Team teaching.(In Unison)

"Two teachers may jointly enter a duet team. Both teachers must be listed on the application and must pay current active MTNA dues or the Nonmember Teacher Entry Fee."

These two sentences are the second bullet in the rules and regulations for our new 2007-2008 MTNA Competition for Senior Piano Duet, one-Piano/Four Hands.

We expect that most duet teams will come from the same studio, but having the possibility of a duet team coming from two different studios may be one of the most positive pedagogical outcomes of our new competition. The concept of team teaching has been a part of public educational philosophy for many years and is also practiced, in various forms, by some independent music teachers. I would like to encourage more MTNA members to take advantage of the benefits that come from joining with other teachers in pursuit of pedagogical objectives. Bringing teachers together is what MTNA does best.

The most common form of team teaching is sharing our students with an artist teacher in a master class. The future may be a master class using Internet2. The bandwidth of Internet2 allows for real-time bi-directional, full-motion, broadcast-quality video on a television monitor with CD-quality stereo audio. This technology allows for the use of videoconferencing for music teaching. Think of the present and future possibilities: your pre-college student could take a lesson from a music professor 600 miles away and even audition for college scholarships and program admittance without leaving his or her hometown.

A more accessible and practical form of team teaching would be to exchange master classes with an independent music teacher colleague. Additional perspectives might be especially useful before a student competition, recital or audition. To do this would require mutual respect, shared goals and a unique combination of humility and self-confidence. I propose the experience could be both enlightening and confirming.

Another form of the traditional master class concept might be labeled "interactive team teaching." I recently walked past my colleague John Salmon's studio door and saw an intriguing invitation. In large Print were the words "Haydn Seek." Under these words was the invitation to attend a lesson in Andrew Willis's studio Friday at 1:00 P.M. Lis Malcolm, a senior student of John Salmon's, would be playing a Haydn Sonata and Professors Salmon and Willis would be coaching Lis on performance practice issues. Luckily, my schedule allowed me to attend. Lis performed and asked questions and the professors expounded, agreed and disagreed about the realization of ornaments, the use of the pedal, issues of articulation, different editions and historical instruments. ...