Concerning the Specific Features of Musical Instrumental Performance among Students with Impairments in Eyesight

Abstract

Abstract. The problems facing performing musicians with impairments of vision are connected
with a lack of information which eyesight conveys about the spatial logistics of motion, the emotional
characteristic features of motion and their connection with the emotional content of the musical
material. Most acute is the question of the negative impact of the orientation of such a student of
the art of musical performance on meter and rhythm in the process of practice of his or her musical
instrument over the musical material. This problem can be solved by a change of performance
technique, but for this aim a more detailed analysis of the performing musician’s motive activity.
This work was carried out by the Kemerovo State Institute of Culture. It resulted in the creation of a
motive-playing complex lying at the basis of the performance technique of a bayan performer. This
complex was comprised by the motional-playing sub-complex, topographical and articulational
combinations, complex topographical and articulational techniques, simple articulational techniques,
as well as techniques of touch. In addition, those techniques were highlighted which may be carried
out beforehand – prior to when the necessity of a certain note or harmony being sounded. The
definition of the functions of each of the simple and complex techniques has made it possible to
organize from them that logical system which gave the possibility of changing the performing
musician’s visual directedness to a motive, tactile type. A simplification of the understanding of the
connection of the character of motion with the character of the sound of the musical material led
to the understanding of the essence of the musical touch, which consists in the speed of carrying
out the attack of sound and, consequently, in the speed of acceleration of the muscles’ tension. The
description of the actions on the basis of the scale and arpeggio of C major presented at the end
of the article gives the possibility of comprehending and automatizing the process of performing
the musical material with the aid of the new technique of musical performance and means of
orientation on the keyboard of the musical instrument.

Keywords: Kemerovo State Institute of Culture, limitations in eyesight, technique of
performance on the bayan, motive-playing complex