String classes under the magnifying glass
Katharina Bradler examines this form of teaching both historically and didactically and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions.
The almost 300-page doctoral thesis provides clear information on how string lessons with large groups of 10 to 24 children or young people came about, how they developed into a boom in public schools around 2000, especially in Germany, and what could be developed further in this form of teaching.
The first of these string classes, with violins only (homogeneous) or with all string instruments together (heterogeneous), were created in the USA in 1911 to promote school orchestras. Children were taught to master the instrument in several group lessons per week. Each technical problem - clothed in a musical message - transforms learning into a shared experience in a flowing rhythm. Paul Rolland's work is presented in detail as the most important contribution to obstacle-free progress. His "Approach", referred to here as the Rolland Method, spread to all English and German-speaking countries from 1974 onwards. His approach, a teaching method taught rhythmically in small steps with natural, everyday movements, is wonderfully summarized in the 14 films accompanying his textbook The Teaching of Action in String Playing and the string instruments designed for the interaction of the entire string instrument family New Tunes for Strings by Stanley Fletcher.
Even though Rolland applied the principle all The many group demonstrations in the films encouraged teaching in classes and the first beginners' textbooks for heterogeneous string classes (Sheila Johnson). The spread of this movement in the USA, England and Germany by Donald Miller, Sheila Nelson, Bernd Zingsem and many others is reported in detail. The many aspects of setting up the groups, the various forms of team teaching, the cooperation between public schools and the existing music schools and funding are examined in a very instructive and inspiring way. Five of the German-language teaching materials are described in detail using standardized criteria and critically reviewed.
Chapter 5, "Didactic principles of string class teaching", is the most central; the possibilities of internal differentiation listed are valuable, as they break up the frontal teaching and keep all participants active within the group in a specific way. The author compares individual and group lessons and makes suggestions for the integrated future of both forms of teaching. I am surprised that Suzuki's Japanese method, which is practiced worldwide and in which group music-making also plays an important role, is hardly mentioned. Her principles of learning to play by ear, repeating a lot and playing in concert would be additions that should be taken to heart.
Katharina Bradler, Streicherklassenunterrich. Geschichte - Gegenwart - Perspektiven, Forum Musikpädagogik Volume 127, 292 p., € 34.80, Wissner-Verlag, Augsburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-89639-963-2
