Impact of Ghanaian basic school band directors‘ rehearsal strategies on students‘ performance

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