The experiences from the six projects suggest that you can achieve some benefits from supplementing one-to-one principal instrument tuition with group lessons.

One benefit concerns efficiency and time use. The group lessons are an arena in which general topics can be presented and discussed, and the teachers save time and energy as they do not have to repeat themselves to each and every student. This can also create a clearer focus on important topics, and the students develop a shared knowledge base that makes technical communication easier.

Another aspect of efficiency and time use is that group tuition can give the students more tuition time overall. It must be emphasised that the teachers participating in the group tuition project were not allocated additional teaching hours but chose to redistribute their existing, allotted hours. For many of them this meant curtailing some of the one-to-one lessons and putting the time saved towards a group lesson.

For the students it meant more tuition overall and more frequent lessons with the teacher, something that allowed the teacher to provide closer supervision.

The opportunity for making efficiency savings is often used as an argument when discussing instrumental group tuition, especially in relation to Norway’s Municipal Arts and Music School system where there are long waiting lists of children who want to attend but limited resources available. On this project it was therefore important to underline that the goal was not to save resources but to utilise them in the best way possible. We believe that these projects have demonstrated that redistribution can actually give the students more tuition time overall.

A richer learning experience

Having the students learn together in a group gives them a richer learning experience, and it is possible to accomplish a broader range of learning objectives than what is possible with one-to-one tuition.

When the students perform repertoire for each other during the group lessons, it creates a much more realistic performance situation for the student performing, thus providing important volume training in performing in front of an audience. For the students listening it also improves their repertoire knowledge.

When the students are asked to provide feedback to their peers, it sharpens their listening skills. They become more conscious of what they are hearing, they learn to give concrete and constructive feedback and to justify their views. These are important skills when they come to work with their colleagues in various settings as professional musicians. Being able to listen, analyse, find solutions to problems and then communicate them constructively are also important skills to have when the students act as their own teachers in the practice room.

One challenge in music performance education is that the students can become too dependent on their teachers and that they therefore do not take ownership of their own learning and artistic development. Having to form an opinion on their own playing and that of others and to articulate this opinion make it easier for the students to develop a capacity for reflection, independence and confidence in their own judgement.

The fact the several people offer their feedback also creates a greater abundance of ideas and solutions, both technical and musical, and it makes the students acknowledge that opinions differ and that they must respect that.

We have also seen that group tuition can provide increased opportunities for developing the students’ ability to engage in different forms of musical interaction, which is a key learning objective in performance education.

A better learning environment

Music performance education has some inherent challenges with regard to the learning environment. Unhealthy hierarchies and a competitive environment with envy and suspicion amongst the students can occur, since they will eventually be competing for the same gigs and jobs. The students can also easily begin to feel lonely and isolated, since they spend much of their time alone in a practice room. That can make it difficult to maintain motivation and belief in their own abilities.

Well managed group tuition appears to be able to counteract these challenges; the students experience having colleagues who are interested in their progress, who wish them well and who can act as supporters and sparring partners. Particularly interesting is the fact that group tuition seems to help make the students draw on each other’s resources to a greater extent outside the lessons.

As the students are able to follow each other’s progress over time and observe that they all have their personal battles to fight, they may realise that they are not alone in struggling at times and gain the confidence that they can overcome their problems by making a concerted effort. Having to give respectful and constructive feedback can also help create a healthier and more supportive climate amongst the students.