musical creativity and piano pedagogy: a study of

12th Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference Proceedings Robert Chamberlain of 55

MUSICAL CREATIVITY AND PIANO PEDAGOGY: A STUDY OF SELECTED

COMPOSITIONS BY AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL-AGE PIANO STUDENTS FROM

THE YAMAHA JUNIOR ORIGINAL CONCERT (JOC) PROGRAM AND THE

TEAM OF PIANISTS’ 2011 CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS

Robert Chamberlain

ABSTRACT

This presentation explores two contrasting composition programs for school-age piano students in Australia. Selected compositions from the Yamaha Music School Junior Original Concert program and Team of Pianists’ Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshops are presented. The skills, challenges and achievements of students and teachers in these programs are assessed, as examples of possible ways to integrate ‘musical creativity’ into piano pedagogy in 21st century Australia.

OUTLINE

1. Introduction

2. Two Composition Pathways for School-age Piano Students

3. Yamaha Musical Foundation Junior Original Concert (JOC) Compositions –

snapshot from 1979, examples from 2000 onwards

4. Team of Pianists Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshop for

Composition Make your own motif, make your own melody with Keiko Fujii

5. Conclusion: assessing the success of such programs, and further questions

6. References

7. Appendix: scores


RECORDINGS AND SCORES

Scores of Musical Examples 1-3 from the Yamaha JOC program are contained in

the Appendix to this paper. Musical Examples 4-9 from the Spring Piano School

2011 do not have scores, they are recordings only, accessible using the link

below.

Recordings by the young composers of all Musical Examples (downloadable mp3 files) are at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4TXJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing

If the link does not function, please contact the author:

[email protected]

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4TXJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing�



PAPER

1. Introduction

Piano teaching and piano pedagogy are areas ripe for developing ‘musical

creativity’. In past centuries, it has been normal for musicians to be skilled in the

creative aspects of music, to work as composers, improvisers, arrangers as well

as performers and teachers. This is illustrated by major figures in the canon of

traditional piano repertoire, such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt etc.,

as well as by numerous less well-known but highly trained and talented

composer/pianist/teachers such as Clara Schumann (née Wieck, 1819–96).

Only in the later-20th century, when piano tuition became widely available and

affordable across more socio-economic strata of western societies, and the

number of competent pianists in developed countries exploded, did the creative

skills of composition and improvisation, often become separated from performing

and teaching roles. By the late-20th century, an average highly trained pianist

may well not have been trained in improvisation or composition. Today traditional

piano teaching rarely includes these creative skills. However, increasing numbers

of music educators now argue for a style of piano teaching that incorporates more

creativity (e.g. Sykes 2009), while others such as Kotchie (2013) and Milne

(2009) include creative elements in their publications and methods. Griffin (2013

p.106) considers improvising and composing to be ‘the pinnacle of musical

creativity’.

The early-21st century in Australia is an interesting time to consider musical

creativity and piano teaching. The digital revolution of the last two decades offers

challenges but also many great opportunities for musical creativity, with software

tools such as GarageBand, Cubase, Sibelius, and instant accessibility to all kinds

of music via YouTube, SoundCloud and other sharing platforms. Many piano

examination syllabi, such as Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts (ANZCA)

Modern Piano, Yamaha Piano Grade exams, Trinity College London, and the

Australian Music Examination Board’s Contemporary Popular Music course seek to

incorporate creative skills into their requirements. Some local eisteddfods and

competitions include ‘own composition performance sections’ and there are

increasing numbers of locally written teaching repertoire books and tutor method

books which seek to either embed creative experiences into the learning process

or deal directly with improvisation at the keyboard.


I will examine two contrasting examples of composition programs for school age

piano students in Australia. First, the Yamaha Junior Original Concert (JOC)

Composition Program, beginning with a snapshot of this program from its early

days in 1979, followed by examples from Australian students of Yamaha JOC

compositions from between 2000 and 2010. Secondly, I will present student

recordings of some compositions from Team of Pianists’ (TOP) Spring Piano

School (SPS) Creativity Workshops in 2011, a creative program on a much more

modest scale than the Yamaha JOC program. Selected compositions from both

programs will be presented and the skills, challenges and achievements of the

students and teachers in these programs will be presented and assessed. This

study represents a small part of my interest in the following question: Is it is

possible, or advisable, to integrate musical creativity (defined here as ‘the use of

imagination and musical skills to create original music’) into early-21st century

piano teaching in this country? If so, how?

2. Two Composition Pathways for School-age Piano Students

Imagine you are the proud parent of a ten-year-old piano student who is onstage

in a major recital hall in another country, perhaps Taiwan, Hong Kong or Bangkok

in Thailand, performing to a large audience of parents, teachers, other children

and members of the public. Concert promoters and school music departments

know that parents love to watch their children perform. Perhaps you would be

prouder still if your child were also representing their country and performing

their own composition at the same time—performer, composer and national

representative—all rolled into one!

This is the experience for a small number of parents each year, as selected

children take part in Yamaha Music Foundation’s annual Asia-Pacific Junior

Original Concert (APJOC). This concert is the regional pinnacle of Yamaha’s

annual Junior Original Concert programs, ‘presenting personal sentiments through

original compositions’.1 Additional to their normal classes, those young students

lucky enough to have been selected will have spent many hours with teachers

and tutors honing their composition and its performance, initially perhaps in their

music class, then within their music school, quite possibly at a national level and

ultimately at this international level.

1 Yamaha Music Foundation - Junior Original Concerts, accessed 6 January 2014, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/events/joc/index.html

http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/events/joc/index.html�



At a more modest local level, imagine your primary-school-age child has attended

the Team of Pianists school holiday piano program Spring Piano School 2011 in

Melbourne for two and a half days, to work in groups with other children of

similar age on repertoire, piano skills, and creativity, and to enjoy playing with

new friends in the grounds of Glenfern during recess and lunch. On the second

day, your child comes home with their own composition, perhaps titled Monkey or

Snake. This creation, only a minute or less in duration, might be notated on a

scrap of paper scrunched up at the bottom of the school-bag, and has been

created during a short 90 to 120-minute group class of 5–6 other children and

one teacher. A few days later you receive by email an mp3 file of your child’s

performance of their little composition as part of a suite of works by all the

children in their workshop group. Hopefully, you would be a little bit proud, even

though your child has only been composing for 90 to 120 minutes!

These two contrasting programs are examples of musical creativity using

composition in piano pedagogy. I will consider the teaching modes and methods

used, the skills required of the teachers and of the students, the commitment

that parents and students must make, the quality of the resulting compositions

and the potential benefits for the students and their teachers. Also, I would like

to consider how the success or otherwise of these programs could be measured

objectively. I believe these two contrasting composition pathways, one of long

standing with considerable resources and achievements and the other quite

modest, invite us to reflect on our own teaching practice and on the current focus

of piano teaching in Australia. I would argue that they are useful examples of the

integration of musical creativity into piano teaching. I also believe they

demonstrate some very interesting creative work that deserves to be more widely

known.

3. Yamaha Musical Foundation Junior Original Concert (JOC)

Compositions: snapshot from 1979, examples from 2000 onwards

The Yamaha Music Foundation (YMF) has been an international music education

provider for many decades. Continuing a program of music classes begun by

Yamaha Music Corporation in 1954, Yamaha Music Foundation was established in

Japan in 1966 as ‘a public interest corporation’ with approval from the Ministry of

Education. Its founding objectives were:


to explore fundamental issues of educational activities pertaining to music that serve as a basis to cultivate a rich sense of humanity in toddlers, young children, youths and adults, to purse the popularization of music and contribute widely to the promotion of social education, and endeavour to improve musical culture in Japan and other countries (Yamaha Music Foundation – Purpose of Establishment, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/about/establishment.html accessed January 2014)

The Junior Original Concert (JOC) program was established in 1972 through a

proposal by Mr Genichi Kawakami, then President of the Yamaha Music

Foundation2 for children aged 15 or younger ‘to perform their own compositions

in public’. A JOC concert was designed to be

a unique event at which children perform their own compositions and share their joy in musical expression with others. (The Source of Young Music – Junior Original Concert essay in Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People)

Musical creativity was further emphasised by the inclusion of motif improvisation

in every Junior Original Concert. This distinctive skill, which is part of the Yamaha

Music education system, relies on sound knowledge of harmony, confident

executive skills and regular training, but is presented as,

intended to bring out the spontaneous creative talent of the children. (The Source of Young Music – Junior Original Concert essay in Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People)

By 1979, Yamaha Music Schools and music courses, as well as the JOC program

had expanded internationally, including into Australia. In that year Yamaha Music

Foundation’s Mr Kawakami produced a 5-LP boxed set of student compositions,

mostly performed live, from the 1979 Junior Original Concert in Japan, including a

booklet with scores, photos, commentaries and introductory articles. This

provides a fascinating snapshot of the early days of the JOC program and is a

vivid example of how musical creativity, in this case, composition has been

incorporated into a pedagogical context. Table 1 lists the compositions included,

as both scores and recordings, in this boxed set.

2 Mr Kawakami was also President of Yamaha Corporation from 1950 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1983.

http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/about/establishment.html�


Table 1 – Student Compositions from the boxed set Junior Original Concert (JOC) 1979, Yamaha Music Foundation

Title Composer Country Age in years Gender Instrument Instruments, if

ensemble Duration Movement Titles

Recorded live at the JOC?

1 Jumping Squirrel Jany Danuwidjaja Indonesia 7 girl Electone 2'43" y (y = yes)

2 When the Snow Falls Lightly Michiko Shobuke Japan 12 girl Piano 7'11"

3 Fantasy Noriko Hayashi Japan 13 girl Piano 5'35" y

4 The Morning Glow Kazuhiro Oguma Japan 15 boy Ensemble Piano/SS-30/SS-30/Flute (2 synthesiser lines & Flute)

6'35" y

5 Selection from the Suite "Dances" Ami Fujiwara Japan 8 girl Piano 5'46"

1- Comical Doll, 2- Ländler, 3- Ballerina

6 Cheerful Sonata Mika Yamashita Japan 11 girl Electone 4'11" y

7 Impromptu Atsuko Honma Japan 12 girl Piano 4'32"

8 Bagatelle Ghen (?Glen) Maynard USA 13 boy Piano 4'06" y

9 At the Ball Mikako Marumo Japan 10 girl Ensemble Piano Duet 3'11"

10 Indian Dance Nobutaka Kurogo Japan 9 boy Piano 3'21" y

11 Rising Sun Michiko Namikawa Japan 10 girl Piano 5'49"

12 Fantasy Kumi Yabuhara Japan 12 girl Piano 8'31" y

13 Blue Sky Misa Ito Japan 15 girl Ensemble E-70/Piano/Drums 4'29" y

14 A Walk in the Field Azusa Ono Japan 8 girl Electone 3'50"

15 Peter Pan Yasuko Minakata Japan 11 girl Piano 5'34"

16 Galloping Horse Yukie Nishimura Japan 12 girl Piano 5'08" y

17 Rhapsodia Mexicana Toshiyuki Torii Japan 16 boy Piano 7'25" y

18 Child of the Wind Mamiko Furui Japan 9 girl Piano 2'36"

19 Apollo Yoko Kawano Japan 12 girl Piano 5'09" y

20 Night at Haimurubushi Nobuko Iwasawa Japan 12 girl Electone 7'06" y

21 Ode to the Sea Mio Isako Japan 15 ?boy Piano 7'08"


22 Doves Caroline Marie Almonte Australia 11 girl Piano 6'35"

inspired by seagulls, has the title been mistranslated to Doves?

y

23 Journey on a Balloon Kiyoko Ogino Japan 12 girl Electone 5'51" y

24 Dance of the Happy Matador Kiyoko Annen Japan 13 girl Piano 5'38" y

25 Sunshine Paul Liang Singapore 11 boy Ensemble ?/GX-1 6'00" y

26 The Dancing Piano Junko Ushida Japan 12 girl Piano 10'42"

27 Young Heart in Bacrav Street Yasuyuki Kasori Japan 15 boy Electone 3'31" y

28 Rainbow Tadashi Narisawa Japan 15 boy Ensemble ?/Piano 7'06" y

29 Little Moving Moments Michelle Anne Hill Australia 10 girl Piano 5'52"

1- Train, 2- Hang Glider 3- Camel, 4- Swan

y

30 Sonatina (movements 1- 3) Kaori Sato Japan 12 girl Piano 5'25"

31 Ambition Miki Hino Japan 15 girl Ensemble ?/GX-1 10'50 y

32 Boat Song Takuya Yokoyama Japan 11 boy Piano 4'37"

33 Serenade Kwah Eng Ann Singapore 15 boy Electone 7'46" y

34 Rainbow Fantasy Manae Kurokawa Japan 13 girl Piano 9'12" y

35 Bacarolle Tokiko Tsunoda Japan 11 girl Piano 7'28"

36 Far Distance Yukiko Matsuo Japan 13 girl Piano 6'00" y


Thirty-six young composer/performers were selected for the 1979 5-LP boxed

set. Thirty were from Japan, one from Indonesia, two from Australia, one from

the USA and two were from Singapore. Their ages ranged from 7 to 16 years and

the mode and mean of the children’s ages was 12 years. Of the 23 performances

recorded live at the concert, 35% were by boys and 65% by girls, 52% were

piano solos, 26% were electone 3 solos and 22% were ensembles. Thirteen

performances were not recorded at the actual concert and when the total 36

performances, including those recorded live and those recorded at a different

time are considered, 25% were by boys, 75% by girls, 64% for piano solo, 19%

for electone and 17% for ensemble. Thus, the live JOC concert had a more equal

gender distribution and a slight increase in electone use than the boxed set as a

whole.

The balance between piano solos, electone solos and ensemble works appears to

have been considered carefully when putting together the selections for this

boxed set. The running order of the tracks on the LPs has also been chosen to

maximise contrast, variety and effect. 1979 was declared by the United Nations

as the International Year of the Child and the 1979 Junior Original Concert in

Japan, as represented by this document, appears to have been a showcase for

Yamaha education and Yamaha technology, particularly the electone, and for

Japanese corporate achievement. This collection is not only a valuable record of

musical creativity but also an interesting example of soft-power diplomacy from a

Japanese multinational corporation.

In both the compositions and their performance there is great emphasis on

virtuosity and the executive achievement of the young players. Many of the

compositions have been modelled on technically exciting and virtuosic templates,

particularly in the Coda and return of ‘A’ sections, where fast-tempo-works often

have exciting RH passage-work. This, combined with the uniformly accurate and

secure performance level, makes the overall mood of the five-LP boxed set very

upbeat and exciting. Small segments of applause have been recorded after many

of the performances and it is easy to imagine that, at times, the audience was

reacting more to the virtuosity of the performance than to the creative skills of

the young composer.

3 The electone is an electronic organ-like instrument, with two or three manuals, pedal board, rhythm and drum section, touch sensitivity (in recent years at least) and a range of registrations to imitate acoustic instruments including orchestral timbres, allowing one players to simulate many of the elements of an orchestral texture or small ensemble.


The compositions in this collection have a very polished sense of structure and a

refined harmonic language within their respective styles. This is evidence of a

huge investment in coaching the performances and tutoring the compositions,

reflecting the way that harmonic knowledge—by hearing, by singing and then by

playing—is embedded the Yamaha system of education. It is also clear that the

composition tutors, whose names do not appear in the booklet and whose efforts

are only mentioned in passing,4 had a fine knowledge of the harmonic language,

the textures, gestures and forms of many styles and periods of music. The

compositions are either for piano, electone or various ensemble combinations,

some using both electone and piano. The best compositions are personally

expressive and strikingly original. The actual performances by such young

children show very high standards of accuracy, technique and characterisation.

The piano solo compositions from 1979 are in a range of styles, from Classical-

period style, recalling Mozart or early Beethoven, to 19th century styles in the

idiom of Chopin or Liszt and even of Rachmaninoff, as well as some 20th century

styles. The electone solos and the ensemble works using that instrument are

equally eclectic, the harmony, rhythms and registrations of Blue Sky by 15-year-

old Misa Ito recalls 1970’s progressive-rock keyboard work of Peter Gabriel/Tony

Banks-era Genesis. Other electone compositions survey a range of modern

popular styles such as jazz-rock, rhumba, samba, while others use the electone’s

colourful registration palette as a substitute orchestra, with winds, strings and

brass working together in a quasi-orchestral texture.

The Yamaha JOC compositions demonstrate a strong sense of form and structure.

A common structure for larger scale compositions, particularly in the 1979

recordings, is:

Introduction, contrasting in tempo or mood to the A section A - comprising a b a’ optional bridge passage B - comprising c d c’ Return of A usually in a shorter version Coda - building excitement

Another plan is to have a suite of short pieces, each in a simpler ternary form,

whereby the contrast is achieved between movements. Michelle Ann Hill’s Little 4 Email 23/1/2015 from Dr Hiroko Hashimoto to the author. Dr Hashimoto read both the English and Japanese text and commentary in the booklet and reported that no acknowledgement of teachers may be found in the Japanese text and that only three students indicated in passing the existence of a teacher! The particular Yamaha Music Schools at which each student studied, and their current course level is, however, clearly indicated.


Moving Moments (1979), representing Australia, is an example of this. Variation

technique is also used to extend a structure, at times within the large A or large B

sections.

Motif-based composition is clearly important in Yamaha JOC compositions. This

allows small ideas to be expanded and varied in a conscious fashion and also

allows the composition teachers to guide the students to build a large structure

from small beginnings. The first theme of a JOC composition has a characteristic

motif, with a strong harmonic basis and a distinctive melody, texture or rhythmic

feature. In works by the younger children, simple diatonic harmonies are often

heard e.g. I moving to V perhaps via iib, with an LH chordal accompaniment

providing rhythmic propulsion. In some of the larger pieces a wider harmonic

palette is used for the initial motif, with VI and other chords substituted into

diatonic progressions for harmonic variety, while tonalities for contrasting

subsections may be located a third away from the tonic. Moving the tonal centre

up a minor second (Neapolitan harmony) is a popular extension device, and some

of the more complex pieces delve into chromatic harmony, particularly in cadenza

sections. Modes and scales such as whole tone occasionally appear as well.

Large B sections often contrast strongly by meter, tempo, texture, as well as in

tonality or mood. Some of the works where the initial theme does not have a

particularly strong harmonic, melodic and textural character, such as The Morning

Glow (Table 1, Piece 4) composed by flute player Kazuhiro Oguma, for piano, two

synthesizer lines (SS-30) and flute, are less successful overall, largely because

there is less potential for musical development of the initial theme and strong

contrasts between sections.

Ten-year-old Australian girl Michelle Anne Hill’s Little Moving Moments (1979)

shows interesting and unusual choices of musical language, guided perhaps by

her class teacher or composition tutor/s. Like so many of the JOC pieces, the idea

of movement provides an initial imaginative stimulus for the four movements in

this composition. A train, a hang glider, a camel and a swan all move in different

fashions, something that a child can easily imagine. However, the 20th century-

style rhythmic, harmonic and melodic techniques with which this sense of motion

is depicted makes this suite stand out from many other compositions in the 1979

collection.


Musical Example 1 - Movement 1 Train and Movement 2 Hang Glider from

Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, ten years, from

Australia; score in Appendix and recordings by the performer

(downloadable mp3 file) at

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwARwe5MIvNxfkJZWGZxaHhkMTQ4T

XJuQzFsdERrdE8wSERqbzBkQ0pFMFJmdVlKRlQ1OGc&usp=sharing

Train has the irregular time signature 8/8 divided into 3 + 3 + 2/8, with a

variable tempo. It begins Lento with an accelerando to the Allegro main theme

using a whole tone scale. At the end, it decelerates from Allegro molto to Lento

molto as the train slows-up again. Black note versus white note clusters and

many 7th chords, based on the whole tone scale are striking. Hang Glider is a

beautiful ternary form miniature using Dorian mode on D, with a floating rhythm

in 3/4 time. Camel uses 6/8 meter to create the sense of a bumpy camel ride,

white note clusters are a feature here and add to the sense of bumpy movement.

Swan has a slow tempo, 7th chords are used to create a harmonic ostinato while

chromatic melodies evoke the smooth movement of a swan on the water. These

are miniatures with a very sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic language,

beyond what I believe would have been taught in the Yamaha classes in the early

years of tuition. It is clear that young Michelle Marie Hill (now Michelle Madder -

an owner and director of Australian Music Schools in Sydney) had a very fine set

of tutors and guides back in 1979 and a very receptive musical mind!

Musical Example 2 - Movement 3 Camel and Movement 4 Swan from

Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, ten years, from

Australia; score in Appendix and recordings by the performer




The teaching modes by which polished and accomplished works such as this are

achieved vary according to the budget, personnel and program structure at the

time. They are often additional to the class program or private lessons and

require additional commitment from the parents and the student.

Teaching modes for JOC compositions that I have observed since 2000 in

Australia include:






-work in group classes, especially in the courses after the Junior Music

Course;

-workshops, either introductory workshops to stimulate the creativity of

the children and to get them to create the germ of a future composition,

or workshops to develop the composition further, once the initial idea and

structure are underway, both taken by guest teachers or Yamaha

teachers;

-one-to-one composition lessons with specialist composition tutors over a

sustained period of up to six months;

-polishing workshops and lessons in short intensive bursts, often with

visiting teachers from Japan.

While Yamaha class teachers are encouraged to develop teaching skills to

undertake this creative work, most of the workshops I observed have been taken

by specialist creative teachers, either local teachers such as Keiko Fujii and Peter

Hurley, or guest teachers from Japan. These teachers are highly trained in

harmony and composition or improvisation. They can provide not only immediate

feedback on what the child has done, but can also demonstrate at the keyboard

and describe in words many different ways in which an initial idea could be

extended, varied or altered. These teachers can also immediately demonstrate,

from their aural memory, numerous relevant examples of a harmonic progression

or structure from many genres, including classical orchestral music, film music,

jazz, rock music, etc. When the child’s composition gets to the polishing stage,

much time may be spent on small details, such as the choice of a single note, or

chord, or the voicing of a chord. These small details may well affect the structure

of the piece as a whole and ultimately contribute to a polished well-constructed

composition, which will charm the audience in live performance.

The JOC program from Yamaha Music Education is predicated on the notion that

every child can become a composer to express themselves personally through

music creation and performance. Thus, the teaching methods and teaching skills

for the JOC composition program are particularly interesting!

In their presentation The Benefits of Composition in Teaching Young Piano

Students (March 2, 2014 VMTA Piano Day, Melbourne), Margarita Krupina & Keiko

Fujii demonstrated a possible sequence and some of the teaching methods for

this very structured form of musical composition:


Aim: to make a motif Creative exercises:

• make some sounds with voice and at keyboard e.g. a lion, march of a lion, birds in the morning

Solfège exercises: call and response (question and answer) • Question (Q) from teacher) & Answer (A) from student, using a

familiar (known) song, then with a different (unknown) song • Accompanied sequence singing e.g. response up a tone (Q & A), or

reverse singing - response is the motif backwards • Q to be “continuous”, A to be “conclusive” • Q + A1 Q + A 2

Composing an 8 bar melody using motif composition: • Motif of 2 bars • Motif – Answer – Motif again – different answer (this time

conclusive) • LH single note (from I & V) • Accompaniment using known harmonic vocabulary eg. in the early

stages I – iib - V - I = eight bar composition!

When considering how to expand the composition beyond eight bars or to extend

ideas, Keiki and Margarita outlined how a homework assignment could be used:

Aim: how to extend ideas e.g. by Homework assignment:

Teacher gives chords or bass line, student to make a melody Teacher gives melody, student to add harmony (from known

vocabulary) ‘Theme and Variations’ is an easy-to-introduce technique for extending ideas

Example 1 and Musical Example 3 show how these teaching processes may work

to build a large-scale piece. The Electronic Dance Machine (EDM) was composed

by my son, Christopher Chamberlain, when he was ten years of age and taking

part in the JOC program. As a family member, I could observe the processes and

challenges of the JOC composition process and I would like to share some

insights and opinions with you.

JOC children normally write a description of their work, including the challenges

they faced in the composition process before the piece is recorded or performed.

Chris wrote:

I wanted to call my piece The Electronic Dance Machine because of an idea I had for a story about an Electronic Dance Machine (EDM), which I have tried to integrate into my piece. The Electronic Dance Machine is a huge machine that creates dance music. In the A section of my piece, the EDM is running along normally, and then as the piece evolves into the B section, the EDM becomes tired and it plays quieter and more gentle music. As it returns to the A section there are changes – evolving from this it malfunctions and with the dramatic ending it explodes.


Chris’ main composition teacher Keiko Fujii encouraged him to compose for the

Apple digital music application GarageBand (included since 2002 as part of some

OS X and iOS operating systems) plus live performance. In performance, this

required a laptop computer connected to an amp and speakers plus two

electronic keyboards, one for each hand, so that it looked ‘cooler’. Whilst

composing, a Yamaha PSR1500 keyboard, with a wide range of sounds, was

connected to a computer running GarageBand plus Sibelius to produce a printed

score. This brought together this boy’s fascination with technology and computers

and with music. Example 1 shows the large number of GarageBand sounds that

are used in this piece, as well as the first page of the Sibelius score. While I am

now informed that GarageBand sounds are of amateur quality compared to

serious applications such as Cubase, there was certainly plenty of colour and

variety within GarageBand in 2010 to stimulate a young aural imagination. It is

also interesting that the Sibelius score does not include all the GarageBand or

dance music features of the piece, such as the beats, the reverb and the filter

effects. In this sense the GarageBand file must perhaps be considered the Urtext

score.


Example 1 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for GarageBand plus

live performance by Christopher Chamberlain, ten years, from Australia,

image of part of the GarageBand score and the Sibelius score page 1.


I suggest the main melodic theme of The Electronic Dance Machine (EDM), bars

31-38, was subconsciously influenced by Axel F, the theme music by Harold

Faltermeyer to the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, which appeared on YouTube some

years ago backing Crazy Frog videos. Christopher loved both the Axel F song and

the Crazy Frog videos and at the age of six or seven years taught himself to play

a version of Axel F on a PSR1500 keyboard, complete with drum backing tracks

and head-banging movements. Three to four years later we find that the main

melodic them of EDM shares the same tonality of f minor, similar syncopated

jaunty rhythms and a melodic structure that also features the intervals F–A flat, F

–B flat, F–C and F–D flat, as well as stepwise movement back to the tonic F from

lower-neighbour tone E flat and upper-neighbour tone G. This theme is also


typical of the motif-based composition technique encouraged within the JOC

program. It demonstrates balance between the phrases, bars 31–34 spanning E

flat to C, generally rising in contour are balanced by bars 35–38 with a wider

range of lower E flat to higher F, generally falling in contour, and it also fits the

‘call-and-response’ or ‘question-and-answer’ structure. This syncopated theme

has been harmonized with a simple but strong bass line F–D flat–E flat. At the

age of ten, Chris required help to notate some the syncopated rhythms of this

melodic theme: he could play what he wanted but couldn’t figure out how to

notate the syncopations. Another important thematic element is the two-bar

rhythmic riff, bars 19–20, which is played six times before the main melodic

theme appears. Used as an ostinato in the introduction, this combines well with

the melodic theme during the recapitulation, bars 133 onwards. Here motifs from

the melodic theme also appear in canon or close imitation, bars 133–135, and the

sense of excitement is heightened by the shortened iteration of the main melodic

theme. Composition techniques from popular or dance music include what Keiko

Fujii described as ‘chicken stock’; that is, background lines that ‘improve flavour’

but the listener may not hear clearly e.g. b.51 onwards Bondi Breath sound.

Some of the soaring descant lines were created intuitively—for the Aquatic

Sunbeam line b. 121 onwards Christopher sang along to the texture and notated

what he sang. The piece is in ternary form. The ‘B’ section (b. 47 onwards)

contrasts with the ‘A’ section in tonality – it is in A Flat minor (minor 3rd from F

minor, in Axel F the contrasting section moves to A flat major) and also features

slowly moving chords with chromatically moving voices and no syncopated

rhythms.

Three teachers guided Christopher’s composition of this piece. As well as regular

lessons with Keiko Fujii, he had workshops with composer Nicholas Buc and with

Peter Hurley, whose guidance he acknowledges in the idea of chords with

chromatically moving voices in the B section.

Musical Example 3 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for

GarageBand plus live performance by Chris Chamberlain, ten years, from

Australia; Sibelius score in Appendix and GarageBand recording







To create pieces of this scale and complexity, as well as to perform them on

multiple occasions, requires a substantial commitment of time and resources from

parents, the student, and the teachers. The composition process may span many

months of any given year and if a child were to participate in the JOC program

over a number of years the degree of commitment can be quite large. This is

demonstrated by Tables 2, 3 & 4, which show the JOC compositions by Katrina,

Gregory and Daniel Liston, siblings from a Melbourne family, who were involved

in the Yamaha music education system from their early childhood and who

became my piano students at secondary school and beyond. Between the years

2000 and about 2007, both Liston parents, who are highly qualified teachers of

chemistry and of mathematics, gave considerable support to this creative aspect

of their children’s music education, in addition to normal piano and class music

lessons! Each child created at least one significant composition per year and

some of these were performed at JOC concerts, including international level.


Table 2 – JOC compositions by Katrina Liston b. 1994 Title (piano solo unless indicated)

Movements Year of composition & age

Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s (if recalled)

Toy Stories 1- Licky Licorice’s Scary March 2- Dolphin Lullaby 3- Prancing Ponies

2002, 7 yrs JOC, Sydney

Svetlana Mik, Rebecca Stewart?

Running Free

2003 locally ?

Sunset on the River Moyne

2004 locally Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival Tutor - Melissa Perrin?

The Minnow 2005 JOC, Taiwan

Tutors – Keiko Fujii, Melissa Perrin

Illusions - Three Days in April

2006 local Became April

Amber 2007 local unfinished


Table 3 – JOC compositions by Gregory Liston (b. 1992) Title (piano solo unless indicated)


Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s

The Happy Circus

1- Opening Ceremony 2- The Clown 3- The Trapeze

2000 or 2001, 8 or 9 yrs

?

The Castle 1- Entrance March 2- The Whirling Spell 3- Lost in the Mist

2002, 9 or 10 yrs

locally ?

To the Centre of the Earth

1- Starting Out – the Trek Begins 2- The Crystal Caves 3- The Underground Passage

2003, 10 or 11 yrs

Asia Pacific JOC in Hong Kong

?

The Crags (piano duet)

2004, 11 or 12 yrs

APJOC in Taiwan, with brother Daniel

Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival

The Wolf 2006 local ?


Table 4 – JOC compositions by Daniel Liston (b. 1989) Title (piano solo unless indicated)


Performed Notes & Composition Tutor/s

Hunt for the Red Ruby

1- The Hunt Begins 2- No Water and no Ruby 3- Discovery and Dance for Joy

1999 9 yrs ? John Corlett, Freddie Fujiwara (from Japan)

Ancient Wonders

1- Pyramids 2- Lighthouse 3-Hanging Gardens 4- Colussus

2001, 11 yrs

locally ?

Excalibur 1- The Sword in the Lake 2- The Knights Gather 3-The Battle 4- Lament for the dead King

2002, 12 yrs

John Corlett, Freddie Fujiwara

Andalusia Quintet in f minor, fl, ob, vln, vcl, pno

2003, 13 yrs

JOC Taiwan Melissa Perrin, Freddie Fujiwara. Became Andalusia duo for vcl & pno 2004 (age 14 yrs)

Merrijig Inn 2004, 14 yrs

local Melissa Perrin. Part of sibling’s Port Fairy Suite for 2004 Port Fairy Festival

Aeolus 2006, 16 yrs

local Melissa Perrin, Rebecca Stewart, Keiko Fujii

Examples 2 & 3 give an insight into how the teacher and/or parents may prompt

the initial idea for a composition and help to stimulate the child’s creativity. These

show preparatory drawings for and the final cover page to Katrina Liston’s Toy

Stories (2002 aged seven years). She has drawn some of her toys and given each

a speech bubble, so they may have a voice to outline their character. Three of the

toys shown in Example 2, Licky Licorice, Dolphin and Horses, made it into the Toy


Stories, as Licky Licorice’s Scary March, Dolphin Lullaby which uses a black note

pentatonic mode, and Prancing Ponies, a tarantella style composition with a

whole tone introduction.

Example 2 – preparatory drawing of toys for composition Toy Stories by

Katrina Liston


Example 3 – drawing for the cover of the score of Toy Stories by Katrina

Liston

Such sustained immersion in structured creative musical activity, additional to

‘normal’ piano lessons, can bring many benefits to the children involved and

would be a fertile area to research in a rigorous fashion. In The Benefits of

Composition in Teaching Young Piano Students – (Victorian Music Teachers

Association Piano Day, Sunday March 2, 2014 at 1.50pm at Exclusive Piano

Group, 169 Chapel St, Windsor, Melbourne) Margarita Krupina provided a

comprehensive list of potential benefits for primary and lower secondary school


age students undertaking composition, based on her many years of teaching

experience:

•a tool for self-expression •motivation to study •student ownership of own work (similar to art) •development of aural abilities (singing), including intervallic, rhythmic and metrical abilities •first-hand experience of music structure, e.g. ABA form •training of memory •understanding of harmonic vocabulary e.g. V – I, I – V •a tool for technical development – you have to play your own piece well! •enhance dynamic range •multiple opportunities to play, playing own piece boosts confidence •notation useful for theory studies •adds color and vibrancy to the lesson •creating music is special! (Just ask the parents!)

My interviews with and questionnaires completed by some of the JOC children

whose performances I have coached since 2000, supports these ideas. When the

child is both composer and performer with ownership of their own piece, not only

do they have first hand experience of manipulating harmony, melody and form,

but there can also be a great feeling of achievement for student, teacher and

parent. Yamaha also emphasizes this program as an opportunity for ‘personal

expression’. Whether this aspect is more important in Japanese society that in

Australian, where the right to personal expression is often taken for granted but

not often focussed in such an intense way, could be considered and explored

further.

Yamaha’s Junior Original Composition (JOC) program is a large-scale, multi-

faceted highly structured project. It incorporates many musical skills, and

parents, students and teachers must be well organised to meet various deadlines.

We should consider the role of the composition tutors carefully. Can these

complex, sophisticated works be considered to be a true result of the children’s

own creativity?

This program is based on the notion that creativity can be learnt and taught to all

piano students, therefore the teacher’s roles in the creative process is vital,

although not always overtly acknowledged, and could range from teaching the

fundamental skills of singing, playing and writing harmonic vocabulary, to

creative guidance, such as suggesting which works the children listen to, which

musical models they will study, to an overly prescriptive or directed approach -

effectively composing part of the work for the child. Deadlines for submission of


the score and recordings for possible selection may well lead towards a

prescriptive approach, as may the competitive aspect of comparing the work of

each child and their teachers with others of similar age. Certainly, within the

thirty-six JOC compositions from the 1979 boxed set one can hear a wide range

of musical models and surmise the hand of many different composition tutors. We

may also glean to a certain extent, by the interplay between form, harmony and

thematic ideas, and from the performance itself, which pieces appear somewhat

prescribed by the composition tutor, and which ones are more creatively original.

While the compositions are always presented as the work of the young children,

there can be no doubt as to the skill of the teacher and tutors, who must judge

how best to facilitate the musical creativity of each individual child in each lesson.

Their skills are quite admirable and for those of us who are not highly skilled in

composition, improvisation or harmony at the keyboard, these teachers and their

skills provide an insight into a highly creative aspect of piano pedagogy.

4. Team of Pianists Spring Piano School 2011 Creativity Workshops for

Composition Make your own motif, make your own melody with Keiko

Fujii

The 2011 Spring Piano School Creativity Workshops were three short one-off

sessions, at the other end of a scale of commitment and complexity when

compared to Yamaha’s JOC program. However, there was one important shared

factor with the JOC program, in that an experienced Yamaha teacher, Keiko Fujii,

also taught the Spring Piano School workshops.

These workshops formed the creativity strand of the 2011 Team of Pianists’

Spring Piano School, from 2004 to 2013 and again in 2015, an annual non-

residential school holiday program for primary and secondary school age piano

students, held at the National Trust property Glenfern in East St Kilda, Melbourne.

As Director of the Spring School from 2004 to 2013, I was keen to supplement

the program of repertoire coaching and executive skills development workshops,

with creativity workshops on composition and improvisation. This was possible in

2010, 2011, and 2013, with various workshops taught by outstanding local

teachers Peter Hurley and Keiko Fujii.

For the 2011 creativity workshops, the young piano students were organised into

three groups with six or seven students per group. Each student would compose,

perform and record their own piano piece, all within a single 90-minute session


for the younger children, or within a 120-minute session for the older, more

experienced students. These compact composition workshops had to cater for a

wide range of ages from 5 to 12 years and a wide range of ability and experience.

Some students had no prior experience with musically creativity as many came

from a strictly ‘traditional exam’ background and had comparatively weak aural

skills, while others were Yamaha course students, including some who had

participated in Yamaha’s JOC program, with stronger aural skills and some

experience of composition and improvisation. Six or seven children were assigned

to each workshop, based on their age and standard.

It was interesting to observe how Keiko Fujii, given her years of experience with

Yamaha JOC composition teaching including selection of some of her students for

Asia-Pacific JOC concerts, would teach this disparate set of children, particularly

given the limited time available for each workshop and the inclusion of some

children who lacked the aural and musical skills she was accustomed to.

The aim of each workshop was for each group to compose a suite, comprising one

short composition from each child. For Group 1’s suite Let’s go to the Zoo, each

child chose an animal and created a piece about that animal. For the second and

third group, the creative springboard was weather or the seasons. For example

Group 2’s suite The Seasons comprised seven pieces from the seven children:

1 Process of Cyclone Tracy by 11-year-old boy

2 Autumn Afternoon by 12-year-old girl

3. Autumn by 12-year-old girl

4. Winter Flakes by 13-year-old boy

5. Winter Snow by 9-year-old boy

6. Spring Fall by 11-year-old girl

7. Rain in Spring by 10-year-old boy

Groups 3’s suite was The Four Seasons:

1 Summer by 11-year-old girl

2. Autumn by 12-year-old boy

3. Winter by 8-year-old boy

4. Winter by 10-year-old girl

5. Winter Reflections by 11-year-old boy

6. Spring by 12-year-old girl


Given Keiko’s vast experience with Yamaha JOC composition work, it was not

surprising that her teaching methods drew on her Yamaha experience, albeit in a

highly compressed and adapted form. She commenced work with all students in

each group together, firstly with aural work, and then used imagery, musical

examples and for the youngest group some stuffed toy animals, to stimulate and

encourage the children’s imagination. Students then explored their musical ideas

individually at various electronic keyboards with headphones placed around the

room, while Keiko worked individually with each child in turn for 5–10 minutes, to

prompt and develop a musical idea for their chosen animal or topic. While some

students were developing and practising their ideas on the keyboards, others,

particularly the older students were notating their ideas on manuscript paper

while seated at a table. Each student normally had two short individual sessions

with Keiko. She guided them to fix and structure their ideas into a satisfactory

musical structure, as well as to remember or notate the ideas so that at the end

of the session each student could perform and record their small composition!

This task required a range of skills and processes from the children:

Imagination: to invent an idea related to their chosen animal or season.

Memory: to be able to remember their idea, perhaps to notate it in some way so

as to be able to reproduce it at the keyboard.

Sense of structure: to be able to extend their idea and give the small piece some

coherent structure.

Aural skills: to be able to sing their idea, Keiko sings a lot to encourage the

students and to provide possible models.

Executive skills: to be able to play their piece securely for the recording at the

end of the session.

Each child’s response to this creative challenge was fascinating as some found it

easy to come-up with ideas while others could only really copy Keiko’s examples.

Some could improvise easily and endlessly but needed lots of guidance to

structure their ideas into a coherent form, others found remembering their ideas

a challenge. The most accomplished young composers could develop a few

distinctive and contrasting musical ideas and knit them together with apparent

ease. It was also fascinating to hear varying levels of confidence in the

performance of their compositions, music that had been called into existence only

in the last 90 to 120 minutes.


Some of the recordings that each child made of their own piece at the end of

each workshop will illustrate the wide range of achievement. Some modest little

pieces from Suite 1 Let’s go to the Zoo illustrate how Keiko guided the students

to translate their animal’s mode of movement into a simple musical idea.

Musical Example 4 – Kangaroo by a seven-year-old girl and Monkey by a

five-year-old boy, siblings, (from Suite 1 Let’s go to the Zoo), recordings

(downloadable mp3 files) at



Note the hopping motif in Kangaroo, and in Monkey the cheeky motif, with a

jump of 7th. Structurally, Monkey, which already has the form AA, needs a B

section, then an A return.

Musical Example 5 – Snake by a five-year-old boy (from Suite 1 Let’s go

to the Zoo), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at



Snake by a 5-year-old boy uses running notes in the right hand, twisting like a

snake, to depict the movement of this animal. Here the child demonstrates

impressive keyboard facility and imagination, to improvise effortlessly and

seemingly endlessly. This child’s sense of harmony and structure is not as

advanced as his executive skills; therefore the performance, which is like an

improvisation, misses a lot of potential finishing spots. This child was not used to

creating and defining his own sense of structure, but with further lessons on

harmony at the keyboard, one can well imagine him developing into a fine

creative composer and performer.

Musical Example 6 – Rabbit by a seven-year-old boy (from Suite 1 Let’s

go to the Zoo), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at



Musical Example 6 shows an interesting but uncommon response to this creative

process—plagiarism. As I listened to the interesting jazzy chords in this

recording, I wondered how this seven-year-old had learnt such sophisticated

harmony in such a short session. The piece sounded vaguely familiar, and upon








checking the enrolment records I found that Christopher Norton’s A Charmer

featured on this boy’s repertoire list. Once the microphone was switched on for

him to record his composition Rabbit, Norton’s A Charmer was what he played.

The cusp between improvisation and composition is explored in Autumn by a 12-

year-old boy, part of Suite 3, The Four Seasons. This piece evokes an

improvisation, with an introduction and then interesting melodic ideas over a

drone bass. Autumn also finishes well and uses octave transpositions for variety.

Musical Example 7 – Autumn by a 12-year-old boy (from Suite 3 The

Four Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at



Some of the best results were well-structured and attractive small compositions,

which score highly for imagination, for memory, for sense of structure and for the

student’s executive skills. While listening to these miniatures, remember that

they were created and recorded in one 90- or 120-minute group session.

Musical Example 8 – Winter Snow by a nine-year-old boy (from Suite 2 -

The Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at



This work has effective patterning to create textural interest; it has a

harmonically clear melody and bass, a contrasting section like an improvisation,

and demonstrates a clear ABA structure.

Musical Example 9 – Winter Reflections by an 11-year-old boy (from

Suite 3 - The Four Seasons), recording (downloadable mp3 file) at



Winter Reflections has an ostinato in the RH, with moving bass lines, to create an

effective mood. The ‘B’ section contrasts in texture, builds in tension and resolves

in the major chord or key. Notable here are the good structure and the strong

bass lines.








These composition workshops formed a very successful part of the 2011 Spring

Piano School program and required minimal commitment from the children and

their parents, beyond enrolling in the two and a half day Spring Piano School

Junior program for 2011. The creativity workshops were almost universally

popular with the students and complimented well the more traditional repertoire

classes and skills development workshops. From the Director’s point of view, it

widened the range of activities from previous Spring Piano Schools and gave an

interesting selling point to the 2011 program. Sending each child’s parents an

mp3 file of their child’s creative work also provided a souvenir of the event.

Against the very modest aim of giving each student a small taste of musical

creativity through composing, this program can be considered a success and

could be a useful model for incorporating musical creativity into other school-

holiday piano-based enrichment programs.

5. Conclusion

Piano teaching and piano pedagogy are ripe with possibilities for the development

of musical creativity. Historically, piano pedagogy for notated Western concert

music has incorporated many aspects of musical creativity, such as composition,

improvisation, arrangement, embellishment, plus fundamental musical skills that

are not specific to one instrument such as aural skills of hearing, singing and

notating. In the second-half of the twentieth century, as the numbers of

competent teachers and pianists in Western countries exploded and the average

level of piano performance increased greatly, piano pedagogy became less

inclusive of these skills and tended to focus on executive ability above all else.

Now a swing back to the incorporation of creative skills in piano pedagogy is

apparent, supported by many factors unique to our age. These include the

ongoing digital revolution, which has transformed so many aspects of 21st century

life, changes in some of the piano examination syllabuses, which determine so

strongly what is taught in school and private studios around Australia, and

eisteddfods and competitions with ‘own composition performance sections’, where

the musical creativity of young piano students can be exhibited, compared,

assessed, and encouraged. The most active factor, however, is the increasing

range of teaching repertoire and tutor method books that seek to embed some

aspect of musical creativity into the learning process. Given the comparative ease

of self-publishing, the low cost of printing and the growing numbers of motivated,

creative teachers with ideas about how piano and music can be taught, we can

expect many interesting new products and initiatives in this area in coming years.


For this study musical creativity has been defined narrowly as ‘the use of

imagination and musical skills to create original music’ and further limited to two

contrasting examples of composition as part of piano pedagogy being the Yamaha

Music Foundation Junior Original Concert composition program and the Team of

Pianists 2011 Spring Piano School Creativity Workshop for composition. This

paper has examined the history and aims of these programs and the skills,

challenges, methods and some achievements of students and teachers.

Two obvious observations can be made. First, both these programs require extra

commitment from the parents and students additional to the normal weekly piano

or music class. For the Spring Piano School, the commitment required was

minimal, comprising three free days during the September school holidays and

the school tuition fee, often subsidised by a scholarship from the Friends of the

Team of Pianists. The Yamaha JOC program, on the other hand, requires a much

greater commitment in time and energy and the resulting compositions are on a

much larger scale. Important questions for pedagogues in 21st century Australia

are: is there sufficient time to become musically creative as well as master an

instrument (or two)? Can the time commitment to master an instrument (many

say 10,000 hours over a decade or so) accommodate musical creativity? Can

musical creativity at this level be more directly integrated into the instrumental

study?

The second observation is about the skills of the creativity-teachers in these

programs. Both Spring Piano School and Yamaha JOC programs are based on the

notion that musical creativity can be taught to all piano students, that all

students can be composers at some level. Both programs require highly skilled

teachers, with different skills to what is commonly taught in many music and

combined degrees in Australia. While the traditionally trained performer-teacher

can focus on executive ability, learning processes and technical ability to guide a

student towards mastery of their instrument, the creativity teachers from these

programs have high-level skills in composition and improvisation, and their

performance background may well be based on the electone or the organ. These

creativity teachers are confident to teach and demonstrate a wide range of

harmony, details of voicing at the piano, in notation and by singing. They are also

skilled in working with form and structure to guide young composers towards the

creation of quite substantial works. Additionally, they can work successfully

across age groups, with primary school and lower secondary age children both in


groups and individually. They can use notation software such as Sibelius, Finale,

or digital music workstations such as GarageBand or Cubase. As shown in the

Spring Piano School study, the teacher Keiko Fujii was also able to stimulate the

creativity of young children from many backgrounds quickly, and as

demonstrated by the JOC program works, the tutors guide students through

various stages of creating, notating, developing, expanding, and performing their

own composition. To integrate such creativity programs into existing piano

pedagogy structures would surely require either much further training by

traditional teachers and/or many more teachers with skills and experiences

equivalent to that of Peter Hurley, Keiko Fujii and others.

How might the success of such programs, which seek to incorporate musical

creativity into piano pedagogy, be measured?

First, by determining the quality of the compositions. Of the 50-100 pieces I have

examined, there are many fine works as well as some that are not as interesting

and show less creative spark or personality. Secondly, by the numbers of

students taking these programs. Creativity workshops within three annual Spring

Piano School have been almost universally popular and in that time only one or

two students out of 60 to 70 in total have felt sufficiently out of their comfort

zone to give the feedback that these workshops were a very bad idea! Third, by

assessing whether programs such as these expand the students’ confidence in

manipulating harmony, modulation and structuring. This can be traced through

an increasing sophistication of one child’s creative work from year to year, and

can also be assessed, anecdotally, by the music teacher from year to year, or by

some form of structured assessment at regular intervals, such as Yamaha Piano

Grade exams. Yet another way of assessing these programs could be whether

these young people go on to have a career in music or composition, although this

is certainly not the primary aim of the Spring Piano School, nor of the JOC

program. In Australia, there are numerous JOC graduates who have made

careers in music. To name but a few, Michelle Ann Hill from 1979 is now Michelle

Madder, founder of Australian Music Schools in Sydney, Caroline Almonte (Doves

from the 1979 JOC boxed set) is a leading Australian pianist and teacher, Stefan

Cassomenos is another very active pianist whose compositions received high

acclaim in the Australian JOC program. An internet search reveals that some of

the Japanese children from the 1979 JOC program have also gone onto musical

careers.


I would argue that another valid measure of success is also whether the children

enjoyed the process of structured musical creativity and whether you as listeners

enjoyed hearing their efforts.

How the experience of musical creativity affects a child’s general study habits and

problem-solving ability is an area of research and debate within educational

theory. Is creativity transferrable across disciplines, provided the basic

fundamentals of that discipline—in music this would be the ability to recognise

and manipulate harmony, rhythm and melody, in materials engineering perhaps a

strong engineering and mathematical base, in digital technologies perhaps a good

foundation in coding languages—are known? Ultimately, given Australia’s urgent

need for innovation and creativity in this century (and need for the funds to

capitalise and commercialise future innovations and creative ideas) the obvious

question is, ‘if all our young pianists were to study some aspect of musical

creativity within their piano studies, would Australia have a better chance to

become a high-income prosperous economy in the 21st century?’

I would hope the answer to such a broad ranging and rhetorical question would

be yes. I also hope that this examination of two composition programs for school-

age piano students may bring useful knowledge, information and ideas to future

debates and discussion about incorporating musical creativity into piano

pedagogy in early 21st century Australia.


References Books, articles, scores and examination syllabuses: ANZCA Endorsement - American Popular Piano, Christopher Norton & Scott McBride Smith. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/212F052F201333A253A40PM.pdfon 12/1/14. Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Contemporary Popular Music see http://www.ameb.edu.au/catalog-list-products/251 Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Manual of Syllabuses 2013. Australian Music Examinations Board Ltd, Melbourne, 2012. Carrigan, Jeanell (ed.) 2003, AMEB Piano Australian Anthology – Preliminary to Fourth Grade. Allans Publishing, Melbourne. Chamberlain, Christopher 2010 The Electronic Dance Machine, copy of JOC composition score and GarageBand file in possession of the author Carrigan, Jeanell (ed.) 2001, AMEB Piano Australian Anthology – Fifth to Eight Grades. Allans Publishing, Melbourne. Craggs, Andrew 2012, Modern Piano Improvisation - Sample Tests: Grade Two – Associate Performer Diploma. ANZCA, Melbourne. Examination Syllabus Piano for All Occasions 2013-14. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/SYLLABI/Latest-ANZCA-Syllabi/ANZCA-Syllabi-.asp on 12/1/14. Examination Syllabus Pianoforte/Keyboard 2013-14. Australian New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANCZA), Melbourne. Accessed from http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/202F082F201343A263A42PM.pdfon 12/1/14. Fujii, Keiko and Krupina, Margarita 2014, The Use of Composition in Teaching Young Students, professional development presentation at Victorian Music Teachers Association Piano Day, Sunday March 2, 2014 at 1.50pm, Exclusive Piano Group, 169 Chapel St, Windsor, Melbourne. Griffin, Michael. 2013, Learning Strategies for Musical Success. Music Education World, Adelaide. Hyde, Miriam and Thompson, Warren 1975, Piano Course – A tutor for Australian Children. J Albert & Son (Albert Edition 382), Sydney. Hyde, Miriam and Thompson, Warren 1976 Piano Course 2. J Albert & Son (Albert Edition 416), Sydney. Junior Original Concert 1979 – Music of Creative Young People, 1979, box set of 5-LP recordings of childrens’ performances of their own compositions, plus 147 page booklet with scores, photos, commentaries and introductory articles. Produced by Genichi Kawakami (President, Yamaha Music Foundation). Yamaha Music Foundation, Japan.

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http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3173�


http://www.anzca.com.au/files/nrteUploadFiles/202F082F201343A273A12PM.pdf on 12/1/14 Websites: Australian Children’s Music Foundation, http://acmf.com.au/ Brochures and reports from Team of Pianists’ Spring Piano Schools including descriptions of creative workshops in some years, http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/past-events oxforddictionaries.com, accessed 27 July 2014 Team of Pianists Spring Piano School, http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/spring-piano-school Yamaha Music Foundation - Junior Original Concerts, accessed 6 January 2014, http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/events/joc/index.html


http://acmf.com.au/�

http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/past-events�

http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/events/spring-piano-school�



Appendix – Scores Musical Example 1 - Movement 1 Train and Movement 2 Hang Glider from

Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, 10 years, from

Australia, score and recording (see link in text and on page 2)


Musical Example 2 - Movement 3 Camel and Movement 4 Swan from

Little Moving Moments (1979) by Michelle Ann Hill, 10 years, from

Australia, score and recording (see link in text and on page 2)


Musical Example 3 – The Electronic Dance Machine (2010) for

GarageBand plus live performance by Chris Chamberlain, 10 years, from

Australia, score and GarageBand recording (see link in text and on page

2)


About the Author Robert Chamberlain works internationally as an adjudicator, presenter and performer, and is a partner in the Melbourne based Team of Pianists - Artists in Residence for the National Trust of Australia (Vic). Between 2004 and 2013 he developed and directed the Team’s annual Spring Piano School, an intensive enrichment program for school aged pianists aged from 6 to 18, which attracts young pianists and observers from Victoria, interstate and overseas. Along with the other three Team of Pianists partners, he performs in and directs the Beleura Twilight Chamber Music at Rippon Lea concert series, now in its 21st year, and the Rigg Bequest Classic Music in Historic Venues series. He studied for Bachelors and Masters degrees in Australia under Max Cooke, in Vienna as a winner of the Apex/Robert Stolz Scholarship, and also at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. Concert engagements with Australian and international colleagues have taken him to Turkey, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Canada, as well as around Australia. His recordings on around 15 CD’s encompass music for solo piano, two pianos, chamber music, piano and voice, and include the Team of Pianists as well as the Tall Poppies, Naxos, Move Records and VoxAustralis labels. Robert is on the piano faculty of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne. As a scholar he has edited, with violinist Marina Marsden (Sydney Symphony Orchestra), a critical edition of Australian composer Margaret Sutherland’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (Currency Press, 2000). His academic interests include teaching and learning processes in piano teaching and performance, creativity in piano pedagogy, and style and technique in piano performance. See http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/partners/robert-chamberlain and http://www.teamofpianists.com.au

http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/partners/robert-chamberlain�

http://www.teamofpianists.com.au/�

musical creativity and piano pedagogy: a study of

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