The significance of the “physicality” involved in learning to play a musical instrument and the essential role of teachers are areas in need of research. This article explores the role of gesture within teacher–student communicative interaction in one-to-one piano lessons. Three teachers were required to teach a pre-selected repertoire of two contrasting pieces to three students studying piano grade 1. The data was collected by video recordings of piano lessons and analysis based on the type and frequency of gestures employed by teachers in association to teaching behaviours specifying where gestures fit under (or evade) predefined classifications. Spontaneous co-musical gestures were observed in the process of piano tuition emerging with similar general communicative purposes as spontaneous co-verbal gestures and were essential for the process of musical communication between teachers and students. Observed frequencies of categorized gestures varied significantly between different teaching behaviours and between the three teachers. Parallels established between co-verbal and co-musical spontaneous gestures lead to an argument for extension of McNeill’s (2005) ideas of imagery–language–dialectic to imagery–music–dialectic with relevant implications for piano pedagogy and fields of study invested in musical communication.
AgrestiA. (2007). Categorical data analysis. New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience.
2.
AlibaliM.KitaS.BigelowL.WolfmanC.KleinS. (2001). Gesture plays a role in thinking for speaking. In CaveC.GuaitellaI.SantiS. (Eds.), Oralite et Gestualite: Interactions et Comportements Multimodaux dans la Communication (pp. 407–410). Paris, France: L’Harmattan.
3.
BakemanR.GottmanJ. (1986). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
4.
BohlmanP. (2000). Ethnomusicology and music sociology. In GreerD. (Ed.), Musicology and sister disciplines (pp. 288–298). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
5.
Boyes BraemP.BraemT. (2004). Expressive gestures used by classical orchestra conductors. In MuellerC.PosnerR. (Eds.), Proceedings of the symposium on the semantics and pragmatics of everyday gestures. Berlin, Germany: Weidler.
6.
CarlinK. (1997). Piano pedagogue perception of teaching effectiveness in the preadolescent elementary level applied piano lesson as a function of teacher behavior (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Indiana University, Bloomington.
7.
ChaffinR.LoganT. (2006). Practicing perfection: How concert soloists prepare for performance. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 2, 113–130.
8.
ClarkeE.DavidsonJ. (1998). The body in performance. In ThomasW. (Ed.), Composition, performance, reception: Studies in the creative process in music (pp. 74–92). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
9.
ClaytonM. (2005). Communication in Indian raga performance. In MiellD.McDonaldR.HargreavesD. (Eds.), Musical communication (pp. 361–381). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
10.
CohenJ. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurements, 20, 37–46.
11.
CookN. (2001). Theorising musical meaning. Music Theory Spectrum, 23(2), 170–195.
12.
CrossI. (2005). Music and meaning, ambiguity and evolution. In MiellD.McDonaldR.HargreavesD. (Eds.), Musical communication (pp. 27–43). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
13.
DahlS.FribergA. (2007). Visual perception of expressiveness in musicians’ body movements. Music Perception, 24, 433–454.
14.
DavidsonJ. (1993). Visual perception of performance manner in the movements of solo musicians. Psychology of Music, 21, 103–13.
15.
DavidsonJ. (1994). What type of information is conveyed in the body movements of solo musician performers?Journal of Human Movement Studies, 6, 279–301.
16.
DavidsonJ. (1995). What does the visual information contained in music performances offer the observer? Some preliminary thoughts. In SteinbergR. (Ed.), The music machine: psychophysiology and psychopathology of the sense of music, (pp. 105–113). Berlin, Germany: Springer Verlag.
17.
DavidsonJ. (2001). The role of the body in the production and perception of solo vocal performance: A case study of Annie Lennox. Musicaie Scientiae, 5(2), 235–236.
18.
DavidsonJ. (2005). Bodily communication in musical performance. In MiellD.McDonaldR.HargreavesD. (Eds.), Musical communication. (pp. 215–237). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
19.
DavidsonJ. (2006). “She’s the One”: Multiple functions of body movement in a stage performance by Robbie Williams. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), Music and gesture (pp. 208–226). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
20.
DavidsonJ. (2007). Qualitative insights into the use of expressive body movements in solo piano performance: A case study approach. Psychology of Music, 35(3), 381–401.
21.
DavidsonJ.CorreiaJ. (2002). Body movement in performance. In ParncuttR.McPhersonG. (Eds.), The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 237–250). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
22.
DavidsonJ.GoodJ. (2002). Social and musical co-ordination between members of a string quartet: An exploratory study. Psychology of Music, 30(2), 186–201.
23.
de FornelM. (1992). The return gesture: Some remarks on context, inference, and iconic gesture. In AuerP.LuzioA. Di (Eds.), The contextualization of language (pp. 159–176). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
DelalandeF. (1988). La gestique de Gould: Elements pour une semiologie du geste Musical. In GuertinG. (Ed.), Glenn Gould Pluriel (pp. 85–111). Quebec, QC: Louise Courteau.
26.
DelalandeF. (1995). Meaning and behavior patterns: The creation of meaning in interpreting and listening to music. In TarastiE. (ed.) Musical signification essays in the semiotic theory and analysis of music (pp. 219–228). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
27.
Dogantan-DackM. (2011). In the beginning was gesture: Piano touch and the phenomenology of the performing body. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), New perspectives on music and gesture (pp. 243–265). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
28.
DuncanS. (1972). Some signals and rules for taking speaking turns in conversations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23(2), 283–292.
29.
DunneJ. (1997). Back to the rough ground: Practical judgment and the lure of technique. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
30.
DurrantC. (1994). Towards an effective communication: A case for structured teaching of conducting. British Journal of Music Education, 11, 56–76.
31.
EfronD. (1972). Gesture, race and culture. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton Press. (Original work published 1941, as Gesture and environment, New York, NY: Kings Crown Press)
32.
ElsdonP. (2006). Listening in the gaze: The body in Keith Jarrett’s solo piano improvisations. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), Music and gesture (pp. 192–207). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
33.
FeldS. (1974). Linguistics and ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology, 18(2), 197–217.
34.
FeyereisenP. (1987). Gestures and speech, interactions and separations. A reply to McNeill1985. Psychological Review, 94(4), 493–498.
35.
GoeblW.PalmerC. (2009). Synchronization of timing and motion among performing musicians. Music Perception, 26, 427–438.
36.
Goldin-MeadowS.AlibaliM. (1985). Mechanisms of transition: Learning with a helping hand. In MedinD. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 117–157). New York, NY: Academic Press.
GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.) (2011). New perspectives on music and gesture. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
39.
HattenR. (1980). Nattiez’s semiology of music: Flaws in the new science. Semiotica, 31(1/2), 139–155.
40.
HattenR. (1994). Musical meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, correlation and interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
41.
HattenR. (2006). A theory of musical gesture and its application to Beethoven and Schubert. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
42.
IshinoM.StamG. (2011). Integrating gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture. In IshinoM.StamG. (Eds.), Integrating gestures (pp. 3–13). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
43.
JenseniusA.WanderleyM.GodoyR.LemanM. (2010). Musical gestures, concepts and methods in research. In GodoyR.LemanM. (Eds.), Musical gestures, sound, movement and meaning (pp. 12–35). New York, NY: Routledge.
44.
Johnson-LairdP. (1988). Freedom and constraint in creativity. In StenbergR. J. (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 202–219). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
45.
KennellR. (2002). Systematic research in studio instruction in music. In ColwellR.RichardsonC. (Eds.), The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 243–256). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
46.
KendonA. (1972). Some relationships between body motion and speech: An analysis of an example. In SiegmanA. W.PopeB. (Eds.), Studies in dyadic communication (pp. 177–210). New York, NY: Pergamon Press.
47.
KendonA. (1980). Gesticulation and speech: Two aspects of the process of utterance. In KeyM. R. (Ed.), The relation between verbal and nonverbal communication. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton.
48.
KuhlO. (2011). The semiotic gesture. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), New perspectives on music and gesture (pp. 123–129). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
49.
KurkulW. (2007). Nonverbal communication in one-to-one music performance instruction. Psychology of Music, 35(2), 327–362.
50.
LausbergH.SloetjesH. (2009). Coding gestural behavior with the Neuroges-Elan System. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 41(3), 841–849. Software available for download at http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/elan/
51.
LemanM. (2010). Music, gesture, and the formation of embodied meaning. In GodoyR.LemanM. (Eds.), Musical gestures, sound, movement, and meaning (pp. 126–153). New York, NY: Routledge.
52.
LemanM.GodoyR. (2010). Why study musical gestures? In GodoyR.LemanM. (Eds.), Musical gestures, sound, movement, and meaning (pp. 3–11). New York, NY: Routledge.
53.
LerdahlF.JackendoffR. (1983). A generative theory of tonal music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
54.
LevasseurS. (1994). Nonverbal communication in the applied voice studio. Dissertation Abstracts International (AAT 9432541).
55.
LuckG. (2011). Computational analysis of conductors’ temporal gestures. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), New perspectives on music and gestures (pp. 159–175). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
56.
McNeillD. (1979). The conceptual basis of language. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
57.
McNeillD. (1981). Action, thought and language. Cognition, 10, 201–208.
58.
McNeillD. (1992). Hand and mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
59.
McNeillD. (2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
60.
Merleau-PontyM. (1945). Phenomenologie de la Perception. Paris, France: Gallimard.
61.
Morrel-SamuelsP.KraussR. (1992). Word familiarity predicts temporal asynchrony of hand gesture and speech. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 18, 615–623.
62.
NattiezJ. (1977). The contribution of musical semiotics to the semiotic in general. In SebeokT. A. (Ed.), A perfusion of signs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
63.
NeuhausH. (1973). The art of piano playing (LeibovitchK. A., Trans.). London, UK: Barrie & Jenkins.
64.
NikolaevA. (Ed.) (1978). The Russian school of piano playing (HarutyunyanN.HughesM., Trans.). London, UK: Boosey & Hawkes.
65.
OveryK.Molnar-SzakacsI. (2009). Being together in time: Musical experience and the mirror neuron system. Music Perception, 26(5), 489–504.
PoggiI. (2001). “The lexicon of the Conductor’s Face”. In McKevittP.NuallàinS.MulvihillC. (Eds.), Language, vision and music. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
68.
PoggiI. (2007). Mind, hands, face and body. A goal and belief view of multimodal communication. Berlin, Germany: Weidler.
69.
PoggiI. (2011). Music and leadership: The choir conductor’s multimodal communication. In StamG.IshinoM. (Eds.), Integrating gestures (pp. 341–353). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
70.
PriceH.WinterS. (1981). Effect of strict and expressive conducting on performances and opinions of eight-grade band students. Journal of Band Research, 27, 30–43.
71.
RahaimM. (2008). Gesture and melody in Indian vocal music. Gesture, 8(3), 325–347.
72.
RizzolattiG.ArbibM. (1998). Language within our grasp. Trends in Neuroscience, 21(5), 188–194.
73.
TolbertE. (2001). Music and meaning: An evolutionary story. Psychology of Music, 29, 84–94.
74.
TrevarthenC. (1999). Musicality and the intrinsic motive pulse: Evidence from human psychobiology and infant communication. Musicae Scientiae, Special Issue, 155–251.
75.
VygotskyL. (1978). Mind in society (ColeM.John-SteinerV.ScribnerS.SoubermanE., Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
76.
WanderleyM.VinesB. (2006). Origins and functions of clarinettists ancillary gestures. In GrittenA.KingE. (Eds.), Music and gesture (pp. 165–191). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
77.
WangW. (2001). Verbal versus non-verbal communication in music performance instruction. Contributions to Music Education, 28(1), 41–60.
78.
WöllnerC. (2008). Which part of the conductor’s body conveys most expressive information? A spatial occlusion approach. Musicae Scientiae, 12(2), 249–272.
79.
WilliamonA.DavidsonJ. (2002). Exploring co-performer communication. Musicae Scientiae, 6, 53–72.
80.
YarbroughC. (1975). Effect of magnitude of conductor behaviour on students in mixed choruses. Journal of Research in Music Education, 23, 134–146.
81.
ZhukovK. (2004). Teaching styles and student behaviour in instrumental music lessons in Australian Conservatoriums (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
