Exploring musical interaction between a teacher and pupil, and her evolving musicality, using a music-theoretical approach

Abstract

In the context of a single case study, this paper explores the musical interaction between a pupil and teacher, and the pupil’s evolving musicality, using the music-theoretical approach to the cognition of musical structure set out by Ockelford (2002, 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a) – ‘zygonic theory’. The object of the study is a vocal improvisation by ‘K’, a 4 1⁄2 -year-old girl with septo-optic dysplasia,i which was previously videoed and transcribed (see Ockelford, Pring, Welch & Treffert, 2005; Ockelford, 2006b). The improvisation was initially led and then accompanied on the piano by the author (‘AO’), who at the time was K’s music teacher. The musical relationships that are identified between various elements within and beyond K’s improvisation provide, it is argued, a unique insight into her evolving musicality and may even serve as proxy measures of her social interaction in the context of music-making. It is hoped that the analytical techniques set out in the course of the paper may have wider relevance in educational and therapeutic contexts that use music as a medium of communication and socialisation.