Konrad Ragossnig "Handbuch der Gitarre" EnglishChapter VI
The Guitar for the lesson
ภาษาไทย
Common remarks to the lesson practice
Considering music education as a component part of a broader artistical upbringing, for the one who teaches music, beside the musical-technical aspect, there will also be pedagogical, social and cultural teaching tasks, which are supposed to serve the efficacies, the methodical aid and the goal definition of this summery as a discussion basis within the Methodic lesson.
Although it is quite a common opinion, to say, that music merely presents a pleasant free time activity, which at most is able to serve as a cultural figurehead. Howbeit the fact that the music lesson, as an educational factor, is, by all means, not being equated as highly as other lesson disciplines, and that the ignorance of musical things are not being considered as discriminating, still, music pedagogics and music educators have got to fulfill a piece of art on the solid base of reality, by relating and combining hints to professional perception with humanistic education as much as it is possible, and all this, against various kinds of obstacle (Lack of interest, ignorance, uncertainty).
If the whole human is supposed to be apprehended through musical education, awakening one’s potential to realize music as such, in order to be able to understand and practice it further on, the music educator needs to put his attention to the whole personality of the student. At the beginning of the musical education, especially in the case of teenagers, the teacher will have to inform himself about the age, pre-education and the social background of the student; further on, the teacher should have a clear picture of the students productivity, inclinations of taste, the influence and motivation through parents and friends.
If a teenager is urging for a musical occupation, besides his musical skills, which can be assessed through a talent examination (to sing intervals, to clap rhythms, to see the difference between Major and Minor, paper singing, short melodic and rhythmic improvisation), the teacher needs to also pay attention to the spiritual and physical fitness of the student. The occupation of the musician, should not at all, be a substitution for the discontentment or failure in any other field of activity.
As a principle for the lesson methods, the teaching form with questions helps to promote the student to cooperate actively in the lesson, right from the beginning. According to the age, talent and advances of the student, the teacher will ponder between instructing and self-realization, showing and copying, leading and letting grow, and in the course of this, connecting the musical education with common pedagogical aims, such as the promoting of concentration, mindfulness, interest, ambition, advances and purposefulness. >>The secret to a good lesson, especially when working with kids, is to always intrigue and stimulate the student again and again, without loosing sight of the methodical structure.<<119
The instructions of the teacher should be presented to the student as clearly as possible. The student has to know exactly, where he has to put his attention: on the proper way to hold the instrument, on the rhythmical sequences, on the cleanliness of the tones, on the perception of melody and accompanies, on technical flawless interpretation and so on; whereas technical difficulties in the coordination and dependence between right and left hand, are supposed to be practiced separately.
The structure for an optimal lesson resulted from the consideration of different teaching objectives.
In the center lies the experience of sound, the conscious realization of music, the organic development of musical and technical skills, which, in a systematical structure, needs to be promoted right at the beginning.
melodic and rhythmic aural training (guide to conscious hearing);
singing realization of a melody and
put them into notes and play back on the instrument;
Creations on theoretical foundations (intervals, kinds of tones, cadences, agogic, dynamic);
systematical expansion of techniques;
Anticipation of musical and technical problems (Upbeats, triplets, punctuations and so on.) through musical invention practices under implication of folk melodies (singing or the instrument), which can be substituted with etudes later on.
Transpositions of simple melodies (five tone sequences) in different positions and on different chords ease the acknowledgment on the fingerboard.
When the basic posture & positioning techniques of the instrument and the creation of the tones are explained, as well as a manual playing skill has been reached, it is recommended to design the order of the lesson as following:
Technical and tone making exercises (scales).
Etudes
A piece of performance, whereas necessarily corrections will not be done during the foreplay, but will be reviewed not before the end of the performance (picking out the difficult parts).
New conceptual formulation with explanations of the technical and musical features (if given, through the foreplay by the teacher).
Short paper-play exercises, which could also be related to the new given piece of work.
Remedial duet plays between teacher and student; on the lower grade, it is also possible to give hearing improving tasks or cadence kind of connections and their transpositions, which can be used to practice.
For the starting lesson, especially in music schools, it is often recommended or asked to do an instrumental group lesson. Hereby, not more than four students should be put into one group, otherwise, it would possible for the teacher to have a conscious control over the situation. Performing for and mimicking the teacher in group divisions (each group is made of two students) or the cooperative playing by the teacher and a single student will lift up the synchronized production of music as well as the critical listening. Through hearing improving and rhythmical exercises within the group, the lesson can become more relaxed and enriched. However, the single lesson remains the core of musical education, and should be kept as an optimal teaching form, in addition to a permanent group lesson setting.
For the practical studies in the play-literature in the middle and advanced level, the following procedure is recommended:
Analysis about the character and style of the piece of work, which has been given to study (dance, sonatas, variations, fantasies and so on).
The definitions of the finger sets are supposed to be according to the tempo and phrasing of the piece of work.
Memorial processing, remedially in defined segments (optical, acoustical and technical-manual); possible finger set corrections.
Practicing of the difficult parts through slow playing.
Contemplative pauses will often turn out to be quite useful.
The post processing (interpretation) of the piece of work in the whole.
Until about into the third decade of his life, the young musician will remain more or less under the influence of his teacher or any other respected role model. In the present musical education, the utility of the CD and the tape in reasonable using should not at all be ignored. Masterly CD-records could – in supplement with the immediate concert experience – help the young musician, to learn the melodious and technical possibilities from various points of view. One’s own interpretation is not supposed to be fixed as the reflection of the listened music.
Guide to daily practice
No serious teaching and lesson method can renounce(?), helping the student to get used to the long continuity of a funded technical as well as musical education right from the first lesson, in which the mastering, can be gained only through lifelong operating, and be obtained only through constant practicing. In fact, benefit for the musical figuration is only reachable, when the daily practicing times are taking secure positions within the daily routine. The practicing requires a special technique, which, along the guiding of the teacher, can be learned over again and again. The following rules are summarized here, to help acquiring performance raising practicing techniques:
The daily practicing program should be structured in technical practices (Tone scale, Arpeggios, coordination exercises and the independency from Holding and Stop technique, Barre, Legato, percussion), etudes and performing pieces.
Tone scale exercises in slow tempo as well as practicing with Vibrato, whereby the players own tone quality is best expressed.
Practices should be done in good aired rooms, rather than in warm ones.
A constant outlast of time should be kept, which however, will only adduce the greatest possible rising of the output, as long as one is physically and mentally fresh. Having breaks for relaxation as soon as there are signs of fatigue. The daily outlast depends on the talent, age and physical constitution. It should be handled individually flexible.
Technical exercises and etudes should, if possible, be practiced by heart.
Always practice slowly, until sureness in all technical and musical detail is reached.
Depending on the talent and advance, there are three important factors for memorizing a piece of work, which begins right from the concentrated reading through the visual recording of the display of notes, the acoustic recording by hearing and the muscular in accordance with the finger movements of both hands. The rule of thumb would be formulated in about this way: One should begin memorizing, when it is possible to produce certain sentences in slow tempo, without aggravating mistakes, especially without interruptions.
During the memorizing exercises, the note text should be followed in optical imagination. Go back to the text as soon as there gaps of memory! Correct sources of mistake right away!
The height of the sitting- and foot bench should be in a natural relation to the body height: The sitting area should rather be low than too high, the foot bench should rather be high than too low, so that the upper part of the body will not have to be too cambered.
Set the feet in the way that allows a flexible holding of the instrument, which means: only about half of the left foot supported on the edge of the foot bench, right foot set slightly backwards, close to the right chair leg, so the heel won’t touch the ground. Both shoulders should not be pulled up, but should fall down relaxed.
If any of the numerous variation of guitar holding posture is used, the same guidelines are counting for a relaxed posture and the using of the foot stool.
Playing in front of the audience can, as a preliminary practice, be tested by the family or among a circle of friends. A rule to thumb, which Hans-Martin Linde recommended to the block flute players for effective encountering with nervousness, can be verbally adopted by guitar players – the conception: >> Chin up – letting the shoulders fall down.<< >> take deep breaths during breaks and the whole body, especially the fingers needs to be consciously relaxed. It is also possible to relax the cervix and the shoulders during playing. <<121
Finger setting markings or, if possible, their corrections relieve very much the process of reasonable practicing and have great influence in defining the phrasing. However, finger settings are only useful, if it’s possible to realize them optically coherent to the note text.
In the course of this, a unified punctuation needs to be regarded:
1, 2, 3, 4 as the finger setting indication for the left hand need to be in front of the specific note, not behind, above or under;
p, i, m, a, as the finger setting symbol for the right hand need to be above or under the specific note:
Technical linking arcs (left handed Legato) are distinguished reasonably through a punctured arc ……… for the first time in the edition of Julian Bream
If the common linking arc ______ is used, a finger setting inscription for the right hand (p, i, m, a) should attached, especially where a left handed Legato is put over one or more than two notes, in order to be able to distinguish the technical Legato arcs from phrasing arcs:
Technical Legato
[insert 2nd staff pic here – the long one - from p.152]
Technical Legato with phrasing arc
[insert 3rd staff pic here ]
Practicing is a practical meditation. Effective practicing will always remain important, pushing back spontaneity for the time being. >Taking in storm < manifests most oftenly as pyrrhic victories; the Ostinato of the teacher: festina lente (hurry slowly) will be the pedantry of the studying ones, as long as the principle of meditation has not been understood. During finger practices, the most uncomfortable positions have got to be practiced tirelessly, however, for a piece of work, all the avoidable difficulties should be avoided.<<122
Only an overall education in technical as well as musical respect can lead to responsible-minded musicians and artists.
(Translation from German to English by Leon Koudelak and Matt Miklas)
The Guitar for the lesson
ภาษาไทย
Common remarks to the lesson practice
Considering music education as a component part of a broader artistical upbringing, for the one who teaches music, beside the musical-technical aspect, there will also be pedagogical, social and cultural teaching tasks, which are supposed to serve the efficacies, the methodical aid and the goal definition of this summery as a discussion basis within the Methodic lesson.
Although it is quite a common opinion, to say, that music merely presents a pleasant free time activity, which at most is able to serve as a cultural figurehead. Howbeit the fact that the music lesson, as an educational factor, is, by all means, not being equated as highly as other lesson disciplines, and that the ignorance of musical things are not being considered as discriminating, still, music pedagogics and music educators have got to fulfill a piece of art on the solid base of reality, by relating and combining hints to professional perception with humanistic education as much as it is possible, and all this, against various kinds of obstacle (Lack of interest, ignorance, uncertainty).
If the whole human is supposed to be apprehended through musical education, awakening one’s potential to realize music as such, in order to be able to understand and practice it further on, the music educator needs to put his attention to the whole personality of the student. At the beginning of the musical education, especially in the case of teenagers, the teacher will have to inform himself about the age, pre-education and the social background of the student; further on, the teacher should have a clear picture of the students productivity, inclinations of taste, the influence and motivation through parents and friends.
If a teenager is urging for a musical occupation, besides his musical skills, which can be assessed through a talent examination (to sing intervals, to clap rhythms, to see the difference between Major and Minor, paper singing, short melodic and rhythmic improvisation), the teacher needs to also pay attention to the spiritual and physical fitness of the student. The occupation of the musician, should not at all, be a substitution for the discontentment or failure in any other field of activity.
As a principle for the lesson methods, the teaching form with questions helps to promote the student to cooperate actively in the lesson, right from the beginning. According to the age, talent and advances of the student, the teacher will ponder between instructing and self-realization, showing and copying, leading and letting grow, and in the course of this, connecting the musical education with common pedagogical aims, such as the promoting of concentration, mindfulness, interest, ambition, advances and purposefulness. >>The secret to a good lesson, especially when working with kids, is to always intrigue and stimulate the student again and again, without loosing sight of the methodical structure.<<119
The instructions of the teacher should be presented to the student as clearly as possible. The student has to know exactly, where he has to put his attention: on the proper way to hold the instrument, on the rhythmical sequences, on the cleanliness of the tones, on the perception of melody and accompanies, on technical flawless interpretation and so on; whereas technical difficulties in the coordination and dependence between right and left hand, are supposed to be practiced separately.
The structure for an optimal lesson resulted from the consideration of different teaching objectives.
In the center lies the experience of sound, the conscious realization of music, the organic development of musical and technical skills, which, in a systematical structure, needs to be promoted right at the beginning.
melodic and rhythmic aural training (guide to conscious hearing);
singing realization of a melody and
put them into notes and play back on the instrument;
Creations on theoretical foundations (intervals, kinds of tones, cadences, agogic, dynamic);
systematical expansion of techniques;
Anticipation of musical and technical problems (Upbeats, triplets, punctuations and so on.) through musical invention practices under implication of folk melodies (singing or the instrument), which can be substituted with etudes later on.
Transpositions of simple melodies (five tone sequences) in different positions and on different chords ease the acknowledgment on the fingerboard.
When the basic posture & positioning techniques of the instrument and the creation of the tones are explained, as well as a manual playing skill has been reached, it is recommended to design the order of the lesson as following:
Technical and tone making exercises (scales).
Etudes
A piece of performance, whereas necessarily corrections will not be done during the foreplay, but will be reviewed not before the end of the performance (picking out the difficult parts).
New conceptual formulation with explanations of the technical and musical features (if given, through the foreplay by the teacher).
Short paper-play exercises, which could also be related to the new given piece of work.
Remedial duet plays between teacher and student; on the lower grade, it is also possible to give hearing improving tasks or cadence kind of connections and their transpositions, which can be used to practice.
For the starting lesson, especially in music schools, it is often recommended or asked to do an instrumental group lesson. Hereby, not more than four students should be put into one group, otherwise, it would possible for the teacher to have a conscious control over the situation. Performing for and mimicking the teacher in group divisions (each group is made of two students) or the cooperative playing by the teacher and a single student will lift up the synchronized production of music as well as the critical listening. Through hearing improving and rhythmical exercises within the group, the lesson can become more relaxed and enriched. However, the single lesson remains the core of musical education, and should be kept as an optimal teaching form, in addition to a permanent group lesson setting.
For the practical studies in the play-literature in the middle and advanced level, the following procedure is recommended:
Analysis about the character and style of the piece of work, which has been given to study (dance, sonatas, variations, fantasies and so on).
The definitions of the finger sets are supposed to be according to the tempo and phrasing of the piece of work.
Memorial processing, remedially in defined segments (optical, acoustical and technical-manual); possible finger set corrections.
Practicing of the difficult parts through slow playing.
Contemplative pauses will often turn out to be quite useful.
The post processing (interpretation) of the piece of work in the whole.
Until about into the third decade of his life, the young musician will remain more or less under the influence of his teacher or any other respected role model. In the present musical education, the utility of the CD and the tape in reasonable using should not at all be ignored. Masterly CD-records could – in supplement with the immediate concert experience – help the young musician, to learn the melodious and technical possibilities from various points of view. One’s own interpretation is not supposed to be fixed as the reflection of the listened music.
Guide to daily practice
No serious teaching and lesson method can renounce(?), helping the student to get used to the long continuity of a funded technical as well as musical education right from the first lesson, in which the mastering, can be gained only through lifelong operating, and be obtained only through constant practicing. In fact, benefit for the musical figuration is only reachable, when the daily practicing times are taking secure positions within the daily routine. The practicing requires a special technique, which, along the guiding of the teacher, can be learned over again and again. The following rules are summarized here, to help acquiring performance raising practicing techniques:
The daily practicing program should be structured in technical practices (Tone scale, Arpeggios, coordination exercises and the independency from Holding and Stop technique, Barre, Legato, percussion), etudes and performing pieces.
Tone scale exercises in slow tempo as well as practicing with Vibrato, whereby the players own tone quality is best expressed.
Practices should be done in good aired rooms, rather than in warm ones.
A constant outlast of time should be kept, which however, will only adduce the greatest possible rising of the output, as long as one is physically and mentally fresh. Having breaks for relaxation as soon as there are signs of fatigue. The daily outlast depends on the talent, age and physical constitution. It should be handled individually flexible.
Technical exercises and etudes should, if possible, be practiced by heart.
Always practice slowly, until sureness in all technical and musical detail is reached.
Depending on the talent and advance, there are three important factors for memorizing a piece of work, which begins right from the concentrated reading through the visual recording of the display of notes, the acoustic recording by hearing and the muscular in accordance with the finger movements of both hands. The rule of thumb would be formulated in about this way: One should begin memorizing, when it is possible to produce certain sentences in slow tempo, without aggravating mistakes, especially without interruptions.
During the memorizing exercises, the note text should be followed in optical imagination. Go back to the text as soon as there gaps of memory! Correct sources of mistake right away!
The height of the sitting- and foot bench should be in a natural relation to the body height: The sitting area should rather be low than too high, the foot bench should rather be high than too low, so that the upper part of the body will not have to be too cambered.
Set the feet in the way that allows a flexible holding of the instrument, which means: only about half of the left foot supported on the edge of the foot bench, right foot set slightly backwards, close to the right chair leg, so the heel won’t touch the ground. Both shoulders should not be pulled up, but should fall down relaxed.
If any of the numerous variation of guitar holding posture is used, the same guidelines are counting for a relaxed posture and the using of the foot stool.
Playing in front of the audience can, as a preliminary practice, be tested by the family or among a circle of friends. A rule to thumb, which Hans-Martin Linde recommended to the block flute players for effective encountering with nervousness, can be verbally adopted by guitar players – the conception: >> Chin up – letting the shoulders fall down.<< >> take deep breaths during breaks and the whole body, especially the fingers needs to be consciously relaxed. It is also possible to relax the cervix and the shoulders during playing. <<121
Finger setting markings or, if possible, their corrections relieve very much the process of reasonable practicing and have great influence in defining the phrasing. However, finger settings are only useful, if it’s possible to realize them optically coherent to the note text.
In the course of this, a unified punctuation needs to be regarded:
1, 2, 3, 4 as the finger setting indication for the left hand need to be in front of the specific note, not behind, above or under;
p, i, m, a, as the finger setting symbol for the right hand need to be above or under the specific note:
Technical linking arcs (left handed Legato) are distinguished reasonably through a punctured arc ……… for the first time in the edition of Julian Bream
If the common linking arc ______ is used, a finger setting inscription for the right hand (p, i, m, a) should attached, especially where a left handed Legato is put over one or more than two notes, in order to be able to distinguish the technical Legato arcs from phrasing arcs:
Technical Legato
[insert 2nd staff pic here – the long one - from p.152]
Technical Legato with phrasing arc
[insert 3rd staff pic here ]
Practicing is a practical meditation. Effective practicing will always remain important, pushing back spontaneity for the time being. >Taking in storm < manifests most oftenly as pyrrhic victories; the Ostinato of the teacher: festina lente (hurry slowly) will be the pedantry of the studying ones, as long as the principle of meditation has not been understood. During finger practices, the most uncomfortable positions have got to be practiced tirelessly, however, for a piece of work, all the avoidable difficulties should be avoided.<<122
Only an overall education in technical as well as musical respect can lead to responsible-minded musicians and artists.
(Translation from German to English by Leon Koudelak and Matt Miklas)