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Abstract
In this study, I set out to examine the pedagogical backgrounds, philosophies, and practices of piano pedagogues who teach popular music in private lessons. The first goal was to understand how their formative musical experiences and education led them to teaching popular music and influenced their pedagogical practices. The second objective was to observe how and what these teachers taught when they taught popular music, and how these pedagogies and curricula departed from their classical pedagogy. In pursuit of this understanding, I developed five case studies consisting of two interviews with the teachers, two lesson observations, and document review of any curricula or lesson plans they use. The cross-case analysis unearthed two primary pathways that took the teachers to popular music: 1) for independent enjoyment, and 2) for functional purposes, such as playing for weddings or teaching students. When teaching popular music, the teachers departed from their teacher-driven classical pedagogies towards a collaborative, student-centered model. This student-centeredness impacted both the repertoire selection and how they learned the music. While the teachers were theoretically open to working with any popular music, they emphasized skills used primarily in western popular music, such as reading lead sheets, chord charts, and arranging. Because all the teachers were exclusively classically trained both musically and pedagogically, working in popular music was occasionally fraught. Teachers either worked to reconcile their classical and popular pedagogical differences, neglected popular music at times in favor of classical music, or employed strategies from both pedagogies to accommodate the student. These case studies can serve as pedagogical models or foundations for further research in how popular music is taught in individual instruction.
