Ah, expression! It's what the majority of musicians believe music to be. Yet for some unknown reason, it's rarely talked about. I have studied music for sixteen years and have heard direct references to the term, 'expression', only three of four times. How could this be, if so many musicians believe that the purpose of music is to convey emotion? I set out to find the answer.

I asked several musicians who are teachers when they thought expression should be introduced in musical training. Not all of them said "lesson one" (though one did) however, they all agreed it should done in the early stages, such as the first year. (This premise agrees with my belief on the subject.) I must say that I found these survey results perplexing, because as I remember very few instances in my training in which expression was explicitly mentioned. After having asked music teachers about teaching expression, I continued by asking, "why is it that many music teachers don't teach expression (or expressiveness)?" Two of them had good answers.

Dr. Mervin Britton, Arizona State University Professor of Music (emeritus) and creativity expert, said that teachers like to be in control. They like student activities that are easily quantified, (e.g. "Johnny, play the etude at quarter note=120, please) and by nature, expression isn't like that.

Jose Corral, a Phoenix Symphonic flutist, said that many teachers "just aren't 'hip' enough." The latter answer would not be surprising in a music world where expression is not taught. That sort of thing feeds on itself. If expression is not taught, naturally the next generation of teachers aren't necessarily going to teach it, either.

Now, assuming we need to include expression in lessons (and I ALWAYS assume that), what is the best way to include it? I asked this question of the same people. Dr. Britton gave a very colorful answer. He said, "at the first lesson, ask the student, 'what kinds of sounds can you make with that instrument?' Then let them experiment." I must admit I don't know what this does for the usage of sound to express emotion per se', but this is obviously a way to get students to become more creative with their music, and this area needs development, too. True creativity in music is probably addressed even less often than expression. Mr. Corral said, "A teacher (after about a year of instruction) should show the difference between a regular line and an expressive line." I think that's a good place to start, but I'd have the student play the two different lines, as well.

What do I believe about expression and how would I teach it? I believe that music is a language man devised to express emotion and based on that belief, it should be introduced AS EARLY IN MUSICAL TRAINING AS POSSIBLE! It is very easy to do this, because children can and do understand the concept of expression. This has been realized in my own teaching experiences. If you ask a child, "Is this a happy piece or a sad piece?", they will come up with a pretty good answer most of the time. As soon as a beginner can play a simple piece, such as, "Lightly Row," I ask that very question. That question plants the seed of a concept. It is CRUCIAL for them to understand that music is meant to express something. When students are comfortable with that concept, be it right then or later, I ask, "how can we make this piece convey its emotional message?" Only then do we discuss such things as tempi and dynamics.

The Delicate Problem of Technique

We all know that expression can't happen without technique. But, just how important is it? Everyone knows that the notes have to be very clean for musical ideas to come across. But this does not mean that that's all that should be taught. I'm sure we've all heard at least one performance where a note or two was missed but that was so emotionally charged, it brought us to our feet. My feelings about this element is to make sure students know their technique. However, never forget that technical training alone does not work.

Once you've gotten a firm grasp on the basic concept of expression, you can get more specific. One specific worth addressing is choice of repertoire and whether you or the student chooses it. What kinds of pieces are best for teaching a student expression? The obvious answer seems to be pieces with DEPTH, i.e., pieces that have a lot to 'say'. This presents a problem, doesn't it? First off, even "experts" in the field of music disagree strongly about which pieces really have depth. Fighting with those issues can take years! Also, we have the issue of taste, which is probably a larger part of the first problem. There is music that teachers want to assign and students that want to play, whether they have depth or not. The reason for this is simple: the shallow music out there has appeal, maybe for virtuosity, maybe even for its very lack of depth! (I'm not going to single out any individual composers or even styles of music here, but I think you know what I'm talking about.) I read a good comment on this recently in the 1996 Spring Issue of the Orff Echo. An anonymous contributor said, "(children) like junk food and junk TV. Responsible parents feed their children what is good for them, not just the things they like." We have to do that as music teachers. There is nothing wrong with an occasional "treat," if that's what the student wants. Treats can be great motivators, and in the case of "musical treats," there are no adverse health effects, though there may be the adverse effects of precious time occupied in lessons. We as music educators have a responsibility to give students music that is good for them, music that SAYS SOMETHING substantial. Artistic growth will not happen if this "good-for-you" music is never assigned.

What about listening? Perhaps it is fair to single out classical music here, because it is in that genre where listening is the biggest problem. Like expression, it is a vital skill to musicians and that many are not taught. Expression will not develop without it, either. I believe that musicians should listen to the music they play if they are ever to learn which music is right for them and where their strengths and weaknesses lie. (I mean the style of the pieces, not just performances of those individual pieces.) As practitioners of an art which appeals to the ear, the ear is therefore the musician's best teacher. All sorts of nuances in music can be picked up best that way. Why not occasionally assign pieces just for listening? One of the biggest tragedies I have ever encountered was a Master's performance student who didn't know how many symphonies Beethoven had written. She was a classical player, incidentally. She would have known this had she only done cursory listening to the standard classical repertoire. If that alone doesn't convince us to assign listening, how about the simple slogan, "If we don't listen, how can we expect the audience to?"

Make sure your students play in ensembles. This may be hard if you're a piano teacher, but if that's what you are, then try to get your students to accompany or pick up an ensemble instrument. Playing with others gives a person new perspectives, and greater awareness of the importance of detail. In an ensemble or when accompaniment, one picks up different ideas about the pieces being played, consciously or unconsciously. The more ideas a person gets, the more re-enforcement of expression happens.

It is also a good idea if students learn whatever they can about music besides just how to perform it well. Have them study theory, simple to advanced. Have them learn music history! Knowing what was happening in the composers' lives when they were writing the music they're playing has the effect of, you guessed it, re-enforcing the concept of expression.

We should encourage our students to be well-rounded, well-read, and well-educated, particularly in the fine arts. If a student explores other areas of expression, that will provide variety to his/her training and performances. This variety will mean more expressive doors being opened in his/her mind. Encourage your students to see plays and dance concerts. Have them visit museums. Most importantly, have them read, read, and read some more about the arts! This adds intellect to the expression, which will doubly re-enforce the concept of creativity in expression. "But wait," you may be saying, "This is too much! It's impractical!" You can start in small ways, first by introducing the concept of expression (that's most important) and then moving on. If you're teaching a flutist Prokofieff's "Peter and the Wolf" bird excerpt, have him/her understand its message, the meaning behind the musical phrasing. Next, ask some simple theory questions. Then, have them look up Prokofieff and listen to his "Lt. Kije'." Finish by having them read a Kurt Vonnegut short story which should have the same emotional message as the piece in which they are studying. Maybe you can't do all of it, but you can do some of it, and maybe more than you might realize is possible with the more serious students.

I have explored the teaching of expression and outlined just a few ways we can get our students to be expressive musicians. I know that you can think of even more ways! TEACH THE CONCEPT OF EXPRESSION!

Helpful Complementary Links:

The Musical Bill of Rights Brought to you by the people at Music For People.org In improvisation as in life, we must be responsible for the vibrations we send one another.

The Practice of Performance Studies in Musical Interpretation. Three areas have been targeted: the psychology of performance, the semantics of performance, and the relation between performance and analysis. Individual chapters address such toimages as musical expression, musical motion, the role of practice, the projection of meaning, performance as a dramatic narrative, and analysis through performance.

Artificial Intelligence Models of Musical Expression The goal of this project is to study, via empirical experiments, the adequacy of different sets of music-theoretic assumptions and modelling approaches related to theories of musical expression. To this end, the authors have developed learning algorithms that can induce general rules of expressive music performance from examples of real performances by human musicians.