How to Sight-read by Paul Harris - Helpful Tips, New Book and App

Sight-reading has never been something I feel is my musical superpower so I am always eager to find more tips on developing this skill.

Today I was so excited to watch a piano webinar hosted by the Curious Piano Teachers featuring Paul Harris to learn some new ideas regarding this topic. I also hoped to pick up some practical tips to help my piano students sight-read with fluency and confidence too. 

Learning to Play Hymns - Piano Practice Steps for Success

Learning to play hymns is a goal for most of my piano students who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), or at least that's the aim their parents are hoping they will achieve. 

Before jumping into the regular hymn book, I first have students play hymn lead sheet style in the simplified hymn book.

Piano Pronto Movement 2 Lesson Plans and Activities

Choose the link below for lesson plans and activities that correlate with Piano Pronto Movement 2.

The theory, improvisation, and music and movement activities can be done in private lessons, group lessons, piano lab, or assigned for at-home practice.

#1 A Little Night Music and Sixteenth Notes

#2 Spiritual Song Medley and Triplets

#3 Molly Malone and Chord Roman Numerals

Intermediate Piano Concept Tutorial Videos

I love using a flipped learning approach in piano lessons. 

During piano lab,  having students watch quick video clips about musical concepts is a great way to introduce or review concepts.

Having students preview concepts in advance allows for more repertoire focus during private lessons and accelerates learning with repetition.

Below are some great intermediate level piano video resources.

Lengthy explanations can quickly bore students and adults! I find the most effective videos are multi-sensory, brief, and use simple language. Here are several I have hand-picked after browsing hundreds of tutorials on YouTube.

Intermediate Music Theory Terms and Signs Videos

CK Tempo -  brief definitions of rit. ritard. rallentando, repeat, staccato and slur

Free Piano Teaching Game: Chord Match

I love to start piano lessons with short games to introduce or review theory concepts.  I find there are a lot of free piano games for beginners but not as many options that review intermediate level concepts. 

Since I could not find a game covering the concept of  identifying 7th chords and different chord qualities, I designed this Chord Match Memory Game on canva.com and created free printable flashcards.  

This quick game helps intermediate piano students to learn about triads and 7th chords with visual reminders of the intervals used to build various chord qualities

A few tips can help students quickly identify various chord qualities

Learn Piano Chord Progressions with Pop Songs: Try Every Key Challenge

Practicing chords doesn't have to be boring.  I love to pair chord practice with pop songs since the majority of pop songs are limited to just 3 or 4 chords. 

Although pop songs can have some pretty complicated rhythms for beginning piano students, they can enjoy accompanying YouTube videos with an understanding of chord symbols.  Or they can sing along as they play the accompaniment. Choosing songs that they are familiar with really ups their ambition to practice and helps with audiation.  

I've compiled a list of familiar primary songs from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints with just 2 or 3 chords for my younger students, but having some fun pop songs in the makes chord practice more appealing for my older students.

Free Resources for Teaching 7th Chord Inversions

V7 chords can be a bit tricky for students because they are often introduced in many different ways.  Most method books start with an easier first inversion of  V7 chords that omits a few chord tones for easier playing. 

This 7th chord poster makes it easier to spot the roots and intervals to identify 7th chords and their inversions.

Quick Tips for Identifying V7 Chords

Look for the interval of the 2nd.  My teacher always called these the "bumps" because one note is bumped to the side. The top "bump"  is the letter name or root of the chord.

To identify the inversion, imagine the notes are running a race to the top of the staff. 

• In first inversion the "root bump" is in 1st place. 
• For 2nd inversion the "bump" falls to 2nd place.
• For 3rd inversion the "bump" is in 3rd place.

V7 chords are often followed by a I chord in music. The interval of a 2nd in the V7 chord provides the tension and I chord feels like you are returning home to peace.

V7-Root Position 7th Chord

7th chords can also be identified by the intervals of the "bump notes."

7th chords in root position are easy to spot because they look like a tall snowman with four snowballs instead of the three you see stacked up in a triad.  The root is on the bottom and with the highest note a 7th above it.

V6/5-1st Inversion 7th Chord

 The root jumps up to the top of the chord in first inversion.

The resulting intervals are a 3rd, 5th and 6th.  

The abbreviated chord symbol is V6/5

V4/3-2nd Inversion 7th Chord

Intervals above the lowest note include a 3rd, 4th and 6th. 

The abbreviated chord symbol is V4/3

V2-3rd Inversion 7th Chord

Intervals above the lowest note include a 2nd, 4th and 6th

The abbreviated chord symbol is V2

Additional Resources for Learning About 7th chords

Music Theory.net Inversion Images

7th Chord Inversion Video Tutorial

Teoria.com Inversion ID game

Related Posts: 

Free Chord Match Game

Teaching Piano Triads and 7th Chords with Games

Easy Free Printable Christmas Sheet Music from Piano Maestro

This month I'm challenging my piano students to learn a song to accompany their peers with at our December group lesson.  Accompanying takes piano playing to the next level because students must play with continuity (no starting and stopping).

Piano Maestro Christmas Songs for Accompanying

The Piano Maestro app is an excellent tool to promote accompanist skills.

• It gives automatic feedback for note accuracy as incorrectly played notes turn red.
• It gives feedback about rhythmic accuracy.
• The scrolling music forces you to continually look ahead in the music.
• Some music focuses on the harmony instead of melody so you can't just lean on your ear to pick out the music. This also promotes audiation for students.
• The practice mode allows students to practice in smaller phrases and isolate left or right hand parts for more focused practice sessions.
• The instrumental backing tracks make music more enjoyable to play.

While the scrolling music feature is great for continuity, faster pieces may be easier to learn at first with printable music.  Click this link to access free printable Christmas sheet music that you can also play on the Piano Maestro App. The tips below help you play with more expression instead of robotic feel.

Piano Practice Tips

• Greensleeves (What Child is This) Elementary Harmony Only 
• Can you sing the melody as you play the harmony?
• Greensleeves (What Child is This) Intermediate Hands Together
• Color the melody notes red and harmony notes yellow.  Notice the melody switches between the left and right hand frequently.
• Play the melody as you ghost play (only touch the key surface) of the harmony notes. Watch this sample video of "ghost playing."
• 
  
• Play hands together with balanced singing melody louder than the soft harmony.
• Jingle Bells
• Play as written or choose I, IV or V chords for each measure in the left hand to change the harmony to blocked, marching or broken chords.
• We Three Kings
• Add slurs to mark each musical sentence.
• Float off at the end of each phrase (measures 8,12, 19, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44 and 51).
• Shape the melody with small crescendos as the melody rises and decrescendos as it falls.
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• Measures 15 and 16 have a different rhythm than the traditional song.  Can you fix it to match the words "[We] wish you a Merry Christmas and a.."?
• Joy to the World
• Use scale fingering to create a legato melody line. 
• Write finger 3 below the first "E" in measures 4,11, 13 and 19. 

More links to free Christmas Piano Music can be found on my Christmas Piano Resource Roundup Post.

Steps for Choosing Piano Fingering to Create Legato Lines

 Steps for Selecting Appropriate Piano Fingering

Choosing correct fingering can help you play legato phrases without awkward finger twists, leaps or tension. These steps are helpful in playing Simplified Hymns but can apply to other piano music as well.

1. Identify and mark the melodic phrases in the song. 

• Use the words and punctuation as your clues.
• Most phrases for hymns are 2-4 measures in length.

2. "Block" the Left Hand notes one phrase at a time.

3. Identify phrases including notes larger than a 5 finger span.

4. Write in the fingering at the beginning of each phrase.

• Remember, "Thou shalt not finger hop" (within the phrase).
• "Floating off" (a delicate hop) to a new position between phrases is okay.

5.  Decide which fingering technique works the best.

•  Expansion- open hand wider than 5 finger position
•  Contraction- close hand smaller than 5 finger position
•  Finger Crossing - tuck thumb under or cross fingers over as in scale playing
•  Finger Substitution- replace one finger with another while playing repeated notes

Listen carefully as you play with your selected fingering to make sure it doesn't have create awkward accented notes. Write in the fingering you have chosen and follow it consistently as you practice.

Elementary Music Theory Terms and Signs Videos

Following are a few of my favorite videos for introducing piano students to new concepts using a flipped learning approach during piano lab.

 Elementary Music Theory Terms and Signs Videos

PR Tempo - animated video defining tempo 

PR Forte Piano- animated video illustrating piano and forte dynamics

Mr. H Legato  - tutorial with example of legato and staccato piano excerpts

PR Crescendo Decrescendo - animated video illustrating crescendo and decrescendo

PR Presto Largo- animated video illustrating tempo terms Presto and Largo

CK Tempo Marks - brief definitions and memory aids for Allegro, Allegretto, Moderato, Andante

CK Dynamics- brief definitions of pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff

Pianote What are Dynamics - musical examples of how adding dynamics adds musicality

What are the 3 P's? 

Piano Adventures Lesson Book Level 1 Unit 6 Assignments and Supplementary Activities

Piano Teaching Lesson Plans: Sharps and Flats

This post includes specific lesson assignment instructions for pieces in the Piano Adventures Lesson Book 1 but many of the activities could also be used with other pieces for introducing sharps and flats.  I like to introduce the Rote Piece "I Love Coffee"  (The Half Step Song) in Piano Safari very early on to my students so they become comfortable with the feeling of playing half steps all over the keyboard long before reading sharps and flats in written notation.

Miracles and Music of Comfort

 As I attended the funeral of a dear friend and neighbor earlier this week, the music brought me profound comfort.  It also gave me the opportunity to witness the miracle that occurred in another piano teacher's life. The tears were spilling over as I witnessed Ranae McKee walk up to accompany on the piano beautifully as her talents brought peace and comfort to the family.

Several years ago she lay on the brink of death in a coma after suffering from a stroke, heart attack and brain surgery. The following excerpt from her story was later related in this "Miracle Recovery" news article.

"They kept music playing in her room and sometimes placed a keyboard in her lap, guiding her fingers to perform scales, hoping some connection with her brain would take place.

One day, Bill caught a glimpse of her blinking an eye: The medical staff attributed his observation to wishful thinking. The next day, however, she started moving her little finger."

The words of "He will heal those who trust him," took on additional meaning as I witnessed the miracle of her full recovery as she played "Consider the Lilies of the Field" at the funeral service.

Consider the Lilies of the Field sung by Elenyi

Although my friend Kim did not receive the same miraculous healing miracle of being restored to physical health, I know she is experiencing peace.  The last post she made on facebook was this music video which I had stumbled on earlier in the week. As I watched it, I was so inspired by the different depictions of Jesus Christ and the role he plays as he heals, comforts, judges, creates, and acts with compassion. I contemplated the many moments when music has provided healing and comfort and joy for me.

My greatest passion as a piano teacher is not to train up future concert pianists, but to help my students find the joy and peace that music can bring in everyday life to lift and heal and inspire. 

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Tricks for Teaching Sharp Key Signatures

 

Identifying Sharp Key Signatures on the Staff

Most music students have probably seen this simple strategy for identifying sharp key signatures. 

Major and Minor Scale Pattern Free Printable Posters

This month the focus is on technique in my piano studio so I created these piano scale pattern mnemonic posters to display on my music studio bulletin board.

 

Teaching 4 Types of Staccato: Piano Lab Tutorial and Free Printable

Staccato and Legato are two basic articulations that most piano students learn.  What if you were only allowed to play piano and forte, with no crescendos  or variations?  Instead dynamics in music have many different levels (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff).  Staccato articulation has several different levels as well.

Piano Teaching Tips for the Chromatic Scale

How Multiple Choice can guide Beginners in the Composition Process

Freedom to Choose

Choice is usually a good thing, but when it comes to composing, some students have a difficult time sorting through all of the options.  This short questionnaire can help them narrow down their choices and provide a step by step path to help them go through the composition process one step at a time without getting overwhelmed.

Halloween Piano Challenge: Don't Scare Me... Surprise Me!

Each October in my piano studio, I give my students a challenge full of choices.  There are so many fun Halloween-themed resources to use in piano lessons, but rather than just choose one for my students, I let them select from a list of "tricks" to "treat" me with at their October music lessons.  

Free Online Piano Teaching Training Links

I'm a multi tasking music teacher and these are just a few of the resources that I love to tap into to get through my morning workout walking the neighborhood or folding laundry on my exercise bike while I jot down notes from time to time, or prop up my phone to wash one more sink full of dishes that didn't get done the night before. Since covid prevents me from weight lifting at the gym and attending music teacher workshops at least I can exercise my mind and body at the same time as pursuing my piano passion!

Music Teacher Videos

2020 MTNA Virtual Conference

TopMusic Webinars

Vibrant Music Teacher Chats

Forrest Kinney Create First 1 Videos

Forrest Kinney Create First 2 Videos

Keys to Imagination Webinars

Compose Create: Composition for Kids

Music Teaching Podcasts

Creative Piano Teaching Podcast

Vibrant Music Teaching Podcast

Teach Piano Today Podcast

Piano Teaching Tips for Beginners - Book of Mormon Stories

Book of Mormon Stories and Beyond with Beginning Piano Students

Playing Familiar Music is Fun

The upbeat rhythmic drumbeat of the bass in this song makes it a requested favorite for young children who often follow along with hand motions representing the words as they sing this song. This is typically a song that my students who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints are eager to learn because they've grown up singing it often.

Early intermediate students can handle the traditional version of this song, but I also make this accessible to my younger students who are more likely to appreciate it by using these simpler versions. Following are a few ideas on how to introduce the simplified version highlighting various concepts in the song with success.
Traditional Music for Book of Mormon Stories

Simplified Book of Mormon Stories Primo (Melody Layton Music p.22).

Simplified Book of Mormon Secondo (Bass Harmony) 

I Spy Intervals

For a student who is still new to the concept of skips on the staff, I like to hand over the pencil and have students spy all of the skips in this song and connect them with colored lines to make them extra salient.

Major vs Minor

Often too many beginning songs center around middle C and can encourage the faulty notion in beginning students that finger numbers correlate to specific keys on the piano (C is 1, D is 2, E is 3 etc.)  This song in the key of d minor shifts students away from the erroneous "C-centric" thinking and can also make a great introduction to recognizing the difference between  the major and minor pentascale patterns and most students love the steady drum beat sounds in the bass.

Buddy Bass Duet

For buddy lessons with beginners, having one student play the split hand melody in the treble clef and another student (or teacher) play the bass "drumming" part an octave lower than notated encourages better listening skills and allows them to enjoy the rich harmony of the song even if they aren't physically coordinated enough to play both parts together yet. 

Book of Mormon Stories Primo (Melody Layton Music p.22).

Book of Mormon Secondo (Bass Harmony) 

Borrow with Rhythmic Improvisation

The rhythmic simplicity of this song provides a perfect palette for further exploration.  In addition to learning the song, students could use the structure as a springboard to improvise their own melody that mimics the rhythm of the song as they change up the order of the notes of the d minor scale.  For a little more challenge, students could use the Bass Harmony pattern as their backdrop instead and then just add a d minor pentascale melody with the right hand.