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
