Teacher–student physical contact as an approach for teaching guitar in the master class context

In this study, the role of physical contact between teachers and students in the process of teaching guitar was investigated in the master class context. Thirty-five videotaped guitar master classes were classified into five groups according to student performance level. The musical topics studied in these classes were categorised, and all moments of physical contact between teachers and students were identified. Analyses of variance and non-parametric tests were used to determine the relationship between use of physical contact as a teaching approach and student gender, student performance level, the teacher giving the lesson, and topic presented by the teacher. The results indicated that physical contact was significantly related to the teacher giving the lesson and to guitar performance topics of “nails”, “muscle relaxation”, and “body posture”. However, of these three topics, only “body posture” was significantly related to students’ performance level. Ultimately, the results suggest that the topic presented by the teacher is helpful in determining the gestural behaviour of teachers in a musical instrument class