ONLINE PIANO LESSONS at Piano Lessons PLUS

In these days of isolation and your child needing a companion. TRY MUSIC!!

I am excited.  Teaching piano lessons remotely for the past several weeks, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has forced me to rethink piano lessons to its possibilities in an online environment.

I have found that online environment quite capable of giving students quality musical instruction.  In these past weeks I have made many adaptations to my new “teaching center” by adding hardware, internet capacity combined with a lot of research to expand my creative capabilities and make my lessons more exciting and engaging.

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I have found ways of communicating with my students that gives them guidance on how to master their material; even exceeding what I was doing in my private studio lessons.  I have been researching how other online math teachers have been using the internet and adapting their innovative techniques to piano lessons.

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I have also found, because of my student’s online savvy, that they have taken to online learning positively and enthusiastically.  It has been a very natural adaptation.

I think there are a lot of parents who have recently been made aware of online learning.  Many students are getting their education online.  In my area many students are using iPads as a natural tool in their school day.

The exciting thing for me is that two of my major teaching programs are already perfectly suited to online learning via computers or iPads.  What I have been doing at my studio is now formatted for immediate use to any online learners.

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My programs ready to go today are Keyboard Kids and The Discovery Piano System.  My Keyboard Kids program is the perfect program to help children, age 4-6, begin to reading music.

My Discovery Piano System is so much more than a method that gets young beginners to read music and play a few songs.  It is a system that gets students composing, arranging and creating music.  It makes music a functional part of their lives, a very part of their person.  They become individually creative with music, even at the elementary level of study.

In days of like today music may be your child’s perfect companion.

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Please contact me today at 724-524-3500 or fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

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My SQ3R MINI-CERTIFICATE Program

PART 1 – SURVEY

 

I’ve often seen piano teachers state that their goal is to “make themselves obsolete”.  I totally agree with this.  This blog is to address one way that we can virtually guarantee this happens.

One of my last blogs was on a common study program given to academic school students to help them master their subject material.  The study program is called SQ3R.  SQ3R stands for the study sequence of Survey – Question – Read – Review – Recite.  I go into detail into each step of the sequence in the blog found [HERE].

What I have devised is a Mini-Certificate Program for my piano studio that incorporates this study sequence into a plan that I think will guarantee I “make myself obsolete” if adopted and diligently implemented by the student.

THE MINI-CERTIFICATES

What I did was to devise five different “mini-certificates” for each of the major parts of the study sequence; Study – Question – Read – Review, and, – Recite.  These “mini-certificates” are approximately 1/9 the size of an 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper.  Below is an example.  Students are to accumulate these “mini-certificates” throughout the academic year.  Each major assignment can be adapted with a mini-certificate in mind.

 

***An example of a SQ3R Mini-Certificate***

A TYPICAL EXAMPLE

Here is how it may work.  Let’s use the popular Burgmuller Arabesque as an example.  The first step in the learning sequence is survey.   BEFORE PLAYING A NOTE we survey the piece and the student is to make notations in the music of everything he can see to help his mental preparation before he begins to practice the piece proper.  This can be anything!   In the case of the Burgmuller Arabesque a few points may be:

• Key: A minor
• Spot all the A minor chords
• Spot all the D minor chords
• Spot the C, G7, Am sus
• Note the two sixteenth note patterns
  • Measure 3 = quick up-down scale pattern
  • Measure 4 = ascending scale
• Measure 7 – Clap the rhythm
  • Perhaps isolate this rhythm and play it
• Note the AB form
• Check to see if all the terms are understood
  • Various editions may have different editings

As the student notes these points they should mentally think of what they mean and imagine playing them.  Imagine playing the A minor scale.  Did you include the G sharp?  Imagine playing the Am and Dm chords.  Imagine playing the two sixteenth note patterns.  This mental preparation is highly important and should not be neglected or slighted.  It’s like the construction of a new structure.  The laying of the foundation takes a great amount of the total time it takes to build the building.  There is much preparation that needs done even the substructure of the building is put in place.

 

I do this type of survey work from the very beginning of a student’s piano lessons.  This type of work must be taught.  Students do not do this type of work automatically without instruction.  The natural impulse is to begin playing the piece; no preparation is considered necessary. Students just lunge into the sight reading cold and the results are not near as good had they “surveyed” the landscape before trying to play the piece.

The best way to teach students on how to survey their music is by doing it with them.  Ask the student questions that lead them to the answers to points given above.  By all means have students write on their scores through this Survey Stage.  As students learn how to survey their music, slowly have them take over more and more of the survey process.

Even when students can begin to survey on their own don’t stop helping students in surveying their music.  Rather, become more detailed.  In Arabesque you could point out tonic, subdominant and dominant chords and a little bit about functional harmony if this is a proper time to pass this kind of information to the student.

Of course, all students will learn how to survey their music at a different pace; but the important thing is that all students learn to make surveying a part of the procedure they use in learning new compositions.  THIS is how we can “make ourselves obsolete” and turn our students into independent learners. A very small handful of students learn how to do this without any instruction and a few more can learn it at a low level of expertise; but, with our persistence all our students can learn how to do this if we make it a part of our teaching approach.

I feel this will go a long way to helping our students learn to not only sight read music better, but just read music itself better.  Music notation can be a very clumsy way of communicating musical ideas.  With most beginning students reading flats and sharps can really slow down their reading; especially if it’s part of a simple chromatic passage.  BUT, if I point out the chromatic passage and SHOW the student the chromatic passage by actually PLAYING the chromatic notes on the piano keys where they SEE the movement of the notes played instead of slogging through the music notation they can often play it, or at least begin to play it more fluently, almost immediately.  In my early teaching years there was the common thought that doing this type of activity would actually hinder the student’s ability to read music well.  My experience has brought me to see it differently.  Again, music notation is often a very clumsy and cumbersome way to express musical ideas and compositional procedures.  If teachers can find other effective means that will facilitate learning and teach these effective means to their students, they should not hesitate to do so. 

Often, I will then get out my yellow highlighter and highlight the chromatic notes to remind the student of what we learned so, in their practicing at home, they can increase their learning curve in mastering the composition.  I think an important part of the teacher’s job is to help the student see these simple music ideas that standard music notation tends to obscure.

APPLICATION OF SURVEY TO THE SQ3R MINI-CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The way I’ve decided to apply SURVEY to our SQ3R MINI-CERTIFICATE PROGRAM is to award a student a mini-certificate for each four compositions a student surveys.

As I said, at the beginning stages of learning I will be doing most of the surveying; but this is done through leading the students through a series of questions to help students arrive at the “points of interest” that will help the student before their initial reading of the composition.  For example, to a beginning student I will ask, “Where in this composition do you see steps?” ,or, “Point out places where the music skips”.

Also, I will, as soon as possible, ask for the student’s input without any instructional coaxing from me.  This is often done as a check to see how much the student is absorbing in their ability to survey music.

As the student begins to get the hand of surveying they will become more and more responsible for their survey work on their compositions.  A teacher can also ask a student to survey a composition that you’re planning on assigning the student the next succeeding lesson.  This will help the student to develop the practice and habit of surveying their new compositions.

As they students complete their surveying work I will have place a blue dot on the corners of the mini-certificate.  Once the certificate has blue dots on each corner the student is awarded the mini-certificate.  Students are asked to see how many mini-certificates they can receive through the academic year.

**NOTE the Blue Dots on the Mini-Certificate**

I think good directed instruction in helping students to survey their musical compositions will go a large way to helping “making ourselves obsolete”.

Stay tuned for PART 2 on my SQ3R MINI-CERTIFICATE Program.  To make sure you don’t miss an installment please subscribe to Blogging at Piano Teacher Press.

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SQ3R – Survey/Question/Read/Review/Recite

In high school I had a friend who became his schools valedictorian.  We were both members of a speech club patterned after Toastmaster’s International.  One meeting Rich was scheduled to give a speech.  I remember it to this day.  It was on the subject of How to Learn Effectively.  Rich didn’t create this method but he used it with obvious success.

The method is SQ3R or Survey/Question/Read/Recite/Review.  I think this method can be adapted to be a superb plan for helping our students learn their repertoire assignments. In adapting the method for music study I slightly altered the sequence by switching the last two “R” items making it  Survey/Question/Read/Review/Recite.  SQ3R is a method guaranteed to improve learning and comprehension in our student’s music study.

I think most students just lunge into their assignment and begin slugging through their new pieces through sight reading. Another slightly more disciplined approach many students use is to first learn hands separately.  But, can this method for learning new assignments be improved upon?  I say YES!!  According to SQ3R jumping into immediately reading the piece is a mistake.  According to SQ3R “reading” is the third step of the five step plan.  Let’s review this plan and apply it to learning a musical composition.

The Overview

SQ 3R or SQRRR stands for Survey – Question – Read – Review – Recite.

SURVEY – Survey the piece for new symbols, words, dynamics, phrases, touches, repeats, fingering, possible trouble spots

QUESTION – As much as you can, study the piece and take in as much as you can without playing the piece through.  Mentally imagine playing isolated passages, for example.  And, after mentally playing through the passage, physically play through the passage.  If the piece contains thumb turns mentally imagine playing those thumb turns.  Make plans as to how to go about learning the trouble spots and then execute that plan by physically playing through it.

READ –  Read through the piece but first determine which parts you’re going to play hands separately and which parts you’re going to play hands together.  ANOTHER R to associate with reading is REPEAT.  REPEAT this step until you can play through the piece steadily and musically.

REVIEW – Once you can play through the piece steadily and musically; to bring this piece to the next level (if you so desire) begin memorizing the piece.  ANOTHER R to associate with review is RECALL.

RECITE – After the piece is well “in your fingers” and, for the most part memorized, we can take this piece to an even higher level and make it RECITAL READY.  ANOTHER R to associate with recite (for my students) is RECORD.  I ask my students to record their favorite compositions as part of their lessons.

I think by students not giving due attention to the first two steps (Survey and Question) they make the third step (Read) much more difficult than it need be.  I think if students will get in the habit of properly surveying and asking questions about their pieces, BEFORE taking their fingers to the keys and reading the piece for the first time, a goodly part of the reading issues will already he partially accomplished.  This is one of the major reasons I think SQ3R is superior to having students jump into reading the piece cold, without proper preparation.  Jumping into reading pieces immediately without due preparation is one of the reasons I think our students may get frustrated with the learning process in taking on their new compositions.

More Detail – SURVEY

In applying SQ3R to music study, I’m saying SURVEY would include those areas of a music composition would include all those items that can be learned through a quick glancing over the music.  I think it is important for the teacher to teach the student “how to survey” a piece of music.

If a composition has a repeat mark, point to the repeat mark and ask the student, “Where do we begin this repeat?”

Is the student familiar with all of the musical terms found in the composition.  The teach should define the terms.

Also include looking at the title of the composition!  If the piece is called Scherzo does the student understand the term and how that would effect the nature of his performance.  The teacher should inform the student so they have a basic understanding of the term.

Finally, at the SURVEY level the student should spot those areas that may provide technical or reading challenges.  If a student has little experience playing left hand eighth note patterns taking note of that passage would be in order.  If there are some very low bass tones the student has never played take note of them.  All this preliminary work help orient the student to the task at hand in learning this new composition.

To repeat, I think it’s very important for the teacher to impress on the student the necessity to SURVEY their composition before playing a note. This is counter to the impulse to get ones fingers running through the notes of a new piece as soon as possible.

Also, at the beginning stages of learning students are carte blanche  and need to develop the skill of learning how to SURVEY a piece of music.  It should be a part of the piano lesson for the first several years of piano study while the student gradually can do this independently from the teacher.  I would also recommend giving students a SURVEY ASSIGNMENT occasionally to check their growing ability of learning how to SURVEY their compositions.

More Detail – QUESTION

This step of SQ3R is where the student asks many QUESTIONS as to how to go about playing the piece.  This requires both mental work and physically work in playing through those isolated trouble spots one found in the SURVEY stage.

This stage is where the student takes the information gleaned from the SURVEY stage and gives it physical application.  If we take our example of learning our first Scherzo the student should give some mental thought and ask QUESTIONS as to how to create an image of playing a piece with good humor.

If the piece has some trouble spots we can isolate those passages, perhaps decide on a good fingering (mental work), and then get a start of learning that passage (physical work).  If one goes through this QUESTIONING method through each tricky passage of a composition one will be in a much better position when one finally gets to the point of playing through the complete composition.

As an example.  I recently started a new transfer student with only 4 months of previous lessons.  She wasn’t poorly taught but she was struggling with her note reading, as do many beginning students.  She already knew several scales and was beginning to learn about chords.  There was a lot of good teaching that I could build upon.  One of the first things I taught this student was “reading in steps”.  I taught her the concept of steps; notes moving from line to space.  THEN I would take a piece from her book and highlight all the step passages in yellow.  A good 85% of this particular piece was steps.  I asked the student a QUESTION. “How much of this piece is made of steps?”. The student quickly observed through my SURVEYING of the music for her that almost the complete piece was made of steps.  When the student saw that 85% of her piece was just stepping to the next note she immediately was able to play the piece with greater steadiness and security.   This is SURVEY and QUESTION at work!

Another example with the same student.  We were learning a very simple arrangement of This Land is Your Land.  This little arrangement had two repetitions of the main theme.  The second repetition had accompanying notes for the left hand.  We didn’t have a lot of experience with this type of simple harmonization so before playing a note I pointed out that this would be a “trouble spot” and something we have not experienced up to this point.  After seeing the problem we isolated those measures and I asked the students questions regarding the notes and we found the notes followed a pattern containing steps and skips.  We found this pattern happened twice, in fact.  We highlighted the left hand pattern and played it through a couple times until we had a basic understanding of the movement of the notes.  I repeated to the student the movement of the notes; a step here and a skip there.  I mentioned to the student when we play this hands together you have to remember the movement of the notes.  THEN we tried playing hands together.  She was able to get through the passage fairly well.  This is SURVEY and QUESTION at work!  It’s a frustration saver.

But again, I repeat.  At the beginning of lessons it will be largely the teacher’s job to help the student through these initial two steps of SQ3R.  In time the students will slowly, as they gain experience and knowledge, be able to take more and more responsibility themselves.

If we immediately hop to the READING step of SQ3r without these very important preliminary steps of SURVEY and QUESTION students will most likely be slugging their way through their new pieces and leading themselves into frustration.  And, in my experience frustration is one of the leading causes of potentially good students dropping their music studies.  The frustration eventually reaches “critical mass” and piano lessons just don’t become worth the effort.  SQ3R is a method that can ameliorate that constant frustration in learning new music; especially through its preliminary steps of SURVEY and QUESTION.

 

More Details – READ

If SURVEY and QUESTION is done thoroughly the READ step will come much more easily.  To save the length of this article I will not address tips on helping students with techniques to help them read music.

BUT ….. I would like to add ANOTHER R word to accompany READ.  That is REPEAT.  There will always be a need for repetition for one to gain fluency and  facility.  I think what we want to strive for is repetition that is meaningful and not meaningless.  One error is the mistake of playing a piece from beginning to end.  It is much more productive to work on more bite size units; a phrase and/or a unit (e.g. Theme One of a sonatina), than a complete composition.

Also, repeating should also have an end in mind.  To repeat a passage until a crescendo is mastered.  To repeat a passage until the voicing is executed clearly.  To repeat a passage until the tone quality is what your ear tells you is proper.

The ability to teach students to read well cannot be underestimated.  I would much rather have my students read well than labor over a couple compositions that gain them a superior rating at a music festival.  I would much rather have my students play 20 pieces nicely than 2 pieces artistically.  Of course, the ultimate goal is to have my students play 20 pieces nicely AND two pieces artistically.  BUT ….. it’s the ability to read music readily that going to be the lasting skill that will keep a student in music for a lifetime; and, for me, reading well gets the priority.

More Detail – Review

Applying SQ3R in the REVIEW step in academic work occurs after one reads the material and then goes over that same material again. This second going over the details is to cement them into ones memory. It is to maybe see if there is a macro theme to be found in this more refined reading stage of the SQ3R plan.

Applying this to music study I again add ANOTHER R to accompany REVIEW.  That word is RECALL.  One of my first teachers once told me that a musician doesn’t carry around his music in a bushel basket when he’s asked to perform.  My teacher had me buy a composition book and I had to alphabetize several pages for each letter of the alphabet.  I was to memorize my music and list these pieces alphabetically in my composition book.  After putting my memory pieces in my composition book I was to be able to play any piece listed instantly from memory.  It was a great discipline.

Unfortunately for me, this teacher quit teaching and my succeeding teachers didn’t continue this particular discipline.  But, developing our students memory skill, or their ability to RECALL, is important; especially to those students that are gifted with good memories.

Developing memory skills and giving students incentives to memorize pieces and/or develop repertoire lists is beyond the scope of this blog but memory, the ability to RECALL, is a discipline that can only benefit a music student.

More Detail – RECITE

Our final step in our SQ3R plan is RECITE.  In academic work after one READS an assignment and then REVIEWS the material so he can recall the significant points of the assigned reading; the student is asked to RECITE the assigned material and put it in his own words.

Here the students gets to the last point of academic mastery by “owning the material“; having absorbed the contents to the point of being able to, in his own words, RECITE the material.  This is learning of the highest order.  It is beyond just “recalling” the points of the assignment.

Some educators derisively call this “parroting”.  This goes to a higher level of learning that demonstrates full mastery of the material where the facts and details are totally absorbed into the student’s person.

Translating RECITE into music study I again give an ADDITIONAL R word.  That word is RECITAL.  After a student has SURVEYED his assignment and have asked good and insightful QUESTIONS about the assignment.  After the student has READ and reread the composition repeatedly.  After the student has thoroughly mastered the reading of the composition and REVIEWS it recalling its details from memory, his work still isn’t fully completed until he goes one more level.  He must now play (RECITE) the composition in recital.  The greatest level of mastery is to play in recital (for an audience); having thoroughly prepared through SURVEY-QUESTION-READ-REVIEW and finally RECITE.

My friend, Rich, who taught me SQ3R became his high schools valedictorian.  This was his method of study.  He became a successful lawyer.  I think if we apply SQ3R in our piano teaching (or creatively adapting its principles in our teaching) we will be “upping our game” in our studios and producing more masterful young pianists.

Survey/Question/Read/Review/Recite

 

 

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I just can’t get them to practice and I don’t want to nag!!

‘He loves their lessons with you, but I just can’t get them to practice,

and don’t want to nag!’

I’ve heard this refrain oodles of times in my years of teaching and my answer to parents is …..

NAG BABY!!

OK; let me refine that a bit …. PERSUADE BABY!!

Let’s take a closer look at that statement.‘He loves their lessons with you, but I just can’t get them to practice, and don’t want to nag!’

Your child loves his teacher.  That’s a huge positive. The comment implies that you want your child to succeed in piano.  That’s also a huge positive.  This is NOT the time to give up when so much is going on in the plus column in the ongoing family drama of piano lessons.  Like I said, I’ve heard this refrain from scores of parents over the years.

When a piano teacher hears a statement like this they have many options available to them, especially when the student “likes them”.  Many teachers will analyze the many different aspects of the piano lessons to find a solution to this commonly heard difficulty.  There are many things a piano teacher will consider using his professional perspective drawing on his education and experience.

I may have a professional perspective, but parents, you have a more powerful and more important perspective; you have a parental perspective. I say this as a teacher; with your perspective you can provide a support that I just cannot provide.

You’re the yin to our yang

The idea of yin and yang is that, taken together, they form a complete unit, a whole. Yet, at the same time they are different.  Yin and yang do not overlap or intersect.  Teachers cannot effectively work alone. Our Yang cannot do the job alone; at least cannot do it near as effectively.

NOTE: As in all analogies, this one, too, is not perfect in all aspects.  But, here are a couple ideas that parents can do to compliment our yang with your yin.   Here are some strategies that you can do to persuade your child not only to love their piano lessons and piano teacher but to love the whole learning experience itself, even practicing.

I want to give you two simple points that will help all parents in The Art of Subtle Persuasion and I promise ….. no nagging required.

Yin Number One – LET YOUR CHILD KNOW YOUR DESIRES

I think often what happens is the homes across America, and the world for that matter, is that a child will do something to demonstrate and interest in music.  The parent is delighted about the child’s interest in music. I also think most parents have a secret hope that their child is musical.  They have a little conversation together. The parent then asks the child if they would like music lessons.  The child enthusiastically says, “SURE!!”.  And then, I get a phone call.

In all of this little conversation the parent never expresses their personal desire to their child.  The child doesn’t know that their parent is as enthusiastic as they are.  Tell your child how pleased you are about his love for music and how excited you are about getting him lessons.  This is a great bonding moment!!  Take the opportunity to unify with your child on your common desire you have together.  If you’re a hugging kind of parent maybe a big hug is in order here.  If you do, that unity of desire will inform your child that he isn’t taking piano lessons totally on his own.  He knows his parent is totally on board and is invested in the endeavor.  Young children thrive on knowing they are doing something that please their parents.

I also think it’s important that when you communicate this to your child you communicate it directly into the child’s mind/soul/heart.  You want to make sure this communication takes root in your child’s person.  I think eye to eye contact is called for in this situation.  This is not something frivolous you may shout from the kitchen before meal time, like, “Wash your hands before coming to dinner.”

This shouldn’t be a one time thing, either.  In a moment like when a parent must explain to the teacher, “I just can’t get them to practice and I don’t want to nag!!” may be such a moment to reiterate you commitment of your desire for your child’s success.  Speaking of your desire for your child’s success repeats the communication that this is an activity that you both want.  It is a much stronger statement than saying, “You told me that you wanted piano lessons.”  “You told me that you wanted piano lessons.” can easily turn into a “nag” because the whole communication is focused on the child. Speaking of your desire for your child’s success repeats the “we” unity.  You are part of this team effort.

I know there’s a lot of discussion that parent’s should not live their desires through their children.  I agree with that.  That is something to be avoided.  I think, though, in reaction to that concept one can go too far in the other direction. That other direction is that the child must make every decision totally on his own accord or it must be looked upon as a parental manipulation and therefore no good. What I’m encouraging is a middle ground where the parent guides, encourages and persuades their child to follow through on a decision that was made together, not through any coercion whatsoever, but through mutual agreement.  Since it’s a mutual agreed upon commitment, you, as parent, have input in what your little team does when that initial resolve and enthusiasm wanes.

Notice, our first point is something totally out of the realm of the teacher.  This is your yin.  My yang comes from a totally different realm where there is no intersection.

Yin Number Two – KNOW YOUR CHILD.  Often, with younger students, parents will think a lesson time right after school may be convenient.  But, it ends out that the student is tired after being at school all day and really need some time to “recharge” or needs a snack to sharpen their mind up for piano lessons.  This is knowledge that cannot be known by the teacher because some children do very well with a piano lesson immediately after school.

Other important things that a teacher doesn’t know.

Is the piano is a area of the home where practice may be accomplished where other family members will feel put upon to “endure”?  But (and a very important but) the piano should also be in a place in the home where people can easily gather and music can be readily shared.

When I was a young student my family put our instrument (an electronic organ) in our living room.  The organ had headphones and when I practiced other family members could use the living room without me distracting them or they distracting me.  This was back in the day when the living room was the center of family activity when we were not all eating.  BUT, when the family members wanted me to play having the organ in the living room was the perfect place because it was the most social room of the house.  My grandfather lived with us and he would have me play the hymns he loved.  When the insurance man would come to explain a new policy, my parents would ask me to play something, especially if I was practicing.  When my friends would come over and want me to play baseball they would come through to the living room and I’d play something I was learning.  When relatives would come and visit everyone would sit in the living room and invariably someone would ask me to play.

The point here is all social occasions are enhanced through music and it’s great incentive to have young student use their developing skills to share with others.  Don’t allow piano to become a lonely activity. Music is to be shared.  Nothing can persuade a student to practice than to know he can have all the attention of everyone in the room for those moments he can share music with others.

Again, this is the yin you add to my yang.  I cannot provide opportunities at this gratifying a level.  I can provide a recital or two per year or an academic setting of a performance class.  My opportunities are bronze or, at best, silver.  Yours are pure gold.

These two point will add powerful yin to my yang and should go a long way in The Art of Subtle Persuasion  …. no nagging required!!

 

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What You’ve Been Missing at FREEBIE FRIDAY (Part 1)

About six months ago I began FREEBIE FRIDAY over at PianoTeacherPress.com  Every Friday I offer a free excerpt from one of my Piano Teacher Press products.  I was recently looking over the wide variety of products that I’ve given away and I thought it should be something more widely known to my loyal readers and your piano teaching friends.

Not only do I give away a FREE excerpt each week but I provide a short commentary on the selection explaining how it can benefit a student in your studio.  To find out what we’re offering this week please click [here] on our FREEBIE FRIDAY LINK.

Here’s a smattering of what you have been missing by not being part of our FREEBIE FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!!

If you have difficulty getting the very young preschool student to read music KEYBOARD KIDS reading method may be your answer.  Our reading method introduces one music symbol at a time in a leisurely paced manner where young students are never overwhelmed.  Suzuki teachers have found KEYBOARD KIDS as a great supplement to introduce their young students into reading music notation.  I have used it for a over quarter century and it has been a great success.  One week I offered The Cool Ghoul as a FREEBIE FRIDAY GIVEAWAY.

Each symbol on this page was introduced individually before The Cool Ghoul appears in their book.  … the quarter note (walk note), the rest, the bar line, the staff line, the treble and bass clef, the time signature (only the top number is given at this stage of learning), the double bar; even the fingering and the stem direction of the notes were introduced as in individual concept.

Reading is introduced to students as STEPS and SKIPS and students are given assignment pages to cement this critical reading concept into the students thinking.  This is introduced from the very beginning.  Students are taught to understand notation where reading becomes a natural process.

To help students understand STEPS and SKIPS we have My Very First Theory Book.  This book gives students exercises to help students think in steps and skips.  One FREEBIE FRIDAY I offered a page that helps student think in steps; not through notation, but through the alphabet.

NOTICE:  This page gives the student the musical alphabet where “A” follows “G”.  After students gain mental facility in learning to think ahead one (musical) alphabet letter; students are given pages to help them think one step backwards.  The same exercises are repeated for skips.

These little exercise is a very good one to help students in doing simple thought exercises in basic reasoning and is one of the ways where understanding music is very beneficial for mental development.

This book provides a very good supplemental book to the KEYBOARD KIDS series of reading books.

Another week I also used The Cool Ghoul as my Freebie Friday Giveaway but this time as part of an exercise designed to build a students rhythmic skills.  This exercise is found in our Discovery Piano System – THEORY Book 1.  I will speak in more detail about The Discovery Piano System in a subsequent blog about our Freebie Friday program.  In THEORY Book 1 there is a section of nearly a dozen pieces that have student and teacher play in ensemble.  One player is the pianist and the other provides a rhythmic background played on a common rhythm instrument.

In this example the rhythm player must play on those beats where the piano player rests, almost always on beat 2.  On the first exercises of this rhythm section of THEORY Book 1 the rhythm part emphasizes the easier skill of playing on the downbeat (beat 1).  This exercises begins to develop the skill of having the student learn to feel an offbeat.  Even though the exercises are designed around simple concepts they are designed in a progressive manner where success is most easily achieved.  Students discover musical concepts in an almost seamless stream of little steps.

As I hope you can see our FREEBIE FRIDAY Giveaways not only give you free music but they give you pedagogical information where you can use the free excerpts and maybe even give you some ideas you can use in your own studio teaching.  To join our growing list of FREEBIE FRIDAY teachers go [HERE]– find the RED BUTTON that looks like the link below (which will be red and not purple) and in your correspondence write – SUBSCRIBE FREEBIE FRIDAY. Be on the lookout for future blogs that go over all that we’ve been giving away each FREEBIE FRIDAY!!

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