Flow Pedagogy for Strings Education

Chapter 4 addresses practical approaches of teaching and learning for string instruments to facilitate learners' flow experience throughout the learning activities. Contemporary string pedagogy is heavily reliant on traditional methods. In this chapter, the author proposes an alternative idea for teaching the basics of string playing (e.g., violin) by providing musical and teaching examples, environment, and episodes. The practice is constructed based upon observable flow experience of strings learners derived from the author's pedagogical practice both in the U.S. and in Japan. This chapter describes appropriate strings learning activities, content, and repertoire for children from ages 0 to 12 and can be easily adapted to suit older learners.

Exploring Bowed-String Sound

Bowed-string instruments contain a wealth of exploratory opportunities and illustrate the framework to apply flow theory to strings teaching and learning. In this chapter, the author analyzes how strings students, including very young children, experience flow by listening and exploring the sound of strings. The author also investigates the origin of bowed-strings instrument historically and illustrates violin pedagogy in a historical context. The chapter discusses Leopold Mozart, Auer, Flesh, Ivan Galamian, and Ruggero Ricci with a special emphasis on their sound production.

Strings Teaching and Learning in Community Schools

The setting for this chapter is the author's private violin teaching in a student's home environment in Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. One of the student's caregivers videotaped a few sets of the violin lessons in the living room of the student's home. The author used the film as a source of cues, stimuli, topics for discussion, and interviewing tools. Specifically, by adapting the methodology of Tobin, Hsueh, and Karasawa's “video-cued multivocal ethnography,” or “the Preschool in Three Cultures method,” this study collected and presented a series of voices all talking about the same set of violin lesson videos. These alternative approaches of string teaching emphasize learners' self-regulated practice to explore sound pitch and their readiness to participate in ensemble playing. The chapter gathers multiple viewpoints to assess the pedagogical practice of flow theory-based pedagogy in a community learning setting along with the concluding remark.

Flow-Theory-Based Strings Education

This chapter provides a foundation for string teachers and students of bowed-strings instruments to understand the conceptual framework of flow theory-based strings pedagogy. The chapter outlines flow theory and introduces flow indicators in musical activities (FIMA). These flow indicators are used to observe and analyze strings learner's flow experience. The chapter also describes the author's introduction to flow theory and subsequent adaptation of the concept in constructing an approach to strings education.

A New Vision for Implementing Strings in P-12 Schools

Chapter 5 shares practical teaching examples of flow theory-based string pedagogy for young and special needs children in P-12 schools. The chapter puts a special emphasis on implementing strings in general music classes instead of designing strings program. The author strives to reflect the knowledge obtained from the research based on Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory and of its application to facilitate children's flow experience when children encounter the strings for the first time. The author focuses on children's flow experience with the understanding of the developmental trend and depicts them in the context of strings learning. This chapter is filled with the actual lesson structures that are useful in P-12 schools.

Musical Literacy and Literature in Strings Education

Chapter 3 seeks a meaningful way of acquiring musical literacy and literature through learning the string instruments. In this section, the book offers actual musical examples for the learners. The chapter also introduces practical strategies on when and how to teach musical notation to early strings learners. The author expands the discussion on music reading and shares teaching examples with a special emphasis on acquiring musical literature and literacy as the students perceive more enjoyment as they read music of various kinds. The author also includes an adaptation of Dalcroze methods, choral methods, and composition methods to the violin teaching and learning with more specific musical examples on reading.