New Worksheets to Help Learn C and Middle C Positions

I had a student this past Friday who is just learning about the C Position in the Primer level of Piano Adventures. She's having a really hard time grasping the concept of using all 10 fingers at once. I assigned fewer pieces for her to work on and instead supplemented with some finger exercises in the C Position to help her get more familiar with the feel, but I also wanted to make some worksheets for her since she and several other students are just starting to experiment with the C Position vs. the Middle C Position.

This seems to be a really tough concept for many of my students to grasp. Even into the first Level of Piano Adventures they will get the two positions confused! I'm hoping these worksheets will help to solidify the differences between the two hand positions.

The first worksheet simply drills recognition of the two hand positions. It's a very simple exercise, but helps the student visualize the spatial difference between the two hand positions.

The second worksheet is a bit more involved and requires a good knowledge of finger numbers. Given a keyboard picture with one finger for each hand filled in, the student has to fill in the remaining fingers and then identify the hand position.

I haven't tried either of these out yet...but I'll definitely be using them in the coming week! Please send feedback- positive or negative- my way :)

Also...for those of you who often visit the printable section of my blog- how am I doing on organization? Do you find it easy to navigate and select the worksheet you want? Is there anything I can do to make things better organized?

Question of the Week: March 21, 2011- Using Theory Books

When I started student teaching back in high school (I won't date myself here... ;) ), my mentor didn't use theory books. In fact, she used an entirely different method than I use now.

So when I started out on my own and switched to using Piano Adventures, I was, understandably so, a bit prejudiced against the use of the corresponding Theory Book. There were a number of reasons. First, as a piano student I hadn't really been exposed to systematic theory training perse. I did do some theory testing as a young student, but that stopped as I got older. Second, I can still remember my horror when one of my teachers in middle school tried to give me a theory book. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Third, it was outside of my teaching comfort-zone, and as a new teacher I wanted to minimize the uncharted territory as much as possible.

So for a few years, I supplemented. We did theory in lessons and group lessons, and I made scales and pentascales a part of the lesson, but no theory books appeared. For technique I used the Treasures in Technique series published by FJH rather than the corresponding Technique and Artistry books.

Then just in the past year or two, I decided to do the unthinkable! I introduced both the Theory and Technique and Artistry books into my teaching repertoire! It was a bit of a learning curve, but I managed to adjust.

However, as this term continues, I'm starting to rethink that decision yet again. I am pretty pleased with the Technique and Artistry supplement, but Theory has been a bit more of a challenge.

Theory is the part of the weekly assignment my students most often overlook, and complain about the most. I try to assign it as homework for the students to do over the week as a supplement to what we've learned in the lesson (after explaining the requirements of course) but I often find myself wasting lesson time trying to get kids to 'finish up' uncompleted pages.

So here's my question:

How much emphasis do you, as teachers, put on theory book assignments each week? Is theory inseparable from lesson and technique, or do you supplement with other theory materials? Is it too much to expect every child to do work in a theory book each week?

A few further thoughts from me. I had two students (siblings in fact!) who both recently moved up to the next level in Piano Adventures. After some deliberation, I decided not to provide theory books for them. Neither one practices as much as I'd like them to, and I'd rather they spend their limited practice time focusing on technique and the material in their lesson book rather than adding something else to the mix. We do worksheets and games from time to time to drill theoretical concepts, and the students actually look forward to these breaks from the normal routine.

Contrast this with another younger student who actually throws temper tantrums each week (so I'm told by his mom) when she tries to get him to do his theory homework...

I'm still undecided on this issue, and as you can see, am in the process of a few 'test cases'. But in the meantime, I'd love to hear some feedback from other teachers!

An Excellent Article on Sequential Warm-Ups

It's a busy day for me here between juggling lessons and then Ash Wednesday service at church, but I wanted to share an excellent article I read yesterday regarding piano warm-ups.

I have to admit that I probably don't put enough emphasis on this as a teacher. While I typically have my students start with scales in lessons and when they practice at home and then move on to technique (either from Piano Adventure or some other type of technical warm-up), I probably don't spend enough time emphasizing why this is so important.

I've been trying to improve in this regard, and that's why I so appreciated a recent blog post from Jason over at The Piano Pedagogy Page. He discusses the importance of sequential warm-ups as part of the student's weekly lesson. I totally agree with him! I'm going to see if I can make this type of approach to warm-ups more a part of my weekly lessons, while helping my students understand just why it's so important.

Has anyone else had success with taking time for sequential warm-up at the start of each lesson? I'd love to hear your thoughts and any tips you may have to help students understand the importance of thorough warm-ups!

PA Primer Reference Sheet for Teachers

I blogged about this a few weeks back, but it's taken me this long to finally get started on the project! In the coming months, I hope to create teacher help-sheets for each of the Piano Adventures levels with information on what students learn in each book, the concepts they should have a firm grasp on before moving ahead, some common struggles many of my students encounter, some of the more popular songs, etc.

At this point, I only have a few students in the Primer Level, but it's the one I'm most familiar with, so that's where I started. I attempted to color-coordinate each section; for example, I used purple since that's the color of the Primer books, pink for the technique portion as it's the color of the Technique & Artistry Book header, green for the supplementary section as it's the Performance header color, and so on and so forth. As you can see, this form is pretty empty at this point, but I wanted to post to get some feedback.

Please feel free to use this form in your own lesson planning and pass along any suggestions on how I could tweak it or what else I might want to include in a given category. You can download the form here.

"Are You Going to Cross This One Off?"

Does anybody else have students like this? Students who view the sole purpose of the lesson being getting the piece(s) from last week 'crossed off' so they can move on to the next piece(s)? I have a particular student who predictably turns to me after the completion of each piece at his lesson and says:

"Are you going to cross this one off?"

It happens every week, at every lesson, after every piece, without fail. Never mind how well or badly he may have performed the piece, for some reason he conceives the whole process to be:

1) I play the piece 2) You cross it off 3) We move on

Not exactly! I've patiently explained to him time and time again that there is more to learning a piece of music than just playing it and getting it crossed off. I'll ask questions like: "Did you add in all the dynamics?", "was the rhythm correct here?", "were you counting", "what is your hand position in this measure", etc. and together we'll discover if the piece is really truly learned.

You see, I believe that learning a piece is about more than just getting it 'crossed off'. There's more than just the printed notes. There are the extra details that make it come alive. And there's a difference between a performance where the student painfully struggles to make it through at even a slow tempo with half-hearted execution of dynamics, articulation, and hand position changes, and a performance where the student confidently incorporates all those details at a steady tempo that assures me they have a firm grasp of the piece. And more than that, that they have a firm grasp of the concept the piece was written to teach.

Each piece in a lesson book teaches or reinforces a concept, and as teachers we need to be aware of just what that something is and whether or not our students understand it before we cross off the piece and move on. Jason over at The Piano Pedagogy Page had an excellent post on just that issue that I stumbled upon the other day. As a teacher, there are times when I give in to the 'Cross It Off and Move On' syndrome, because it's the easy way. Students tend to gripe when they have to work on a piece for another week. But if we want our students to have a firm musical foundation, that's a small price to pay.

I've made it a goal to start making sure each piece is learned, and learned well, before we cross it off and move on. This involves talking through the piece with each student after the performance and helping them to discover (with a little help from me!) just how well-executed their performance was. Hopefully over time my students will not only become better performers, but better critical listeners as well.

Positive Report on Student's Metronome Struggles

Last week in my follow-up posting about metronome use I shared a lesson where I had this very fact quite realistically demonstrated to me by one of my students.

Well, I'm happy to report that this week's lesson was a complete success! My student arrived and immediately played the song- with pretty near perfect rhythm! And when I asked if metronome practice had been part of the weekly practice, they replied in the affirmative.

If you're like me, each week of teaching provides enough moments when you're about to tear your hair out that one success like this is worth talking about! I was greatly encouraged to see that student had not only followed directions, but had worked hard at fixing the problem. Wish more of my students followed this example!

Top 5 Reasons I LOVE Pianos Adventures

Looking back on it now, I can't remember exactly what made me finally decide on using Piano Adventures for my studio, but I can say that I've never once regretted it! Here is a list of the top 5 things I love about the series:

1) Visual Appeal: Let's face it, most students (at least mine!) gravitate toward musical material that is visually pleasing. Books with catchy illustrations, bright colors, and a 'modern' format are more likely to grab and hold a student's attention. I love the bright colors, the illustrations, and the easy-to-read, not too busy, format.

2) Musical Selections: Over and above the visual appeal, the variety of literature contained in this method is outstanding. From original compositions by Nancy and Randall Faber, to sound arrangements of well-known tunes, to actual classical literature, the variety of styles allow every student to find something they love.

3) Supplementary Materials: In addition to a Lesson, Theory, and Technique book (the 3 I use as my foundation), this method offers so many other options. There are supplementary performance books, the PreTime to BigTime library which offers additional literature on a variety of themes, classical supplements for more advanced levels, sightreading materials; the list goes on and on! And the material is graded so that it's easy to find supplements for every level of student.

4) A Method for Everyone: From the earliest of beginners to adult students, there is truly a method that works for every age and level of skill. I've been consistently impressed with every level and every track, from My First Piano Adventures all the way up to Adult Piano Adventures.

5) A Sound Instructional Method: The manner in which Nancy and Randall Faber present basic music and theory concepts is outstanding. Each level builds on the previous level, reviewing and adding new material. This ensures a firm foundation if the material is taught well.

So there you have it! My top 5 reasons for using Piano Adventures. Anybody else have their own reasons to add?

Upcoming Series: Piano Adventures Method Evaluation

In my studio, I use Nancy and Randall Faber's Piano Adventures method books. As a child first starting piano lessons, I was taught from Francis Clarks' Music Tree series, and this was the series I first started using as a student teacher. However, upon opening my own studio I did a lot of research on methods and decided for several reasons to change to the Piano Adventures method. I have been extremely satisfied ever since!

Over the coming weeks I hope to share more about my experiences with this particular teaching method and give a brief evaluation of each level in the series.