Significant learning principles as reedmaking pedagogy

• Main Author: Warren, Jessica
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Music; Instrumental pedagogy; Oboe reed; Reed making; Reed-making
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/23359

Reedmaking is as integral to oboists’ skills as performers and teachers as any other element of their musical study. Reeds regulate almost all aspects of oboists’ music making, including pitch, line, and tone. But reedmaking is also the part of oboists’ professional training least integrated with their overall music education. Currently available resources on oboe reedmaking are written for the practitioner, and tend to be technical rather than pedagogical in nature. They do not cater to oboists’ varying backgrounds in reedmaking; nor do they take into account a given student’s unique physiology, technique, or variations in the instruments themselves. Indeed, techniques for teaching reedmaking have barely changed since the oral tradition of the nineteenth century. Given these shortcomings, there is great opportunity for instructional reexamination and intervention in the teaching of reedmaking. This dissertation blends reedmaking’s pedagogical traditions with principles from L. Dee Fink’s theory of “significant learning” into a useful, task-based guide for oboe professors in modern collegiate settings. First, it surveys historical writings on reedmaking and reedmaking pedagogy from the invention of the oboe to present day. It then examines relevant data and narratives about typical modern reedmaking pedagogy in the context of higher education. Third, it envisions reedmaking curricula based on significant learning principles. Finally, it explores broader implications for the oboe studio, other performance studios, and the expansion of a literature of reedmaking pedagogy.