Scales have for a long time been used in instrumental teaching, and it is therefore imperative for me to find a good and effective way of teaching them. I am of the belief that the quality of practice is linked to how much time the students spend on tasks in addition to the practice strategies they already have in their toolbox. I have tried out a system where I sought to gain some insight into the daily practice routines of some of my students by asking them to send me recordings of their scale practice by email. This allowed me to give fairly instantaneous feedback on the quality of their playing. My hope is for the students to feel a greater sense of control during the learning process because they themselves decide when the recordings are good enough to forward to me. Since everything is contained in the audio files, it is easier for me to analyse and reflect on their playing. As a teacher this also gives you insight into things that the students may struggle with during their day-to-day practice.

Before trying out the method, we organised weekly scale classes where all first and second year students would perform. Although these classes were successful to some degree, there were also a few downsides. The biggest obstacle was that if some of the students had failed to prepare properly, we had to spend time learning things the students should have learnt in the practice room. I had hoped that playing in front of a group would motivate the students to play better, but some did not prepare well enough.

My project aims to enable the students to reflect on their own playing. It is therefore important that the learning objectives are as clear as they can be, that the students know what to do to achieve these objectives, and that both their and my evaluations steer them towards achieving the objectives. In order to add more structure to the project, I adopted ideas from Biggs et al. (2011) on “constructive alignment” along with a summary of research into what characterises good feedback practice by Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006). They claim that good feedback

• helps clarify what good performance is
• facilitates the development of self-assessment
• delivers information to students about their learning
• encourages teacher and peer dialogue
• encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
• provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance
• provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching

I have used these principles as a starting point for giving feedback to the students.

One student participated in the project for four months, while a couple of others were involved for shorter periods. They were asked to record and submit either scales, études or orchestral excerpts. They also had to provide a brief written self-assessment with each recording. I gave them feedback via email, and if the level of their performance was unsatisfactory, the students had to submit a new recording.

The assignments I set them changed over the course of the project in terms of:

• Content. First, they were asked to record études. Later this was extended to include scales and orchestral excerpts.
• How often to submit their assignments. They started by submitting material every week, but this eventually turned into daily submissions.

• Length of the material. We started with entire études and ended up with fractions of a scale in some recordings.
• Self-assessments were introduced along the way.

In order to execute the practice assignment, the students not only had to perform adequately on their instrument, they also had to find strategies for allocating time and energy and for practising effectively. They also needed to have access to recording equipment, knowledge of how this equipment worked, how to submit the assignments etc. Overall, it was quite complex but also informative.

During the project, I could observe the students’ habits and struggles as they practised. Early on, it became clear that recording an entire étude was too much to ask. We therefore tried to break them down into smaller sections and thus adapt the content of the assignment. The self-assessments provided interesting information about how the students think and what they focus on while practising.

At times, some of the students were unable to submit recordings at the agreed intervals. This suggested a lack of planning and structure in their practice. This was raised during the one-to-one lessons, which had a positive effect on regular practice.

One aspect where the weekly scale classes failed was that the students were unable to improve on their performances due to time restraints. The advantage of email is that the students can continue to submit recordings until their performance is satisfactory. The fact that they had to submit recordings every day pushed them to practise regularly, and they received quick feedback on their practice. We could say that the students did not just learn to play scales; they also learnt something about what is important when you practise.

Some students felt that the initial feedback made them stressed (statements such as “play without any errors” and similar). We discussed this during the one-to-one lessons and found alternatives that worked better. For my part, it was useful to hear the students’ views on how things are articulated. In this dialogue, I became aware that the students often perceive things differently to my intentions. It was good to get all feedback in writing as it allowed me to go through it and see what was not working.

If this exercise were to involve more students, it would mean some additional work for the teacher. One extension of the programme could be to get peers to evaluate the recordings and give feedback to each other. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) have also described the benefits of peer learning:

• Students who have just learned something are often better able than teachers to explain it to their classmates
• Additional ideas for how to solve a problem
• The evaluation skills used to assess peers can be transferred to self-assessment
• Increased motivation
• The students may be more prepared to receive critiques from their peers

Obtaining the other students’ evaluations by email was not easy, and in the article due for publication in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, I am describinga system to facilitate this.

I have attempted to find a simple IT tool that can be used to upload recordings to allow the students to comment on each other’s playing, but I have found most of them to be difficult to use and therefore not very practical. A system needs to be user-friendly for multiple participants to use it. It should also have three functions: (1) record and upload, (2) organise, (3) allow the students to comment and reflect on their own and each other’s playing.

The desire to develop such a system stems from the criticism that the most widely used internet-based learning tools are monolithic and lack flexibility (Wells et al., 2013). My own investigations have confirmed this. There are numerous tools that can be integrated into a new system. For example, there are several smartphone apps that can record sound and upload files, but the challenge is to create a complete solution.

I consider the project to have been a success both in terms of learning outcomes for the students and my own experiences. Despite the fact that only horn players participated, and that they primarily practised scales, I believe that the scheme can be transferred to other instruments and other content, such as practising orchestral excerpts and similar. I am planning to try out the programme with additional students next year and possibly develop solutions to help with the practical arrangements. I also wish to include young students from the Talent Programme. These students meet each other 12 times a year, and a project such as this one could help create a sense of community. Once the students have submitted enough recordings, the teacher can observe their progress. The recordings become a sort of portfolio that could potentially also be used as part of the final assessment.