Page 56 - How to Shine on Stage

Repetition strategies enable students to select relevant informa-
tion from a complete context and preserve it in their working mem-
ory. The use of repetition strategies shapes the mental images which
we store in our working memory. When learning an instrument, one
selects important information about a music piece by forming a men-
tal image of it and retaining it in one’s working memory. That mental
image is created mainly by listening, but the visual and kinaesthetic
channels are also involved. In instrumentalists who already possess a
54 certain level of knowledge, reading a vista is also a manner of forming

a mental image.
The next step in the repetition phase is, for example, to practise
each hand individually on the piano. We try to remember the flow of the
How to Shine on Stage roughly acquired through repetition strategies. These strategies allow
melody, the finger placement, and the basic phrasing.
Elaboration strategies are used to improve skills that have been

one to transform information and relations between the parts of the con-
tent that one is processing. In piano learning, this translates to practis-
ing a piece with both hands, thus establishing a relationship between the
content parts, then beginning to add phrasing and dynamics, and em-
phasizing the main melody (this is particularly evident in Bach).
The term organizational strategies describes the structuring of a
content into a meaningful whole. Organizational strategies in learning
an instrument are linked to knowledge of musical form. One recogniz-
es the basic form of a piece and thus structures it. They are aware of the
basic structure of the piece, see where rhythmic or melodic variations
occur, and where a theme is repeated in its basic or modulated form.
Organizational strategies therefore enable one to structure a piece into
smaller logical units which are more suitable for practice.
To practise the piano, it is necessary to break down a piece rhyth-
mically or melodically. The capability of rhythmical organization plays
an important role, particularly when we have to combine the rhythm
of the left hand with a different rhythm of the right hand. At an ear-
ly stage of piano learning, the teacher usually introduces the rhythmic
structure relationship of the right hand and left hand, and attempts to il-
lustrate it graphically. This is because this relationship-building is often
a considerable challenge for children. When learning an instrument, we
also encounter melodic organization. This means identifying the main
themes and simplifying the practice by acknowledging the relationships
between the individual parts, as well as their similarities and differences.
In this regard, the transfer capacity is very important.