Abstract:
There has been a concern about the quality and depth of the musical leanings
accruing from school musical performances. The concern in Ghana is the level
of technical ability students are able to achieve and how instructors are able to
help their students develop acceptable technical control over the musical
instruments they are studying. Unfortunately, no study has been done in this
area in Ghana. Employing a mixed methods design with a sample of 10 Basic
School Bands and 90 scores obtained from three judges‘ ratings of three band
performances, the present study sheds light on the neglected issues of wind
instrumental pedagogy in Ghana, by examining the impact of basic school
band directors‘ rehearsal strategies on students‘ performance. Analysis of
codes generated from videotapes of rehearsal sessions, field notes, and
interviews revealed that teacher-directed instruction was the most utilized
instructional category. However, in band instructors‘ attempt to reach their
instructional goals and objectives, some teachers emphasized staff notation in
their teaching while others taught by rote method. Out of the ten bands, only
two bands‘ performance scores fell within the average mark for
tone/intonation. Four bands performed averagely well on technique and all ten
bands performed poorly on interpretation. There was a significant difference
between rehearsal strategies employed and students‘ performance. There was
also a strong positive relationship between performance scores and rehearsal
observation scores
