The Effectiveness of Ghanaian Basic School Band Directors’ Rehearsal Strategies on Students’ Performance

 John-Doe Dordzro (2024)

There has been a concern about the quality and depth of the musical outputs resulting from participation in school instrumental music programmes. In Ghana, the focus is on the level of technical ability exhibited by students and the extent to which instructors assist students in developing acceptable technical control over their musical instruments. Unfortunately, no study has been done in this area in Ghana. Employing a mixed method design with a sample of 10 Basic School Bands, the present study examines the impact of the two teaching strategies revealed in Dordzro (2021) (rote and staff notation methods), on students’ performance in terms of playing proficiency. Analysis of codes generated from videotapes of rehearsal sessions, field notes, and interviews revealed that teacher-directed instructional technique was the most utilised instructional strategy. Out of the ten bands, only two bands’ performance scores fell within the ‘average’ mark for tone/intonation. Four bands performed averagely well on technique and all ten bands performed ‘poorly’ on interpretation. There was a significant difference between the rehearsal strategies employed and students’ performance. There was also a strong positive relationship between performance scores and rehearsal observation scores.