Local community music pedagogy : an early intervention within the Gozitan band clubs’ school of music (GBCSoM)

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation targets the pedagogical effectiveness to enhance the musical skills and knowledge, perceived by music teachers at Band Clubs, as the initial stages of the student’s musical journey. Band Clubs School of Music (BCSoM) form part of the non-formal music education both in Malta and Gozo. Informal and non-formal music education are an essential aspect in community music, encouraging people to interact and positively influence each other.

The researcher hails from the island of Gozo where she teaches and performs at two distinct Band Clubs in Gozo, that is a city and a village. The researcher plays the clarinet and has been studying at one of the two Band Club School of Music for fourteen years.

Presently, she is a performer at the Band Club and teaches both initial stages of music theory as well as the initial performance of the clarinet.

The pedagogy applied at the two Gozitan Band Clubs School of Music (GBCSoM) leads the student in joining the Band Club as a community wind player. The student becomes a community player sufficient confidence in the instrument’s fundamental techniques and musical notation competence has been gained. The practice focuses on the foundation of the basic musical theoretical and practical elements including rhythm, pitch, dynamics, timbre, and texture.

As an early career educator, the researcher aims to implement different teaching strategies suitable for the initial stages, for a more effective learning in non-formal music education at the Gozitan band clubs. The data for this dissertation project was collected through observations and interviews. The interviews involved open questions to converse with the respondents to collect their views of the perspective of the teaching and learning at the GBCSoM.

Information collected from the interviews and observations assisted the researcher to produce a compendium, presented as this dissertation project. The compendium aims to provide a better understanding of good practice at the initial stages of the student’s wind band musical journey.