A Phenomenographic Study of UEW Music Students’ Conceptions of Musicianship Course: A Case of Sophomore Class

 Augusta Arko-Mensah, Veronica Agyeiwaah (2023)

The paper was a result of a phenomenographic study which sought to identify a number of conceptions of a Musicianship course among level 200 students pursuing Bachelor of Arts, Music Education, at the University of Education, Winneba in individual interviews of a sample size of 20. The study was premised on the fact that students have diverse understanding of the musicianship course thereby affecting its significance on their general musical practice. These conceptions were grouped into four categories related to the students’ preferred explanations for Musicianship. (a) the ability to play or perform by hearing (b) performing in an ensemble work (c) gaining mastery in reading at sight (d) transcription of musical pitches or sound from audio or video recordings into notation. Using the concept of integrated music learning’ and improvisation as the framework, the findings from this study raised two critical but general issues regarding Musicianship learning. The first of these is the critical role played by students in their everyday practice to acquire the necessary skills for understanding and interpreting concepts in the Musicianship course. A second issue is the tendency for students to extend their understanding and interpretation of concepts in the Musicianship course to actual performance of their major and minor instruments. This study argues that an understanding of the Musicianship phenomenon by students should form an integral component of the teaching of the course, both as points of origin for lesson planning and for the development of curricular materials. It is envisaged that the results of the study facilitate a better understanding of student’s learning of the Musicianship course as part of their training as music educators while it gives further direction to teachers of the course to use the integrated approach to help students acquire the necessary skills in the course.