Portable Electronic Keyboards, while undoubtedly a useful resource in the classroom, were not originally or primarily designed specifically for classroom use, and their use cannot address all the many challenges of classroom music.
Portable keyboards are not a suitable substitute for the piano, even though they are sometimes marketed as such. The techniques involved are quite different, as are the musical results. Portable Electronic Keyboards are however legitimate and popular musical instruments in their own right, which can be taught and played expressively and to a high level of musical accomplishment.
Classroom music and instrumental tuition have clearly separate functions and identities, but common ground can be found between the two. Pupils benefit when classroom teachers and instrumental tutors liase with each other to maximise the connections between the two. All can benefit from shared expertise. This gives a strong logical foundation to pursuing an approach to music education where classroom music teachers and peripatetic instrumental specialists work alongside each other in delivering musical teaching and learning opportunities to students within schools.
During a recent study, the distinctives and the common ground between classroom music and instrumental tuition were further considered by comparing the areas of study covered within the classroom and instrumental curricula. During the study, the delegates discussed the following points, each asked to report back on a different aspect of comparison.
1. What can classroom music teachers discover from studying the approach to keyboard teaching taken by instrumental experts,
and what areas of study are particularly the preserve of the instrumental teacher?
2. What can the instrumental specialist learn from studying the work done with keyboards in the classroom?
3. How can classroom teachers and instrumental specialists co-operate in seeking to deliver those aspects of the curricula which clearly overlap?
The following practical suggestions were offered as ideas that could be used by classroom teacers:
1 Use keyboards to recreate sounds (traditional and synthesised); compare with “original” and “acoustic” equivalents where available
2.Use keyboard auto accompaniments to produce contemporary sounding backing for songs (either playing “live” or pre-recording)
3.Develop musical activities involving rhythm and pulse supported by the keyboard’s autoaccompaniment
4.Use keyboard auto accompaniments to expose pupils to a wide variety of contemporary musical styles from around the world
5.Help pupils understand more about music through keyboard activities which access the visual relationship between the notes and the stave
6. Use keyboards to help pupils develop an aural awareness and understanding of chords and basic harmony
7. Use keyboards to demonstrate musical sound when discussing, attack and decay, timbre, tonequality,articulation, duration,
8. Keyboards enable pupils of a wide ability span to compose to a standard which would have been thought unachievable prior to their introduction
9. Use the record function (if there is one) so that pupils can listen back to compositions and performances instantly for appraisal
10. Introduce the basics of playing the keyboard properly (with correct hand positions and fingering).
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