Why Teach by Rote?

I recently read a thought provoking mini essay by Dr. Julie Knerr and Katherine Fisher at PianoSafari.com.  Previously I had viewed teaching by rote as something I should beware of so that students don't use their ears as a crutch to avoid learning how to actually read music.  But their logic regarding learning to speak a foreign language resonated with me.  Perhaps that's because after 2 years of college courses in Spanish, I can (sort of) read the language,  but my actual conversational abilities in Spanish are seriously lacking.  As a piano teacher I want my students to be musically fluent, not just good music readers. 
I've started intentionally incorporating more rote teaching in my piano lessons lately and have been very encouraged by the enthusiasm and progress it is fostering in my students technical, aural and memory skills.  Although I've been teaching basic technical skills like pentascales and arpeggios by rote for many years.  I've steered away from teaching songs by rote for fear that my students would play by ear rather than learning to read the music fluently.


The Pedagogical Resources Link on Piano Safari include several other interesting essays.  I like the suggestion in "Assigning Pieces" to mark some review pieces for students to include as part of their weekly practice.  The "Teaching Strategies" essay includes some great concrete ideas applicable to a variety of teaching situations.  I also love the insurance and osmosis analogies.  This is a website definitely worth checking into!

Trick or Treat Rhythm Parade

I think the cute graphics on these Rhythm Trick or Treat worksheets recently posted at "Ear Training and Improv.".are adorable, and my preschooler does too.  So after identifying the quarter and half notes on each page, I decided to extend the activity by cutting out all of the trick-or-treaters to form a rhythm parade.   We arranged the characters in different patterns and practiced clapping and counting the rhythms.
To start out I thought it would be fun to chant
"Treat" for the quarter notes
and "Boooo!" for the half.
Then we switched it up to regular counting.
Another fun variation might be to form 2 lines of characters.  The teacher claps one of the rhythm parades and the student has to guess which one they clapped.

Bach Halloween Music Listening Lab

Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor for piano

Listen to the first part of this performance. 
1. A Toccata is a piece including fast-moving lightly fingered passages.  When does this song start to sound like a toccata?
2. Do you think the performer is using the pedal? Why or why not?

Bach Tocatta and Fugue in d minor for organ

3.  Bach was a Baroque composer.  The piano was not invented during his life, so his keyboard pieces were actually composed for organ or harpsichord.  How does the organ sound different than the piano?
4.  Different sets of keyboards on an organ are called manuals.  How many manuals do you see on this organ?
5.  A fugue is a piece that usually has 2 or more voices (melodies) that often imitate each other.

The lower "giant keys" played by the feet are called the pedalboard. How many black pedals can you count on the pedalboard?

Does this song sound
A.  Major Throughout
B.  Minor Throughout
C.  Some Major and Some Minor passages

Follow this link to Classics for Kids to hear more Spooky Halloween music!

You can find a simplified piano version at gmajormusic.com

More Piano Teaching Halloween Resources

Halloween Themed Free Piano Resources

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

Halloween Piano Group Fun

Halloween Composing

Bach Halloween Music Listening Lab

Will Baily Free Spooky Halloween Piano Tunes

 

Adapting Music Games

I started a new adventure this fall one of my children, so my piano blogging has been pretty sparse the last few months.  I have a new respect for homeschooling moms!  Because of the time crunch its created for me, I've fallen back on many piano games and resources already in my collection to make last minute lesson fun.  I tweaked the rules of some games a bit to make it more novel and challenging for my students.

For example I used the Tic Tac Toe Notenaming  cards from Susan Paradis to start lessons out with a quick game of "Don't eat the Poison Pumpkin" (aka Don't eat Pete).  I chose a "poison" music alphabet letter.  Students had to correctly name the notes on the cards before removing m&ms from each space on the card. 

My Mitten Match Rhythm Cards from Sing a New Song were used to play BANG.  I just added a few contrasting "Rhythm Addition" cards of the same size to the piles, tossed them in a paper lunch sack and had 2 students take turns grabbing and clapping rhythm cards from their own bag to see who could collect 4 cards first.  I used different leveled rhythm cards to match the skills of my students.

Timothy Brown Piano Workshop Notes

I look forward to attending local piano workshops every summer because I always pick up some new ideas and great reminders to help refresh my teaching skills.  Following is a mixture of both the content of Mr. Brown's presentation with a few of my own inspirations added in.
Tips for Teaching Composition

• Set Parameters. Some examples that came to my mind include 

Extraordinary Gift of Music

I love this inspiring video about a gifted pianist!
One of my favorite parts is the quote at the beginning by Elder Henry B. Eyring
"Every person is different and has a different contribution to make.  No one is destined to fail."

For some reason the video loads fine on my PC but not on my tablet., but this link to youtube should work on both.

Link to Mormon Messages Extraordinary Gift Video site

Hearing and Seeing Piano Patterns from the Start

Imagination makes piano teaching come to life, especially when you're having fun with a curious 3 year old.  My little girl is lately really liking to be BIG like her siblings, which fortunately for me means she's big enough to "practice piano" just like them.
I loved the reminder from Joy's NCKP notes about the natural teaching sequence of sound, feel, sign, name. Although this wasn't a new concept for me, sometimes its not my first instinct to introduce sounds first..
1-  To start with SOUND I played all of the black keys going up the piano while singing "dog house" (2 black keys) "my gar- age" (3 black keys).  For a fun game