Using Paul Rolland’s Model in Your Summer String Camp to Increase Excellence in Your String Program

The University of Illinois String Research Project: Like Instruments, Favorable Teacher/Student Ratio, and Ample Contact Time

The project involved classes of like instruments (violin class, cello class, etc.) and a teacher/student ratio of one teacher for three to fifteen students that ensured a lot of individual help for each student. The first class of beginners, fifteen violin students who had completed grade 2 or 3, had sixteen lessons of one-and-a-half hours each over four weeks from July 10 to August 4, 1967. The classes were taught by Professor Rolland with the assistance of three graduate students, who were to teach the project classes in four Urbana, Illinois, schools in the fall.

The fall classes met two times a week for thirty minutes each with a class size of three to fourteen. Most were violin classes. The children came to a third larger class on Saturdays, taught by Mr. Rolland and again assisted by the project teachers. There was also a cello class of nine students.

Combined with excellent teaching, the three ingredients that helped ensure the success of the University of Illinois String Research Project were like-instrument classes, student/teacher ratio of one teacher for three to fifteen students, and ample contact time. The summer beginning violin class was ideal (one-and-a-half hour classes that met four times a week over four weeks), but the school year’s schedule of two in-school classes of thirty minutes each, plus the Saturday meeting where assistants to Mr. Rolland “moved elbows,” also helped assure enough contact time and individual assistance.

A Summer Camp Model

The current Paul Rolland Kids Camp held in July at the University of Illinois in collaboration with the Paul Rolland String Workshop is patterned after Mr. Rolland’s model. I serve as the director and lead teacher. Our cello teacher Gail Rolland, violin teachers Aaron Jacobs and Frances Reedy, and I taught eighteen children at the camp during the summer of 2018 with the assistance of two graduate students, a violinist, and a cellist. Both the assistants played piano well, so they served as accompanists and “moved elbows” to assist the teachers.

I would encourage string teachers—elementary, middle, and high school—to use the University of Illinois String Research Project and Paul Rolland Kids Camp as a model for summer camps to increase the playing excellence of their students. During the school year when large class sizes are required, it may not be possible to apply these ideas. There are some school string programs that make it possible to have small group lessons of like instruments to supplement the large group classes.

During a summer program, more flexibility is possible, so these ideas could be implemented. Our Paul Rolland Kids Camp met from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for one week. At least half of the time we split into small groups—four cellos taught by Gail and assisted by the cellist grad student, four junior camper violin students (aged six to eight years) taught by Frances and the other ten violin students (aged eight to twelve years) taught by Aaron and myself. So, for the eighteen students, there were four teachers and two assistant teachers—a ratio of six teachers for eighteen students, or one to three. We did put all the students together sometimes, but did unison playing with a few pieces with some harmony. It was not an orchestra approach, so the final concert/demonstration was unison and piano accompaniment. There was a special group solo piece that featured the cellos and one that featured the junior violins.

Like-Instrument Classes in Europe and the United States

As Paul Rolland was from Hungary, it is natural that his like-instrument class approach, which is common in Europe, would be something he would favor. In America, there has been great success with heterogeneous classes and an orchestra approach with all the string instruments playing from a method book and then orchestra repertoire. Our strong high school orchestra programs owe a lot to that approach. It is my belief that at the beginning and intermediate stages, a like-instrument class of small size allows the students to develop fine playing better than a heterogeneous approach with large classes and limited contact time.

In 2011, I visited the Jeki (“Every Child an Instrument” [Jedem Kind ein Instument], see https://www.hamburg.de/jeki/) program in Hamburg, Germany. The City of Hamburg finances this program that brings instrumental instruction into every elementary school with small group, like-instrument classes. The teachers are professional performers and some are trained as music educators. The program includes strings, winds, brass, and drums. The excellent playing of the students reflects the like-instrument, small-class format. In America, it may not be possible to have that format in a public school setting during the school year. I observed two violin classes; the quality was excellent. I also saw an online video of eight bass students being taught by a fine bassist. The kids had beautiful playing positions, movements, tone, and intonation.

There are examples of like-instrument classes, sometimes called technique classes, at summer Suzuki Institutes and other settings (phone conversations with Rolland clinicians Joanne Erwin, Michael Fanelli, and Joanne May). Although the Suzuki Method is based on private lessons, their group lessons (again, of like instruments) are an important part of their program.

The University of Illinois summer program for junior and senior high school students, Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM), has a technique class of like instruments along with an orchestra sectional class and a full orchestra rehearsal. During that technique class, the teacher has leeway to work with scales, etudes, or solo repertoire as a group—whatever the teacher would like to do. Mr. Rolland taught at ISYM for twenty-five years and used some of the violin students for his Remedial film as part of the University of Illinois String Research Project (phone conversations with Joanne May and Michael Fanelli, Rolland clinicians and ISYM teachers).

Increasing Excellence in Your String Program through a Summer Camp

The ideas I am suggesting are already being used in a limited way. I am a retired elementary string teacher and always strove for excellence in my teaching and my students’ playing. I struggled a bit to achieve that excellence during the school year due to large class size and insufficient contact time with students.

Rather than trying to fit these ideas into school year classes, you could apply them to a summer camp. If you are a violinist or violist, you could team up with a cellist or bassist and have like-instrument group classes for some or all of the time. To improve the teacher/student ratio further, you could get some college string music education majors or high school students to assist and “move elbows” while the lead teachers teach.

“Rather than trying to fit these ideas into school year classes, you could apply them to a summer camp.”

It was a goal of Mr. Rolland’s (1971, 4) University of Illinois String Research Project to improve the standards of string teaching in America. A large part of the success of the project is due to the materials and pedagogy, which included action studies to encourage natural, coordinated movements of the whole body to ensure “effortless production of good tone and technique” (Rolland 1971, 1). The best source of Paul Rolland’s pedagogy is the book “The Teaching of Action in String Playing” by Paul Rolland with Marla Mutschler ([1974] 2000), and the DVD by the same name (Rolland 2008). His ideas have influenced every current string method book. Indeed, the level of string teaching in America has improved considerably as ASTA first shined a light on the issue in the mid-1940s (Rolland 1971, 2). I believe Mr. Rolland would be pleased to see the improvement in string teaching in America. Those of us who are passing on his legacy are proud of his contributions.

I believe how the project classes were organized with like instruments, the favorable ratio of students to teacher, and ample contact time were central to the project’s success and should be used as a model. Along with the excellent method books, orchestra repertoire, and fine teaching available today, we can look forward to thriving string and orchestra programs into the future.