08 Assessment in Music

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
IN MUSIC PERFORMANCE
Dr. Christopher Schaub

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
“95% of people get over their fears by facing them. The

other 5% should find something else to do.”
My Transfer:
Create situations for your students to perform (for
audience, friends, parents, dogs, recordings). J
BACKGROUND VOCABULARY 1
Assessment – the measurement of a learner’s performance.

8/10 correct notes on the sight reading (assessment)
Evaluation – describes the learner’s performance in relation to other

learners or according to a grading scale or system.
8/10 = “Good” or a B grade (evaluation)
The great challenge for music teachers is assessment, not evaluation.

Also, most music teachers don’t know the difference between these 2 words! J
BACKGROUND VOCABULARY 2
Aesthetics – the study of beauty.
Subjective – ideas based on opinion. Mozart is the best composer of all

time.
Objective – ideas based on fact. Many consider Mozart to be the best

composer of all time.
Do you think the study of Aesthetics is subjective or objective? J

WHAT IS MUSIC?
“The organization of sound in time.”
“The art of sound.”
“The artful organization of sound in time”
Which of these 2 can be measured?

Organization can be measured J
ASSESSING MUSIC 1
• Music is an art form and assessing performance must be in some ways

subjective (based on opinion).
• Music has mathematical properties (rhythm, tuning, etc.) that are easy to
see objectively.
• Playing music also has specific behaviors that probably should be correct
(posture, etc.). Music also has a history, so we can compare performance to
past traditions.
• The main goal of assessment in music is to “objectify” the art of music, or
to make it more like fact instead of opinion.
Why is this necessary?
To be clear and fair J
ASSESSING MUSIC 2
• The main goal of assessment in music is to make it as

“objective” as possible.
• To do this we first need to think about how to “assess” a music
performance. What do we hear? What do we see?
• We do this by assessing “very specific sound qualities” and also
“very specific behaviors.”
• We obviously need to assess both, but should prioritize sound
qualities, especially for older students. J
BASSOON TONE SKILL - BEHAVIORS
Behaviors (what do you see?)

• Open throat
• Relaxed embouchure (mouth position)
• Correct reed placement in mouth
• Good breath in (a lot)
• Good air out (a lot)
• Use vibrato
Can we observe all these behaviors?
Possible, but only talk about it to students when necessary (use imitation) J
BASSOON TONE SKILL – SOUND QUALITY
Specific Sound Quality (what do you hear?)

• The sound is full (supported enough).
• Sound has low, medium, and high overtones in the sound.
• The tone is not too bright or dark.
• The tone quality has a good core.
• The tone quality matches the correct style of the piece (i.e. Baroque)
Can we observe all these factors?

Of course, but they are all very subjective J
ASSESSING MUSIC 3 – PAST EXPERIENCE
People give different assessment of a music performance.

This is based on their past experiences as well as music abilities.
For example, a teacher that can play in tune and hear in tune will
know if their student is out of tune. The keywords here are
preference and sensitivity.
Preference – what you prefer to observe
Sensitivity – what you are able to observe J
ASSESSING MUSIC 4 – OBSERVATION
SKILLS
Ability to observe is also an important skill. Some teachers can
see everything that happens in a room while others seem to not
see students at all.
It is important because instruction should be changed
constantly based on the needs of the students…. If you know
what their needs are.
Because of this, assessment should be a part of every class,
lesson, or rehearsal, at every minute.
This can be learned. Start by really observing students in
lessons. J
OBSERVING COMPONENT PARTS
It is necessary to be able to breakdown a skill into component parts. These skills are
explained in a rubric.
Rubric – a scoring guide for student work.
What is important to assess in scales?
A well-performed scale begins with a nice first note, every note is played with
perfect note connection, there is a perfect-length half-note at the end of the
exercise, the dynamic doesn’t change and the final note ends well.
It is definitely better to look at the whole picture of a music performance, but in
order to grade it, we must break it down into smaller parts J
ABRSM PERFORMANCE RUBRIC
SUMMARY
Music performance instructors should be able to objectively* assess their

student’s playing. This is necessary to be clear and fair.
To do this we must create rubrics:
Decide what skills students are expected to demonstrate. Be specific. (this is assessment)
Explain these skills in various levels, for example 1234 or ABCD. (this is evaluation)
Share this with your students.
Use this when assessing/evaluating.
Assessing music performance has issues:

Giving feedback from assessment is not related to natural learning process (imitation).
It is diffiult to measure many important aspects of playing.
It is impossible to measure other important aspects of playing.
It is possible to disagree about something that is easy to measure, like tuning. J
HOMEWORK
Read the article by Joe Bowman and write a transfer.

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ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

Dr. Christopher Schaub

“95% of people get over their fears by facing them. The

Assessment – the measurement of a learner’s performance.

Evaluation – describes the learner’s performance in relation to other

The great challenge for music teachers is assessment, not evaluation.

Aesthetics – the study of beauty.

Subjective – ideas based on opinion. Mozart is the best composer of all

Objective – ideas based on fact. Many consider Mozart to be the best

Do you think the study of Aesthetics is subjective or objective? J

“The organization of sound in time.”

“The art of sound.”

“The artful organization of sound in time”

Which of these 2 can be measured?

• Music is an art form and assessing performance must be in some ways

• The main goal of assessment in music is to make it as

Behaviors (what do you see?)

Specific Sound Quality (what do you hear?)

Can we observe all these factors?

People give different assessment of a music performance.

Rubric – a scoring guide for student work.

What is important to assess in scales?

Music performance instructors should be able to objectively* assess their

Assessing music performance has issues:

Read the article by Joe Bowman and write a transfer.

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