshops had to cater for a
wide range of ages from 5 to 12 years and a wide range of ability and experience.
Some students had no prior experience with musically creativity as many came
from a strictly ‘traditional exam’ background and had comparatively weak aural
skills, while others were Yamaha course students, including some who had
participated in Yamaha’s JOC program, with stronger aural skills and some
experience of composition and improvisation. Six or seven children were assigned
to each workshop, based on their age and standard.
It was interesting to observe how Keiko Fujii, given her years of experience with
Yamaha JOC composition teaching including selection of some of her students for
Asia-Pacific JOC concerts, would teach this disparate set of children, particularly
given the limited time available for each workshop and the inclusion of some
children who lacked the aural and musical skills she was accustomed to.
The aim of each workshop was for each group to compose a suite, comprising one
short composition from each child. For Group 1’s suite Let’s go to the Zoo, each
child chose an animal and created a piece about that animal. For the second and
third group, the creative springboard was weather or the seasons. For example
Group 2’s suite The Seasons comprised seven pieces from the seven children:
1 Process of Cyclone Tracy by 11-year-old boy
2 Autumn Afternoon by 12-year-old girl
3. Autumn by 12-year-old girl
4. Winter Flakes by 13-year-old boy
5. Winter Snow by 9-year-old boy
6. Spring Fall by 11-year-old girl
7. Rain in Spring by 10-year-old boy
Groups 3’s suite was The Four Seasons:
1 Summer by 11-year-old girl
2. Autumn by 12-year-old boy
3. Winter by 8-year-old boy
4. Winter by 10-year-old girl
5. Winter Reflections by 11-year-old boy
6. Spring by 12-year-old girl
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 28 of 55
Given Keiko’s vast experience with Yamaha JOC composition work, it was not
surprising that her teaching methods drew on her Yamaha experience, albeit in a
highly compressed and adapted form. She commenced work with all students in
each group together, firstly with aural work, and then used imagery, musical
examples and for the youngest group some stuffed toy animals, to stimulate and
encourage the children’s imagination. Students then explored their musical ideas
individually at various electronic keyboards with headphones placed around the
room, while Keiko worked individually with each child in turn for 5–10 minutes, to
prompt and develop a musical idea for their chosen animal or topic. While some
students were developing and practising their ideas on the keyboards, others,
particularly the older students were notating their ideas on manuscript paper
while seated at a table. Each student normally had two short individual sessions
with Keiko. She guided them to fix and structure their ideas into a satisfactory
musical structure, as well as to remember or notate the ideas so that at the end
of the session each student could perform and record their small composition!
This task required a range of skills and processes from the children:
Imagination: to invent an idea related to their chosen animal or season.
Memory: to be able to remember their idea, perhaps to notate it in some way so
as to be able to reproduce it at the keyboard.
Sense of structure: to be able to extend their idea and give the small piece some
coherent structure.
Aural skills: to be able to sing their idea, Keiko sings a lot to encourage the
students and to provide possible models.
Executive skills: to be able to play their piece securely for the recording at the
end of the session.
Each child’s response to this creative challenge was fascinating as some found it
easy to come-up with ideas while others could only really copy Keiko’s examples.
Some could improvise easily and endlessly but needed lots of guidance to
structure their ideas into a coherent form, others found remembering their ideas
a challenge. The most accomplished young composers could develop a few
distinctive and contrasting musical ideas and knit them together with apparent
ease. It was also fascinating to hear varying levels of confidence in the
performance of their compositions, music that had been called into existence only
in the last 90 to 120 minutes.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 29 of 55
Some of the recordings that each child made of their own piece at the end of
each workshop will illustrate the wide range of achievement. Some modest little
pieces from Suite 1 Let’s go to the Zoo illustrate how Keiko guided the students
to translate their animal’s mode of movement into a simple musical idea.
Musical Example 4 – Kangaroo by a seven-year-old girl and Monkey by a
five-year-old boy, siblings, (from Suite 1 Let’s go to the Zoo), recordings
(downloadable mp3 files) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Note the hopping motif in Kangaroo, and in Monkey the cheeky motif, with a
jump of 7th. Structurally, Monkey, which already has the form AA, needs a B
section, then an A return.
Musical Example 5 – Snake by a five-year-old boy (from Suite 1 Let’s go
to the Zoo), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Snake by a 5-year-old boy uses running notes in the right hand, twisting like a
snake, to depict the movement of this animal. Here the child demonstrates
impressive keyboard facility and imagination, to improvise effortlessly and
seemingly endlessly. This child’s sense of harmony and structure is not as
advanced as his executive skills; therefore the performance, which is like an
improvisation, misses a lot of potential finishing spots. This child was not used to
creating and defining his own sense of structure, but with further lessons on
harmony at the keyboard, one can well imagine him developing into a fine
creative composer and performer.
Musical Example 6 – Rabbit by a seven-year-old boy (from Suite 1 Let’s
go to the Zoo), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Musical Example 6 shows an interesting but uncommon response to this creative
process—plagiarism. As I listened to the interesting jazzy chords in this
recording, I wondered how this seven-year-old had learnt such sophisticated
harmony in such a short session. The piece sounded vaguely familiar, and upon
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 30 of 55
checking the enrolment records I found that Christopher Norton’s A Charmer
featured on this boy’s repertoire list. Once the microphone was switched on for
him to record his composition Rabbit, Norton’s A Charmer was what he played.
The cusp between improvisation and composition is explored in Autumn by a 12-
year-old boy, part of Suite 3, The Four Seasons. This piece evokes an
improvisation, with an introduction and then interesting melodic ideas over a
drone bass. Autumn also finishes well and uses octave transpositions for variety.
Musical Example 7 – Autumn by a 12-year-old boy (from Suite 3 The
Four Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Some of the best results were well-structured and attractive small compositions,
which score highly for imagination, for memory, for sense of structure and for the
student’s executive skills. While listening to these miniatures, remember that
they were created and recorded in one 90- or 120-minute group session.
Musical Example 8 – Winter Snow by a nine-year-old boy (from Suite 2 -
The Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
This work has effective patterning to create textural interest; it has a
harmonically clear melody and bass, a contrasting section like an improvisation,
and demonstrates a clear ABA structure.
Musical Example 9 – Winter Reflections by an 11-year-old boy (from
Suite 3 - The Four Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T
XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing
Winter Reflections has an ostinato in the RH, with moving bass lines, to create an
effective mood. The ‘B’ section contrasts in texture, builds in tension and resolves
in the major chord or key. Notable here are the good structure and the strong
bass lines.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 31 of 55
These composition workshops formed a very successful part of the 2011 Spring
Piano School program and required minimal commitment from the children and
their parents, beyond enrolling in the two and a half day Spring Piano School
Junior program for 2011. The creativity workshops were almost universally
popular with the students and complimented well the more traditional repertoire
classes and skills development workshops. From the Director’s point of view, it
widened the range of activities from previous Spring Piano Schools and gave an
interesting selling point to the 2011 program. Sending each child’s parents an
mp3 file of their child’s creative work also provided a souvenir of the event.
Against the very modest aim of giving each student a small taste of musical
creativity through composing, this program can be considered a success and
could be a useful model for incorporating musical creativity into other school-
holiday piano-based enrichment programs.
5. Conclusion
Piano teaching and piano pedagogy are ripe with possibilities for the development
of musical creativity. Historically, piano pedagogy for notated Western concert
music has incorporated many aspects of musical creativity, such as composition,
improvisation, arrangement, embellishment, plus fundamental musical skills that
are not specific to one instrument such as aural skills of hearing, singing and
notating. In the second-half of the twentieth century, as the numbers of
competent teachers and pianists in Western countries exploded and the average
level of piano performance increased greatly, piano pedagogy became less
inclusive of these skills and tended to focus on executive ability above all else.
Now a swing back to the incorporation of creative skills in piano pedagogy is
apparent, supported by many factors unique to our age. These include the
ongoing digital revolution, which has transformed so many aspects of 21st century
life, changes in some of the piano examination syllabuses, which determine so
strongly what is taught in school and private studios around Australia, and
eisteddfods and competitions with ‘own composition performance sections’, where
the musical creativity of young piano students can be exhibited, compared,
assessed, and encouraged. The most active factor, however, is the increasing
range of teaching repertoire and tutor method books that seek to embed some
aspect of musical creativity into the learning process. Given the comparative ease
of self-publishing, the low cost of printing and the growing numbers of motivated,
creative teachers with ideas about how piano and music can be taught, we can
expect many interesting new products and initiatives in this area in coming years.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 32 of 55
For this study musical creativity has been defined narrowly as ‘the use of
imagination and musical skills to create original music’ and further limited to two
contrasting examples of composition as part of piano pedagogy being the Yamaha
Music Foundation Junior Original Concert composition program and the Team of
Pianists 2011 Spring Piano School Creativity Workshop for composition. This
paper has examined the history and aims of these programs and the skills,
challenges, methods and some achievements of students and teachers.
Two obvious observations can be made. First, both these programs require extra
commitment from the parents and students additional to the normal weekly piano
or music class. For the Spring Piano School, the commitment required was
minimal, comprising three free days during the September school holidays and
the school tuition fee, often subsidised by a scholarship from the Friends of the
Team of Pianists. The Yamaha JOC program, on the other hand, requires a much
greater commitment in time and energy and the resulting compositions are on a
much larger scale. Important questions for pedagogues in 21st century Australia
are: is there sufficient time to become musically creative as well as master an
instrument (or two)? Can the time commitment to master an instrument (many
say 10,000 hours over a decade or so) accommodate musical creativity? Can
musical creativity at this level be more directly integrated into the instrumental
study?
The second observation is about the skills of the creativity-teachers in these
programs. Both Spring Piano School and Yamaha JOC programs are based on the
notion that musical creativity can be taught to all piano students, that all
students can be composers at some level. Both programs require highly skilled
teachers, with different skills to what is commonly taught in many music and
combined degrees in Australia. While the traditionally trained performer-teacher
can focus on executive ability, learning processes and technical ability to guide a
student towards mastery of their instrument, the creativity teachers from these
programs have high-level skills in composition and improvisation, and their
performance background may well be based on the electone or the organ. These
creativity teachers are confident to teach and demonstrate a wide range of
harmony, details of voicing at the piano, in notation and by singing. They are also
skilled in working with form and structure to guide young composers towards the
creation of quite substantial works. Additionally, they can work successfully
across age groups, with primary school and lower secondary age children both in
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 33 of 55
groups and individually. They can use notation software such as Sibelius, Finale,
or digital music workstations such as GarageBand or Cubase. As shown in the
Spring Piano School study, the teacher Keiko Fujii was also able to stimulate the
creativity of young children from many backgrounds quickly, and as
demonstrated by the JOC program works, the tutors guide students through
various stages of creating, notating, developing, expanding, and performing their
own composition. To integrate such creativity programs into existing piano
pedagogy structures would surely require either much further training by
traditional teachers and/or many more teachers with skills and experiences
equivalent to that of Peter Hurley, Keiko Fujii and others.
How might the success of such programs, which seek to incorporate musical
creativity into piano pedagogy, be measured?
First, by determining the quality of the compositions. Of the 50-100 pieces I have
examined, there are many fine works as well as some that are not as interesting
and show less creative spark or personality. Secondly, by the numbers of
students taking these programs. Creativity workshops within three annual Spring
Piano School have been almost universally popular and in that time only one or
two students out of 60 to 70 in total have felt sufficiently out of their comfort
zone to give the feedback that these workshops were a very bad idea! Third, by
assessing whether programs such as these expand the students’ confidence in
manipulating harmony, modulation and structuring. This can be traced through
an increasing sophistication of one child’s creative work from year to year, and
can also be assessed, anecdotally, by the music teacher from year to year, or by
some form of structured assessment at regular intervals, such as Yamaha Piano
Grade exams. Yet another way of assessing these programs could be whether
these young people go on to have a career in music or composition, although this
is certainly not the primary aim of the Spring Piano School, nor of the JOC
program. In Australia, there are numerous JOC graduates who have made
careers in music. To name but a few, Michelle Ann Hill from 1979 is now Michelle
Madder, founder of Australian Music Schools in Sydney, Caroline Almonte (Doves
from the 1979 JOC boxed set) is a leading Australian pianist and teacher, Stefan
Cassomenos is another very active pianist whose compositions received high
acclaim in the Australian JOC program. An internet search reveals that some of
the Japanese children from the 1979 JOC program have also gone onto musical
careers.
12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain Page 34 of 55
I would argue that another valid measure of success is also whether the children
enjoyed the process of structured musical creativity and whether you as listeners
enjoyed hearing their efforts.
How the experience of musical creativity affects a child’s general study habits and
problem-solving ability is an area of research and debate within educational
theory. Is creativity transferrable across disciplines, provided the basic
fundamentals of that discipline—in music this would be the ability to recognise
and manipulate harmony, rhythm and melody, in materials engineering perhaps a
strong engineering and mathematical base, in digital technologies perhaps a good
foundation in coding languages—are known? Ultimately, given Australia’s urgent
need for innovation and creativity in this century (and need for the funds to
capitalise and commercialise future innovations and creative ideas) the obvious
question is, ‘if all our young pianists were to study some aspect of musical
creativity within their piano studies, would Australia have a better chance to
become a high-income prosperous economy in the 21st century?’
I would hope the answer to such a broad ranging and rhetorical question would
be yes. I also hope that this examination of two composition programs for school-
age piano students may bring useful knowledge, information and ideas to future
debates and discussion about incorporating musical creativity into piano
pedagogy in early 21st century Australia.
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References Books, articles, scores and examination syllabuses: ANZCA Endorsement - American Popular Piano, Christopher Norton & Scott McBride Smith. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/212F052F201333A253A40PM.pdfon 12/1/14. Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Contemporary Popular Music see http://www.ameb.edu.au/catalog-list-products/251 Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Manual of Syllabuses 2013. Australian Music Examinations Board Ltd, Melbourne, 2012. Carrigan, Jeanell (ed.) 2003, AMEB Piano Australian Anthology – Preliminary to Fourth Grade. Allans Publishing, Melbourne. Chamberlain, Christopher 2010 The Electronic Dance Machine, copy of JOC composition score and GarageBand file in possession of the author Carrigan, Jeanell (ed.) 2001, AMEB Piano Australian Anthology – Fifth to Eight Grades. Allans Publishing, Melbourne. Craggs, Andrew 2012, Modern Piano Improvisation - Sample Tests: Grade Two – Associate Performer Diploma. ANZCA, Melbourne. Examination Syllabus Piano for All Occasions 2013-14. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/SYLLABI/Latest-ANZCA-Syllabi/ANZCA-Syllabi-.asp on 12/1/14. Examination Syllabus Pianoforte/Keyboard 2013-14. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/202F082F201343A263A42PM.pdfon 12/1/14. Fujii, Keiko and Krupina, Margarita 2014, The Use of Composition in Teaching Young Students, professional development presentation at Victorian Music Teachers Association Piano Day, Sunday March 2, 2014 at 1.50pm, Exclusive Piano Group, 169 Chapel St, Windsor, Melbourne. Griffin, Michael. 2013, Learning Strategies for Musical Success. Music Education World, Adelaide. Hyde, Miriam and Thompson, Warren 1975, Piano Course – A tutor for Australian Children. J Albert & Son (Albert Edition 382), Sydney. Hyde, Miriam and Thompson, Warren 1976 Piano Course 2. J Albert & Son (Albert Edition 416), Sydney. Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People, 1979, box set of 5-LP recordings of childrens’ performances of their own compositions, plus 147 page booklet with scores, photos, commentaries and introductory articles. Produced by Genichi Kawakami (President, Yamaha Music Foundation). Yamaha Music Foundation, Japan.
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Keane, Robert 2008, DVD 1 Making It Up – Freestyle Piano Improvisation with Dr Robert Keane. Wit’s End Music, Brisbane. See http://www.robertkeane.com.au/ Kotchie, Jocelyn E 2013, ‘Crafting Music for Children’, Proceedings of the 2013 Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference – Opening Doors: the Complete Musician in the Digital Age, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 2-6 July 2013 Liston, Daniel 1999 – 2006, JOC composition scores Hunt for the Red Ruby, Ancient Wonders, Excalibur, Andalusia, Merrijig Inn, Aeolus, in possession of the author. Liston, Gregory 2000 – 2006, JOC composition scores The Happy Circus, The Castle, To the Centre of the Earth, The Crags, The Wolf, in possession of the author. Liston, Katrina 2002 – 2007, JOC composition scores Toy Stories, Running Free, Sunset on the River Moyne, The Minnow, Illusions – Three Days in April, Amber, in possession of the author. Loffredo, Antonietta 2009, Contemporary Music in Piano Pedagogy. Proceedings of the 2009 Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference - Expanding Musical Thinking, Kings School, North Parramatta, Sydney, July 13-17 2009 accessed 6/1/14 from http://www.appca.com.au/2009proceedings.php Mays, Sally (ed.) 1990, Australian Piano Music Volume 1. Currency Press, Sydney. (Currency Music Series, General Editor: Richard Vella) Mays, Sally (ed.) 1994, Australian Piano Music Volume 2. Currency Press, Sydney. (Currency Music Series, General Editor: Richard Vella) Milne, Elissa 2009, P Plate Piano Books 1–3, Australian Music Examinations Board. Norton, Christopher 1998, Improvise Microjazz – Exercises and Pieces to encourage improvising. Boosey & Hawkes. Sedergreen, Steve 2011, Start Playing Jazz Piano Now, Identity Records. Sykes, Julia 2009, ‘Bridging the Great Divide between Classical and Contemporary Music and Creating Well-Rounded Musicians’, Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference - Expanding Musical Thinking, The King’s School, North Parramatta Sydney, July 13-17, 2009 Trinity College London (TCL) Piano Syllabus 2012-2014 (Grade exams: Piano, Piano Accompanying, Certificate Exams: Piano Solo, Piano Duet, Piano Six Hands). Trinity College, London, 2011. Trinity College London - Improvisation A Guide to improvisation in Trinity College London examinations with Grade 1 examples accessed from http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3173 on 26/6/15. Urquhart-Jones, David 2000, Improvisation in Concept and Practice. Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited, Melbourne. What is Piano for All Occasions? 2013-14. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from
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http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/202F082F201343A273A12PM.pdf on 12/1/14 Websites: Australian Children’s Music Foundation, http://acmf.com.au/ Brochures and reports from Team of Pianists’ Spring Piano Schools including descriptions of creative workshops in some years, http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/past-events oxforddictionaries.com, accessed 27 July 2014 Team of Pianists Spring Piano School, http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/spring-piano-school Yamaha Music Foundation - Junior Original Concerts, accessed 6 January 2014, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/events/joc/index.html
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Appendix – Scores Musical Example 1 - Movement 1 Train and Movement 2 Hang Glider from
Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, 10 years, from
Australia, score and recording (see link in text and on page 2)
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Musical Example 2 - Movement 3 Camel and Movement 4 Swan from
Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, 10 years, from
Australia, score and recording (see link in text and on page 2)
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Musical Example 3 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for
GarageBand plus live performance by Chris Chamberlain, 10 years, from
Australia, score and GarageBand recording (see link in text and on page
2)
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About the Author Robert Chamberlain works internationally as an adjudicator, presenter and performer, and is a partner in the Melbourne based Team of Pianists - Artists in Residence for the National Trust of Australia (Vic). Between 2004 and 2013 he developed and directed the Team’s annual Spring Piano School, an intensive enrichment program for school aged pianists aged from 6 to 18, which attracts young pianists and observers from Victoria, interstate and overseas. Along with the other three Team of Pianists partners, he performs in and directs the Beleura Twilight Chamber Music at Rippon Lea concert series, now in its 21st year, and the Rigg Bequest Classic Music in Historic Venues series. He studied for Bachelors and Masters degrees in Australia under Max Cooke, in Vienna as a winner of the Apex/Robert Stolz Scholarship, and also at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. Concert engagements with Australian and international colleagues have taken him to Turkey, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Canada, as well as around Australia. His recordings on around 15 CD’s encompass music for solo piano, two pianos, chamber music, piano and voice, and include the Team of Pianists as well as the Tall Poppies, Naxos, Move Records and VoxAustralis labels. Robert is on the piano faculty of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne. As a scholar he has edited, with violinist Marina Marsden (Sydney Symphony Orchestra), a critical edition of Australian composer Margaret Sutherland’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (Currency Press, 2000). His academic interests include teaching and learning processes in piano teaching and performance, creativity in piano pedagogy, and style and technique in piano performance. See http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/partners/robert-chamberlain and http://www.teamofpianists.com.au