METHODS IN DUTAR EDUCATION: TRADITIONAL APPROACHES AND CONTEMPORARY PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES

Abstract

The article looks at how the Uzbek dutar is taught today and what methodological principles stand behind that teaching, both in the older oral tradition and in the conservatoire-type system. Our main concern is the meeting point between the ustoz-shogird (master–apprentice) way of learning and the academic lesson with its curricula and examinations. We discuss sound production, fingering, rhythmic coordination of the hands, musical memory, stylistic interpretation and the learning of traditional repertoire, and we ask how regional performance schools shape a young player's artistic identity. On this basis a teaching model is suggested. It rests on demonstration and imitation, analytical listening, a planned sequence of technical exercises, work on repertoire and, at later stages, the student's own creative tasks. Our position is that a dutar teacher cannot choose between tradition and modern method; the two have to be held together. Where this is done, students tend to gain not only in technique but also in artistic independence, in their sense of the culture behind the music, and in readiness for the concert stage.

Keywords

dutar, music education, instrumental pedagogy, ustoz-shogird tradition, performance technique, Uzbek traditional music, musical interpretation.