University-level group piano instruction and professional musicians

Abstract

Group piano courses for undergraduate music majors have been charged with developing the piano skills used by professional musicians; however, the only information available on the use of piano skills by professional musicians has been limited to one profession: public school music teachers. No one has attempted to identify the piano skills used by faculty members, performers or private music teachers. The purpose of this study was to gather information about professional musicians’ development and use of piano skills in their careers. A questionnaire was distributed to (N=393) faculty members, professional performers and private music instructors. The survey gathered information about their careers, piano training, use of piano skills and proposals for the piano training of undergraduate music majors in their field. In total, 109 musicians completed the study: faculty members (n=43), performers (n=38) and teachers (n=28). The results of this study showed faculty members, performers and teachers generally performed similar musical activities had comparable piano training, used similar piano skills and agreed with each other about their suggestions for undergraduate piano training. There were, however, subtle differences among the three groups in the frequency with which they used certain piano skills.