Don't Toss the Books

With many students moving into new books this fall, I have noticed some of the students are so excited to be done with the old level they just want to throw the book away.  I've decided to encourage them to keep their old book by using it as sight reading material. They can go back early in the book to songs they haven't played for a while and hopefully be encouraged by how easy it is to sight read them now.  I am also trying to incorporate sight reading more often into weekly lessons to help them develop the ability to play the pieces straight through, keeping tempo even if they stumble a bit.  We recently had a syllabus adjudicator give a presentation and she told us rather than have a child stop at every mistake while sight reading and fix it, she would rather hear a few fumbles but see that they can play it straight through, as that's what sight readers are called on to do. They may take up to a minute or so to scan the piece first.  So sight reading is also a great application of theory - teaching them to recognize chord patterns and intervals, and notice dynamics and articulation from the start.  Now with a plan for sight reading, I'll be taking in every idea I can find to help them play songs by ear.  I've done this with one of my students.  She chose a hymn she is familiar with, and I helped her chord it.  We wrote down just the lyrics with the chord letters above.  She's doing well, and I hope to try something like that with more of my students.

Moving Soon...

This summer we made an offer on another house nearby and have spent the past 45 or so days "patiently" waiting for the deal to close.  Sometime in the next couple of days we will have keys and start our move.  One thing I am looking forward to is being able to set up my studio in a small room all by itself, so there will be no distractions of ringing phones, people walking through, etc.  I have been very anxious to get everything set up.  It's been especially hard the past couple of weeks as I packed almost all of my books away, so getting them organized in the new book shelves we bought will be such a joy.  I do feel as though I haven't been able to focus on my students nearly as much, but at the same time, it's been nice allowing the lessons to just be what they've needed to be without too much pre-planning and worrying about what does or doesn't get covered.  Hopefully I can strike a balance somewhere in between.  I should have things out an organized just in time to look over Christmas music.  They enjoyed that last year, and it will be fun to see what level of book they're ready for now!  (Wow, it's sure scary talking of Christmas already!)  So next time I post, it should be from a new home, and I my focus can get on to other things....

Defeat the Boss Incentive

I have the blessing of spending time with one of my young piano students this summer while my daughter babysits for him.  I have discovered he loves to play video games.  All day.  As motivation for him to learn his scales, I created the following project for him.  He can color in a circle each time he learns a new major scale, and defeat the boss however he wishes when he learns them all.  Now if he would just play piano with as much determination as he plays Kirby..... :)

More

In an effort to challenge my students, I am working on giving them more to play each lesson.  I'm not sure what an "average" student should take home, but I'm pretty sure my beginners have not been trying enough pieces each week.  I have also written out an outline of a practice plan for the students and parents to take home, showing them how their time can be spent  each week.  I'm giving my beginners at least two new pieces each week, one or two review pieces, and a "fun" piece.  I am trying to raise my expectations of the students, and hopefully will see them raise their own expectations of what they can do.  I hope they will realize "Yes, I can do more!"

OMTA Conference Recap

This was my first year attending the Oregon Music Teachers Assoc. conference, which was held in Washington state this year.  What was most interesting to me even more than the various presentations was spending time with fellow teachers and watching how the group was governed and how members interacted with one another.  I am very thankful for the local group of teachers I am with.  We are a small group, made up of varying personalities, experience, and ability, but we work closely together and support one another however we can.  We are able to offer many opportunities to our students as we collaborate together.  I look forward to growing with the group, and offering what I can to it as I gain experience teaching.  As far as presentations I got to see, my favorite was Forrest Kinney's Pattern Play and Chord Play books.  He was a very engaging speaker and made his books come to life.  I tried Pattern Play with a few of my students already, especially the ones who are more tense at the piano.  I have one student who has a particularly hard time with sensing pulse.  I hope doing some of these improvisational exercises may help him become more steady over time.  The Chord Play is also a great series for the Intermediate or above player to help teach how to play with lead sheets/fake books, arrange hymn accompaniments, play with singers, etc.  I am starting one student on it slowly by having her play a hymn by ear, chord it, then incorporate some of the accompaniment techniques the book presents.  Overall I think I returned with a sense of being recharged, ready to make some changes and challenge my students!

Save!

The dreaded ring of the phone about 3 hours before a student's lesson...what will it be this time...?  Yes, it's an inconvenience to the teacher to receive a call so late, and of course it eats away at your monthly income, but what does it do to the student?  I could list a myriad of consequences, but I think we can draw the conclusion that students who come regularly to lessons progress much faster than students who become "hit and miss."  The reason this time was that the student's family had been busy with summer activities so he had not practiced his lesson that week.  I knew that starting a habit of skipping a lesson due to family busy-ness would be detrimental.  I explained briefly to the parent that I understood, every student has weeks like that, and that I always have activities we can do at the lesson: flash cards, review games, concept reinforcement, etc. etc.  The parent of course felt badly she had not kept up the home practice, but didn't realize that I could still work with her child.  I explained that they will forget concepts if too much time goes by, and encouraged her to stick with it, especially as he is just a beginner.  She agreed to bring him, and we had a wonderful lesson!  I feel like a piano student was saved and will continue on to play piano another day....!

Tricky Passages

A student was having a hard time with a particular series of notes in the left hand which included chromatic changes.  He had to pause and think for each change.  We studied the notes and played them all together like a blocked chord, then one after the other, then finally put the phrase together as it was written.  He was able to play it easily without any pauses.  Another student was having a difficult time playing the first the note of her left hand at the beginning of each measure.  We noticed that it started on the same note for 4 measures, then went down a step for 4 measures, then moved down chromatically.  Finding patterns that click can be a quick way to take care of some tricky passages.