“Note Grouping: Creating a GPS for a Musical Performance” focuses on note grouping concepts of Marcel Tabuteau and David McGill. Musical examples are given to the listener to identify musical nouns and verbs.
Once the listeners have tuned their ears to the grammar of the musical line, the examples being to explore different grouping options and the strengths of each. This portion of the lecture shows students how they can begin to explore their “own interpretation” and have a rationale for their musical decisions.
When applying these concepts to solo works or orchestral excerpts, the students are able to be more engaged with their performance, as they are constantly thinking about the next grouping of notes and have little time to dwell on a mistake that has just occurred. An additional benefit of this lecture is that students begin to apply these concepts when given simple sight-reading and can immediately spot the grammar of the musical language.