‘I Feel like a Whole Musician’: Experiences of Dalcroze Teachers Using their Non-Piano Primary Instrument in Dalcroze Training and Teaching

The piano is the traditional tool of the Dalcroze teacher, and in many parts of the English-speaking world it remains rare to encounter a Dalcroze class led from any other instrument. As a clarinettist, I am naturally drawn to explore ways in which Dalcroze can be taught from my primary instrument. Using qualitative interviewing and inductive coding, this project explored the experiences of 8 qualified Dalcroze teachers, who are not primary pianists, to their training and teaching practice. Two themes emerged: the concept of feeling like a whole musician through playing a primary instrument, and the concept that good musicians can inspire musical movement regardless of their instrument. These themes are discussed through the educational framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL framework examines how culture, identity, educator-student relationships and bias may provide barriers to learning, with the aim of designing learning environments that remove such barriers. The voices heard through these interviews invite those of us in piano-focussed Dalcroze training centres to reimagine who can be a Dalcroze teacher. The UDL framework, which emphasises firm goals, flexible means, may be a useful tool for the development of advanced training programs that nurture Dalcrozians from diverse instrumental backgrounds.