Barbro Marklund-Pētersones singing model for group tuition

Professor Barbro Marklund-Pētersone at the Norwegian Academy of Music has almost 40 years’ experience as a singing teacher, primarily giving one-to-one tuition and masterclasses. She had no experience of teaching small groups before embarking on this project and was introduced to the horn model in order to develop a small group model for voice students.

An accompanist was present during the voice group lessons, as requested by the teacher in order for her to try out the small group model as part of the weekly singing tuition. The teacher took 15 minutes from her students’ one-to-one lessons and scheduled a group lesson, just like the horn model.

The group of voice students consisted of three male singers, of whom two were in the first year of their bachelor degree in performance when the project started in the 2012 autumn semester. One of these students was Norwegian and the other Swedish. The third student was Eastern European and in his second year as a bachelor student. This combination model was therefore the two first-year students’ first meeting with singing tuition at NAM.

The Norwegian student had received singing tuition for four years before enrolling at NAM. He had also played in bands, performed a great deal of rhythmic music and sung in musicals. His previous teacher had worked extensively on repertoire, something that the student was very satisfied with. Most of the tuition he received during this period was one-to-one tuition. His previous teachers took a “visual” approach to teaching, but they also focused on technical challenges. The musicals he performed in in his youth gradually led him towards the classical genre that he would eventually go on to study at the Academy.

The Swedish student began taking singing lessons at the age of 17 after many years of playing the guitar. He had studied with four teachers before attending NAM, around one year or less with each teacher. His first three teachers were very similar and relied heavily on visualisation in their teaching. According to the student, it was his fourth teacher – who was both a gifted teacher and a professional opera singer – who enabled the student to progress so far as to be accepted by a conservatoire.

The Eastern European second-year bachelor student had only received singing tuition for three months before enrolling at the Academy. He was very satisfied with his previous teacher. This teacher’s approach focused on expression. There was little emphasis on technique. The student’s previous principal instrument was the piano.

The NAM singing teacher knew little about the two first-year students before the first lesson apart from what she had heard at their auditions. She had been teaching the second-year student for one academic year. None of the students knew each other before joining the group.

The teacher did not issue any instructions on the positioning of the students and teacher in the room. The room was furnished with a sofa along one wall.

The teacher chose to position herself near the student performing. The accompanist sat behind the performing student, while the non-performing students retreated to the sofa along the wall (see fig. 5). The teacher did not provide any particular instructions on how the feedback and communication between students and teacher should take place, but she invited the students to provide input when they felt like it.

During the three lessons I observed the students usually introduced their allotted 20 minutes by saying what they would be performing and explaining why they had chosen that particular song. The song choices frequently involved songs that they were in the process of learning. The teacher usually took charge of the group lessons and made most of the comments. The accompanist provided little feedback. The students made brief comments along the way, often addressed to the teacher, but most of the time they were listening to the teacher’s comments. The students were very responsive and attentive, and the atmosphere was good.

The Norwegian student was very satisfied with the group model and pointed out that he would miss it if it was discontinued after the project period. The challenges he encountered had to do with the fact that it was easy to become complacent and rely on the teacher during the group lesson. He raised questions about whether, and the degree to which, an inexperienced student should have opinions on his fellow students’ performances. He says:

«If a student were to provide feedback, I feel that it would be more appropriate to comment on the interpretation rather than the technique. Of course, it also depends on how well you know each other, what your relationship is. There is much more leeway if you know the people and spend time with them outside class, too. I felt very safe and could let go and experiment a bit, and then get honest feedback.»

The student was anxious for the group to find its own dynamic and for each participant to believe that they all wanted the best for each other. He also said that even though two of the students were first-year students and completely “new”, it would have been better if the students had participated more in the lessons than was the case. Still, this student found himself becoming involved because the teacher continually asked whether the students agreed with her comments. This student also saw the group lesson as a good way of preparing for the singing classes. The climate in the group lessons was very good, and it was especially good to see the accompanist and teacher in the same lesson, even though this was not a prerequisite for the success of the model, according to this student.

The Swedish student gave similar feedback. He said it was good to listen to other people’s performances and that this makes you very aware of benefits and challenges associated with different singing techniques. He says:

«You can see your own problems in others, and you can hear how singers without the same problems as you have can sound. Everything becomes much clearer. You talk about it, and everyone is very sincere.»

He also perceived the group setting as safe, a place where he could discuss absolutely anything – just as in the one-to-one lessons, but with more people. This in itself was positive. He says the group worked well and that the teaching model had been very good. He continues:

«Apart from the fact that they sing really well, it’s been nice to meet others since I was new to the Academy, to get to know people very quickly. We talk a lot. I only have good things to say about the group.»

The same student also stressed the importance of the teacher’s role in the lessons and especially her ability to give her students some independence. She made them conscious of what they were doing – and why. She dared to “let go”, sit back and listen to what the students had to say, although she supplemented it with her own views if the students had little to say. At the same time the student said they were never pressurised into speaking. The biggest challenge was to stay focused for the whole lesson. This student saw the group as a meeting point, and he did not object to taking 15 minutes from his one-to-one lesson and using them for a group lesson. He says:

«You get so much more than those 15 minutes. The good thing has been to get access to this forum.»

The Eastern European student was less convinced, however. He says he performed for the others, listened to the others, and got to know new repertoire. He may have had thoughts and advice to share with his fellow students, but he did not wish to express them with his teacher present. He feels his thoughts are so revolutionary musically speaking that it was difficult to put them to the other students.

All the students appreciated the presence of the accompanist during these lessons, something which led them to focus strongly on interpretation.

The singing teacher gave positive feedback on the teaching model and said the students were very enthusiastic. She says:

«The boys feel like a team ... I think they’ve been incredibly enthusiastic. There has been no yawning, even though it was late in the afternoon.»

She found that the students appreciated the opportunity to try out different interpretations without things getting too formal, as is sometimes the case in singing classes and fora where the students perform for up to fifty other voice students.

Most of the challenges related to the composition of the group. In this case, with some of them being new students, the teacher knew little about each student in advance. The teacher still wanted to make the students take responsibility by deciding themselves what they wanted to sing during these lessons. The students were less good at informing the accompanist and teacher of their chosen repertoire before the lessons, however. This gradually improved as the students began to appreciate the importance of preparing properly for the lessons in order to get the full benefit from them. It was also a challenge for the teacher to ensure that no one student took up too much of the lesson and that they all felt they were equal members of the group. The teacher said:

«You have to be careful not to overlook people. Somehow you must be conscious of whom you give a platform to and whether to reign in one student in order to make room for another, so that everyone is given roughly the same amount of attention.»

The teacher would have liked to see the students be more active during the lessons. She continues:

«I would’ve liked them to speak more, and indeed I thought they would’ve spoken more than they did. I tried asking the “sofa”, but when there was no reply I just had to take charge of the situation, but I hope they felt they could intervene at any time.»

The teacher was also very clear that the accompanist’s presence in the group singing lessons was necessary. The accompanist was of the same opinion but said that these lessons were challenging for the accompanist, because the students did not always give advance notice of their repertoire.