How to Use Recordings to Enhance Music Education
Incorporating recordings into music education can transform the learning experience for students of all levels. Whether teaching in-person or online, recorded music provides an invaluable tool for improving listening skills, technique, and musicality. Here’s how educators and students can use recordings effectively as both practice tools and teaching aids.
1. Active Listening Exercises
Encourage students to engage with recordings through focused listening. As a primarily auditory learner myself, I benefit so much from listening to a piece while I’m learning it. This is not to say that one should simply have a student copy a recording—it can just be immensely helpful to organize a melody or pattern aurally and recordings are perfect for that. Furthermore, active listening is an essential skill for musicians, especially if one is playing in a group. To encourage active listening, recordings can be utilized both during and outside of lessons. Students can be instructed to:
Identify different instruments and timbres. Which instrument has the melody? If it is a solo instrument performance, how is the musician changing their sound to create musical interest and timbral change? How could these changes be incorporated into the student’s own repertoire?
Analyze structure and form. How is the piece organized? Are there methods in which understanding the organizational structure can help with interpretation? This skill is very important for any students wanting to go into music as a profession!
Compare different interpretations of the same piece. Especially for more advanced students, having musical opinions is very important. Which interpretations does the student prefer and why? Are there things that can be taken from different recordings to create a new understanding of the piece? Help the student articulate using musical language why they do or do not enjoy particular interpretive choices. This is a fantastic opening for discussion!
Transcribe melodies, rhythms, or harmonies by ear. Transcription is another skill that advanced students will benefit from especially if they plan to study music in college. Having a solid dictational foundation can really set a student apart in auditions and interviews. Beyond that, some students are very skilled in playing by ear. Encouraging them to write down what they hear builds musical literacy by allowing the student to make associations to what they hear and read in notated form.
2. Play-Along Practice
Using recordings as a practice aid helps students improve their timing and ensemble skills. This technique must be used with care as it can become a bit of a crutch. However, if used correctly, it can be extremely beneficial. When I am preparing a larger piece, I do try to play along with recordings at times to see how I fit into an ensemble, especially if I have limited rehearsal time. Try these techniques:
Practicing with accompaniment tracks to simulate playing in a group. Playing along with an accompaniment track can be helpful when rehearsal time is limited, or if a live accompanist will not be present at a performance. It’s very helpful to understand where one fits into the musical landscape of a piece and to hear how one’s part interacts with the rest of the musicians. Playing with a track can help a musician situate themselves within the piece. It’s also great practice for listening to another part—if you just practice your part and then try to add it into a larger group, you can run into unexpected stumbling blocks!
Playing along with professional recordings to match articulation and dynamics. This should not be an everyday tool nor should it become the only way one rehearses a piece. This can lead to robotic playing or simple mimicry. However, it can be helpful for trying out different touch, textures, articulations, and so what. Playing in ways one normally does not can help encourage musical variety and offer different styles and techniques outside of one's comfort zone.
3. Studying Performance Styles
Expose students to different recordings of the same piece to highlight stylistic variations. Encouraging a student to locate particular performances they enjoy can open discussions about lots of musical areas. Have a student locate several different performances of a piece, and spend some time analyzing the differences. What is it about a particular performance that the student likes or dislikes? How might those techniques be applied to the music being learned in lessons? Consider discussing the following:
Differences in phrasing, tempo, and interpretation. What is written in the music and how does the performer choose to apply it? Is there a wrong way to play a piece? If you were (or are) performing this piece, what would you do differently or the same? Why make those choices? Use the score as evidence and to promote analytical thinking.
How historical recordings compare to modern performances. Is modern recording accurate when performing historical pieces? This is a whole topic in musicology of course, but it can lead to some interesting conversations and interpretive options for advanced students.
The unique characteristics of various genres and cultures. How does the playing of your student’s instrument change when performed by in a different genre? Compare classical, jazz, and folk versions of violin playing, piano, and any other instruments. What do those musicians do differently? Encourage your students to listen to music they might not normally choose—what to they like or dislike about it and why?
4. Self-Recording for Feedback
Motivate your students to record their own playing to track progress and refine technique. Though this can be difficult to do, it’s so helpful for self assessment. I avoided recording my practicing for a long time as I didn’t want to listen to my own mistakes. However, I’ve learned that it can be extremely useful. Benefits of self-recording include:
Identifying mistakes that might not be noticed while playing. When practicing, there are so many things to think about. One might be focusing on rhythm and miss a note, or considering phrasing and skip an important dynamic change. Recordings are helpful tools that point out these issues so that they can be addressed quickly and efficiently.
Comparing recordings over time to measure improvement. Sometimes it’s tricky to evaluate one’s own playing and notice the progress that’s being made. Recordings of progress are very helpful in this way as they can easily provide demonstrations of success as well as showing improvement.
Building confidence before recitals or performances. Recordings can serve as a performance simulation. This helps to practice confidence and recovery if mistakes are made. Making a “one take” recording is just about as close to performing as one can get in a solo practice session! I find this very helpful at the end of my practice sessions when I’m doing a run-through of a full piece and would recommend it especially as performances get closer.
Final Thoughts
Using recordings in music education enhances ear training, technique, and appreciation. Whether analyzing, playing along, or self-recording, students can deepen their musical understanding in ways that traditional methods alone may not achieve. Thanks for reading, and happy practicing!
~Charissa Garrigus, Instructor at Vibe Music Academy
