Teaching young musicians expressive performance: an experimental study

Twenty-nine pupils (aged 8–15) took part in an improvisation test and an experimental vs. control group teaching session. The aim of the improvisation test was to explore whether participants had knowledge about the use of expressive cues to convey basic emotions in improvisations. Assessments of the improvisations by four adjudicators indicated that most pupils in this sample could convey happiness, sadness and anger effectively in improvisations, providing a useful starting point for expressive music performance, which was examined in the experimental study. The experimental study investigated whether discussion of musical character is effective for improving pupils’ expressiveness, by comparing outcomes with a control teaching session that focused on accuracy and technical fluency. Participants’ performances of a ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ musical excerpt pre- and post-teaching were assessed by four adjudicators. Results indicated that the experimental teaching had been significantly more effective for improving expressiveness in the ‘sad’ extract than control teaching.