The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of viewing model performances, which were posted on the Internet, on the expressive performance of young piano students.
Participants (N = 43) had a mean age of 9.88 years and a mean of 2.86 years of piano study.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, either an expressive video performance viewing condition or a static (inexpressive) video performance viewing condition, and were given the appropriate piece to learn by their respective piano teachers (N = 17). After a two-week participation period, recordings were made of participant performances. These recordings were evaluated by a panel of three expert judges, who issued rating scores using a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7. Judges were asked to assign separate rating scores for expression and technique. Resultant scores were examined to determine whether a difference existed between video model conditions. Three factors also examined were the participants' gender, age, and years of piano study. Participants in the expressive video condition received higher rating scores for expression than the participants in the static video condition, but received lower scores for technique, which resulted in a significant interaction, F (1, 41) = 6.79, p < .05, partial eta squared = .14. A plausible explanation is that the students in the static video condition were better able to imitate their assigned video model performances, and that successful imitation might have contributed to performances that were superior in elements such as rhythmic continuity and steadiness, but lacking in expressive qualities. While gender appeared to have had no effect on rating scores, the participants' age and years of piano study seemed to influence their ability to successfully imitate the expressive model. Although the magnitude of the effect of the video model condition on the expression and technique scores was not large, observations are made about the possible relevance of these results to the teaching and learning of expressive music performance.
