Directing a Choir: A Behaviorist, Cognitive and Situated Teaching Activity

A choral conductor’s task is immense: he must take a large group of people with disparate learning styles and musical abilities, have them read ink dots on staves with words beneath, translate what they read to sound that contains pitch, timbre, rhythm and expression, and join their individual sounds into one sound that not only make sense, but that can stir hearts and minds. He must find many ways to teach his singers; he must have strong grasp of learning theory.

After watching Stephen Sano conduct a rehearsal (as well as singing with him in the University Singers), it is clear that he uses methods that span a broad spectrum of learning theory, methods that might be applauded by a behaviorist, a cognitivist and a supporter of situated learning. Elements from all three schools are needed owing to the enormity of the task, the number of skills necessary to impart, the diversity among the learners, and the need for a credible, even moving, final product.

Behaviorism, on its surface, seems far too mechanistic a theory of learning to be applicable to Mozart or Mendelssohn. Behaviorist teaching and learning, however, forms some of what skilled conductors do. In its simplest terms, behaviorism, according to Robert Gagné, deals with an input, an output, and a functioning entity in between. The input is a stimulus situation, the output is a response that produces an identifiable product. The behaviorist model is characterized by the learner being presented with discrete sets of skills, arranged in careful order, from easily grasped to more complex, leading to more complex levels of skills. Gagné posits eight levels of learning activities; they range from simple stimulus and response to higher-order learning, i.e. concept learning, rule learning and problem solving. Skills of all these levels are present in most choral activity.

Extensive warm-up exercises at the beginning of each rehearsal, which train the mind and the voice, but have no immediate relationship with the music to be rehearsed during that session, are a good example of this school’s impact on music conducting. While Mendelssohn’s Elijah does not require the chorister to yawn, or trill the lips at length, or say mee-meh-mah-moh-muu, each of those skills helps Elijah to sound better when rehearsed and performed. And as a group improves in those skills, they are enfolded in more challenging warm-ups as the choir matures together. Having a choir take a particularly challenging fugal portion of the Mozart Requiem and sing each note on du, rather than on the words (Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison), in order to properly sing and hear the intricate rhythms and note changes, then go to the real text when the dus are mastered, is another explicit example of behavioristic teaching.

One of the key skills for a choir is watching and responding to the lead of the conductor. Exercises in which the conductor uses specific gestures to elicit, for example, rhythmic clapping from the choir, train the choir not only in rhythm but in following the conductor’s lead. Some of singing is thinking; much of singing in a group is training, and a behaviorist approach can be effective in instilling that training. Habits are instilled, simpler works can give way to more complex works, and some of the process can be automatized, so that more work can be done on expression and interpretation. Behaviorism, as mechanistic as it may seem, has its place in the repertoire of choral teaching and learning.

Yet, there is, of course, more to singing than training. A choir needs to think; a choir needs to have a mental model of where it’s going. According to Case and Bereiter (1984), the basic elements of the cognitive approach to learning consist of: identifying the task to be taught and developing a measure for assessing success; diagnosing the strategy that experts use for succeeding at this task; diagnosing the strategy used by novices or those who fail at the task; designing a paradigm for showing the learner why their current strategy is inadequate and for enabling them to assemble a more powerful one; minimizing the working memory load of the instructional program; providing sufficient practice at each step.

Creating a mental, or conceptual, model is critical in the cognitivists’ point of view (Case and Bereiter, 1984). A choral conductor as good at communicating as Stephen Sano does this frequently. One way at imparting an entire mental model is to recommend several recordings of the work being studied and rehearsed. This enables the singer to understand where each movement fits in the whole, where the flow of the work is heading, and to understand the meaning of the larger context. (When working on the Lacrymosa in the Mozart Requiem, it is important to hear it as following the inflamed and troubled and somewhat schizophrenic Confutatis Maledictis to fully appreciate its place, which is not generally possible in the usual rehearsal.)

A good conductor is frequently verbally creating a larger conceptual model of a work for the choir. Stephen Sano frequently takes a quick aside to discuss the time, the place, the character of the composer, the meaning of particular lyrics; all of these help the choir to create a clearer mental image of the work being performed. The work begins to take root in each choir member’s mind; it becomes no longer a work outside the mind to be mastered. The work becomes more than a series of responses to particular stimuli; it becomes a living part of each singer’s conscious thought. The good director, true to cognitive theory, develops an approach that fits the choir with whom he or she is working, develops a teaching strategy that challenges them but that doesn’t overtax the choristers’ powers of working memory.

Finally, a good conductor must work in the model of situativity. Choral singing is, at its essence, individual effort in a social setting. Each member must have a clear understanding of the work and of his or her part, but be subsumed, unite with, and learn from, the singers around him or her. A conductor frequently reminds (or implores) his singers to listen to the other parts, to what’s going on around them.

Learning occurs, according to the situative model, always in a social setting (Greeno, 1998). In a choir this is particularly true. One tenor will listen to another’s rendition of a particular passage in order to improve his. The conductor will ask the altos to perform a passage that they do well, so that the other parts can hear their interpretation. An errant bass will hear the correct rhythm of a passage from the sopranos, and incorporate it into his performance.

Most importantly, situative thinkers place an importance on the creation of a community of practice. Students studying science should not just read books, they should do what scientists do. Nowhere is this more faithfully carried out than in an amateur choir. The director is constantly modeling, instructing, reminding the members how to sing, think and act; individual members do so to one another. While the amateur choir’s musical ability may not be as great as a professional choir’s, their rehearsal ethos, their zeal for expressive interpretation, their desire for a good performance may be just as great.

Finally, situative thinkers desire for the learner an authentic demonstration of what has been learned. Memorial Church, with a full orchestra, and a paid audience of 600 eager listeners provides just that. This is no mere recitation for the teacher; it is incorporating notes, text, rhythm, precision, feeling and intellect in an electric atmosphere. The conductor and teacher is being assessed just as much as his charges.

The gifted conductor must be principled with respect to learning theory, but he or she cannot be a slave to one ideal. Elements from behaviorism, a cognitive approach and situativity can and should be a part of an effective conductor’s repertoire of teaching strategies.

Bibliography

Case, R. and Bereiter, C. (1984) From behaviourism to cognitive behaviourism to cognitive development: Steps in the evolution of instructional design. Instructional Science, 13.

Greeno, J.G. (1998). The situativity of knowing, learning, and research. American Psychologist, 53.

Gagné, R.M. (1970) Varieties of Learning. In Conditions of Learning, second edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Gagné, R.M. (1970) Learning Hierarchies. In Conditions of Learning, second edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.