Introduction : I started playing brass instruments as a Grade 4 student in a local community youth band. Except for a period of several years when I pursuing guitar and singing, brass has been the main focus of my musical life, especially from 1989 when I taught for four years as an unqualified brass and classroom music teacher at a private school in Melbourne’s N. E. suburbs. That first experience of full-time teaching forced me to quickly re-evaluate not only my own playing methods, but also the manner in which I should impart practical skills and knowledge accrued over many years.
I was soon forced to consider the following and other important issues. How does one demonstrate to a beginner the production of correct embouchure to create the buzzing sound so vital for getting a sound out of a brass instrument? How can a teacher encourage enough students to choose instrumental music as an elective beyond the first two compulsory years? What personal dynamics are present in a good music teacher? What wider group dynamics are at play in the classroom with regard to peer pressure?
Mature-age tertiary study ultimately gave me the opportunity to more fully investigate these, and related issues. As part of my final year assessment, I distributed a questionnaire among my private and school music students, community band members and professional musicians. In all, 11 responses (Q 1 to Q 11) were received and are cited herein.
1. Recruitment strategies :
What influences initial choice to learn a musical instrument? As with any recruiting activity, the emphasis on attracting young people to learn a musical instrument relies upon a rationale of hopefully tapping in to the potential students’ interest by employing “attention-getting procedures” [Schleuter 1997 p.13]. The potential student may have nothing better to do at the exact time of approach, as was my own experience at age 10. Simple boredom may offer the ideal opportunity to attract a new player, as was the case with respondent Q4. Students not able to learn their first-choice instrument can be a prime candidate for a different one. A preexisting love of a particular instrument can play a pivotal role in the decision to commence learning, even as a mature age participant, as witnessed by respondent Q9. However, “long term success depends more on musical aptitude and readiness (more) than on interest (alone)” [Schleuter ibid.]. Schleuter (p.14) also believes that there is no optimum age to commence learning an instrument although he suggests it important to start before the teenage years. He quotes Klinedinst [1991-92] by stating that “physical characteristics have little bearing on initial success with an instrument”. This may be fine for easily manipulated or portable instruments like piano or recorder respectively, but certainly NOT for some of the bulkier instrumentation like the tuba or baritone saxophone! Further, any brass teacher will tell you that a young trombonist’s arm will not reach 7th. position. I have found from personal experience, embouchure considerations aside, that the trumpet/cornet is the ideal starting point with brass, and then generally with children over 8 years of age.
Nierman and Veak [1997 pp.379-80] propose that exploratory sessions by children on the recorder actually increase “the probability of success (on wind instruments) and (importantly), the attractiveness of achieving it”. Also, when recruiting, peer pressure should be taken into account; I personally observed it’s negative influence when recruiting instrumental students in a state secondary school at the start of the 1999 school year. A very confident and apparently popular Year 7 girl was able to discourage almost her entire class from signing up because she reportedly carried a personal grudge against the music staff of her previous school. To ignore peer pressure is to ignore the dynamics of your students [Music Educator’s Journal, Sept. 1986 p.49].
Questionnaire responses:
Part A Question 8 - “What attracted you to brass?”
Q 4 I was bored in the summer holidays and Mum suggested we join Band.
Q 8 Because I couldn’t play saxophone.
Q 9 Always loved the trombone.
2. Peer pressure (“Coolness”) :
What influences are at play when it comes to a new student’s choice of instrument? Robinson [1997 p.38], in her “Qualitative Study of Students’ Perceptions of the High School Band Experience”, states that five emergent themes arose often from her informants, these being: challenge, coolness, discipline, division and motivation.
Students who intend to continue their pursuit of music usually believe that they have the positive support of their peers [Corenblum & Marshall 1998 p.138]. I have sadly observed several Year 7 and 8 boys discontinue their trumpet lessons when confronted with less-than-positive feedback from classmates, siblings or parents. I have even heard anecdotal evidence in a Victorian country region where three bullies harassed younger students by removing instruments from their cases and hurling them down the aisle of the school bus.............obviously not an ideal mode of encouragement for a youngster to continue playing!
Certain musical instruments appear to enjoy immense popularity and can have a waiting list to start tuition. My experience and anecdotal evidence from secondary colleagues is that guitar and drums fall easily into this category with saxophone not far behind. An astute music teacher, especially when teaching less popular instruments, would do well to research what current music is about and monitor for their particular instrumental category. As a brass tutor, I was encouraged by the emergence of the contemporary genre called Ska / Punk, in part utilising saxophone and trombone in leading roles. This proved to cultivate the interest of my brass playing teenage males further and has no doubt improved the image of brass with their peers. One student was even responsible for his friend starting trumpet as a result of a passion for this style of music.
As one would expect, peer pressure had absolutely no influence upon my mature-age respondents. Thankfully, alienation/peer pressure issues do not always enter into teenage consideration, as indicated by respondents Q5 and Q7.
Part B Question 1 - “...do you feel alienated from your peers?”
Q 5 ...it doesn’t come up in conversation.
Q 7 ...we don’t really talk about music much...
3. Gender stereotyping in instrument selection :
According to Tarnowski [1993 pp.14-15], several studies, including those of Tibbets [1975], Abeles and Porter [1978], Byo [1991] and Delzell and Leppla [1992], point to children acquiring gender biases at an early age in regards to musical/instrumental associations, these biases increasing between Kindergarten and Grade 2. Tarnowski suggests that this could be due to increasing exposure to and influence of the media, peer groups, families and educators in the lives of the children. Adult associations between gender and musical instruments were evidenced in Abels and Porter’s landmark 1978 study.
Would one be correct in assuming a certain amount of gender stereotyping in the initial selection of musical instruments by students? Despite the fact that the music world abounds with the non-stereotypical images of both men and women playing a diverse range of instruments, even a cursory glance at both professional and secondary/tertiary education ensembles indicate an ongoing gender bias with instrument choice [Tarnowski ibid.]. Hanley [1998 p.52] observed that while research generally seems to indicate that girls show more interest in most genres and styles and achieve higher grades than boys, girls are under represented in the professional music world. It was also noted that a majority of girls in school music were apparently better in their performance levels than their male counterparts.
Let’s look for a moment at some more generalised observations by music teachers regarding their own student musicians. According to Hanley [1998] girls are apparently “more willing to practise their instrument and are more organised” [p.59], are supposedly “attracted to the timbre of woodwinds - soft, controlled, quiet” [p.60], “are more willing to take risks and therefore develop faster - perhaps (they receive) more support from peers as well,.....(are) more willing to experiment (and are more) open-minded” [pp.60-61]. Apparently strings and piano are regard as being more feminine in nature [Tarnowski 1993 p.14].
Young males on the other hand are perceived to view brass instruments as being more macho in nature in that they seem to be “most potentially offensive and are perhaps chosen by pubescent boys as a means of loudly expressing their individuality” [Hanley 1998 p.62]. Four of my male respondents at ages 2 X 14, 18 and 21, were apparently attracted by aspects of the timbre of brass instruments. Drums and guitar may arguably lead in male instrument preference but brass also falls easily into this category. Indeed, research across a wide range of ages has uncovered a general perception that the personalities of players in certain instrumental groupings can be generalised by the instrument that they play. Brass and percussion exponents were apparently “extroverted, loud (and) masculine” while string and woodwind players were seen as “quiet, feminine (and) introverted” [Zervoudakes & Tanur 1994 p.60 citing Builione & Lipton (1983]) and Lipton (1987)]. Golombok and Fivush [1994)] state that, “in spite of efforts to encourage a breakdown of gender stereotypes, little has changed in the past 30 to 40 years” [Hanley 1998 p.67]. It is therefore important for educators to expose children to an extremely diverse range of options which may lead to provide the necessary provision of compensatory measures. Zervoudakes and Tanur were were unequivocal in stating that “musical instruments are gendered”.
Why indeed should we, as music educators, be concerned about gender stereotyping in what instruments are chosen and played by our students? Abeles and Porter were concerned that “gender association of instruments seemed to be a critical factor in the selection of instruments. It was clear (to the authors that) children would not have equal opportunity to learn the full range of musical instruments” [Bruce & Kemp 1993 p.213]. They observed that young children shared an interest in seemingly masculine instruments while Kemp [1982 p.214] found that “some brass and woodwind musicians were more rigidly sex-stereotyped” than others. Tarnowski [1993 p.14] went further in expressing her concerns of negative stereotyping by postulating that such a mind-set could “affect the quality of school instrumental music programs and, ultimately, professional instrumental organisations”.
There are now firm indications that the climate is right to tackle the erroneous perceptions of instrument stereotyping, given that “the rise of feminism and the increased participation of women in the labour force (has) led to an increased sensitivity to issue of stereotyping” [Zervoudakes & Tanur 1994 p.65]. Bruce and Kemp [1993 p.217] raise an important point when they suggest that instrumental music teachers may need to be more aware of sex-stereotyping operating according to the instruments they teach. Tarnowski [1993 pp. 15-16] says this is especially important given that it has been suggested that music majors have tended to indicate a higher than average level of instrument gender bias, possibly due to the fact that they have observed such in both tertiary education and professional music circles firsthand. Arnold [1997 p.20] cites Holt [1991] observing similar findings and quotes Dweck [1986] as suggesting that “teachers may hamper academic achievement with labelling, sex role stereotypes, and self-fulfilling prophecy”. All is not lost however! Tarnowski [p.20] suggests that research indicates it is possible to influence children’s mode of thinking by a carefully thought through demonstration where children’s gender-neutral responses have increased after exposure to gender-neutral presentations.
QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES:
Part A Question 8 - “What attracted you to brass?”
Q 2 ...it sounds good.
Q 3 The noise.
Q 6 Loud.
Q 7 Sound.
4. Ongoing Learning - Parents :
What supports and enhances ongoing learning? Corenblum & Marshall [1998 p.130] quoted Brand [1986] as finding a firm connection linking positive parent attitudes towards music commensurate with their children’s achievement level. Davidson, Sloboda and Howe [1995/6 pp.41 & 44] propose that “parental encouragement through support is more important than musical skill” in facilitating their child’s initial motivation and ongoing development. To help achieve this, parents need to aware that that it is their commitment to assist the child that is more important than themselves processing a high level of musical competence.
According to Corenblum and Marshall [1998 p.136], people who are higher on the socioeconomic scale appear to believe that “people should be encouraged to excel at and continue in music (as that) seems the right thing to do”. My personal experience confirms this as I have known several apparently rich people from my teen years and they were virtually forced into obligatory piano lessons, even when quite unwilling to do so. My respondents Q4 and Q5 were from a financially well off family where all siblings played at least one instrument.
Davidson, Sloboda and Howe’s [1998] study of a diverse range of music students found that the parents of the most successful group had engaged in many, if not most of the following procedures with their children;
- supported them in lessons and practice before the age of 11;
- consciously engaged them in singing activities prior to the age of 3;
- were most likely to be more involved in music themselves (albeit more likely to be amateur listeners) as opposed to parents in the least successful grouping, who were least likely to hold any interest whatsoever in music [Corenblum & Marshall 1998 pp.42-43].
My own personal observations bear witness to the fact that my most successful brass students invariably had interested, proactive parents. Conversely, more than a few of my former students , or 'strugglers', had reported to me that either or both parents actively discourage them from home practice due to apparent excessive noise levels!
QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES:
Part A Question 8 - “What attracted you to brass?”
Q 4 ...Mum suggested we join Band.
