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An Investigation of the Retention of Keyboard Skills of Non-Piano Music Majors at the Collegiate Level

Mauricio, Rachel D.

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music Performance/Piano Pedagogy.
The purpose of this study was to assess the retention of Class Piano skills of undergraduate non-piano Music Education majors. Twenty students, who had passed all Class Piano requirements but who had not yet graduated, completed a survey regarding their Class Piano experience and took a skill playing exam in which they demonstrated scale playing, solo accompaniment, harmonization, two-hand accompaniment, and score reading skills learned in Class Piano. The results of the study addressed the following: (a) how well former Class Piano students retained the skills learned in their courses, (b) what aspects of these skills were and were not retained, and (c) the relationship between the students’ perceptions and values of these skills and their ability to demonstrate retention. All 20 students showed an overall retention of Class Piano skills, and 13 of the 20 students retained all five skills. The highest retained skill was harmonization, with 100% of the students showing retention, followed by two-hand accompaniment (95%), scales (90%), solo accompaniment (90%), and score reading (81%). The students’ degree, instrument, number of semesters since last taking Class Piano, and number of Class Piano teachers did not seem to affect their ability to retain Class Piano skills. There was an occasional, although inconsistent, connection among how important or useful the students thought the skills were and whether or not the students thought they needed to improve or could still play the skills with the students’ actual ability to play the skills. Generally, the students who considered a skill to be important, one they could still play, and one they would use in teaching, was also a skill where they showed greater retention than those who did not consider the skill to be important or one that would be used in teaching. Implications for Class Piano pedagogy include teaching scales in the context of exercises and more solo repertoire pieces, requiring scale performance tempos in order to ensure a high level of proficiency and retention is reached, consistently using and assessing dynamics and damper pedal more frequently in order to ensure that the students reach a proficient level in these areas, integrating choral warm-up, vocal score reading, and instrumental transposition exercises earlier and more frequently into the Class Piano curriculum, and consistently emphasizing and assessing proper posture at the keyboard.
Dr. Cynthia Stephens Benson (Advisor)
Dr. Vincent J. Kantorski (Committee Member)
116 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mauricio, R. D. (2009). An Investigation of the Retention of Keyboard Skills of Non-Piano Music Majors at the Collegiate Level [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1245293761

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mauricio, Rachel. An Investigation of the Retention of Keyboard Skills of Non-Piano Music Majors at the Collegiate Level. 2009. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1245293761.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mauricio, Rachel. "An Investigation of the Retention of Keyboard Skills of Non-Piano Music Majors at the Collegiate Level." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1245293761

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)