In the following analysis, I investigate four excerpts of music storytelling sequences from sixteen online piano tutorial videos, a total of approximately seven hours of videos in English, in which a single piano instructor teaches how to perform intermediate- and advanced-level piano pieces, without the presence of a student. These four segments were identified as storytelling based on the broader definition of storytelling discussed in Section 2, and they were selected and analyzed for this research because they contained verbal stories that the instructor created and recounted by exploiting musical resources. The instructor in these videos had been teaching piano for forty-five years at the time of recording, with extensive experience teaching piano lessons in various settings, including one-on-one private lessons, college piano classes, master classes, and online lessons, for learners at different levels. First, in Section 3.1 I explore sequence organization in music storytelling by examining how the instructor sequentially builds storytelling components in a story he creates during a lesson. Second, in Section 3.2 I examine musical and storytelling elements in music storytelling, analyzing how the instructor storifies a music piece by transforming sound aspects such as musical notes and notations into verbal storytelling. Third, in Section 3.3 I probe into conversational aspects of music storytelling through examining story characters’ dialogues created by the instructor in music stories and investigating how he weaves music stories following the development of the music. Finally, in Section 3.4 I delve more deeply into the musical and storytelling elements by focusing on the transformation of musical notes into unvocalized story elements such as story characters’ inner thoughts, and I subsequently discuss participation frameworks of music storytelling by analyzing different perspectives and the audience’s participation in the storytelling.
The music storytelling segments of the lesson videos were fully transcribed by the researcher/author according to conversation analysis transcription conventions (adapted from
Excerpt 1: Mother and children
03: So, this is very very tender here. I, I, see it as tender. So, put the pedal down and, he marks the slur.
After demonstrating the performance from Bars 33 through 43 in {D1}, the instructor teaches the segment of Bars 40 - 43 in Excerpt 1. First, he gives the initial characterization of the segment in line 1 (“it’s sort of gentle. It’s playful along here.”), using the adjectives “sort of gentle” and “playful,” and then he depicts his visual image of the segment that expresses these adjectives, saying, “I think of children chasing each other and so forth,” which provides the scene setting of the storytelling. Next, in line 2 he describes the first event of the story about the mother’s action (“the mother coming out and say”) and quotes his imaginary dialogue of the mother toward her children “Children, {D2} you’ve played enough,” inserting the performance of Bar 40, which has a descending scalar passage of eighth notes in {D2}. After giving another adjective, “tender,” to characterize this scene in line 3, he proceeds to perform the segment Bars 40 - 43 again in {D3} and describes the second event about the children’s actions in line 4 (“the children hop back in the house for a cup of tea or something.”). It is interesting to note that his phrases “hop back” and “for a cup of tea or something” not only project the children’s actions as “playful” and “tender” appropriately but also incorporate the musical features of Bars 41 - 43, which contain a three-octave ascending arpeggio and then a descending scalar passage of eighth notes and several staccato notes.
As observed in Excerpt 1, when music instructors storify a music piece as a strategy to teach performance, relevant components are sequentially organized in the music storytelling. A simplified sequential organization can be summarized as follows, though components as well as the order may vary. First, an initial characterization of music is described using such expressions as adjectives designed to conjure up musical images. Next, a story-setting scene is depicted based on evocative musical phrases that paint pictures, transforming written musical notes into visual images. Then, the first event and the subsequent events are sequentially described verbally as instructors insert their performance of each event segment, thereby demonstrating how music flows and develops in accordance with the development of the recounted story. This sequential organization of music storytelling is observed in other excerpts analyzed in this study.
Excerpt 2: Figaro and Cherubino
01: Now this is marked forte. {D1} And this {D2} reminds you a toy soldier music this uhm, hhh this is sort of like a trumpet call. {D3}
06: {D8} This is actually very interesting um (0.6) chord because it’s the first chord in the whole piece {D9} which isn’t a major triad. {D10} It’s a diminished triad.
(27 seconds omitted.)
Having taught from the beginning up to Bar 25 of the piece and how to play a trill in Bar 26, the instructor moves on to the next segment of the piece and plays Bars 26 and 27 in {D1} of line 1. Then, as he plays Bars 27 and 28 in {D2} in line 1, the instructor says, “this reminds you a toy soldier music,” and continues to elaborate upon his explanation, saying, “this is sort of like a trumpet call” and demonstrates only the right-hand melody line in Bar 27 in {D3} consisting of four consecutive repeated notes of G in a dotted rhythm, which evokes the image of trumpet calls played in a military setting. He mentions “a toy soldier music” in line 1, referring to Tchaikovsky’s “March of the Toy Soldiers” in “The Nutcracker”, which starts with four consecutive repeated notes of D including a triplet played on a trumpet, but subsequently, he changes this analogy to a scene related to the military from “The Marriage of Figaro.” In line 2 he tells a story about two figures in this military-related scene from the opera to provide background information and depict a story-setting scene before he storifies the segment of focus. After describing the scene concisely first as a story abstract (“the pageboy Cherubino is being put through his paces by Figaro.”), he elaborates by explaining that Cherubino’s promiscuous behavior leads to Figaro’s decision to send him to the army (“He’s fallen in love with too many ladies in the castle and Figaro’s decided to take matters into hand to send him to the army”2.) and goes on to describe the pageboy’s character and attitude (“He’s only seventeen, poor old Cherubino”; “he’s marched up and down by Figaro and he is hating it”).
Having presented the story-setting scene, the instructor moves on to storify the segment from line 3. He describes the first story action, creating a dialogue about Figaro’s command to Cherubino in line 3, “this is Figaro. ‘Get on the march,’” as he plays an ascending melody line in Bar 26 in {D4}, while demonstrating Figaro’s strict attitude by frowning and using a lower tone of voice. Next, in line 4 he tells the second action that expresses Cherubino’s behaviors and attitudes, “Sort of quivering, shaking, and not wanting to do it,” as he plays Bar 27 in {D5}, in which the “trumpet call” motif is followed by a descending melody line. Then, he describes Cherubino’s next action in line 5, “And this is him escaping. But not without a sigh of anxiety,” while playing Bars 29 - 31 in {D7}, which has a fast descending scale of thirty-second notes going down two octaves and ends with a “sigh” motif of longer notes, i.e., a pair of two slurred descending notes the first note of which is emphasized and goes a half step downwards to the second unstressed note (e.g., in Bar 31 from a note of C marked with a forte piano to a slurred note of B). In addition, he explains the uniqueness of the first chord of the “sigh” motif, which is a diminished triad, as being “the first chord in the whole piece which isn’t a major triad” and plays this diminished triad chord twice in {D9} and {D10} in line 6. In line 8, he plays the same diminished chord again in {D11} and incorporates his interpretation of this chord into his story describing Cherubino’s psychological state as “maybe him sort of in fear for his new military life.” After the instructor plays the last three bars (Bars 32 - 34) in {D12} of the targeted segment, in which ascending and then descending melody line notes with some staccato marks are followed by a cadence in major chords, he concludes his story by narrating Cherubino’s final action and dialogue in the military scene in line 8: “and then saying, ‘What the hey. I’ll get out of it somehow.’ Which is exactly what he does.”
As examined in Excerpt 2, various musical elements including repeated notes, movements (ascending and descending note patterns), articulations, dynamics, rhythmic patterns, short or long notes, speed (fast or slow), musical motifs, and key changes are transformed into storytelling elements that specify a story-setting scene, enact characters’ dialogues, and express characters’ behaviors, manners, attitudes, and psychological states in music storytelling. In terms of the cognitive process of mental spaces, this transformation of musical elements into storytelling elements is conceptual mapping and conceptual blending. Each abstract written musical element representing sounds is mapped onto its corresponding more concrete verbal storytelling element in words, describing human characters’ voices and actions as well as story scenes. Then, these mapped musical and storytelling elements are integrated into a blended space, newly creating music storytelling that synthesizes orally narrated verbal stories and performance demonstrations through which written musical symbols are turned into sounds physically played on the instrument. In addition, what is noteworthy in Excerpt 2 is that the instructor enunciates the reason why he created a story about toy soldiers, the military, and two figures in “The Marriage of Figaro” (Figaro and Cherubino) to teach how to perform the targeted segment even though these topics and figures are not related to the music piece he teaches in this tutorial lesson. In line 7, he states that although written music in this segment has “p and f then p and f” only, “it helps to characterize this music…if we think of a sergeant major bossing his cadet around here and making him march and so it’s more fun to play. It’s more fun to imagine.” This essential reason to utilize music storytelling for enhancing imagination and livening up performance will be discussed in the next Section 3.3 as well.
Excerpt 3: A conflict talk between a husband and a wife
01: Well Beethoven wasn’t that. He didn’t really think in those terms he wasn’t (0.4) an operatic composer. He wrote one wonderful opera of course Fidelio but, but, um, he didn’t think operatically in the same way that Mozart did but I think we can still apply it sometimes. To give our imagination a boost.
10: You know, we’re suddenly in the major here. So, this. {D8-B to T} And this. {D9-B to T} The second one is definitely um more tender. I mean it’s it’s more, less tense. It’s in the it’s in the major key, and not in the minor key. It’s a very subtle difference. But if we play them the same, it’s not so interesting. I think when it gets into the major, we could maybe relent a bit on a tempo and and make it have give it a little bit more time, just tiny bit more time. It’s all very subtle stuff. (1.4)
Prior to Excerpt 3, the instructor performed the first five bars (Bars 51 - 55) of the targeted section and explained that this second subject part after the climax, which is usually more relaxed and lyrical in a major key, is not relaxed at all because of a minor key and a consistent, perpetual rhythmic pattern played with the left hand. He then gave performance advice to play this section, stating that it is useful to do visualizations and think of scenarios and activities that are going on dramatically as Mozart, who was an operatic composer, seemed to do in many of his sentimental works. In line 1, the instructor points out that Beethoven “wasn’t an operatic composer” and “didn’t think operatically in the same way that Mozart did.” Yet, he suggests that “we can still apply it sometimes. To give our imagination a boost” and continues to storify this section dramatically from line 2.
In line 2, the instructor describes a scene-setting of the story “as a conversation between husband and wife” and “a rather tense one,” and then he proceeds to tell a story, enacting a conversation between the husband and the wife turn by turn while playing only the melody line of the section with his right hand phrase by phase in the subsequent turns from line 3 to line 9. It is important to note that in this conversation he turns melody line notes in lower registers (between A flat 2 and B flat 3 in the bass clef) into the husband’s voice and the ones in higher registers (between A flat 4 and B flat 5 in the treble clef) into the wife’s voice.
First, after playing the ascending four quarter notes in the bass clef in {D1-B} (Bars 51 - 52), he verbalizes the husband’s question, which functions as a polite request in line 3, “May we talk?” This is followed by the performance of {D2-T} (Bars 52 - 55), which has a descending melody line in the treble clef, as well as the wife’s answer functioning as a gentle declination in line 4, “Perhaps not.” This sequence, in which the four-quarter note motif in the bass clef (the husband’s voice) is followed by a descending melody line in the treble clef (the wife’s voice), is repeated seven more times with various modifications from line 5 to line 14. The husband’s request becomes stronger in line 5, “Oh, please,” as the same four-quarter note motif in {D3-B} (Bars 55 - 56) gets higher than {D1-B}, and the wife’s declination becomes firmer and longer with a reason in line 6, “I tell you I’m not really in the mood,” since the descending melody line in {D4-T} (Bars 56 - 59) contains more notes with a couple of ornaments. Next, in line 7 he changes the storyline in accordance with a musical shift. The phrases played in {D5-B to T} (Bars 59 - 63) are exactly the same as {D1-B} and {D2-T} except for the last note (D in {D2} and C in {D5}), which changes the minor key used thus far into a major key. In line 7, he skips the husband’s dialogue to request to talk and tells only the wife’s response to accept his request gently, saying, “Oh, well. OK. I’ll relent. Let’s talk,” reflecting a change into a major key at the end of these phrases in Bar 63. Then, after playing the same ascending four-quarter note motif but in a major key in {D6-B} (Bars 63 - 64), he utters the husband’s gratitude for her acceptance of his request with a term of endearment in line 8, “Oh, thank you, dear.” The next descending phrase in {D7-T} (Bars 64 - 67) is the same melodic pattern as {D4-T} but in a major key; thus, he voices the wife’s response to accept the husband’s gratitude with a term of endearment here, too, in line 9, “It’s OK, dear.”
It is worth noting here that the instructor creates a story by building a series of adjacency pairs in the conversation between the husband and the wife. As examined above, he uses the ascending four quarter notes in the bass clef in {D1-B} of line 3 not just as the husband’s dialogue but also as the First Pair Part (henceforth FPP) of a request sequence. Thus, in the subsequent turn in line 4, he gives the Second Pair Part (henceforth SPP) in the request sequence and turns the phrases containing the descending melody line in the treble clef in {D2-T} into the wife’s response (declination) to the husband’s request. Likewise, he turns {D3-B} of line 5 into the FPP (the husband’s request) and {D4-T} of line 6 into the SPP (the wife’s response) in the second request adjacency pair sequence. In line 7, although the FPP (the husband’s request) is omitted verbally, he provides the SPP to demonstrate the wife’s acceptance of the husband’s request expressed in {D5-B to T}. He then includes a gratitude adjacency pair sequence in lines 8 and 9, turning {D6-B} into the FPP (the husband’s gratitude) and {D7-T} into the SPP (the wife’s acceptance of it).
The instructor explains a change in the mood of the conversation from “tense one” to “more tender” or “less tense” due to a key change from the minor to the major after Bar 63 in line 10. Then, while performing Bars 68 - 75 ({D10-T} and {D11-B to T}) in the major key, he continues to tell the wife’s dialogues in line 11, “OK, let’s talk. Yes, I think I feel happy about talking now,” illustrating the wife’s “more tender” or “less tense” mood in the major key. However, in the ensuing line 12, he first indicates beforehand a change in this “less tense” mood in the story, saying, “And then the husband sort of pushes his luck,” and then plays the following Bars 75 - 81 in {D12-B to T}, which go back to the minor key and have a significant change in the husband’s recurring four-quarter note motif, from the previous simple ascending melody pattern to a melody line of dramatic up-and-down leaps, indicating intensity. Then, he delineates what is happening between the husband and the wife in this minor key segment, relating as follows: “he wants to do more than talk. He wants to push his luck and really get what he wants. And the wife is not happy about that.” In the ensuing line 13, he plays this minor segment from Bar 76 to Bar 80 in {D13-T} and {D14-B} again and talks more about the husband’s escalated, forceful behaviors realized in {D14-B}, in which the husband’s second four-quarter note up-and-down leap melody goes a whole step up and is marked with an “rf” (rinforzando, meaning reinforced), describing them as “And then try again. Even more persistent.” Subsequently, in line 14 the instructor plays the last part of the targeted section in {D16-T} (Bars 80 - 88), which has a significantly long descending melody line from B flat 5 to B flat 4 with many ornaments and ends with a “pp” (pianissimo, meaning “very soft”) after a decrescendo in the treble clef. It is worth noting that in the targeted storified section from Bars 51 through 88, an adjacency pair of the husband’s FPP four-quarter note motif and the ensuing wife’s SPP descending melody line is repeated eight times and that the wife’s melody part is consistently three bars long, except for the last eighth time (Bars 80 - 88 in {D16-T}), which is nine bars long. After describing this nine-bar long, descending melody line as “one of the most beautiful lines in this whole movement” and “truly operatic,” he concludes his music storytelling by translating this “wonderful arching line coming down” into the wife’s impatience with her husband and her plea to him, expressing it “as if the wife is saying, ‘Please leave me alone. You are exhausting me. I don’t want this.’”
As explicated in this section, the instructor storifies music by carefully analyzing musical elements including ascending and descending melodic contours, changes in the major and minor keys, ornaments, articulations, dynamic markings, and particularly in Excerpt 3, melody lines constantly shifting between the notes in lower and higher registers. Integrating these musical elements and reflecting their movements throughout the section, he develops a dramatic storyline constructed mainly through verbal exchanges between the male and female characters and effectively depicts how their attitudes and emotions toward each other gradually change phrase by phrase from “rather tense,” to “more tender,” to seriously tense at the end. Furthermore, as also discussed in Excerpt 2, the instructor affirms the significance of music storytelling to improve performance in line 15 after storifying the section of Bars 51 - 88 from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor First Movement, expanding his rationale of applying Mozart-like operatic thinking to this piece in line 1, “To give our imagination a boost.” In line 15, though clarifying that the story he created is not Beethoven’s idea and this piece is not program music, he still maintains the effectiveness of storifying this piece, stating that “it helps to bring this piece to life somehow” and “we can still kind of use our own imagined programmatic elements to enliven our performance.” It is worth emphasizing that in Excerpt 3 the instructor not only concretely demonstrated step-by-step how to transform lifeless written musical notes into meaningful, dramatic music stories to achieve enlivened performances but also explicitly pointed out the crucial reasons to incorporate and utilize storytelling in learning subjects, in this case, music performance.
Excerpt 4: Wife thinking of her lover
(28 seconds omitted.)
(4 minutes omitted.)
09: {D15} We get this (0.4) what’s called a Neapolitan harmony. Um {D16}
11: And (0.4) this is operatic also because um (0.6) the piece ends (1.0) with um so-sort of a quicker (0.8) melody a quicker quicker part of the piece and fairly short, too.
(1 minute and 23 seconds omitted.)
12: Something similar happens here I think. And be extremely, take your time over this. This this is where the the crux of (0.4) this scenario is.
Before Excerpt 4, the instructor taught the beginning of the Adagio section (Bars 12 - 19), which is mostly marked with a “p” (piano, meaning soft), and described this segment as “not quite so smooth,” “more tentative,” and “more anxious” as if “you’re kind of a little short of breath.” In line 1, he begins the next segment (Bars 20 - 22) marked with an “f” (forte, meaning loud) and plays the first six consecutive eighth notes of E in {D1}. First, he refers back to the beginning segment (Bars 12 - 19) and elaborates his characterization of its mood, saying, “It’s very not lamenting quite but unsure of itself. Emotionally un-insecure I would say.” Then, he sets up a story scene based on the beginning piano and the following forte segments and begins storifying this music piece by first describing a stage direction and then quoting a character’s dialogue as, “Maybe the husband comes in and says, ‘What do you what are you moping about? Quit quit the moping.’” Here in line 1, he translates the beginning “not quite so smooth” and “more anxious” piano segment (Bars 12 - 19) into the wife’s “emotionally insecure” moping actions and transforms the following forte segment (Bars 20 - 22) into “the husband Mr. Stern” motif, enacting his sterner verbal command toward his wife. Next, in line 2, after playing the forte segment (Bars 20 - 22) again and the subsequent piano segment (Bars 23 - 25) in {D2}, he explicitly recommends using a storytelling approach to learn the performance of this section, stating, “I think if you’re thinking of some sort of scenario it helps.” Then, he gives a specific example of a story character (“someone who’s very insecure about what to do next”) and expresses her wavering internal thoughts (“‘What to do. Or maybe this. I’m not quite so sure.’”), inserting the performance of the piano segment (Bars 23 - 25) consisting of a series of descending melody phrases that become “the wife’s sigh” motif, each phrase of which has three sixteenth notes—a staccato followed by a two-note slur—and a sixteenth rest (Bar 23 in {D3} and Bars 24 and 25 in {D4}). It is worth pointing out here that the instructor effectively teaches how to play the recurring same “three sixteenth notes and a rest” phrase patterns differently within this piano segment not just by generally instructing in line 2, “There are different ways of doing this as well. Just don’t make them the same,” but also by utilizing music storytelling as well as illustrating concretely how to create a music story through inventing story characters, scenarios, and characters’ depictions.
Subsequently, the instructor plays from Bar 24 until the end of the Adagio section (Bar 33) in {5D} and goes on to express the transition of the wife’s internal emotions and intentions in line 3. Pointing at Bars 23 - 27 (a segment containing many sixteenth rests and sixteenth notes with a staccato) on his musical score with his left hand, he first says, “It seems to me like our character after all this anxiety.” Then, pointing at the following Bars 29 - 32 (the modified Adagio beginning theme of “emotionally insecure moping” action), he describes a shift in the wife’s emotional state in this segment as “a little depressed here.” Finally, pointing at the last bar of the Adagio section (Bar 33), which is marked with a crescendo and an “f” (forte, meaning loud), he utters her intentions as “becomes kind of determined to fight her fate here.” These descriptions of the wife’s emotions and intentions in his music story help piano students perform this section by taking into account the musical development of different segments realized in various articulations and dynamics (Bars 23 - 27, Bars 29 - 32, and Bar 33) and by considering how they can express the last Bar 33 marked with a crescendo and an “f” (forte) as “quite willful in certain ways” (line 3).
Next, in {D6} the instructor performs the Presto section (Bar 34), which is a long and fast scalar passage of sixteenth notes descending and ascending four octaves, and the first four consecutive forte-marked eighth notes of D, which is “the husband Mr. Stern” motif in Bar 35 from the following Tempo I section (similar to the previous Adagio section from Bar 20 to Bar 27), and narrates stage directions for these scenes in line 4, first describing the wife’s next action following her willful determination in Bar 34 (“maybe she rushes out of the room to determine to do something really dramatic”) and then the husband’s action opposing her in Bar 35 (“And Mr. Stern comes back on stage. Um, determined to put a stop to all this rushing around”). In line 5, as he plays Bars 37 - 44 in {D7}, which are similar to the prior Bars 23 - 27 containing the constantly repeated “the wife’s sigh” motif (a descending melody phrase of a staccato, a two-note slur, and a sixteenth rest), he continues narrating the wife’s ensuing action (“a return of this sighing thing”) and describes it as “she’s getting into quite a state.” Then, he follows up to elaborate his operatic story scenario in line 6 by portraying the husband’s character as “being sort of a rather domineering male character” and further explicating the wife’s intended action as she is “trying to escape his domineeringness.”
In line 7, the instructor plays the second Tempo I section (Bars 45 - 54) in {D9}, which repeats the first six bars of the Adagio section at the beginning of this piece (“the wife’s moping” segment in Bars 12 - 19) and introduces a new dramatic development from Bar 51 to Bar 54. Following along with this new musical development, he introduces a new story character, the wife’s lover, and expands his music story by describing a new scene about the wife thinking about her lover in line 7, saying, “I’d like to think of our character as thinking of her lover. She’s maybe that’s what she’s been moping about. She’s not sure about her lover whether, whether he loves her or not.” He continues to “put words to” the wife’s internal thoughts about her lover, precisely reflecting the articulations and dynamics in Bars 50 - 52, as he plays this segment again in {D10} through {D14} phrase by phrase in line 8. For the phrases in {D10}, {D11}, {D12}, and {D13}, which are marked with a “p” (piano, meaning soft) and have the melody going up and down and broken into short phrases by many rests, he delineates her meandering, apprehensive, and weak thoughts, as in “‘Does he really love me? I think I should hope. I’m sure I should hope. Maybe not. Maybe I should not.’” However, for the following phrase in {D14} containing a Neapolitan harmony marked with an “fp” (fortepiano), i.e., a sudden dynamic change from a forte (loud) to a piano (soft), he expresses her strong determination, saying, “Now I’m gonna go and ask him. I’m gonna take the reins in my own hands. I can ask him whether he loves me or not.” Then, when he moves to the last Allegretto section in which the key changes from D minor to D major, he brings out a new development of the story that conforms to the major key by describing a bright scene subsequent to the wife’s courageous action to ask her lover whether he loves her or not in line 10: “yes indeed he does love her so everything is happy,” while playing Bars 55 - 58 in {D19} and {D20}. As demonstrated in the analyses of Excerpt 4 above, the instructor storifies the non-program music and constructs a dramatic, operatic story by converting music sounds not only into sound elements of storytelling such as the character’s verbal dialogues but also into non-sound elements, which include narrations to describe the scenes as well as the character’s actions, psychological states, internal thoughts, intentions, and personality, thus carefully integrating unfolding developments in the music phrase by phrase into the plot development of his music story.
Furthermore, Excerpt 4 provides us with other crucial, thought-provoking resources regarding music storytelling elements. In line 12, after explaining how the structure of this piece is operatic, the instructor goes back to Bars 50 - 53 in the prior Tempo I section, in which he previously demonstrated the wife’s internal thoughts and determination about her lover as discussed in line 8, and he suggests taking time to play this segment because “this is where the crux of this scenario is” (line 12). Then, in line 13, he plays Bars 50 - 52 in {D21}, which contains several eighth and sixteenth rests between very short phrases, and clarifies why this segment needs to be played taking time. He first explains the musical notes in Bars 50 - 52 as “Between each little phrase, the silence,” and then says, “And we’re thinking ‘What’s her next thought going to be. What’s her next emotion gonna be. She can hope?’” What is intriguing here is that rather than quoting the story character’s thoughts in this music story as he did in line 8, this time he enacts what “we” as the audience are thinking during the silence between each little phrase as we are listening to this piece, not as music per se but as music storytelling about the wife trying to escape from her tyrant husband for her lover. Subsequently, he plays the next phrases in Bars 52 - 53 in {D22} and {D23}, which he previously depicted as the wife’s strong determination in line 8, and continues to convey the audience’s thoughts, which are constantly changing along with the unfolding plot development of the music story in line 14: “And then suddenly we’re aware that she is full of resolve…her resolve doesn’t weaken. Her resolve strengthens and she goes and wins her major key um finale here.” In other words, in lines 12 through 14, the instructor teaches the importance of silence in music and instructs viewers to take time in this segment containing rests between phrases. What is notable here in his instructions is that rather than simply telling performers to play rests in the music accurately because silence is a part of the music, he illuminates the importance of silence in terms of the viewpoint of the audience, who are part of the music performance. Moreover, instead of describing the audience’s thoughts while listening to the silence in the music (e.g., “What is the next chord after this rest?”), he contextualizes the silence in the music storytelling and explicates the audience’s unfolding thoughts and anticipation about the story character in each rest, moment by moment, as if they were reading or listening to a dramatic story, thereby concretely demonstrating how the performer can involve, excite, and thrill the audience through their performances. Thus, in Excerpt 4 the instructor includes the audience in the participation framework of music storytelling and tells a music story from the perspectives of both a performer as a storyteller and the audience as story recipients and effectively teaches how a performer as a storyteller can perform a piece skillfully and musically, storify music collaboratively with the audience, and engage the audience in their performances.