Behaviorist/Stimulus-Response Approach: Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata

In teaching Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, I can safely assume that the student has taken piano lessons for at least 8 years and therefore has an excellent foundation in reading music.  At this point in a child's musical career, the major focus would be on expression and musical phrasing.  Therefore, my primary behavioral objective would be that the student performs Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata with meaningful musical expression and musical phrasing.

First, I would have the student listen to the piece while following along with the score.  When it finished, I would ask the child to initiate a discussion about the musical phrasing in the piece and what he or she would specifically do in the piece (such as crescendos, rubatos, etc) to demonstrate the musical expression.  The discussion would be mostly technical with little metaphorical discussion.  We would discuss what the music is expressing so the child has a reference for him/herself.

Next, we would find the sections of the piece and label them.  We would outline what portions of the sonata the student would need to learn by which weeks of lessons so that he or she could master the piece by the appropriate date.  This is setting behavioral goals because the student would know that he or she would be expected to perform the goals by those weeks.  Then, each week at lessons, the student would perform the section he or she practiced the week before and we would discuss the musical phrasing and any remedial things that needed to be fixed, such as incorrect rhythms or fingering alterations.  We would then discuss ideas for phrasing and practice for the following week so that the student could continue to learn the piece.

In a behaviorist or stimulus/response lesson, most of the lesson would consist of the child demonstrating the desired behaviors by actually playing the piano.  The goal would be mostly music-making and little discussion, except for what is necessary.