Os efeitos de estudos formais associados ao recurso didático da gravação na prática de bateristas populares.

Abstract

Popular musicians usually learn their instrument by ear, on their own and taking part of musical groups formed by mutual friends. Nowadays, they have also been seeking for formal education to enhance their knowledge and be more certified. Similarly, the formal spaces to learn music are changing as new courses are being created to supply this demand of new musicians. In this way, this study used the research methodology ‘action research’ to investigate how formal classes that use audio and video recordings affect the skills of popular drummers. The first three chapters of this work compose a bibliographic research that address, respectively, the popular musician, the drums as their musical instrument, and the recording technology. The approach action research was used in a process followed by a cycle so that the researcher could intervene in a practice, with the intention of change. Two participants who did not have any previous formal study were chosen and interviewed to understand what were their opinions about the formal study of the instrument, on the use of recording technology in a pedagogical form, and how were their careers as drummers. Then, four performance observations were done with each participant, assessing their practices in their musical style. A syllabus containing 12 classes was designed from the analysis of these data and a corresponding course was held between September 2013 and April 2014. These private lessons contained topics that are usually present in both formal and informal spaces of musical education. Another learning resource used was make recordings, which is usually regarded as a self-learning music. A period of five months after the interventions was required to seamlessly incorporate studies in the practices of the participants. After this, four more observations were performed with each participant to look for any signs of change. Although they demonstrated some possible effects from studies conducted in private lessons, the observations could not make it clear that these changes were only due to the process carried out in the action step. The changes were clearer after a final interview, which brought about the improvement of self-observation and self-criticism of the two drummers. Furthermore, the positive effects on the perception of “vices” that they carry and also how important was recording as means to learn how to play the drums. It was concluded that the formal studies that have been associated with previous knowledge of these two drummers brought new rhythmic phrases to their repertoires and perfected their ways of playing the instrument.