Decorating, shopping, going out, making cookies, writing cards, wrapping presents, and spending time with loved ones-- there is so much going on around Christmas time, and I hope for all of you reading this that it will be a really sweet time of year for you and your family. In the midst of all of this, piano practice will not go on as usual nor do I think it should. Over those two or three weeks between the end of fall semester and the beginning of spring, I wouldn't expect piano students to be making amazing headway on learning new pieces or practicing scales, but I do hope that they can take advantage of opportunities to share music by playing for family members and to perhaps even attend a live performance or two. I have put together a few resources with suggestions for some creative ways to keep students exploring music over the break. They are formatted as games-- Bingo for beginner students and a scavenger hunt for later elementary through advanced students. The questions for listening could be used for beginner students playing Bingo or just on their own to practice active listening. They could be completed by an individual or by a group. Siblings or friends could work together on these activities or compete to get five in-a-row for Bingo or to find the most items on the scavenger hunt. I hope these can provide a way for your family to enjoy music together over the break. Please don't feel pressured to use them, and feel free to just take some inspiration from them and use the ideas how they would work best for your family. If any of you have success trying these out, I'd love to hear about it :)
Here are listening links for the Bingo game.
Steinway album: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOB5yEBp45-yF1cbJP2CqCDKXZNL1DfRj Handel's Messiah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71NCzuDNUcg&frags=pl%2Cwn
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To help maintain motivation during the summer and to encourage interest in important supplemental activities I am holding a couple of friendly competitions among my students this summer. The summer olympic challenges detailed in the PDF below are for students ages 11 and up, and the safari challenges are for students under the age of 11.
After surviving my freshman year of college, I felt like I could conquer any challenge college could bring my way, but sophomore year proved my naïve perception to be a pure illusion. It was the fourth movement of a Beethoven sonata with big chords, an aggressive mood, and a fast tempo. It didn’t fit my personality or my hands, and I unfortunately didn’t practice it very intelligently either. Through the process of not learning this movement very well, I learned a lot about myself, about life, and about practice. Though the lessons I learned about myself and life were of greater import, here it is more appropriate to share what I learned about practice, slow practice that is. Slow practice seems like a magic cure-all. It is an easy go-to for teachers that solves many student errors, but most students perceive it as a torture devise. In this post, I would like to explore how slow practice is useful and how it isn’t. My hope is that any students reading this will be able to practice more effectively and avoid some of the mistakes I made, that any teachers reading this will be able to utilize these ideas in giving practice assignments and in understanding their students, and that any parents reading this will know better how to give advice to their children based on what they are hearing during practice sessions. Slow practice is an age-old strategy deeply entrenched in the practice habits and teaching of every musician, and rightly so. The problem with playing too quickly too soon is that students are not able to play correctly at the fast speed they want and end up repeating and thus engraining mistakes. Going slower is a great solution to this problem. Playing slowly is a wonderful means for students to ensure that they are playing the correct notes and observing details of articulation and dynamics. A slow tempo can also make it easier to observe how you are using your body at the piano to ensure that you are using a healthy technique and not holding excessive tension. In general, playing slowly makes difficult passages easier, allowing students to work out the challenges of note reading, rhythm, articulation, and dynamics before playing at a more challenging tempo. Slow practice is an easy and useful strategy to fix many errors and to prepare for confident performances. The ubiquitous teacher direction “let’s try that section again slower” is called for, but there are several pitfalls of slow practice that often go overlooked. The first possible pitfall of slow practice I would like to draw attention to is that rhythms feel different at different tempos (Chronister 187). As someone who has had a life-long struggle with performing rhythms precisely, I can easily relate to this struggle, but sometimes I forget it as a teacher. What this means of course, is that a student’s ability to play a passage with the correct rhythm at a slow tempo many, many times very precisely does not necessarily translate into the ability to play the same passage with the same rhythm at a faster tempo. Another option is instead of changing the tempo to make the passage easier, eliminate or change the notes so that the student can play the rhythm correctly at many different tempos. This can be done by having the student clap the rhythm or play it on one key on the piano or a five-finger pattern or any other set of notes that is simple enough that the student will be able to play the rhythm successfully at a performance tempo. This could even turn into an improvisation using the written rhythm but notes the student chooses. Another problem with slow practice is that the technique necessary to play a passage quickly is very different from the technique students tend to revert to when they play slowly. I know for myself that if I am playing a slow piece, I tend to use bigger, less efficient arm gestures than I do when I play something fast. These arm gestures may be very appropriate and graceful for my slow piece, but they will cripple me in a fast piece. So, the problem is that when I am practicing a fast piece slowly, I tend to automatically use these less efficient gestures (this was one of the problems with my Beethoven sonata). For slow practice to translate into confident fast performance, students must practice with the technique they would use to play quickly but in slow motion. Perhaps, watching a video of the teacher demonstrating the faster technique put into slow motion could help. Another solution to this dilemma is instead of changing the tempo to make the passage easier, changing the length. Students can learn to play one beat and the first note of the next at a performance tempo much more easily than an entire passage. This strategy keeps them from sloppy mistakes and helps them develop the technique they need to play the whole passage at a performance tempo. They can eventually start putting these tiny pieces together. This solution also helps keep the student interested, because, let’s face it, slow practice is boring. The last downside of slow practice is simply that: it’s boring. Students want to find ways around it (been there, done that), and they will be highly disappointed if they actually make themselves do slow practice and come to a lesson only to find that they didn’t do enough slow practice to actually fix the problem (been there too). There isn’t an easy solution to this problem because sometimes slow practice is the best solution, and the student simply must learn the discipline to use this strategy effectively. However, we can help our students reap the satisfaction slow practice can bring if we help them understand its pitfalls and how to avoid them. We also do our students a favor when we give them a variety of strategies to use beyond just the direction to play slowly until they can speed the piece up without playing sloppily. Teaching our students to play small chunks fast and to speed pieces up gradually in sections will aid in easing the burdens of slow practice. Including easier pieces in a student’s repertoire so that they can more quickly earn the right to play fast is another way to not only make practice less boring but help them see the benefits of slow practice. Slow practice is extremely helpful, but it takes a long-term view, discipline, and awareness of potential pitfalls to use it effectively. If we ensure that our students understand the rhythms they are working with at many different tempos and the technique they will need at performance tempos, we ensure that their slow practice will lay a foundation for confident performance. Slow practice could translate into a butchered performance if its shortcomings are ignored, but done well, it could be the hero that makes difficult passages possible. I must thank the piano faculty at The Master’s University for teaching me these principles and for helping me integrate valuable practice strategies into my practice habits. Work Cited Chronister, Richard. “A Piano Teacher’s Legacy: Selected Writings by Richard
Chronister.” Ed. Edward Darling. The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, Inc. 2005. As we move into a fresh school year and start to look forward to pumpkins, cooler weather, and, for my students and me, plans for an upcoming studio recital, it seems appropriate to wrap-up the summer with some updates on what has been happening in the studio. First off, it is time to announce the winners of this summer's "Passport Challenge." I was pleased by the opportunity this friendly competition provided for many of my students to focus particularly on sight-reading and technique. Many of the scores, in terms of passport stamps earned, were very close; so, it has been difficult selecting the winners. First place goes to Anais for her work on learning pieces, memorizing pieces, technical exercises, and sight-reading. Second place was a tie between Sarine and Paul. For third place, I decided to take into account effort and enthusiasm to break a three-way tie and selected Lauren as a winner for her eagerness regarding sight-reading. Congratulations to all four winners! On another note, the last week of July, I had the opportunity to attend the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Lombard, IL. It was a full week of seminars, recitals, lectures, and teaching demonstrations. Highlights for me included getting to spend time with faculty, students, and alumni from my alma mater (The Master’s University), watching inspiring teaching demonstrations, and buying discounted Piano Safari materials that I am already putting to good use. There were lots of reminders of what good teaching looks like, but I think the reminder that stood out to me most was the idea of keeping music the center of lessons. Not teaching only correct posture, notes, or rhythm, but the showing students the exciting and inspiring act of making notes and rhythms come together into that form of communication and art we call music. A final update from this past summer is that I am now an Active member or the Music Teacher’s Association of California! I eagerly anticipate my participation in this organization providing more performance opportunities for my students. For more information on MTAC view this webpage: http://www.mtac.org/about-us/history/ June 19-23 I will be unavailable for lessons before 2:00pm because I will be volunteering with a vacation Bible school at my church. I am happy to reschedule morning lessons that week either for afternoon times or possibly for that Saturday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
This week in lessons, students will be receiving passport sticker books and maps with directions for how to participate in this summer's "Passport Challenge." Students can participate in four different categories at their own level as a part of their regular lessons. Prizes will be awarded to the three students to earn the most stamps in their passports over the course of the summer as added practice motivation. Repertoire Challenges Memory: Memorize 2 pieces for the first stamp and 1 for the second stamp. Styles: Learn pieces in three contrasting styles for the first stamp and earn another stamp for each additional piece. Each piece must be learned to at least meet NRFAD (notes, rhythm, fingering, articulation, dynamics) requirements. Technique Challenge Learn 3 exercises well for each stamp. Sight-reading Challenge Read through 5 examples a week in practice and 3 in each lesson for two weeks to earn the first stamp and one week for each subsequent stamp. Composition/Improvisation To earn a stamp request a composition assignment and complete a composition according to the provided guidelines. |
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