Effects of Applied Saxophone Pedagogy on performance skills and musical creativity among music education students in Chinese normal universities

Abstract

Applied Saxophone Pedagogy (ASP) is an educational approach that combines technical training, repertoire study, performance practice, assessment, evaluation, performance reflection, and creative practice in the process of teaching the saxophone. This study aimed to examine the impact of ASP on applied skills in performance and musical creativity of undergraduate music education students enrolled in a normal university in Jiangsu Province, China. The quasi-experimental pretest-posttest-follow-up design was adopted. One hundred undergraduate music education students from a normal university in Jiangsu Province, China, participated in the experiment and were divided into an experimental group (n = 50) and a control group (n = 50). Participants in the experimental group undertook a 16-week ASP treatment, whereas participants in the control group had traditional saxophone lessons. The data regarding applied skills in performance and musical creativity were measured before the treatment, after the treatment, and four weeks post-treatment. Linear mixed-effects modeling was conducted to evaluate differences in the change between the two groups over the three measurement periods. The findings revealed that participants who engaged in ASP showed larger improvement in applied skills in performance and musical creativity than the participants in the control group. It could be inferred that technical-musical competence and creative performance ability can be improved by incorporating technical training with repertoire performance and guided improvisation exercises.