In May 2011, I outlined in great detail what I and my students enjoy doing so much at group piano classes. In the “High Schoolers and Adults” section, I mentioned that I sometimes like to assign each student their own musical issue to listen to. I’ve been doing this exclusively with all seven of my advanced high schoolers over the past year, and we’ve all come to really love this way of giving feedback. The only problems with this way of doing things:
Sometimes we start losing track of who is assigned to what issue.- Every time we have a class, there is a different number of students, which means there will be a different number of issues to rotate between them. It’s a pain to have to spend a few minutes each class prioritizing what musical issues to cover.
So, after a class yesterday with 7 advanced high school students, I finally decided to make charts that would cover anywhere between 3 and 8 students that we can refer to in future classes. I decided to share these charts with other teachers so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Before beginning, it is helpful to clarify for students what each listening item means:
- Volume
- Dynamics: Overall dynamic markings such as p, f, crescendos and diminuendos.
- Dynamic phrasing: Dynamic shaping given to the melody, often not marked by the composer (i.e. tapering of phrases, dynamic peaks, etc.). Are sudden changes clear? Are smooth changes smooth? Unintended accents? Ghosted notes?
- Balance: One hand playing louder or softer than the other (i.e. accompaniment softer than melody).
- Voicing: One finger playing louder or softer than another finger on the same hand (i.e. when playing chords, playing the top finger louder than other fingers, or in Bach fugues, playing the finger with the subject louder than the other fingers).
- Timing
- Tempo: Was the choice of speed in various sections of the piece appropriate, or did any tempo choices detract from the music’s character?
- Pulse: Were the chosen tempos steady? Were tempo changes smooth?
- Rhythm: The relative accuracy of the temporal onset of each note within the given tempo.
- Evenness: Was rhythm executed with precision, or did some fingers rush, especially in faster passages?
- Togetherness: Were hands exactly together when playing simultaneous notes? Were fingers together when playing chords? Or were there a lot of accidental “buh-dums” between hands and fingers?
- Duration
- Articulation: Legato (slurs), staccato, legatissimo, staccatissimo, portato, tenuto, leggiero.
- Clarity: Lifting of fingers soon enough to avoid accidental “blurring” of notes (i.e. avoiding “accidental legatissimo”). Look for flat or collapsed fingers.
- Rests: Listen for rests to begin exactly on time – not too soon or too late.
- Pedaling: Overlapping pedal technique too early, too late? Pedal changes in the right places? Pedal going all the way up / all the way down? Heel staying on the ground? Making too much noise when lifting the pedal?
Note: some of the tables below are too wide to fit in the limited width space of this post, so I’ve also produced a PDF for easy viewing and/or printing.
2 performers
2 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance, Voicing, Articulation, Clarity, Rests, Pedaling, Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness, Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo |
| Round 2 | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance, Voicing, Articulation, Clarity, Rests, Pedaling, Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness, Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo | (performs) |
3 performers
3 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling, Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
| Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
|
| Round 2 | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
| (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling, Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
|
| Round 3 | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling, Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
| Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
| (performs) |
4 performers
4 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 | Student 4 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling
| Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
| Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
|
| Round 2 | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
| (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling
| Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
|
| Round 3 | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
| Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
| (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling
|
| Round 4 | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling
| Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo
| Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing, Balance & Voicing
| (performs) |
5 performers
5 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 | Student 4 | Student 5 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing | Balance & Voicing | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo |
| Round 2 | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing | Balance & Voicing |
| Round 3 | Balance & Voicing | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing |
| Round 4 | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing | Balance & Voicing | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo | (performs) | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling |
| Round 5 | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Dynamics, Dynamic phrasing | Balance & Voicing | Rhythm, Pulse, Tempo | (performs) |
6 performers
6 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 | Student 4 | Student 5 | Student 6 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics |
| Round 2 | Dynamics | (performs) | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing |
| Round 3 | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing |
| Round 4 | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling |
| Round 5 | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness |
| Round 6 | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) |
7 performers
7 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 | Student 4 | Student 5 | Student 6 | Student 7 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics |
| Round 2 | Dynamics | (performs) | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing |
| Round 3 | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing |
| Round 4 | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling |
| Round 5 | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness |
| Round 6 | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) | Tempo, General |
| Round 7 | Tempo, General | Rhythm, Togetherness, Evenness | Articulation, Clarity, Rests and/or Pedaling | Balance & Voicing | Dynamic phrasing | Dynamics | (performs) |
8 performers
8 performers
| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 | Student 4 | Student 5 | Student 6 | Student 7 | Student 8 |
| Round 1 | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing |
| Round 2 | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics |
| Round 3 | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing |
| Round 4 | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity |
| Round 5 | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling |
| Round 6 | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness |
| Round 7 | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse |
| Round 8 | Rhythm, Tempo, Pulse | Togetherness, Evenness | Rests, Pedaling | Articulation, Clarity | Balance & Voicing | Dynamics | Dynamic phrasing | (performs) |
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Thank you. This looks valuable.
Looks great! Nice idea.