Assessment of guitar performance with the electric guitar amps can be a daunting task for the uninitiated. The practice of taking a subjective phenomenon and evaluating it in objective terms can seem to be one of those “where do I begin?” types of situations. Fortunately, when it comes to the guitar, assessment of musical performance is really no different than most other instruments. What can help is to focus on a few basic tenets of solid assessment practice.
Validity
First assess only what you have taught. This is the simple notion behind the concept of validity in measurement and evaluation. This actually means that if you spent a week on creating a clear tone for every note, then the assessment should not include how rhythmically accurate the performance was. Instead, the grade should be based on the clarity of the tone and the components that help to achieve the task. For the instructor, this can help to focus your attention on the performance aspect being evaluated. Therefore, the measurement portion of the lesson should be planned alongside the lesson content, there is no need to confound or create noise around what you are trying to communicate to your student through the assessment of their performance.
Communication
Communicate to your students what you are covering and what aspect(s) they will be evaluated upon and when. By preparing students with the topic and time frame, it allows them to focus on the development of the desired components of their performance. Communication also entails clarifying your expectations for the task. Clear communication is one of the key components of effective informal assessment. For example, rather than just saying, “Good” or “Do it again” after a student performs a task, communicate why the performance was good, poor, or otherwise.
Establishing Expectations
Be sure to measure students according to whether or not they have met requirements for the task. I know this sounds simple, but this essentially means requirements/expectations should be established during the planning stages of the lesson – before the task is performed. Teachers should define aspects of three types of performances: (1) Performances that meet desired expectations, (2) Performances that meet minimum expectations, and (3) Performances that exceed expectations. Establishing these definitions will take some of the guess work out the process. Communicating these expectations to students beforehand can help them understand how much practice and preparation they need on a given musical task.
Grading Philosophy
I find this to be useful: Measure to communicate, grade to motivate. This means to use the performance evaluation to communicate the authentic achievement to the student. Comments can be directed specifically towards what was correct and what can be done to improve the task. When issuing the grade, the actual grade given does not necessarily need to be reflective of an A,B,C,D, F grading scale. Rather, performances could be scored on a scale of 1 to 4. The teacher could define that a 4 receives an “A+”, a 3 receives an “A”, a 2 receives a “B”, and a 1 receives a “C”. This allows for honest communication of achievement without the demotivating messages a failing grade communicate.
Brian Russell currently serves as the Director of Contemporary Guitar studies for the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music program at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.