Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the process of constructing a “fast-protocol” for violin instruction. Since learning string instruments has not been common, and because there are limited hours for music in Japanese schools, the author, a violinist, collaborated with the general music teacher at a middle school in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and co-created the protocol which contains three lesson units as follows: (1) to play an open string on the violin; (2) to discriminate pitch by string crosses on the violin; (3) to discriminate pitch by using fingers on the violin. As for data collection, the study videotaped students’ learning, and maintained log notes. This study also collected students’ commentary focusing on perceived challenges after each class (N = 120). Based on all gathered data, after completing the coding process, researcher and teacher co-constructed the narrative. Findings include critical examinations of readiness in violin teaching and learning, and variations on violin-specific challenges associated with enjoyment and satisfaction for beginners.
Keywords
Violin playing is compelling and challenging because of the variety of sound it produces, and the control required to create sound. Indeed, depending on the speed of the bow or where the bow is placed on the strings, musical expression such as dynamics and timbre changes subtly and flexibly during violin playing (Starr, 1976). Taylor (2006) illustrates the way in which beginner string players use bow management with scientific and physical understanding.
Characterized by the exploratory nature of sound making on bowed string instruments, like the violin, learning experiences may be shared among all learners from the very first encounters with the instrument on to professional performance. Indeed, Holt (1983) depicts how young children encounter the cello for the first time and how they experience sound making on the instrument in his book, How children learn. Holt explains that almost all the children “start off by working the bow vigorously back and forth across one of the strings … they keep this up for a long time … just the feel and sound of it are exciting” (pp. 71–72). Holt illustrates how children gradually add different rhythm and strings to increase challenge levels (p. 72). His observation clearly illustrates how children master sound making on string instruments from the earliest stages.
Nevertheless, the most common problems occur in teaching young students the violin when teachers impose the strategies of orthodox violin instruction. The first problem is encapsulated in what Csikszentmihalyi (1990) describes as follows: Even when children are taught music, the usual problem often arises: too much emphasis is placed on how they perform, and too little on what they experience. Parents who push their children to excel at the violin are generally not interested in whether the children are actually enjoying the playing. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 112)
Indeed, typical violin instruction tends to overemphasize performance rather than the process of learning and the quality of experience for violin beginners. Suzuki (1983) observed that most Japanese caregivers and teachers overlook the enjoyable group classes, and focus on achievement of high performance in private lessons conducted in a serious manner. In contrast, Japanese Courses of Study for music emphasize the affective components of “music-loving”, and learning from each other in a group.
Next, particularly in Japan, many adults think that the violin is too expensive and difficult for non-violin major students to learn. Several historical studies indicate that in the Meiji period (1868–1912), soon after the violin was first imported to Japan, the violin gradually became popular among ordinary Japanese people. People enjoyed playing Japanese folk tunes or popular songs, and singing along with the violin playing. At that time, playing Japanese popular songs using a mixture of Japanese traditional instruments and Western instruments in ensemble settings was popular (Akutsu, 2014; Akutsu & Takeshi, 2013). Nevertheless, by the Taishō period (1912–1926), many Japanese music teachers and classically trained musicians asserted that violinists should not play any non-classical popular songs. They thought violinists and learners should play Western classical music exclusively. In fact, there was even some criticism of the use of the violin to play non-Western music as an “incorrect way” (Ueno, 2012). In contemporary Japan, the image of the violin emerged as being expensive and difficult (Shiotsu, 2000) because of the shift from informal to formal use of the instrument. As a result, the violin became excluded from our daily lives. At the present time, in Japan, there is no public school that offers string classes in its official music curriculum.
Finally, most string teaching methods rely heavily on the teacher’s experience and tradition in learning to play the violin. In fact, most conventional violin method books begin by teaching how to stand properly, “with feet about a shoulder’s width apart” (Allen, Gillespie, & Hayes, 2000, p. 3), followed by holding the violin in a correct position and holding the bow long before making any actual sound on the E string (Starr, 1976). One negative consequence of this is the long time it takes for beginner students to experience the actual sound of string instruments. Especially in Japan, this would become problematic since there are limited hours set aside for music classes in Japanese schools, so that cramming is required in a music curriculum which includes singing assigned songs, recorder playing, learning traditional music, and listening to a specific set of music in the limited time available.
Aim
Drawing upon the problems mentioned above, this study aims to investigate the process of constructing a fast protocol for violin instruction. This fast protocol is for Japanese students who would not otherwise have a chance to learn the violin, and the protocol would also demonstrate general ideas of violin teaching from the early stages of learning. These fast protocol constructs challenge the traditional practice of having students wait until they have mastered “know-how” techniques like how to stand or hold a bow correctly before experiencing the satisfaction of actual sound making on the violin and ensemble playing right from the beginning. Accordingly, Bruner argued that “our schools may be wasting precious years by postponing the teaching of many important subjects on the grounds that they are too difficult” (1977, p. 12). Consequently, this study puts emphasis upon the intuitive grasp of ideas and the use of basic ideas in violin playing.
This study addresses two overall research questions:
How did the researcher and music teacher construct a fast protocol for middle school beginner violin classes by emphasizing the readiness of violin learning?
How did students describe the perceived challenges associated with enjoyment and satisfaction throughout their learning process?
Methods
This article employs two research methods: case study and narrative research. Creswell (2009) places both case studies and narrative research under the umbrella terms of qualitative research. Merriam (1998) locates narrative analysis as a type of method in a qualitative case study.
In the realm of music education, Abeles and Conway (2010) describe recent trends in music education research. They describe the importance of qualitative research as “descriptive”, placing “narrative analysis” as one of the established qualitative research methods in music education (Abeles & Conway, 2010, p. 292). Specifically, narrative research “combines views from the participant’s life with those of the researcher’s life in a collaborative narrative” (Creswell, 2009, p. 13 on Clandinin & Connelly). In the realm of music education, Barrett and Stauffer (2009) note, “narrative work provides a means to re-conceptualize the ways in which we think about music engagement, music education, and inquiry in music education” (p. 1). Such a view is echoed by Clandinin (2009) by describing narrative inquiry in music education as more “responsive” and “inclusive of the lives of all people, regardless of who they are” and “the richness of the stories of each person’s experience positioned in relation to music education helped me awaken to the complexity of music education” (p. 208). As a result, the narrative is “among the mode of inquiry that engage the search for meaning”, and “beyond communication beyond the immediate or surface meanings” (Barrett and Stauffer, 2009, p. 20 on Bruner). Consequently, this study narratively describes a case for constructing the fast protocol of violin classes for beginners.
Participants, settings and procedures
The initial participants were 120 students (N = 120), in three separate classes, who took mandatory music classes at a middle school in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The students were in the seventh grade, aged between 12 and 13 years. There was a mixture of females and males, but females consisted of about two thirds of each class. In addition, the researcher and a music teacher at the middle school collaborated and taught the classes as practitioners during the mandatory sessions.
The researcher was the former violinist of the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and has taught the violin in Pre-K and New York City public schools in Harlem, the Youth Orchestra of New Jersey and in private music schools both in Miami, Florida and Tokyo with more than ten years of teaching experience.
The middle school music teacher has taught general music in public elementary schools and middle schools in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture in Japan for more than 20 years. The music teacher had never learned how to play the violin before. She simply “liked the sound of the violin” which she described as the reason she wanted to teach the violin in her school. In spring 2013, the music teacher asked the researcher to collaborate, and for the researcher to be a guest teacher in her music classes.
Specifically, the researcher and the music teacher co-created and designed a protocol, which contains three units of lesson for beginner middle school students. The overall structure of each unit is: (1) to play an open string on the violin; (2) to discriminate pitch by string crosses on the violin, (3) to discriminate pitch by using fingers on the violin.
The school purchased 40 violins made by a company named Hallstatt in England, imported by a Japanese company, which cost about US$80 each, and the instrument came with bow, case and rosin. The instruments were provided for each student during the classes, but students were not allowed to take the instruments outside of the classroom. They only played the instrument during the class hours.
Additionally, another middle school music teacher in the school with more than ten years of experience in teaching general music observed the sessions as a nonparticipant investigator, analyzing and interpreting the gathered data, working independently at first and then collectively in order to address any discrepancies in interpretation.
Data collection/analysis and narrative construction
Researchers videotaped students’ learning with two movable cameras. By adapting the methodology of Tobin, Hsueh, and Karasawa’s (2009) “video-cued multivocal ethnography”, or so-called “Preschool in three cultures” method, this study used the video data as cues, stimuli, and topics for discussion among the researcher and the music teachers, and shared the process of interpretations and narrative construction. Repeated viewings were necessary to analyze lessons in detail and to satisfactorily interpret students’ learning. Throughout the process, the researcher maintained detailed log notes describing events, conversation with the teachers and giving personal impressions, reactions, and reflections.
After each class, students freely wrote commentary and answered a questionnaire focusing on perceived challenges as well as their enjoyment and satisfaction (N = 120). Based on gathered data, after completion of the coding process, the researcher and teacher co-constructed the narrative. As this coding process was conducted, themes were sought across all the categorized codes. Although Ely (1991) defined a theme as “a strong statement of meaning that runs through all or most of the pertinent data” (p. 150), this study also included marginal comments or minority feedback to explore multiple views of student violin learning and the fast protocol construction.
In order to achieve a standard of trustworthiness in this type of research, it was necessary to conduct participant checks and peer reviews among the researchers, referred to as triangulation.
Finally, in order to capture the process of constructing the violin classes in situ, this study interwove narratives and commentary in the manner described by Holt (1983) in his book, How children learn, where he observes learning in naturally occurring settings. Holt focused on his daily interaction with young children. Based on his descriptive narratives, he discovered that children learn most effectively when they are not pressured by their own motivation. Accordingly to Holt’s view, this type of study is concerned with “describing effective learning rather than explaining it” (1983, p. 14) and narratively depicts the practice of violin teaching.
Narrative/commentary
Unit 1: Playing an open string
In June, in the morning before 8 am, the researcher was with the music teacher, in a small office, which was connected to a music classroom next door. There were 40 newly purchased violins on the shelf which had been tuned by the researcher. Since the music teacher was a novice violin learner, she also learned how to tune the violin from the researcher, and at the same time, she also practiced a few verses of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, which she taught herself. It sounded pretty good. Both the researcher and the music teacher put the violins in cases next to each student’s seat in the music classroom.
At 9 am, the bell rang to show that the class would begin. Forty seventh graders came into the music classrooms. As a routinized activity, the music teacher let students explore various instruments in the music classrooms. Every student has their own recorder, so some of them took the recorders from their cases and began playing tunes that they had learned in the previous music classes. A few began playing drums, percussions and some played keyboard. The room was soon filled with quite loud sound. Interestingly, everyone noticed that there were violins sitting next to each chair, and mentioned, “Wow, that’s the violin”, or “My father used to play it”; however, no one touched the violin cases.
About five minutes later, the music teacher told the researcher to go to the office next to music classroom. She then asked the students to take a seat. When the classroom became silent, the music teacher told students that she had a guest for the class. Before she introduced the researcher as a violinist-teacher, she asked him to play “Twinkle, Twinkle” once on one of the student violins, and another time on his professional violin behind the door of the office next to the music classroom. The music teacher named the student violin “A”, and then the professional one “B” and asked the students to vote which one they thought was more expensive, and to present with reasons. About half of the students voted for “A” as the expensive violin.
The result was divided in part; however, there was a tendency in student descriptions of each instrument. Most students described the student violin as having a sharp and loud sound, and the professional one as having a smooth, thick and blurry sound. Some explained that “I heard multiple sound rings at once in B”. The researchers were amazed that students described the violin sound in detail, and all of the students agreed that inexpensive instruments were also playable, and had a nice ringing tone. This episode indicates a critical examination of the Japanese view that only expensive violins produce decent sound.
Next, the music teacher told the students to take out the instruments and bows from the cases. A few students said, “it is really light”, and another said, “It is more exciting than when I first played the Shamisen” (a traditional Japanese instrument that they had learned previously in music classes), because he always wanted to play the violin. Some tried to hold the violin on their shoulders, and some tried to look inside of the f-hole.
The first activity was to just make an open string sound by using the bow. The researcher demonstrated by sitting on a chair, putting the violin on his knees, and moving the bow back and forth to make a sound without holding the violin on his shoulder. Students imitated and start making various sounds on each violin string. Some moved the bow really fast, and some carefully placed the bow on the strings near the fingerboard or close to bridge. The researcher walked around the classroom, and when a student was struggling because of using the bow too carefully and slowly the researcher said “Try move it faster”, and when another student did not place the bow vertically to the strings, so the bow was slipping around, the researcher told the student “Try this way”, by holding the stick of the student’s bow gently and adjusting the angle of the bow to parallel to the bridge of the violin. Most of the students made the violin’s open string sound successfully.
After about five minutes, the music teacher asked all of the students to pay attention to the researcher, and he demonstrated how to place the violin on the shoulder. He explained briefly, “You can hold either the neck or the body of the violin and put the body of the instrument on the collar bone to balance it, and try to make the sound.” Again, the classroom was filled with the fullness of violin sound.
The researcher explained that “the violin has four strings called G, D, A and E”, and the music teacher wrote her explanation on the white board as shown in Figure 1.
Explanation of violin open strings on the white board.
The researcher then asked students to just play the E string, and said, “let’s play ensemble together”, and began playing “Sing, sing, sing” from his iPod which was connected to speakers. The researcher began playing along on the E string so students also began playing with him.
The music teacher asked all students to stop playing, and asked “Can you guys play the next string to the E string, which is called A string, and play back and forth four times each?” and demonstrated by playing the A string with a steady beat four times (ta-ta-ta-ta), followed by the E string in the same way and repeating them continuously. Students found the discrimination of A string and E string easy, and matched the speed of the bow according to the music teacher’s demonstration. The researcher began playing “Ode to joy” on the piano in A major so that student open string playing matched the tune of “Ode to joy”. After they had played, the music teacher said, “Really wonderful” and they finished the class.
Commentary
The following are the students’ comments that represent their learning experiences. First, when students listened to the researcher’s demonstration, they discovered that inexpensive instruments also make a decent sound. A student wrote, “I thought violin would cost much more”, and many students wrote, “sounded pretty fine with the students’ violin”, or “did not hear the differences”. Second, students unexpectedly realized how easy violin playing could be. Many students wrote, “surprisingly” or “different from stereotypical image of the violin playing that violin was difficult to play”. Third, the students experienced the variety of violin sound. They wrote, “The violin makes such a special ringing tone. They can even make a muddy sound”, or “I felt really good when I made the sound on the violin”. On the contrary, holding the violin on the shoulder required a few physical issues such as minor pain that a few students experienced, or difficulty in keeping the violin in the same position. The usage of a shoulder rest would be another consideration for further practice and research.
Unit 2: String cross
A week later, in the music classroom at 9 am at the middle school, the opening activity was a student recorder performance of the theme of “Spring” by Vivaldi, the first movement. The music teacher played the same tune on videotape recorder (VTR) performed by a Japanese professional orchestra. Students were so focused on the VTR.
Next, the music teacher handed out printed music (shown in Figure 2).
Notation for open strings ensemble.
The distributed music was just an exercise for open strings of G, D and A, but, actually, the tune matched with “Fortune cookie in love” by AKB, composed by one of the most popular Japanese pop artists for the younger generation. The researcher explained that “lower notes were indicated in low in music”, and demonstrated the G string on his violin, and also demonstrated each string from low to high, followed by reading the printed music slowly, and the music teacher played the melody and accompaniment on the piano. Students were so excited because the song was so popular.
After they performed the song, the music teacher asked students, “You think you can try?” Most of the students answered, “I can’t”. The music teacher said, let’s try little by little together, how about just the first line?” and began playing the introduction on the piano. The researcher demonstrated on his violin with the students. The music teacher, then, said, “Wow, you guys are doing it. Let’s go on”, and continued playing the song to the end.
The music teacher put numbers on the music as the students had learned the guitar previously to the violin. As a violinist, the researcher thought it was unusual to name the G string “4”, but many students appreciated that there was a number.
After a few minutes of individual practicing, the music teacher played the song on the iPod loud, and students began playing from the top to the end. They all stood up and played the song again. Even though, students were just playing the accompaniment part with open strings, the room was filled with a rich string sound like an orchestra.
Commentary
The following is a representation of students’ comments. The most remarkable comments pointed out the benefit of ensemble playing and challenges of discriminating pitches in accurate timing simultaneously. Many students mentioned, “I made some mistakes, but enjoyed playing in ensemble”. Another student wrote, “I was very careful not to touch the D and A strings at the same time”. Similarly, many students added their own creativity to adjust the angle of the bow or usages of arms and such to produce the intended tone of the violin. Some comments were, “I found the right angle to not play two strings at a time”. Another set of comments indicated intention to learn to play the melody by using left hand fingers. At the same time, many mentioned, “I played the AKB song on the violin!” and showed excitement and surprise that they had played a “real song” already after only the second lesson.
Unit 3: Fingering
At the beginning of the lesson, after five minutes of free practice time, students played through the AKB song with the iPod recordings, then, the researcher demonstrated playing the melody of the song to the students once on the violin. The music teacher asked them to “Watch what is happening with his left hand”. Students found that the fingering changes the pitches. The researcher briefly explained, “the third knuckle of pointy and thumb gently hold the neck of the violin like this,” to support the body of the violin, and demonstrated to show the violin holding, and suggested students to use just pointy (first finger) to change the pitch. The music teacher demonstrated “Twinkle, Twinkle” in front of the students and everyone said, “wow” and clapped.
After a few minutes of free fingering practice, the music teacher said to the students, “Let’s play Twinkle slowly together”, and said “ready go!” She began playing. About half of the students were able to play the phrase. The music teacher repeated just the first phrase a few times by saying, “Play ‘A’ twice and play ‘E’ twice and finger”, and such. This time about two thirds of the students joined in. The music teacher, then, kept going to play the next descending phrase by using three fingers, and told students “let’s go on”. Almost none of the students were able to play, so the music teacher showed her fingering slowly to the students. She also told the students: “Even when you move a location of the finger slightly, the pitch changes. Isn’t it interesting?” For more than five minutes, students practiced and the music teacher and researcher walked around to help individual students. The researcher sometimes showed the correct location of the fingers by guiding students’ fingers. About half of the students were able to play through the first phrase so they went on to learn the entire song.
At the end of the class, the researcher and the music teacher demonstrated Twinkle, Twinkle by sharing each phrase. For example, the researcher started the first phrase, and the music teacher just played the following phrase. The music teacher, asked students, “select whichever phrase they like to play and join the ensemble, okay?” and began playing the introduction on the piano. About half of the students started off the song and others decided to play the second phrase, and it became like a call and response.
At this time, an English teacher walked into the music classroom, and told the students, “I could not stop myself from coming here as I heard such a wonderful violin sound”. Students performed Twinkle, Twinkle one more time for the teacher, and then the class ended.
Commentary
After the third class, many students experienced the difficulty of using their fingers to change the pitch and to play Twinkle, Twinkle. A few comments stated, “I felt pain in the tip of my pointy, but I enjoyed learning the song”, or “When I focused to put finger, my bow arm was playing incorrect strings. I found that doing two things at a time requires more practice”. Another set of comments indicated the curriculum moved too fast, or that in ensemble the tempo of the song was too fast so that they had to “catch up”. A few requested to have more time to practice.
While many other students expressed satisfaction and excitement about the perceived challenges and further exploration, a few were obviously left behind and said, “I had no idea where to place the finger”. Differentiated instruction and group work are required in this step. Indeed, in further lessons, the music teacher offered small group projects. The students who were left behind, wrote, “I learned from my friends, and I got the all the fingerings”.
Further lessons
After the fourth class, the music teacher assigned two projects as follows, in group consisting of six or seven students: (1) Play Twinkle, Twinkle on the violin as a team; (2) Play Cannon by using a combination of instruments that the students had learned previously including recorder, guitar and shamisen; (3) Play Sakura, a traditional Japanese tune, by mixing the violin and koto.
During the first three weeks of the “fast protocol” for violin classes, the music teacher gradually became able to tune the violin by herself, and to play most of the songs in A major and D major and even go further. The music teacher also mastered how to hold the bow by learning from the researcher. Although she had very limited chances to work with the researcher, the music teacher was now able to teach the violin to beginners by herself.
After the summer, the music teacher reported that the, “combination with Shamisen or other various instruments and violin actually worked well. I asked students to play the violin as an opening activity, and other times, to use the violin for improvisational activities or mixed instruments ensemble, whenever the violin could be used”. The music teacher also expressed her impression of bringing the string instruments to the music class as “the sound of 40 violins are not loud at all. Rather, the violin sound is much richer than 40 recorder sounds, yet much more gentle than 40 brass percussion instruments. I really think Japanese schools should implement the strings as a curriculum”.
Discussion and conclusions
In this study, a researcher collaborated with a middle school music teacher to create an instructional protocol containing three lesson units as follows: (1) to play an open string on the violin; (2) to discriminate pitch by string crosses on the violin; (3) to discriminate pitch by using fingers on the violin.
Although there were limited hours for students to learn the violin in the Japanese middle school music curriculum, throughout the process students found perceived challenges, experienced a variety of sound making on the violin, and received satisfaction from the rich sound of the violins produced as a whole class. Specifically, students producing sound by adjusting the location of the bow on the strings, and creating pitches by placing fingers were two of the most challenging experiences. However, enjoyment and satisfaction were associated with those challenges as students described their experience of the exploratory nature of sound making on the violin.
These processes emphasized the general idea of violin playing rather than imposing specific skills and know-how first, as Bruner (1977) indicated that curricula should be designed to foster early intuitions and then build upon them for an increasingly formal educational progression. Consequently, the fast protocol was different in concept from a Suzuki approach, for as Suzuki (1983) described, it “behooves everyone to become expert in the right things” and the emphasis is on teaching correct posture and violin holding with numerous rules before students experience the actual sound of the violin (Starr, 1976). In contrast to the Suzuki approach, this model focuses more on the readiness of sound exploration and ensemble playing both in large and small groups with peer teaching.
As for implications and practical use of this study, the following section presents an overall structure for beginner violin students, arising from this study. First, this study put special emphasis on student exploration of the violin sound at the beginning of their instruction. Unlike conventional violin teaching methods including Suzuki group classes, this study avoided teaching specific skills such as where and how to place the bow on the strings and rather let students explore the sound making on the violin at first. Usually, conventional string methods spend quite a few hours and effort to teach a long list of how-to techniques such as bow holding, violin holding and placement of the bow. By implementing the fast track, students were able to experience and enhance the understanding of the exploratory nature of sound making on the violin. In their exploration, students illustrated how subtle control and usage of the bow changes the tone quality in various ways. Additionally, many students confidently described that violin playing was much easier than they thought. As Holt (1983) depicted, students should experience “scientific experimentation” (p. 72), and explore the violin sound at the beginning of their lessons.
Second, the fast protocol also offered numerous opportunities for students to participate in ensemble playing from the earliest stage of the learning process. Just by using E strings, students were able to play along with the melody lines of “Sing, sing, sing”. When students learned string crosses by using two or three open strings, they were able to play chord progressions along with the melody lines. When students learned a few phrases, they were able to join together to make a full song by passing acquired phrases. Students described that they enjoyed ensemble settings because of the harmonious sound and opportunities for learning from each other. Promoting ensemble playing in all stages of learning is recommended because ensemble playing enriches students’ learning experience, and students are able to experience the richness of the string sound. At the same time, small ensemble settings encouraged differentiated instruction based on an individual’s abilities while learning from each other.
Next, as for the limitations of the study, this study acknowledges that the protocol might not work everywhere due to classroom management and time and monetary factors. In some cases, when students learned fingerings, and played a specific melody collectively, a few students felt “left behind”. More differentiated instruction was necessary to respond to individual student needs, especially for students with behavior problems, or who may need a more individualized approach, and for students not electing to be in music classes at all. Further study should follow by applying the protocol to broader and more divergent groups of students internationally.
In this study, in the classes following after the third class, the music teacher added mixed instrumental ensemble rehearsals in small groups, which were beneficial for students who fell behind because it helped to differentiate the activities. These students had a chance to learn from each other in the rehearsal process. One of the students commented, “when I got confused with the rhythms, I was able to listen to my neighbor and to watch his bow usage to match mine to adjust the bow movement”. Another student mentioned that they were able to ask specific questions of other students in the same group during the ensemble practice. Consequently, the use of the violin in small group settings with peer teaching helped to satisfy individual students’ needs to a degree. Adding more of the small group ensembles from their earlier stages of learning was recommended for future teaching practices.
Additionally, due to financial conditions and the limitation of school budgets, not every school can afford to purchase violins for an entire class. In this study, the music teacher received a research grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for local teachers. In addition, the teacher searched for inexpensive violins via the internet and contacted the vendor directly to ask for a special discount for school use.
Lastly, retraining of the string teacher would be necessary for a broader implementation of this fast protocol. Indeed, in the present study, a few months before the classes began, the music teacher herself worked with the researcher privately three times to learn to play the violin. Each session consisted of about ten minutes, to learn to play the open strings, to discriminate pitches, to demonstrate simple tunes and tune the violins. At the same time, as the teacher recalled her learning and teaching experience, she practiced the violin with her students in her classes so that she gradually improved her skills of violin playing in an ongoing manner. In future, this fast protocol could be implemented in teacher training courses to learn and to teach the violin within time limitations.
As Gerring (2007) described, the case study is considered to comprise the “first line of evidence” (p. 40). Further research and practice based on this study should focus on how students’ enjoyment and satisfaction could be sustained in the long term, and how students seek and achieve further challenges in violin playing, to conceptualize the readiness of violin teaching and learning.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.