For Parents: Helping your Young Beginner to Practice

Building good practice habits takes time and a lot of guidance. These habits will be easier for some students than others. Students will have good days and bad days. This means we need to have a lot of patience, but at the same time we need to constantly remind them how they need to be practicing. With the young beginners (ages 4 to 7 or 8), this means parents are going to be very "hands on" with practicing. I realize most parents don't need anything else added to their to-do list, but helping them out in these beginning years will help them enjoy playing more and build the practice skills they will need when they are older. 

As much as possible, try to set aside a specific time to practice. This helps students remember to do their practicing. Try to avoid times when their focus will not be great. My kids are crabby and uncooperative if they have not eaten, so I have to make sure that they have had a snack right after school and before they practice. All this said, I know what real life is like. We sometimes have sports practices at 4pm and sometimes the sports practice is at 7pm. So, our piano practice time does float around a bit. The important thing is do your best to play the instrument every day.

Along with trying to have a set time, make sure your instrument is readily accessible. If you are practicing with a keyboard, keep the keyboard set up on a stand. The goal is to have students play their instrument often and eventually without help. If they walk by their instrument often, they will then hopefully be tempted to play their pieces as they walk by. Or maybe just improvise something when they see their instrument. 

In the first lessons, I often have students stand at the instrument rather than having them sit on a bench. Often the students are pretty wiggly (that is ok) so it is safer to have them stand up instead of wiggling themselves off the bench. We also will be moving around the keyboard a LOT, playing low and playing high. They can reach more easily if they are standing. When they start to sit on a bench, it is really important that the bench or chair they use at home is a height that allows their arms to be even with the keys. you can see an ideal position in the picture below. Too high or two low of a bench will make it more difficult for them to develop a relaxed posture at the piano. Also, make sure that the bench is not too close. In lessons, I find students are constantly scooting the bench in too close. I remind them that we don't want T-Rex arms, we want our arms to be out in front of us so we can easily reach high and low keys. In the picture below you can see that this student needs a footstool so that his legs aren't dangling. The footstool helps students to feel like they are not falling off the bench. 

At this age, I usually expect students to practice 5-10 minutes a day. Yes, more is definitely acceptable and encouraged. Playing an instrument is very much like playing a sport. Muscles only remember what to do when we have lots of repetition. Practicing is training our muscles. Young beginners do not have long attention spans so I find that breaking up practicing into small time increments is great. For example, have your pianist play one of their pieces two times. Then let them do something else. Maybe a half an hour later ask them to play a different piece two times. I am not saying this is how you MUST do it, but being creative with breaking things up is sometimes better than making them sit at the piano and practicing everything at the same time. 

And now some thoughts on technique for young beginners. Young students are still developing fine motor control. We start with learning to use large muscles and we gradually work our way to smaller muscles. This means that in the beginning students might only be playing with one finger. And that is ok. When the arm muscles get more coordinated, we move on to playing with our middle three fingers, when those get coordinated, we move on to playing with our thumbs (1 fingers) and pinkies (5 fingers). If you studied piano as a child, you might have had a teacher that drilled in to you that we focus on perfect hand shape at the beginning. Current pedagogues (myself included) have found that using larger muscles first will help create a more relaxed technique which will encourage healthier playing long term. I will communicate where we are in the process in practice notebooks. Please do not push your child to use all five fingers before they are ready. We want to encourage them to have a healthy body position for a life-time of playing the piano. This body positioning takes time and we move forward in small increments.

Now - what to actually do in your practice time. Your pianist will have a practice notebook. In the notebook, we have a list of pieces which your pianist can play. I would like them to choose 2-3 pieces from the list to play every day. This might mean that you hear the same piece over and over. And over and over. And then you might hear it again. This is absolutely normal and as tiring as it can be for a parent, it is healthy for them. You probably had the same thing happen when you read books to them. (and still read to them.) I think my husband still has The Big Red Barn memorized because he read it so many times. And I remember how we at one time hid the book Take Me Out to the Ballgame because we were so sick of it. That is what you should end up having with their piano pieces. I will try in lessons to review all the pieces, but at this stage, just have them play the pieces they know. As they get older I will make more detailed practice instructions. For now just play. 

When you get tired of the pieces, encourage your pianist to mix things up. Sometimes they can sing the words, sometimes they could say the finger numbers or the letter names. Most of the books we use have downloadable audio tracks, they can play along with those. The important thing at this level is to play often and play their pieces many times. Encourage your pianist to make things up at the piano. Let them try out using the pedals. This helps them discover all the different sounds the piano can make.

Hopefully this helps give you an idea of what I expect, happy practicing and always feel free to contact me with questions.

First Lesson with Dr H.

 It's the end of summer! I have been able to start a few new students and as we work our way into fall I know I will have some newbies starting with me at my schools.

I have gradually settled into a set routine which I do with every new student in their First Lesson. 

Usually I have to go pick up my new pianist from their classroom and often this is the first time I have met the student. When we get back to my room, I have them immediately sit down at the piano so we can start our lesson.

First activity: Improvise using only the black keys. 

The only instruction I give to the student is that we are going to play together. I will play on the low part, they will play on the high part. I point to the high half of the piano. I tell them we are only going to play black keys. When I first started doing this I used one of the accompaniments from the "Song of the Day" in the Time to Begin book in the Music Tree series. HERE is a link to a recording I have made when I do this activity with my piano classes. Students all react to my instructions differently. Some students will immediately begin playing. Others will blink as they try to figure out if I seriously am wanting them to play anything. Others will be really timid, but I will just keep playing and eventually they will try it out. Some students will play one key at a time, others go for clusters. I can learn a lot about each student's personality when I watch them with this activity. 

Key items for this activity:

Play long enough that students can settle into the activity. I will usually do this for about 3-4 minutes, which feels like a long time for the student. Some students want to go longer. When I think we have gone long enough, I tell the student it is up to them to decide when we stop. When they stop, I stop.

Any verbal comments are telling the student about the loveliness of their sound and about how I love making music with them. I don't give any instructions, we simply play.

Why do I do this activity?

• We start as we want to continue. The focus of all our lessons is making music. It is absolutely magical when students realize what we are playing sounds wonderful. Many of the "littles" ask me to make videos to send to their parents (which I often do). This is what I want - to create love for the sounds we are making.
• Students see me playing and see what great piano technique looks like. Yes, they are only seeing me from their periphery vision, but if I make them just sit and watch me I will get wiggles because they will want to play themselves. Students will naturally imitate what they see, so playing with me will set them up with a mental picture of what playing the piano should look like.
• Playing on the black keys creates a better hand position for students than playing on the white keys. I have absolutely no scientific evidence for this, just my observations. Students will naturally use their 2, 3 and 4 fingers on the black keys which causes them to use their arm muscles to drop in the keys rather than using finger muscles to play. Note that in the activity at no point did I TELL students how to play with proper technique. Instead the students discover and learn proper posture through experiencing the body motions. Learning through experience is going to stick with students more when they head home. It is incredibly important that students learn what it feels like to play with correct posture and hand position.

Second activity: Keyboard topography

Once we are done with out improvisation, I ask students to tell me what they see on the keyboard and what they heard when we played. I get all kinds of answers! Gradually I guide the discussion into hearing the difference between high and low and seeing that the black keys are grouped into 2s and 3s. 

Key items for this activity:

I avoid TELLING students about the piano and the sounds they are creating. Maybe it is because I teach at a Montessori school, but I want my students to learn through observation and discovery. If needed, I will ask leading questions, but I want students to know that all observations are important. Students WILL notice the difference in sound between high and low. All I do is put a name to the sound. (BTW, it is really fun to notice how students try to describe high and low if they don't know the terms.)

We make sure to PLAY everything. Music=Sound. We are not learning about music, we are creating music. So, when they tell me that they see black keys in 2 groups and 3 groups, we play them. We go up, we go down, we play them as clusters, we play them separated.

Why do I do this activity?

• We need to start learning the vocabulary needed for talking about music. This is a way of introducing the terms high/low and up/down without lecturing.
• We need to identify the 2 and 3 black key groups before we can learn the names of the white keys.

Third activity: Names of white keys CDE

In the previous activity we explore the black key groups and I try to transition as seamlessly as possibly into them learning the names of the white keys. I like to start with D. I ask students to play a group of 2 black keys and I ask them to pretend the two black keys are a dog house. (The age of the student will determine how much we go into this.) Dogs should be the only animal in the dog house and what letter does Dog start with? D! Then we practice finding all the Ds. I actually have little dog erasers that we put on the keys when I am working with younger students, junior high students won't be thrilled with the little erasers. Once we find all the Ds I ask what animals should not be in the doghouse. Many students will say cat right away, Others will make a list before we get to cat. Once we get there, we talk about how the cat does not belong in the doghouse so it has to be on the left side of the doghouse. And we put a cat eraser on the C. And then we discuss other animals which shouldn't be in the doghouse, eventually we get to elephant and put the elephant eraser on the Es. 

Once we have three letters learned, we can start to play some tunes. I like to start with Mary Had a Little Lamb because the rhythm is mostly quarter notes with longer notes at the end of the phrases. I will take their notebook or a piece of scratch paper and write the letters on the paper. I write the letters to show up and down on the page. Like this:

Then we play. And I let them know this is incredible because they are already playing something and we can sing along, isn't that fun!!

Once we have played Mary Had a Little Lamb a few times (we need to do it enough that they can replicate this at home!), we do a composition. I usually put lines on a paper and ask them to write a letter C, D or E on each line. When they have completed writing, we play their composition. Sometimes we make up words to go with it. 

Key items for this activity: 

My role is as a guide. When we put erasers on the keys, I have to sit back and let the student do it themselves. I will not be there when they are doing home practice. 

We need to play the pieces enough so they can play both pieces at home. One of the more difficult things for me to learn as a teacher has been how much repetition needs to happen in a lesson. We underestimate how much is needed for a student to actually feel comfortable with home review. 

Even small achievements deserve praise and recognition. This is our first lesson. Every concept learned needs praise. We want to instill JOY in making music. 

Final Thoughts

Usually what I have outlined above takes our whole lesson. Here is what I will probably write in the student's assignment notebook:

Practice finding 2s and 3s

Practice finding CDE

Play Mary Had a Little Lamb at least 2 times every day (sing along!)

Play your composition at least 2 times every day

Feel free to compose more at home and make up music like we did at the beginning of the lesson

With this lesson plan I hope to instill in my new student what I feel is valuable in lessons:

JOY in making music

Learning to improvise

Learning to compose

Building reading skills

Singing along as we play

Program Notes for "It's About Time" (The Official yet very UN-academic Notes)

 When we were asked to come up with a title for our program, I had a lot of thoughts running through my head. None of them related to a theme or title of a program. I sat and stared at what we had come up for a few of the pieces, I started seeing a common word come up in my thoughts. My thoughts were as follows:

What am I going to have time to practice?

It's been a long time since Alana and I have played together. 

It's finally going to be the time we get to play Rich's piece that we commissioned a few years ago and have not yet performed. 

Wow, this Dring trio has a lot of time signature changes. 

As indicated by my italics, I did start to see a theme. And then I pulled out Rich's piece entitled "The Hour is at Hand" (I had forgotten what the title was until then), and our theme/title fell in place. 

The word time can mean many things. One of my absolutely favorite TV shows is Farscape. In episode 11 of season 4, John Crichton and The Ancient have a back and forth not quite conversation: time...s'up, time...flies, time...is infinite. The discussion is about what time actually is and if time is something simple or is it something complex. Einstein called it the fourth dimension. For music, we usually think of timing - when to place a pitch in relation to other pitches. That seems like a dry definition to me, so instead I suggest that you think of time as a musician's canvas to fill with sounds just as a visual artist fills their canvas with colors. What is magical about our canvas is that it disappears, leaving only memories of the sounds and the emotions they evoked in the listener. As those sounds dissipate, we are left with connections to the composers, the performers and fellow audience members. Truly, it is amazing that God has given us such a gift of time and the sounds to fill that canvas! 

Now, it's about time for me to discuss the pieces we have included on this program.

We first have the percussion pieces. I know absolutely nothing about these composers and the pieces and I used my time to practice rather than doing research. I am sure they will be wonderful to listen to and very different than "normal" chamber music programming. (It's about time that percussionists get highlighted in a program.)

The Hour is at Hand is based off the tune St. Cross, which was #136 in CW93. It was commissioned to fit into a Holy Week program which Alana and I were putting together before the pandemic. We needed something for Maundy Thursday and Rich was happy to oblige. The text is as follows:

'Twas on the dark, that doleful night 

When pow'rs of earth and hell arose

Against the Son, our God's delight, 

And friends betrayed him to his foes.

Before the mournful scene began,

He took the bread and blessed and broke.

What love through all his actions ran! 

What wondrous words of grace he spoke!

"This is my body, slain for sin:

Receive and eat the living food,"

Then took the cup and blessed the wine:

"'Tis the new cov'nant in my blood."

"Do this," he said, "till time shall end, 

In mem'ry of your dying friend;

Meet at my table and record

The love of your departed Lord."

Jesus, your feast we celebrate;

We show your death; we sing your name

Till you return and we shall eat

The marriage supper of the Lamb.

This piece is divided into contrasting sections. It opens with warmth and progresses to a lyrical statement of the hymn tune. This is followed with alternations of section which Freese notates should be "Frozen in time" and a march. The frozen in time sections always make me imagine that I am walking through the display of statues of Narnians created by the White Witch. The entire country is frozen in a never ending winter and waiting for the return of Aslan. (If you do not get this reference, go home now and read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. If you walk out in the middle of the recital we will know why.) Freese has created a brittle sound to give us the feeling of stasis or of icicles. It ends with the warmth of the opening.

Fantasie in c minor, BWV 906 is an addition to the program which does not appear in the printed version. Juanita added this after our program was handed in because we agreed Bach had earned a place on our program. He is kind of a big deal for Lutherans. In relationship to time, I always tell my students that Bach was so important that when he died, the next day everyone woke up and the Baroque time period was over and it was the Classical Era. I usually get blinks in response. And then I clarify that I want them to write in their notes that the Baroque time period ended in 1750, which is also the year Bach died. 

Alana and I always include at least one woman composer on our programs. This time it is the Trio for flute, oboe and piano by Madeline Dring. She was an English composer, pianist and singer who married an oboist. Many of her pieces are songs and influences which I believe you can hear in this work are Rachmaninoff, Poulenc, Gershwin and Cole Porter. Supposedly she had a fantastic sense of humor and once wrote her own bio as follows: "Madeleine Dring was born on the moon and can therefore claim to be a pure-bred lunatic. Arriving on a speck of cosmic dust she came face to face with the human race and has never really recovered." (I am not kidding, I found this information HERE)

Judy suggested including Introduction and Variations on "Ihr Blumlein Alle" so that we would have something representative of a more Classical sound. Schubert is one of the bridge composers who can fall either into Classical or Romantic (just like Beethoven). The piece uses the very classical traditional theme and variation form, but the introduction makes Schubert's forward thinking very clear. The piano part is very difficult so I asked Juanita to play it so that I wouldn't have to practice. She obliged. 

The Ravel Sonatine is originally a piano solo work which has been transcribed for oboe and piano. The composer is often called a Neo-Classicist because he used Classical forms. This piece uses traditional sonata-allegro form although it clearly has the color palate of turn of the century French music. 

The last piece on the program is "Cantique d'amour". This is the last piece in a set of ten pieces collected into Harmonies poetiques. The set is a religious cycle - Liszt actually composed MANY religious works. Throughout the cycle Liszt uses liturgical elements to outline a believer's journey with sin, penitence and the triumph which has been won. The cycle moves through keys which Liszt felt symbolized different aspects of Christianity. E Major is used for many of his sacred pieces, an indicator that he is taking us to spiritual topics. He then uses C Major to symbolize purity, which is God the Creator. The farthest one can get from C, is across the Circle of Fifths with F# Major, this is the key used for symbolizing humanity. We need a mediator between God and Man, this is shown with the key of A-flat Major, used to symbolize Jesus who came to earth for us. Liszt uses this key often when he wants to indicate Love, take for example the very popular third Liebestraum. All of these keys occur during the cycle with complete pieces and with portions of pieces. In this last piece of the cycle, Liszt returns to E Major, but makes it clear with the title that Love is what brings everything to a close and what triumphs over everything. I felt that this piece was a fitting close to our recital. 

Annotated Repertoire from "Pulling it All Together", a presentation for WMTA, MMTA and CFMTA

Link to slide presentation

Pieces to help teach phrase identification

"The Highlands of Scotland" from Echoes of Scotland by Mary Leaf
I like to use this piece to talk about phrases because for a beginning student, the four phrases are very clear. Each is four measures in length. We begin by looking for parts which are the same - phrase 1 and phrase 3 are identical, phrases 2 and 4 are almost identical. So, we look closer at phrases 2 and 4. Which phrase sounds like it ends on our "home" key? Most of the time students will naturally make the last note of phrases 1 and 2 less to shape a beautiful ending to the phrase, if they do not, then we are able to discuss how the last note will be less to better communicate the sound of the text when we sing it. If we want to get more sophisticated, I can have students listen to the harmonies in the teacher duet and pick which harmony they want to have be the loudest or most intense measure of the phrase. I love how I can do so much shaping and make such a beautiful melody with this piece without having to do complex note reading. This is what we need to be doing as teachers - work on listening skills to hear phrase shaping from early lessons!

"In the Meadow" from Kaleidoscope Solos book 1 by Jon George
(This piece can also be an opportunity for a student to practice identifying intervals.)
This is another piece with clear four measure phrases, 1 and 3 are identical, 2 and 4 only have the last note different. For phrases 2 and 4 we listen for which phrase sound like more of an arrival at home. If the student already knows 5 note scales we can identify the scale of the piece. I love how the melody "zig-zags". Students and I will "draw" the melody in the air. For example, the first phrase would go up, then down, then up and then slightly down. (Maybe this meadow is not a flat one and has a lot of hills to roll up and down.) Our goal with drawing in the air is to feel how the melody moves forward, it will be the most expressive if we feel the energy it takes to do the zig-zags and create a connected line of pitches. I feel moving our bodies to the direction changes helps eventually develop skills of "conducting" which students will eventually need to help with shaping more advanced repertoire.

Spaceship to Mars by Carol Matz
For this piece I want to look at the B section, which we can also identify as a whole tone scale. We can talk about what is the effect of a whole tone scale and why do we think the composer decided to use it. The notes are slurred into three note groups, but by looking at the direction of the notes we can organize them into four groups of two measures. The first three groups have six pitches, the last group ends with the dotted half note. Students and I discuss the repetition - measures 17 and 18 are the same as 19 and 20, whenever we repeat something, we have to do something with our dynamics (the composer writes a crescendo, but we would do it anyway). Then in measures 21 and 22 the pitches start higher, so we REALLY have to do something! In measure 23 we begin the pattern considerably higher and then to finish the section we end with a half step instead of a whole step, a pretty big deal which leads us back to the A section. When we look at how those six notes and eventually the last 4 notes of the section relate to each other, we see how we can shape the music to create longer phrases (we don't need to wait until the student is playing Brahms). All this coincides with the imagery of flying the ship out into outer space! For the A section we can compare the first and third phrases - what it the difference and how does the sound/effect change because of that difference.

"Freddie the Frog" from Freddie the Frog by Anne Crosby
When I teach this piece, I have students study and practice the melody first. We probably will leave out the right hand in measures 1,2,4,9,10,12,14,16,19 for a few days of practicing until the shaping of the melody is very much in the student's ear. I believe when we do hands separate practicing it should not be with the intent to "learn the notes", but instead it is to listen better to how the individual lines are meant to be shaped. If we allow our ears to get used to hearing a line or melody without shape, then our ear learns it is acceptable to play without shaping a line. It is not, we should strive to play every note and thus every line with some kind of shape. We can always change our minds about what shape we want, but NO shape is not an option. This is another piece I often have students "draw" or conduct the melody in the air to help feel the motion of the melody.
We look at the patterns in the phrases. Phrases 1 and 3 have two parts - 2 descending lines. The last two lines could be considered as one long phrase (8 measures) or two 4 measure phrases (students could choose which they prefer). The second phrase I find is often the most difficult simply because it doesn't have the same motion of the other phrases. So, it helps to do some interval analysis (moving into the next theoretical concept) of seeing the thirds from G to E to C to A (maybe be a frog skipping over the keys?)

Pieces to help teach intervals

"Thirteen Robots" by Keven Olson from In Recital with Little Pieces for Little Fingers Original Solos, Book 1
This piece uses 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths both harmonic and melodic and moves the intervals into different fingers. For example, the 4th is sometimes with fingers 2 and 5, sometimes with 1 and 4. This way students don't get used to a 4th always using their 4 finger. The steady quarter notes help give the piece a "mechanical" sound. (This piece can also use the concepts of the previous section with using the patterns to help decide shaping of the phrases.)

"Grasshopper Parade" from Scenes from my Window by Claudette Hudelson
This selection uses 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths within one hand and if you look in measures 13 and 14 there is a 6th and a 9th between the two hands. For this piece, I like to have students really listen to which intervals are more consonant and which are more dissonant. We will use what they hear to help shape the phrases, getting louder or softer, whichever the student prefers as the intervals change.

"Zimbabwe" from Four Miniature Suites by Valerie Roth Roubos
This piece uses 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths both harmonically and melodically. I like to have students listen and shape the interval changes which happen in measure 3 and 11 (and similar places).

"A Flowing Stream" from Be a Star, book 1 by Keven Costley
This piece is one of many in the book series which focuses on intervallic note reading. This piece could also be used for chord identification. I appreciate how the composer writes in repetitions to help students really learn to feel the interval patterns. Students encounter 2nds, 3rds and 5ths both melodically and harmonically. A student playing this piece should be getting more fluent with intervals, but this piece has enough slight variances in the patterns that students need to be careful.

Pieces to help teach ABA form

"Ninja Power" from Black Key Blast! by Wendy Stevens
This piece is in ABA form with a coda. I have my students begin by looking at the melodic patterns, then we can identify the A section as two parallel phrases, the second phrase more final because of the length of the last note. Then the student has to tell me what is different about the next section. All quarter notes instead of a mix of quarters and halves. More of a zig zag melody instead of a leap followed by a descending melody. The whole point at this level is to see that there are two sections which are contrasting. Then we talk about what the ninja might be doing in the A section versus the B section. Maybe tiptoing around and sneaking up on someone? Then, when we play we try different articulations to find what the student feels is the best for creating the character (or ninja moves) which they have decided best fit.

Walter the Snake by Lori Bastien
This piece is ABA with an introduction and a coda. For the A section, I would have students look at the melodic direction - zig zag around a half step. We would compare this to the B section which is ascending by 2nds. Within the B section we can compare the two phrases and identify the first as being major and the second as minor.  We can discuss how the different melodic shape creates a different character or effect. To me, the A melody feels like descriptive or declamatory music (also see the text). The B section feels like it is anticipating something and building more excitement. In measure 19 we can listen to how the gradually increasing intervals (Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Major 3rd) build to an arrival on the downbeat of measure 20. This would be why the composer writes in a ritardando - to help us listen to the intervals.

Petite Waltz by Carolyn Setliff
This piece has a more extended form - A, A prime, B, A second. One of the first things students and I would do after identifying the different sections is to discuss what makes each of the sections different and how that effects the sound. This would mean we really look at the last two measures of each A sections. For example, measure 7 is a d minor chord moving to G. Measure 15 is an f-sharp diminished moving to G. Measure 43 should be similar to these two, but instead the composer extends the pattern by continuing the left hand line to an A-flat which then takes us to an a minor chord moving to G. We would play all three of these A section endings and listen for how each is different. The first two are with a piano dynamic, the last is mezzo piano. But, within the composer's parameters, the performer can make sure that each of these cadences have a different sound and we can try out different choices - do we make the final Gs more or less, do we take a bit of time? When we look at the B section we compare the A and the B sections. What is different - melody in LH versus RH, ascending versus descending, G Major instead of C - and how does this change the sound or character. Would we possibly experiment with some articulation changes to help show the character change?

Pieces to help teach scales

I like students to really listen for what they hear in the difference between major and minor qualities. I really try not to put words into their mouth (happy vs. sad), but let them think about the difference. If students are having a difficulty verbalizing, I might have them tell me what might be happening in a story or movie if they hear that sound. We also experiment with how the sound will change depending on the register of the instrument or the dynamic level. Eventually, we can even experiment with the voicing of the chord creating a different effect. For example, a c minor chord played low on the piano will have a different effect than the same harmony played high.

"Beverly Butterfly" from Look Who's Visiting in My Garden by John Robert Poe
This piece uses the scale of B-flat Major and has outlines of both F7 and C chords (so we could explore subtle dynamic changes for harmony changes). I really like to have students learn five-finger scales really early on in their piano study, so it is lots of fun when we can have pieces which use those scales. This book has a number of pieces uses a variety of scales. Even though the hand position is not what would be considered a B-flat Major hand position, students can still figure out the key. We listen to the piece for what pitch sound like "home". Once we decide on B-flat we can compare it to the five finger scale which they know and yes, it does use the same pitches. Then, we can notice that measure 7 does NOT follow the notes in the scale because of the E natural, that means this is a place in the piece we will want to do something with our dynamics to help the audience hear that something interesting is happening.  I also like pieces like this because we can work on identifying the scale or key of the piece without having to talk about key signatures. I think too often we think of key signatures as being PRESCRIPTIVE of the scale of a piece rather than being DESCRIPTIVE of the scale.

"Paper Airplanes" from Happy Times by Elvina Pearce
In this piece students can identify three different five finger scales - C, b-flat and D-flat. Elvina only gives four different dynamic directions, but because she changes the harmony more than that we can explore doing subtle dynamic changes for all harmonic changes. I really want to stress that I want my STUDENTS to come up with any dynamic shaping, I do not prescribe the changes. We will usually try a couple of options together in the lesson, but then I send students home to try many more options at home. Sometimes what I hear the next week is a bit bizarre, but it is what the STUDENT has decided on. That, to me, is the most important aspect - that the STUDENT is making choices. My job as a teacher is then to simply communicate to the student if their choices are coming across clearly to me, the audience.

"Midnight Chase" from Splattered with Fun by Glenda Austin
All the pieces in this collection are in a different key, so the whole volume is very helpful for helping students with relating scales to actual pieces. I like this piece because it uses both the f minor scale as well as the chromatic scale. (It also even uses secondary dominant in measure 7.) So, we can discuss the different effects of the two scales and how we might shape those differently.

Pieces for teaching chord identification and functional harmony

"For My Own Amazement" from Merry and Mellow by Paul Sheftel

I love using this piece with students who need some reinforcement on chord inversions. Sheftel has also given us a gift of few dynamic markings so that students can use their ears to listen to the color changes which happen with each new harmony and determine how they will change their dynamics with each change. In addition to exploring those color changes, students and I will practice just blocking out the chords without the inversions so that we can listen to the overall arc of the piece. Then, when we add all the inversions back in, we try to make sure that overall arc still happens.

Witches' Brew by Catherine Rollin
This piece has only a few chords - d, B-flat, B-flat German 6th and A, so it is excellent for working on identification. I have students just practice the RH chord changes, not just to feel the finger changes, but to also HEAR the difference. We especially do this with the German 6th chord and the B-flat Major chord. I ask students to listen the sound difference between the two chords and then experiment with different ideas for shaping. For example, in the first two measures we have the d minor leading to the German 6th then in the next two measures the d minor leads to the B-flat Major. How are these going to be different? Is one going to have more of a crescendo than the other or are we going to voice the top note of the chord more? In measures 17-24 we have the pattern four times, how are we going to shape each of those two measures differently and how are we going to relate them so we end up with an 8 measure phrase?

Pumpkin Dance by Timothy Brown

This piece uses c, G7 and another augmented 6th chord - the French 6th built on A-flat. Both this and the previous piece had augmented 6th chords. I definitely think that when we encounter these in elementary and intermediate repertoire that we need to identify them and give them a correct label. Especially in this case when the harmonic progression follows the prescribed resolution of the augmented 6th going to the dominant. Usually by the time a student is playing this piece we have already encountered dominant 7th chords. So, ideally the student will be able to recognize a chord which has the same intervallic spacing as a V7 when we look at the keys, but we can recognize that the 7th of the chord is "incorrectly" spelled as a 6th instead of a 7th. That leads us to identifying a German or Italian 6th chord and then we can move on to identifying the French 6th. In the previous piece, the German 6th did not resolve to the dominant. In this piece it does, so we are able to also talk about the function of the augmented 6th chord.

"Easter Eggs" from All Year Round by Linda Niamath
This piece uses broken chords - E-flat, f and B-flat. The last line is an elongated cadence. I love it how the composer has chosen to not include dynamic markings in this cadence so students can feel the freedom to experiment with different options. What do they like the best - the ii chord the strongest or the V or the I? They can do this all within the mp parameter given by the composer, but the cadence will be most satisfying when the performer does something to indicate that they truly are helping their audience listen to the chord progression.

"Tension" from Musical Scenes, book 1 by Joyce Grill
I don't necessary like the title of this piece, since I really don't want my students to ever think "tension" when they play the piano. But, I understand the intent of the title - to remind us of the MUSICAL tension of a dominant function chord resolving. I appreciate how the composer has given us the whole first page with almost no dynamic markings so that students can really explore showing the harmonic changes. Please note, I am not meaning for these dynamics to be huge, but subtly leaning into a certain harmony and relaxing another harmony. In measure 17, I like for students to think about WHY the composer has marked this measure with p. Hopefully, we will eventually come up with the answer that it is because of the change to C7, which is really a huge shift from the primary chords of e minor.

"Tango Espanol" from Piano Solos in Lyrical Style by Carolyn Miller
I have had some students play this piece and without much prompting end up with a wonderfully expressive performance. Others have to work through the piece more in order to hear all the beautiful non-chord tones. We usually start by identifying the chords, which means we focus on the left hand. After a student has done their analysis (could be done with or without me based on the student's analytical ability), they should be able to tell me that there are three harmonies - d minor (tonic), g minor (sub dominant) and A Major (dominant). What I then like them to do is spend time practicing only the left hand. In order to help hear the function of each of those harmonies we might need to overemphasize them a bit in practice. For example, we might need to practice the dominant always being louder and then less on the tonic. I am not saying that this would necessarily be how we will eventually perform the piece, but it might be a practice tool to help actually feel the resolution of the harmonies. The goal is to feel that every time we return to the d minor harmony, we have returned "home". Ideally, with only this left hand practice, we will achieve a left hand part which already shows the expressive quality of the tango even without a melody.
For the right hand, I have students circle all the non-chord tones in the melody. Then we experiment with the many different options of leaning into the non-chord tones or pulling away from the non-chord tones, changing the articulation in some of the phrases, the options are endless. But, we make decisions based on whether or not the melody notes are in the chord or not. Then, to help hear the harmonic outline of the melody better, we play the melody plus the bass note. Not all the left hand notes, only the lowest note of the left hand pattern. At this point and in all the previous points in the learning process of this piece, our focus has been on making each note show the direction of the phrases and the harmonic outlines. We have never done practicing to "just learn the notes". Every note played we listen for if we are creating a phrase or showing a new color.
Eventually, once I am convinced that the student has an aural "image" in place, I allow them to add all the left hand notes. If we have done the careful listening throughout the process, we hopefully will avoid ever playing the piece without being expressive.

Accompanying hymns in worship part 1: tempo and meter

I get to play for my church's worship services about once a month. (I attend Faith Lutheran in Sussex, Wisconsin) We are blessed to have a number of us who are capable of playing for services so no one is obligated to play for every weekend's services. My favorite part of the service is accompanying the hymn singing. For the most part, our congregation is boisterous in its singing and responds well to variety in playing. I absolutely love it that my church has made an effort to use hymns which have been composed over many centuries of Christianity. Yes, Christian hymns are mostly from the Western music traditions, but that is due to the evolution of music in Western civilization as well as Christianity being predominantly in Europe. I look forward to seeing what hymns become composed in the future which include musical traditions of other cultures as the Gospel spreads and inspires poets and composers from other backgrounds.

When preparing for a service, I always start with the hymns, these are the most important musical parts of the service (this includes any liturgical responses and canticles). I like to first simply read through each of the hymns doing an analysis of the poetry, hymn tune and the tune setting. What I hope for with each hymn is good prosody and opportunities to highlight important concepts in the text. I make sure to look at all the verses we will be singing because there will be differences.

(Prosody is the word singers use to refer to how text and music match. For example, Brahms had a habit of placing unaccented syllables on accented beats or higher pitches resulting in awkward prosody. Schubert in contrast will more likely have a tune which will flow with the text - good prosody. I love both composers' songs, but this is just how we analyze and recognize differences between composers.)

Choosing a tempo for playing the hymns can aid in a congregation learning to love a hymn or deciding to avoid it altogether. Our goal should be to find a tempo which helps the congregation emotionally connect to the thoughts and teachings the hymn writer communicates. Creating an environment of thoughtful and emotional congregational singing develops a connection to our brothers and sisters who have sung the hymns centuries before us as well as joins us with our brothers and sisters singing in the pews next to us. This unity is an amazing blessing and is why I so strongly believe in congregational singing.

Here is my process in finding my ideal tempi for singing hymns:

First, I look for the general character of the hymn and if any verses change character. A hymn might be declarative - simply stating facts, penitential - confessing sinfulness, joyful and praising, thankful or reflective.

Next, I will simply speak through the text. While speaking, I try to keep in mind the overall character, paying attention to how I would speak the words in the character of the hymn. So, if the character is penitential I will speak slower than if I were speaking in a joyful character. I will also pay attention to how the character will affect the enunciation of vowels and consonants. If you are at all confused to how these different characters can come across in speech, just sit and listen to conversations sometime. As a speaker gets excited, the rate of speech will be quicker and usually have more clipped consonants. These occurrences in speech are what I am trying to capture when I am speaking through the text. When speaking, I will also try to feel the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. This will especially be important in some of our hymns which appear to be unmetered.

(As an aside: many of the hymns we sing are translations. All the aspects of hymns I look for in the above process really show the incredible gift these translators had to be able to translate a hymn and use words which show the character and rhythm which match the music. This would be why we usually do not use word by word translations of hymns, they simply do not create hymns which come alive when sung by a congregation.)

So, I have spoken through the text but have yet to play the music. I like to start with the melody first and I first try to sing it a capella. My reasoning for this is that I want to find a tempo which is determined by the text rather than the ability of my fingers. I will often try to move - walking, swinging arms, bouncing - as I sing the melody. There are a surprising number of our hymns which are actually tunes from folk dances or use dance rhythms. Chorale type setting will sometimes hide these dances so taking out everything except the melody will help bring any dance qualities the hymn might have to the forefront.

At this point I have finally (hopefully) decided on my tempo for the hymn. I will also determine what kind of metric flow I want for the music. For example, if a piece is in 3/4 meter usually I will decide to feel one big pulse on the downbeat with beats two and three moving towards the downbeat. This part of the process is especially important in the unmetered tunes. These unmetered tunes come from a tradition of madrigal singing which is rich with hemiola effects. They might have a feeling of two beats together, then three beats. Speaking the text and attempting to dance the melody will help make this type of meter clearer. What I want to avoid is feeling all beats of the measure as equal. All beats are never equal, some are down beats, some move forward, no beat is ever static.

Now that I have the feeling of the motion of the hymn, my goal is to play the music in a way to highlight these qualities, making sure whatever accompaniment I play supports the text. This means the a chorale setting in whatever hymnal am using might not be appropriate. It might mean the harmonic rhythm of the setting is too quick and I need to play a simpler accompaniment. The most important task I have is to communicate the hymn's character to the congregation even if it means I only play the melodic line.

How about I walk through this process using a hymn.

Let's look at a Luther hymn which I think is underused. In our hymnal (Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal published by Northwestern Publishing House) it is #271, We All Believe in One True God to the tune of "Wir glauben all an einen Gott". (The setting I have linked to IS different than the one in Christian Worship, but the link will at least give you an idea.)

Since this is a creed hymn, it is simply declarative, so I like to think we would declare the text is as straightforward as possible, attempting to match the pace of speaking the words.

Here is a recording of me reading through the first verse: verse 1 of We all Believe in One True God
We all believe in one true God,
Who created earth and heaven,
The Father, who to us in love
Has the right of children given.
He in soul and body feeds us;
All we need his hand provides us.
He through snares and perils leads us,
Watching that no harm betides us.
He cares for us by day and night;
All things are governed by his might.

Since this hymn has a few melismas, I feel it is best to look for the simplest phrases to determine my tempo from speech. That would be the fifth and sixth phrases - He in soul and body feeds us; All we need his hand provides us. 

The rhythm of the text does not exactly match the rhythm of the melody in that in speech "feeds us" and "provides us" would probably be notated as eighth notes through both phrases rather than ending with two quarters, but even so, this would be a great place to find our pulse. After speaking and finding my place, I pull out my metronome and figure out my pulse. (I use a free metronome app on my phone which lets me tap my pulse and then it shows me the tempo of my pulse. The app is called Pro Metronome.)  My speech tempo for this piece is roughly 83 to the quarter note pulse.

Now, I will practice speaking the text at 83 in the actual written rhythm to see if my thoughts on the tempo might change. For the most part, I like how it fits together at that tempo.

Next, since this is an unmetered hymn I will speak the text at my tempo and try to figure out my stressed syllables. Here is what I end up with (mainly a trochaic tetrameter):

WE ALL beLIEVE in ONE true GOD,

WHO creAted EARTH and HEAven,

the FAther, WHO to US in LOVE

HAS the RIGHT of CHILdren GIven.

HE in SOUL and BOdy FEEDS us;

ALL we NEED his HAND proVIDES us.

HE through SNARES and PErils LEADS us,

WATching THAT no HARM be TIDES us.

HE CARES for US by DAY and NIGHT;

ALL things are GOverned BY his MIGHT.

Time for singing! Now I will try to sing the text, usually a capella, really trying to focus on feeling the stresses of the poetry in the text. Almost a capella We all Believe (I was not brave enough to record myself completely a capella it would take me a while to practice to the point of comfort, so the recording is singing with light piano support.) If you are looking at some versions of this hymn which have the music written in half notes or even longer note values, here is a quick history lesson. When music notation began, it was written predominantly in whole notes, for examples of this look at manuscript or early printings of music by Monteverdi. This practice eventually evolved into the notation system we have today, but at times hymn notation did not evolve enough and we end up using some copies which still use the longer note values resulting in a miscommunication of actual tempi to modern musicians. This hymn tune is from the 14th century, if you need convincing about my tempo choice, go spend some time at a Renaissance Festival and/or listen to Renaissance madrigals. (I had the wonderful opportunity in undergrad -University of Central Missouri- to sing in the madrigal choir and I absolutely LOVED it. We spent the entire fall semester singing only Renaissance music, performed at the Kansas City Ren Fest and put on a madrigal dinner for the holidays. We eventually had the opportunity to sing Palestrina in the Sistine Chapel, it was incredible. This music is expressive and beautiful and is all over the place in our hymnals and we need to bring these hymns to life by singing them like madrigals.)

Hopefully you are now convinced of my tempo choice for the hymn and in case you did not like this hymn, maybe are starting to consider it actually could be a great addition to your congregation's repertoire. Now, we need to be able to play it in a way that lets the congregation confidently and robustly sing the hymn. In order to do this, I prefer to play a setting which focuses on the melody and the pulse, so I need to play WAY fewer notes than are notated in the hymnal setting. I go back to thinking about madrigal music. Prevalent instruments at the time were NOT keyboard instruments. We are instead thinking lutes, recorders, drums. So, I will play the melody, attempting to have a light sound similar to a recorder, always leaning into accented syllables. I might actually ONLY play the melody to accompany the congregation so that our tempo does not get bogged down. If I do this, I will usually play the melody in octaves - right hand at the written octave, left hand an octave lower. This will help the men sing better to have it played in their octave. Melody in octaves  If I want top get more adventurous and play more, I need to keep in mind my goal of still feeling the dance of the melody so if I add any notes to my accompaniment it must still have a feeling of lightness. If I add anything, it will be just a simple bass note (trying to imitate a drum which would be pulsing on the strong syllables. It would possibly sound like this Melody plus simple bass line. For any music theorists - my bass line does not follow rules of counterpoint. But, it does not need to because the tune predates the rules of counterpoint and I am not trying to create a singable bass line, I am attempting to create a sound of a drum. Also, this hymn is an example of use of the Dorian mode, which would have a different type of harmonization than major and minor which became prevalent in the latter part of the Baroque period. In an ideal world, I would not actually even play this hymn on the piano, I would sit back and watch a flute, a drum, maybe a tambourine and a guitar attempt to recreate the sounds of lute, recorder and drums.

I know this post is getting long, but I want to look at one more hymn, a Lenten one since we are finishing up that season. This one is #127 in Christian Worship: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted with the tune O mein Jesu, ich muss sterben.

Step 1: character is a reflective declarative 

Step 2: Speak the text, verse 1

Step 3. find a pulse based on my speaking. This is a bit awkward to find a metronome marking because our poetic "pulse" is on beats 1 and 3 of the written meter. Which is what is going to bring this poetry to life and give us our feeling of the meter. To me, it feels like we REALLY need to lean in to what will end up being the first beat of every measure. This will result in a meter which only has one beat per measure, so we will need to back off considerable on the last two pulses in the measure to make the poetry flow.

Step 4: Sing a capella

Step 5: Attempt to play in the same tempo as feels natural a capella

Melody with simple accompaniment

Full setting from hymnal

I could do this process with a few more hymns and tunes for you, if you would like me to do that, please just leave a comment and I will go through the process with another hymn (or a few more). But, hopefully working through this these two hymns gives you ideas on how to approach hymn preparation which will inspire your congregation to actually sing along and encourage you to explore possibilities of hymns you possibly have not used before. Bringing hymns to life is mostly dependent upon finding a tempo and a meter which allows the congregation to easily sing the text. We can do that without needing to play a lot of notes or find fancy accompaniments. 

Part 2 of my thoughts on playing the hymns will focus on shaping the phrases of the hymns. This will included pacing the breathing, working with commas and periods, etc. So, keep watching for that post!

What is fluency?

I believe there are many aspects to consider with this question, but the idea of fluency and what is necessary to acquire fluency and how fluency is exemplified in the student could probably be a discussion topic taking hours at any music teacher gathering. (So, if anyone reads and has thoughts, PLEASE feel free to share comments here on the blog so we can possibly get a discussion going!) I was forced to consider my definition of fluency when I was studying Italian and my definition has continued to develop ever since. My second semester of Italian was with a very inexperienced graduate student who was a native Italian speaker. We had a very small class, which should have meant we had the luxury of excessive amounts of practice time of all concepts. Instead, I remember how we would discuss a concept, maybe do 5-6 sentences using the concept and then our teacher would declare it was perfetto and we would be done. I was incredibly frustrated and I used my frustration to analyze my own teaching and how I prepared my students for their at home practice. In contrast, my next Italian teacher patiently made us practice all concepts ad naseum - going back all the way to first semester concepts. I still am no where near fluent in Italian, but it was much more likely to happen with the teacher spiraling through old concepts and practicing until verb conjugations flowed naturally with little to almost no thought needed.

So, how does fluency in a language relate to musical fluency? Some aspects are identical, music is a language. But, music is also a physical activity so we need to practice like it's a sport. And then there is an additional aural component requiring us to listen to subtleties and react immediately, making changes as a reflex reaction since we do not necessarily have time to complete a thought before the moment passes. All these components make musical fluency difficult to define as well as to achieve.

I guess I could give some examples of what I have seen from students which I would say are NOT exhibiting fluency.
Student has many stumbles throughout their piece of music.
Student has many fingering errors in a scale.
Student can play an entire Bach Invention from beginning to end almost perfectly but cannot start anywhere in the middle of the piece.
Student plays a piece multiple times exactly the same way and when asked to make changes to phrase shaping or rhythmic flow everything falls apart.

To complicate matters more, I think we CAN achieve fluency at different levels. Take for example a student who has been taking lessons for roughly two years who can play all major and minor pentascales without prompting; can read accurately and independently pieces with no hand shifts; and can play (after practicing) a piece with a few hand shifts and can verbally discuss the intervals used, phrase patterns and character of the piece. This is a different level of fluency than I expect from a student who has studied their instrument for ten years. But, I think it is imperative (a "moral imperative", to borrow a quote from the movie Real Genius) that we as teachers make sure we have the goal to build a level of fluency in each of our students no matter what the difficulty level of their pieces might be.

So, how to do this... I definitely do not have all the answers, but for now I will oversimplify for the sake of discussion. I like to think that we have two major skills to develop when creating each student's plan for musical growth. One is physical skill, the other is cognitive. Each student (and teacher) will probably have a greater aptitude for one or the other. Our job as teachers is to make sure both sides are carefully developed. This often requires self-analysis as a teacher because we probably teach one more naturally than the other.

First, the physical aspect. I think we underestimate the number of repetitions we need to reach physical fluency. Most students definitely underestimate. So, we need too make sure to give very specific assignments from the very beginning in order to aid them in learning this skill. I will often give assignments to practice a 1-2 measure spot in a piece a minimum of 10 times a day. I work with many parents who have not ever played a musical instrument so I also make sure they are aware that they should be hearing some repetitive practicing.  I often use an example of my brother who spent one winter preparing himself to be a switch hitter for baseball. He diligently did 100 swings left handed every day so the motion became natural. This is when we also discuss how physical fluency is built over time. Please note, it is really important that we do these repetitions in the lessons to make sure they are learning the correct motions so they are not learning and then repeating an unhealthy motion.  I remember having an assignment to drill the opening thirds of Beethoven op. 2 #3 for 10 minutes every day for 30 days. My teacher (Dr. Mia Hynes) worked with me to make sure my drilling was done with a relaxed hand/wrist. She made sure I was drilling with comfortable fingerings. This was when I was an undergrad that she had so much care for my physical approach to the technical issue. It is even more critical that we have that care for pre-college students - many of them will not continue study at the collegiate level to "fix" technical problems. 

 Here is what I suggest for helping build this physical fluency:

1. Establish a scale/arpeggio regimen which gradually increases awareness of fingerings and fluency of scale patterns. Make sure to practice these with the students so you can watch for tight wrists, over curving of fingers, raised shoulders, etc. Focus should always be on learning body awareness before practicing for velocity.

2. Select pieces which do not overwhelm students with too many technical problems in one piece. From the very beginning stages of learning the piece, practice the technical issues together and discuss the practice plan for these passages. 

3. Be very specific in your practice instructions and do all the practice steps together in the lesson. I write in assignment books exactly what I want - 5 times in a row with correct fingering, for example or exact metronome setting for slow practice. I make sure we practice the exact gesture we want to have happen.

4. Once a piece is learned, make sure you have a plan with the student for maintaining the physical fluency. For example, slow practice every other day or spot practice or drilling passagework.

Now, what I think is the second aspect of fluency - cognitive awareness. In many ways I think this can be more difficult to teach because it is built over years with a student. I get many transfer students who physically can play very difficult pieces but are unable to identify intervals and phrases. In many ways even though they have a technical agility, I would consider them to be less fluent at the piano than a student playing less difficult pieces who can discuss musical form, keys, chords, etc. This cognitive awareness will also aid the student in making intelligent choices with regards to characters, dynamics, tempi, fingerings, etc. 

I have to admit now that there is no way I can outline all the ways to create cognitively engaged playing or even one complete way in one blog post. It takes time. It takes thoughtful planning. But it IS our job as educators to do this from the very beginning of musical study. Here are some ideas which I try to use with all my students.

1. Analyze every piece of music. This should start at the very beginning. Ask questions like "what notes are we using?" (both pitch patterns and rhythm patterns are relevant) or "in what direction are the notes headed?" or "what intervals are we using?". If we start looking for patterns or not patterns from the beginning it will not be a new concept when we start analyzing Sonatinas.

2. Ask why. "Why did the composer repeat this motive?" "Why do you want to get louder here?"

3. Explore pieces of different difficulty levels. When a student is learning to read a language, they will not read only books or reading examples of equivalent difficulty. The teacher will mix it up. My first grade daughter has easy reading books from school to work on phonetics, spelling and parts of speech. She has chapter books she reads on her own for the story content. She has the more difficult books which she and her dad read together which aids in vocabulary expansion. All these together build a fluency of reading which does not come by reading only one difficulty level. We should model our music learning on this. We should have some pieces students can play almost immediately, some pieces taking a couple weeks and some longer term projects.

4. Explore pieces in many different styles. This is not about learning different styles to motivate students. This is about developing students who will be aware of the sound differences between Telemann and Bartok and how to make those differences. And not just between composers, but also creating music which is colorful and has compelling ideas which are unique to each student. This comes from students being introduced to many different sounds.

5. Have students learn to make their own choices. It is very tempting as teachers to use the editions with lots of fingerings and helpful markings. Or to write in fingerings or dictate dynamics for students. Although it might save some time in the short term, it does not develop a student who studies the harmonies in order to find the climax of the piece. I inwardly cringe when in January my daughter wears a pink shirt with a red skirt and orange Halloween socks, but I have to step back and let her explore her own style of fashion. We need to do the same thing in some aspects of teaching. Some, not all. My daughter is not allowed to wear her sparkly dress shoes with the outfit above because they are impractical for school. So, we allow choices within set parameters, using those parameters to develop taste and eventually an appropriate sense of style. It takes time. 

More than likely this post did not give you any immediate tips to integrate into your teaching. Being a more philosophical post, I did not intend it to. But hopefully it might be a catalyst for thought. Fluency should always be our goal. Please share any thoughts or teaching ideas or teacher struggles as a comment below, other readers might find it helpful. All my posts are exploring facets of this goal of musical fluency, so keep reading my posts to get practical ideas as well as my philosophical background.

Why teach pre-reading repertoire

My teaching has evolved. Hopefully it will continue to do so as I make more discoveries and have more experiences with students. One of my goals used to be to get students to reading lines and spaces as soon as possible. That goal has changed drastically. Not to the point that I teach everything by rote, but I have learned to slow down the reading process through an exploration of pre-reading pieces. Usually I do this for the entire first year of piano study, sometimes longer. Before describing the repertoire I use I want to explain my thought process on why I have come to spend so much time with pre-reading repertoire.

First of all, our students come to us because they want to play music. But, sometimes as teachers we instead give lectures on technique and give lengthy theory assignments. I am not saying either of these are bad, but when that new student is excited to learn to play, we need to make sure that enthusiasm continues and give them something to play. Our long term goal is that music is always the motivator for music study, not trophies and stickers. So we need to make sure music making is present from the very beginning. (That said, I have used stickers, trophies, dressing up, candy, etc. as extrinsic motivators.) Pre-reading pieces and student compositions in pre-reading notation allow us to teach tuneful and memorable pieces to our students much sooner.

Pre-reading lets us focus on technical aspects of playing without needing to focus on reading lines and spaces. No reading method is perfect, but one of my biggest issues with the Middle C approach is that both thumbs are on Middle C, which is really awkward for both the 1 fingers and the wrists. Other methods delay using all 5 fingers. With pre-reading supplemental materials I can pick pieces to help students build a solid technical foundation no matter what method I use.

Pre-reading pieces can often explore and introduce students to different tonalities. Many of the reading approaches limit student to only hearing pieces in major tonalities. With pre-reading we usually learn melodies based on pentatonic and minor scales and experience tone clusters. What a great way to make sure our students hear pieces which are not always major!

Pre-reading is often easier for students to sing. I make my students sing a lot. Singing leads to natural phrase shaping, develops interval awareness and simply makes better musicians. Pieces centered around Middle C might be easier to read on the staff, but young students will not be able to sing notes below Middle C and should not be asked to. Singing teachers will actually tell you that young singers should sing tunes which use the F above Middle C and higher. (Yes, this means that you as a teacher should be using that same range and singing in your head voice, not singing with your speaking voice.) I know that as a teacher I cannot totally avoid ever going below that F, but pre-reading notation allows me to have musical experiences in the student's optimal singing range.

Pre-reading reinforces rhythm reading without lines and spaces. When we play, we are processing many different pieces of information. We have finger numbers, piano keys, rhythm, pulse, shaping, notation. Anytime we can remove one item it allows us to use more brain capacity for something else. This is why we so often tap out a rhythm before actually playing or why we will use syllabic counting instead of metric. If I can remove reading on the staff it is much easier for me to help a student develop a sense of pulse and concentrate on creating music in the rhythm. I think we too often spend our time on the definition of the note values instead of learning to feel the rhythmic motion and how the rhythm creates the gesture of the phrases. (Another topic for a future post there!) I love being able to work on rhythm shaping without needing to do on staff reading.

Pre-reading encourages directional reading. This is huge for me. I have some parents who try to "help" with student reading by teaching them the mnemonic devices of Every Good Boy Does Fine or All Cows Eat Grass. These devices have their time and place, but it is much more important for students to learn to read by seeing the direction of the notes and not memorizing letters on the staff.

With pre-reading pieces we can work on phrase shaping, dynamics, explore articulations, all without needing to fully read music which would be more complicated if notated on lines and spaces. First year students can make beautiful music and if we focus on their musical expression right away from the beginning it is just another step to creating musically sensitive playing for their entire lives.

Now that you are hopefully considering using more pre-reading repertoire, I want to go over some of the materials I use. I actually often begin with student compositions. We can do this right away in the first lesson when we learn our finger numbers. We will make up some kind of words and put lines above the words. 

The student will then put either the number 2 or 3 on each line. The student can then play their composition on the black keys using their 2 and 3 fingers. We can do this type of activity with 2, 3 and 4 on three black keys or on three chosen white keys. This does not include the directional reading aspect, but it is really helpful for a student who is needing work on finger numbers. We can also fill in a composition using letter names. I find these student compositions especially helpful with some students who are just a bit slower at assimilating concepts. Since we make up new words for each composition even if we do not change the parameters (2 and 3 or CDE of FGAB or whatever) we have an endless supply of pre-reading pieces. As you can tell with my example, I do not always have our words rhyme. It is ok to not rhyme. Especially when we have students making up their own pieces we need to let them have freedom to create something which speaks to them. Eventually you could add that parameter in if you have the student creating parallel phrases or contrasting phrases. Yes, you could be teaching these concepts before reading on the staff!

Moving on to repertoire composed by pedagogical composers. Many modern method books will start with pre-reading pieces. Rarely will I teach a method which begins with on the staff (usually only with a student who has learned reading concepts already with another instrument). Even with adults I will use a method which begins with pre-reading. I am not going to survey methods here, I just want to explore supplemental materials.

On of the first volumes I use is Ready, Set, Play! Halloween Songs . Usually students have started lessons in September so doing Halloween pieces soon after that follows the calendar. (If by some chance the student starts in January, it does not work as well.) There is one piece which only uses C, D and E, one piece only uses two black keys, one uses only F,G,A,B, others use white keys based around C, others are in C Position. Two of the pieces have students playing hands together. It has become one of the books all my beginning students use. One of my favorite pieces is "Ghosties" by Timothy Brown. I just love this ending! What a way to get a beginning student to start to listen to dissonance and resolution.

Soon after Halloween I start Christmas music. I do not necessarily like doing Christmas music early in November, but I have learned that if we actually want to play the pieces fluently and be able to play a lot of Christmas carols well, we need to start them in November. My two favorite volumes are Christmas Carol Activity Book   and My First Christmas Carols both by Gayle Kowalchyk. I like these because they are not too busy with too many pictures and both have the complete carols included instead of just one phrase (often the case in the Bastien Piano Party books and the Music for Little Mozarts books). Unfortunately, the pieces are usually in Middle C position making singing along difficult when it drops below Middle C. Eighth notes and dotted quarter notes are used, but I find that Christmas carols are a wonderful way to introduce these note values since we can usually play the rhythm by ear and then see what notation matches.

For more pieces with which students might be familiar, I use two volumes by Mary Leaf called Kids Klassics. Volume 1 has Yankee Doodle and Mary Had a Little Lamb as well as other nursery rhymes my students have sometimes not heard such as Sing a Song of Sixpence or Hey, Diddle, Diddle. Volume 2 includes Old MacDonald Had a Farm as well as many others. Both volumes use arrangements using both the black and white keys. The more difficult arrangements need to spread over more than just three or two black keys. For example, this is the hand position for The Farmer in the Dell. This can be tricky for some students.

Moving on to pieces not specific for a holiday or having familiar tunes - I would suggest anytime you see a pre-reading piece composed by Mary Leaf that you buy it. She has a gift for creating pre-reading pieces which sound sophisticated enough for adults to enjoy playing and that you will not grow tired of teaching. I will tell you about a few of my favorite volumes. (Here is a link to all her works which are in the FJH catalog Mary Leaf piano music.) With all her pieces, make sure to use the teacher duets, they are very satisfying to play and help students hear the beautiful colors she creates with her harmonies.

Echoes of Scotland has two pieces, the first, The Highlands of Scotland, is a beautiful example of a pentatonic melody on the black keys. This piece can be used as a chamber music exercise with students. The first and third phrases are exactly the same in the student part, but the phrases are harmonized differently in the teacher duet part. I love having the student listen and respond to the difference by playing with different dynamics. Sometimes we might not be able to do this with our fingers, but at least we try. The second, Pipes and Drums, is a lively tune in a minor with the drones in the teacher duet. The last line is tricky, but is a great way to have students practice using arm dropping into the keys. I love using this piece to work on feeling one beat per measure. Yes, you can do that with beginning students!

Two other volumes I use a lot, especially with beginning adults are A Day in the Country and A Day in the Mountains (I am partial to the second only for vacationing reasons.) Both volumes have pieces describing animals and experiences one might have in the respective locations. These pieces have such variety in characters and sound colors I love playing the duets over and over with students. Here is one of my favorites, Evening Shadows, from A Day in the Country. This is the last line, a beautiful ending. It is somewhat simple, but requires the performer to really listen to how they are getting slower and softer.

Another volume with a lot of variety is Piano Recital Showcase. Most of these are slightly easier than the Mary Leaf solos since they use easier hand positions like left hand on two black keys, right hand on three black keys. Some of these pieces are longer (three pages!) which for some young students can be intimidating even though they use a lot of patterns. One of my favorites is "Bumper Cars" by Jennifer Linn because of the note clusters to sound like horns honking. Also kudos to Jennifer Linn for using the word "glutinous" in "The Hungry Spider". Great word!! "Pickled Pepper Polka" by Carol Klose can be tricky since the performer gets to clap and find their hand position again quickly.

Black Key Blast by Wendy Stevens has a couple pieces on the Federation Pre-Primary list, but all the pieces are worth checking out. As the title suggests, all the pieces are on black keys. I find the rhythm to be really fun in this volume. In "Ninja Power" there is a bit of syncopation, but the words nicely line up to help the student feel the energy. "Click Clock Click" is great for getting the performer to keep the flow of the quarter notes constantly moving.

The Little Butterfly Garden by Timothy Brown has six of the eleven pieces written in pre-reading notation. As with the Mary Leaf solos, make sure to play the teacher duets, these pieces are great without them but fantastic when with the duets. The duet parts really help make the characters come even more alive. I appreciate how the composer has lyrics to help the student create the sound images. For example, in "Fanfare to Butterflies" the lyrics "Come greet the butterflies" is forte and then the exact same notes are used for the third phrase but the lyrics are "Quietly watch them" and to be played piano.

I know there are more volumes out there and thankfully, more composers are creating works in this type of notation for our students. I will keep updating the list as I find more pieces, so feel free to come back and check for more pieces as I find them.

Other pieces:

"Night Songs" by Mary Leaf

"On the Trail of the Buffalo" by Mary Leaf

"Raindrops on my Window/Sunshine at my Door" by Mary Leaf