Studying the trends of modern musical culture in order to increase the competence of future vocal teachers

Chzhan Yinran Trainee Assistant, Department of Solo Singing, St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov 190000, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Theatre Square, 2 909341462@qq.com

Introduction

The relevance of this research is determined by the fact that modern students who receive a vocals teacher's specialty, willy-nilly, must at least superficially orient themselves in all the variety of varieties of modern musical culture, even if at times its specific forms come into dangerous contact with kitsch, lack of culture or even anti-culture. One of the tasks of the neophytes is just the same – to learn how to separate the "grain from the chaff", and subsequently, when applying for a pedagogical job according to a pre-formed profile, to teach the appropriate skills of reasonable filtering of information flows and others, already their immediate wards. This specificity of professional training is partly covered in the works of such authors as A.V. Klabukova, Yu.A. Kustov, Yu.A. Livshits, L.Yu. Monakhova, S.V. Statsuk, I.V. Shintyapin, etc., however, it requires specialized, more detailed study. The purpose of this article is to highlight the role and importance of competencies related to the study of trends in modern musical culture in the structure of professional competence of a vocal teacher. To this end, the importance of this component of specialist training is described, its relationship with other components, as well as the role of factors (in particular, of a technological nature) that affect the success of this specialist is explained.

The structure of a vocal teacher's competence

According to researchers L.Yu. Monakhova and E.A. Ryabokon, the professionalism of a teacher is traditionally formed in the minds of Russians from such types of activities as subject-methodical and psychological-pedagogical; however, the post-industrial / information stage of the development of society confronts representatives of this sphere of employment with the need for active and dynamic development and such a structural component of professionalism as information andcommunicative ^[1]. The high level of information competence of each specific modern teacher not only provides him with certain competitive advantages in the labor market, but also is a symbolic guarantee of success in the responsible business of communicating with new young and younger generations, as well as the necessary interest in his personality (and, accordingly, the desire to study under his understanding guidance more diligently) on the part of the students.

Other researchers – Yu.A. Kustov, Yu.A. Livshits, S.V. Statsuk – focus on the importance of such components of a modern person's competence as socio-informational (more or less fluency in popular information technologies and a critical, rather than blindly trusting attitude to the information replicated by the media) and cognitive (readiness for permanent improvement of their educational level level, the ability to independently acquire new knowledge and skills)^[2]; which is also difficult to disagree with.

Actively developed by various representatives of modern business and coaching, the concept of "trend" is quite applicable to the subsphere of musical culture, since it has a broader meaning than financial or purely commercial. As researcher M.O. Skivko notes, it is advisable to understand a trend as one or another trend that more or less significantly affects the basic lifestyles of representatives of modern society, the methods and methods of their socio-cultural communications, the specifics of scientific and technological progress, as well as to a large extent the state of the political and economic spheres of society. In addition to this basic meaning, with the help of the concept of "trend", the parties interested in it are able to designate key properties, the order of significant transformations and the general state of a particular pattern ^[3].

Trends of modern musical culture can represent the most popular musical genres (both in their "pure", initially formed form, and in later eclectic versions), trends, specific stylistics recognizable by the masses of people, as well as cults of specific performers, themes, ideological and semantic and artistic-figurative paradigms.

In order to prepare a worthy artist, regardless of which genre of performance he chooses later, it is necessary to take into account the fact that any performer in a certain sense performs the role of a translator in relation to the artistic intent of each particular work; whether it is a vocal part, a certain dramatic fragment, a dance or a musical instrumental work. As noted by A.V. Klabukova, the full development of the performing skills of each artist integrates into the structure of his training the study of effective at the moment techniques of performance, actual methods of more or less deep emotional impact on the public, certain methods of self-control and stress resistance in the process of performing various works, as well as the acquisition of his unique individuality ^[4].

However, all of the above is in principle impossible without an educational and general life interest in the socio-cultural environment that has already been formed before the active intervention of each student who claims to become a professional vocalist later. Understanding and feeling who you are and what your unique sides are comes as you recognize yourself, the intentions of your soul in the current trends of modern culture, which is still more or less actively developing, despite the numerous degenerative processes launched by the bigwigs of show business. As noted by I.A. Voitik, to cut off excess among the learned musical and other material and choose exactly those paradigms without which one's own performance seems unthinkable – these are the key tasks that, among others, a vocal teacher needs to target his wards ^[5]. The modern variety of trends is too huge to relax once again and allow yourself to be incompetent.

Studying the trends of musical culture as an integral element of professional competence

Experimental studies by A.V. Klabukova have shown that most modern students do not even need to be convinced in any special way of the usefulness and necessity of studying the trends of musical culture, since they have already formed certain tastes and preferences, and, as a rule, there are various favorite authors and performers from both the classical vocal repertoire and from the modern socio-cultural environment. In view of this nuance, it seems quite natural that the students interviewed by this researcher almost unanimously noted the fundamental importance of conducting additional classes in order to improve their competence, including with an eye to their own further pedagogical activity ^[6]. Among the most significant, in their opinion, elements of professional training, respondents identified such as

1) singing to an accompaniment that is characteristic of the genre or direction that they most understand and are spiritually close to;

2) collective and individual systematic learning of arias from musicals;

3) vocal and instrumental music making (both individually and collectively) based on fragments from the works of the most influential representatives of modern musical culture (within the framework of those classroom hours that are appropriate and do not harm the main program of their training) ^[7].

Knowledge of the singing style of famous professional performers and the assimilation of special criteria for comparative analysis gives students a unique opportunity to identify the most optimal of the studied paradigms, adopt the most interesting and useful for working with vocals. In this context, it is important to realize that there simply is not and cannot be a single integrative methodology, so future teachers should also develop their own professional flair, choose precisely those paradigms within which they will be able to open themselves creatively and directly to the greatest extent.

A considerable number of modern students, as evidenced by the monitoring of A.V. Klabukova, wants to receive complex, rather than selective knowledge on the basics of the methods of outstanding authors of the past and present in the form of an elective / special course ^[8]. The modern socio-cultural reality is such that in the performing arsenal of a modern vocalist there should be a fairly extensive set of techniques and methods of performance.

Optimization of the process of professional training of future vocal teachers, increasing the level of development of their competence is simply impossible without their assimilation of a certain systemically designed base of theoretical knowledge. In this context, a comprehensive step-by-step study of the list of classical and modern authors of vocal techniques, a deep understanding of the specifics of the professional and personal experience of these authors, as well as fixing the approbation of the methods of these authors in their own specialized activities are fundamentally important.

As noted by I.V. Shintyapina, a very responsible process of training highly qualified specialists in the field of music education and vocal performance must necessarily be based on the requirements for their professional competence, adequate to today's time. One of such requirements or conditions is, if possible, a comprehensive and sufficiently deep artistic, creative and general cultural development of potential vocal teachers in modern society ^[9].

The study of the retrospective must necessarily be supplemented by the consideration of modern trends in musical culture, which in any case, regardless of the level of conservatism of musical (as well as artistic and aesthetic in general) views and tastes of each particular vocal teacher, affects the socio-cultural space that graduates will have to deal with and which they will strive to ennoble. Before taking on the responsible mission of cultural development in our country, they need to have all the necessary texture in advance, as well as a verified methodology, so that, at least, "not to cut off the shoulder" and "not to throw the child out with the water", since postmodern and other paradigms integrate into their conditionally in a very bizarre and ambiguous way the distinguished structure is a symbiosis of the form, content and meaning of works ^[10].

In every musical trend there may be (and often is) own, specific patterns of development, despite a number of characteristics that combine them with other trends. Future vocal teachers should develop a healthy impartiality and, if possible, objectivity to all this polyphony, despite the fact that art, in principle, is essentially subjectively colored and directed. On the other hand, the study of various trends in modern musical culture is not only a "working necessity" that provides the above competitive advantages in the labor market, but also a very interesting space for creative self–development, professional development. It is through the development of a heuristic approach and interpretative (hermeneutic) analysis of various "top" (as it is customary to denote with the help of updated lexical means) works and genres, through the recognition of the variability of the ways of developing vocal and instrumental skills, that the modern teacher in many ways increases the level of his competence and professionalism in general ^[11].

Modern students applying for the title of vocal teacher should be aimed at a systematic analysis of aspects affecting the historical-theoretical and objective-applied characteristics of artistic vocal performance, learn a scientific objective assessment of the historical and cultural status of musical trends, as well as competently carry out detailing, generalization and classification of the achievements of the most outstanding vocal teachers and performers ^[12].

In addition, attention should be focused on the fundamentally important aspect, according to which a vocal work is, in a certain sense, the total quintessence of a particular era, style, genre, as well as the individual manner of performance of a particular artist. During the period of their studies, students should develop a certain scientific and pedagogical sensitivity and tact, a subtle understanding that specific performers are actually the creators of musical information. A truly talented vocal teacher, even "through the lines", is able to read the symbiosis of the complex synergetics of the poetic word and the musical palette, to see in the vocal art a space of enormous emotional tension, concentration of all vital forces, intuition of performers, etc.^[13]

An equally essential component of the creative and pedagogical potential of neophytes is the level of development of their aesthetic consciousness. It is the most conscious attitude to the performing process that can greatly motivate them to transfer their unique experience to the next generations ^[14].

A developed outlook, knowledge of the latest trends in music, sincere aesthetic interest, refined taste revealed in the process of comparing various musical trends act as a kind of symbolic start in the organization of the educational and creative process, and in the technology of forming the performing culture of future vocal teachers. Based on this, it is fundamentally important to promote the expansion and improvement of these characteristics. It is noteworthy that a fairly wide range of aesthetic interests, artistic needs and tastes to a large extent stimulates the cognitive and search and creative activity of students.

Trainees should not just have a certain personal space of aesthetic interests, but also monitor its content, the necessary level of activity, stability, replenishment of the information spectrum and the depth of its manifestation. It is through this sphere that pedagogical abilities and spiritual and creative potential in general manifest themselves. In addition, attention should be focused on the fundamental aspect, according to which vocal teachers are a kind of mediators between the composer's information field and the student audience. In order for the relevant tasks to be successfully solved, specialists of this profile need to master the ability of intonation matching, accurate hit in execution.

The intonation core as a fundamental tool of artistic and emotional communication contains a grandiose cultural and informational content, is a concentrate of various ways of emotional and artistic interaction with the listener, one of the key forms of transmission of motivational and value orientations. Intonation in vocal art inevitably manifests itself as a symbolic symbiosis of human speech, consciousness and thought. The exact hit of intonation in the author's idea makes it possible to reveal the most important meanings of musical works by means of musical dominants embedded in each of them ^[15].

Mastering knowledge about the trends of modern musical culture is advisable to perceive as one of the key links of the professional culture of a vocalist teacher. This competence directly correlates both with the assimilation of the basic complex of knowledge on theory and practice, obtained during classroom hours, and with the need to disclose the unique personal potential of neophytes, determining the priorities of their professional culture as a whole.

The professional characteristics of a modern vocal teacher are a rather multifaceted synthesis of his general cultural and specialized competencies, which cannot but include knowledge of trends. However, this competence should not be mastered exclusively in a technological manner, according to purely formal criteria. It's not enough to be just erudite – you need to constantly reveal new notes of your love for music and the people who perform it, feel them and appreciate the beauty they create. Some authors (for example, V.P. Golovanov, Yu.E. Kulik) define this ability as the first step in the process of developing the professional abilities of a vocal teacher; others (L.A. Vengrus and a number of her students) "see to the root" and perceive it as an integral core of pedagogical activity in principle.

Summing up the topic of the content of the basic component in the competence of a modern vocal teacher and highlighting the "dry residue", we can once again focus on the following necessary parameters:

1) musicality realization of the potential of personal culture through artistic and semantic intonation;

2) technicality as a symbiosis of vocal and performing knowledge, skills and abilities in the unity of intonation-figurative perception and the possibility of genre-style reproduction;

3) creativity as an interpretative and creative understanding of performance;

4) artistry as a means of mental self-identification in the process of creating one's own and perceiving others' works;

5) reflection as a professional sense awareness;

6) empathy as the ability of emotional interaction with the creativity of different performers and getting used to the psychology of their students.

As can be seen, the professional skill of a modern vocal teacher is very multidimensional and is characterized by the interpenetration of cognitive, activity and creative elements, demonstrating rather subtle interrelations of a whole structured complex of general cultural and specially professional knowledge, performing skills and skills, the formation of which guarantees the success of competent pedagogical activity ^[16].

As for the second set of competencies of future vocal teachers, it is much simpler in meaning, although it is very complex and structured in technical terms. This means technological competence, which assumes a set of knowledge, skills and abilities of students in the field of computer and other technologies due to the need to find, filter, systematize, save and transmit, broadcast relevant information on specific analyzed trends of musical culture ^[17].

As N.G. Snezhinskaya notes, in this context, it is necessary to focus on the use of "Big Data" technology products, since they are increasingly being exploited in the modern music industry. In a certain sense, this kind of data helps current students (who own both a classic–type computer and a wide variety of gadgets much better than their older mentors from the Soviet past of our country) to learn and analyze not only the official "tops" of domestic and foreign pop music according to different classifications, but also to see feedback - information slices recorded in real time about listeners and their immediate musical tastes and preferences ^[18].

It is advisable to track the dynamics of changes in music trends, for example, with the help of "Big Data" data involved in the work of such streaming services as Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Yandex.Music, Yandex.Radio", etc. Big data gives today the opportunity to discover new names of promising artists for themselves and their students and to find new ways to stimulate the loyalty of listeners (if vocalists set themselves the tasks of career growth in the music industry, and not only in the pedagogical field). Being an active and competent user of "Big Data" technology, it is possible to receive systematized, already processed information in real time, almost around the clock, about the quantity and quality of purchases by the audience of specific music tracks, albums, tickets to various concerts; about what people listen to, download and what they say about their idols ^[19].

Of course, the obvious disadvantage of using such technologies in expanding one's competence is that it provides only a part (although quite impressive given the popularity of network platforms for distributing music products) of information about the musical tastes and preferences of the population. Another part of the population remains simply out of the Internet coverage area, because due to age characteristics (elderly people) and specific upbringing, they use other products rather than network ones. Certain segments of the population rarely listen to radio stations (information about which is now also recorded by Internet communication operators), but from time to time they plunge into retro nostalgia for past hits and include records, audio cassettes, "reels" or once purchased CDs. On the other hand, the preferences of such people already make sense and do not quite fit into the trends, although the number of pensioners or young lovers of the stylization of Soviet and first post-Soviet life can reach considerable sizes. In order to understand the size of this specific segment, which is disconnected or breaks away from the Network from time to time, teachers need to rely on data from relevant sociological studies on this topic ^[20]. Nevertheless, as S.V. Bereberdin notes, for example, the unique information opportunities for familiarization with musical culture that appeared in the XXI century (especially taking into account unlimited Internet tariffs) attract more and more interested people from among the representatives of even the elderly ^[21].

Another difficulty is that the data of various "official" charts are not always reliable; you can notice no fewer "markups" than during political elections. "Cheating" (the number of "likes", comments, a completely illogical hit of specific works on the main page, etc.) is sometimes found on the platform of video services containing music videos, concert recordings and other interesting information ^[22]. Based on this, future vocal teachers need to collect and compare information from various sources (including independently communicate with people about their musical tastes and preferences), not content with just one of them.

Conclusion

Thus, the study of trends in modern musical culture is a necessary component in the structure of the training of professional vocal teachers, their competitive advantage in the specialized labor market, as well as a powerful incentive for creative and professional self-development. This topic needs further expert study and coverage, because at this point in time, most people perceive it more at the everyday and journalistic levels than in the framework of serious scientific research.