In the Western classical art music tradition, a high level of music performance is achieved at the intersection of a musician's emotional, cognitive, and physical processes. Expert classical musicians have both an aural imagining of the sound they intend to produce and the physical associations of what it feels like to create that sound; in short, sound production is an embodied experience. While embodiment and music listening is well researched in music scholarship, absent from the conversation is how essential embodiment is to the performing of and learning of musical instruments. The goal of this document is to discuss higher education applied music instruction in the context of embodied learning and ultimately create a framework that could lead to more effective teaching and learning environments. This will include a discussion of what embodied learning is, an argument for labeling the higher education applied lesson as embodied learning, other pedagogies that make use of embodied learning and finally, the ways in which embodied learning can be used to create a framework for evaluating and understanding an applied music lesson. Following this discussion is an application of this framework to a miniature case study of lessons taught by three expert applied faculty at Northwestern University. Also included is an appendix of suggested ways to incorporate embodied learning to the applied horn lesson.  

Last modified

• 06/22/2018

Creator

• Jena Gardner

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2X41N

Subject

• Music
• Horn
• Pedagogy
• French Horn
• Education

Language

• English

Keyword

• Applied Lessons

Date created

• 2018-06-19

Rights statement

• In Copyright