The love of the art is so great that we can put up with any kind of critique, right or wrong, in order to develop as artists.

Liz Lerman

The music education bachelor programme is a four-year performance course with an integrated teacher training module. The students study performance subjects such as principal instrument, piano, singing and band instruments along with pedagogical and theoretical subjects. Because of the broad curriculum, the students can occasionally find themselves with less time and focus on their principal instruments. With this CEMPE project I wanted to gather the classical voice students on the music education course in one group. The group was to be an arena where they could work together on performance development. I wanted each student to explore various performance opportunities through peer learning based on Liz Lerman’s method Critical Response Process (hereafter referred to as CRP).

The method involves giving feedback on artistic performances through a structured and dialogic four-step process. I will provide further details of CRP later in this chapter.

The aim of the project was to explore ways in which peer learning in general and CRP in particular can help the students become more conscious of their own artistic identity and artistic ownership. During the project the students were to practise and learn CRP, and explore how this method can be used as a tool in their artistic development. For my part, I wanted to assume the role of CRP facilitator in order to gain more experience of providing inquisitive rather than instructive tuition.

Ten voice students – three male and seven female from all four years of the bachelor course – participated in the group project. The project ran for the duration of the 2014–15 academic year, and we held nine sessions each lasting two hours. All the students participated both as performers and as collaborating and equal participants in the group. The voice students were accompanied by outside co-performers at several of the sessions. The guests would participate only at the one session but were then assimilated into the group just like the students attending the entire project.

Many of the music education students have broad repertoires in terms of genres. This was reflected in the choice of repertoire during the seminars. There was classical music such as romances, church music and arias as well as self-penned songs, pop, ballads and folk music. Some performed their songs with an accompanist or accompanied themselves on the piano, while others performed with other musicians on guitar, accordion or trumpet. We practised CRP as described in Liz Lerman and John Borstel’s book Critical Response Process. A method for getting useful feedback on anything you make, from dance to dessert from 2003. One process would take 40–45 minutes, and there were two processes (with two singers performing) at each session.

The project was documented in a variety of ways such as diaries written by the students after they had performed as well as video and audio recordings. Halfway through the project I conducted group interviews. I interviewed them in three groups: Year 1 (three students), Year 2 (three students) and Years 3 and 4 (four students). During the interviews the students were asked about how they found the CRP concept and how the project was having an effect on their artistic identity and ownership.

Collaborative learning is not a new approach amongst music students and performers. Musicians develop musical material through ensemble and chamber processes. Students work in informal arenas as peers, practising and making music together. They discuss problems, perform for each other and give each other feedback. Peer learning also takes place in organised fora such as instrument classes and masterclasses. Teachers maintain varying degrees of control during such lessons, ranging from strictly teacher-led tuition at one end of the scale to learning activities where all the participants – both students and teacher – are equals and have the same opportunity to set the agenda and provide input and feedback. In situations where all the participants are equal, a learning community develops based on the principle that learning takes place through sharing and democracy. This community encourages involvement and motivation, which can lead to a higher degree of ownership of own artistic processes.