In praise of those Grass-Eating Cows - beginning music education and piano lessons

upon a whim, my husband and I sold our cars and mov to Boston. I left a studio of well-trained piano scholars back in my old life; this put in motion meant more than adjusting to a pedestrian lifestyle: I had to rebuild my work. "Ye I like beginners. Ye I like little ones" I said in the interview proces and was hired by the agency of two music schools to teach piano exercise s Suddenly, I had more than thirty beginners, a third who were in kindergarten. Nothing in all my earlier teaching prepared me for the challenge of having for a like reason many students who knew no music and nothing about the piano, a great deal of less so many students who were pre-readers. Although I reflection I knew my system for teaching beginning piano tasks teaching a first piano task thirty-plus times over stretched and plucked me in painful and unexpect ways. All my earlier processs and assumptions were called into question when I began to diocese patterns of learning, patterns of behavior, patterns of what was and was not understood among these children.

[i]modus operandi[/i] Books

While I have drawn out understood the limitations of beginning mode books and liberally supplemented them with my possess activities--creating systematic technical exercises, creative activities and ear-training methods--I mistakenly musing by simply using a manner book, students would learn to read music. Unfortunately, means or concept books lull an unsuspecting teacher into thinking the works are teaching note reading. They don't. Or at least not directly. actual enough, there are notes upon the page, but as I watched my little individuals stumble and fall as they struggl to decipher the mes of dots and lines in brow of them, I was humbl into recognizing I could no longer afford to ignore the problem: These pupils were not learning to read music.

Many popular beginning manner books emphasize intervallic reading; that is, reading the intervals between notes rather than the individual notes themselves. This approach is an effective reading course because it teaches students to read patterns and clumps of notes rather than getting caught up in deciphering each mark upon the page. This approach also provides the potential for scholars to transpose easily, simply by dint of starting on a different pitch. Furthermore, intervallic reading accommodate withs itself to efficient sight reading, where individual must read in patterns and collections and not get caught up in details. Pianists, however, cannot just innocently read patterns of notes forever. As helpful as intervallic reading is, a serviceable musician has to be able to read any given pitch quickly and accurately.

Landmarks

greatest in quantity methods use some form of "landmark notes": certain pitches that learners will learn to identify at sight, which they can then use to discern other pitches. For example, single landmark note is often middle C point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds arise when suddenly the music upon page thirty-five of the primer work begins on middle D. The five-year-old scholar who has had two month of piano tasks is expected to imagine what a middle C gazes like and then find the D from that imaginary middle C In the first month of my of recent origin studio of beginners, only individual child could manage this feat. The ease had to be prompted and prodd and finally simply told that the first note was middle D I set this whole scene frustrating as a teacher and terribly ineffective. The exercise learned, unfortunately, is not to luckily identify middle D, but rather that the work is confusing. The music itself is rarely a point in dispute especially if the student is fortunately reading intervals and patterns. The difficulty is determining where a beginner should place his hands upon the piano.

Another popular approach uses the landmark notes of "G" and "F" and makes use of the confines "G clef" and "F clef" instead of triple and bass clef. Many five-year-olds cannot remember which is which. In academy they are most likely still trying to remember which alphabetic character is which, much less which note is which upon the piano. Suddenly, they are being asked to add a third and rather confusing layer to their definition of G and F: Which clef representative is G, and which is F? While single positive aspect of this approach is that it loans itself to positions other than middle C therein also lies the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled The hand positions become progressively more unpredictable. The scholars have vague information about a certain number of G and F, but too many times the first notes are not either single of these anyway. These are kids who could read the intervals of the pieces if alone a teacher would put their hands into place. If they do not have someone at abode who can do this for them while they practice, what reliance is there that they will eagerly lay open their music books?

Still another course is the multi-key approach: beginning with C position and then moving upon to the G and F positions. Like the landmark approach, this accommodate withs itself to keys other than C (Although by what mode radical are G and F really?), on the contrary it doesn't specifically teach the recognition of any notes that fall into these positions or proffer a suggestion about how pupils should identify these notes. The [i]modus operandi[/i] books must sense this vexed question because many of them begin writing upon the top of the page "C position." "This canticle is in C position!" the pupils joyfully exclaim and confidently place their hands into place. I appreciate the confidence that is now bestowed upon these children who have been staring at me blankly for weeks regarding the beginning pitches of their assignments. Now, however, the scholars are learning yet another rather les than helpful lesson: The canzonets in the book are always in C position. on the contrary the fact remains the scholars cannot actually identify any notes upon the page in front of them. They have learned to read the instructions at the top of the page: "C position."