LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC Content Analysis of Guitar Repertoire for Young People: The Michelson and Suzuki Collections A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Music in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Music Education by Brian Douglas Berlin Lynchburg, Virginia April 2021 Copyright © 2021 Brian Douglas Berlin 1 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC Content Analysis of Guitar Repertoire for Young People: The Michelson and Suzuki Collections A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Music in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Music Education by Brian Douglas Berlin Lynchburg, Virginia April 2021 APPROVED BY: Mindy Damon, Ed.D., Committee Chair Michael Brennan, D.M., Committee Member Stephen Müller, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Music 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my committee chair, Dr. Mindy Damon, for her mentorship and guidance on this project. Likewise, I would like to thank Dr. Michael Brennan for his keen eye and insightful comments. I am indebted to Sonia Michelson for sharing her insights and curriculum library. It is with the deepest appreciation that I acknowledge the contributions of Andrea Cannon, MaryLou Roberts, and Bill Swick who freely gave their time in consultation for this work. I am thankful for Kim Berlin’s editorial suggestions. Finally, I would like to recognize the innumerable hours that Martha Berlin invested in this project. Her enthusiasm for the editorial process, the subject matter, and my academic growth helped bring this project to fruition. 3 ABSTRACT The guitar is a popular instrument choice in music education; however, most school guitar teachers in the United States neither majored on the instrument nor took a university guitar methods class. These self-taught teachers often rely on trial and error to select repertoire. Effective music curriculum design relies on teachers’ ability to select and sequence proper repertoire based on student ability. Through exploration of the existing literature, deficiencies were found in guitar teacher training, pedagogy for young guitar students, and repertoire evaluation. In this study, the author analyzed two collections of printed guitar music in standard notation. The analysis yielded an improved understanding of how an emerging metric, note-to- beat ratio, can help teachers assess the musical challenges in repertoire more effectively. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study focuses on the prediction of the relative difficulty of guitar music based on note density. Elements for each piece in the Suzuki Guitar School repertoire and Sonia Michelson’s New Dimensions in Classical Guitar for Children were analyzed to determine if useful predictive patterns exist. This study may inform and lead guitar teachers toward the selection of appropriate music for guitar teaching. It also serves as a proof of concept that a type of analysis previously used for keyboard repertoire applies to classical guitar repertoire. The study may encourage further research by those wishing to apply this analytical method to repertoire for other instruments. 4 CONTENTS List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................6 List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................9 Background ..........................................................................................................................9 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................................11 Statement of the Purpose ...................................................................................................12 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................12 Research Questions ............................................................................................................14 Core Concepts ....................................................................................................................15 Definition of Terms............................................................................................................16 Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................19 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................21 Introduction ........................................................................................................................21 Section I: The State of Guitar Education ...........................................................................21 Section II: Selecting Repertoire ........................................................................................41 Section III: Grading and Sequencing Repertoire ..............................................................50 Literature Review Summary ..............................................................................................68 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS ..................................................................................................69 Introduction ........................................................................................................................69 Design ................................................................................................................................70 Questions and Hypotheses .................................................................................................71 Identification of the Variables ...........................................................................................72 Instrumentation ..................................................................................................................73 Procedure ...........................................................................................................................75 Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................76 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS ...............................................................................78 Findings by Collection .......................................................................................................78 Findings from the Michelson Collection by Level ............................................................79 New Dimensions in Classical Guitar, Level I .......................................................79 New Dimensions in Classical Guitar, Level II ......................................................80 New Dimensions in Classical Guitar, Level III .....................................................81 New Dimensions in Classical Guitar, Level IV.....................................................83 New Dimensions in Classical Guitar, Level V ......................................................84 Summary Analysis of New Dimensions in Classical Guitar Data ........................86 Findings from the Suzuki Collection by Volume ..............................................................86 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 1 ............................................................................86 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 2 ............................................................................88 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 3 ............................................................................91 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 4 ............................................................................92 5 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 5 ............................................................................94 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 6 ............................................................................95 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 7 ............................................................................96 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 8 ............................................................................97 Suzuki Guitar School, Volume 9 ............................................................................98 Summary Analysis of Suzuki Guitar School Data .................................................99 Summary of Findings .........................................................................................................99 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION..............................................................................................101 Summary of the Study .....................................................................................................101 Summary of the Purpose ..................................................................................................101 Summary of the Procedure...............................................................................................101 Summary of the Prior Research and Findings .................................................................102 Limitations .......................................................................................................................104 Recommendations for Future Study ................................................................................107 Implications for Practice ..................................................................................................109