The question that presents itself to us when we first begin to teach a new piano student is: how do we ensure that we produce a musician and not merely a mechanical players of a few piano "songs"? We cannot teach, or even begin to each, everything at once. There is too much for anyone to take in immediately, let alone a small child unfamiliar with even the rudiments of musical notation or pianistic technique. We must decide to begin somewhere. The question is where?
The most obvious place for most piano teachers to start would be with basic mechanics of note-playing accompanied by reading the notes on the stave. Indeed, this is the place from where all good method books depart. But this point of departure also comes with a danger, namely, that we may neglect other aspects of piano playing in favour of the mechanical. In other words, we may end up teaching pieces by rote, including a great deal too much help with note-naming and other aspects of music reading. The chief effect of that unfortunately all-too-common approach is that many students are able to play only that small selection of pieces they have studied with their teacher, but have almost no independent knowledge or capacity for learning on their own.
Too often, I have seen students come to me from other teachers able to play apparently quite complex music for their level who, almost invariably, turn out to have little theoretical knowledge and less ability to play anything knew without considerable help. But what are we to do about this conundrum, and how are we, as piano teachers, to avoid this trap?
Do not write in the notes. Repeat what the piano student has learned.
We all begin in the same way: by teaching the basics of sitting at the piano and playing the keys. Shortly afterwards, we must move on to teaching the student how to read music. Let us take this much for granted.
But there is more to it than what we piano teachers teach; there is how we teach. This is at least as important as the what. The crucial issue in how we teach piano, and other music instruments too, is do not write in the notes. We must of course tell the tyro pianist what the notes are and how they relate to the keys on the keyboard, but writing them down on the music breeds laziness. Our purpose in teaching a child anything is that eventually we will no longer have to remind them of basic facts. Yet if we always supply the answers, in this case the note names, they never have to integrate that knowledge, to retrieve it from their own minds.
Many times, I have seen whole lines, sometimes whole pieces, of music with every note scrawled in. All the student has to do is read the letters under the notes, and the time-values of the same. It would be like a language teacher writing a translation underneath the texts their students are meant to read. They would not need to know a foreign language to read them. More than any other bad have in music teaching, this one needs to change. Instead of writing in the notes, and, believe me, I understand the temptation, guide them to the correct answer through a series of questions.
To take one example: even a struggling student will likely know where middle-c is both on the stave and on the piano. If the same student cannot find E, we can begin by pointing out middle-c.
Teacher: "Which note is that?"
Student: "C."
Teacher: "And if that is C, what is the next note up?"
Student: "D."
Teacher: "So, if that is C, and that is D, which one is that? (Pointing to E)."
By this method, which may be longer or shorter depending on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the student, we can help them to draw knowledge out of themselves, and to learn how to supplement gaps in their understanding by working out the right answer for themselves.
Repetition
Another important element in early piano education is repetition. I do not mean physical repetition, or muscle memory. For the most part muscle memory will develop automatically. No, I mean the constant repetition of what has been taught on previous occasions.
For adult learners, repetition is less important because their conscious understanding of what is being explained to them is greater. For children, however, it is vital. They will forget what you say to them. It is not sufficient simply to broach a topic, or the name of some symbol, such as the treble clef. It is important, first of all, to check in the moment that this information has gone in. It may not have done so. Secondly, we must raise it again multiple times in future piano lessons. I do not mean that we should tell them again. Rather, we must ask them to tell us what the treble clef is over and over again.
Doing this for all important elements of theoretical knowledge will ensure that what the student learns is not situational or simply forgotten. By this, I mean, that their knowing it is not dependent on the setting or context in which it was learned, or simply forgotten as it did not seem important to them at the time.
To further dissociate items of fundamental music theory from the situation in which they were mentioned, we can also bring them up in different ways. We can raise them in questions at unexpected moments, in simple theory papers or books (such as My First Theory Book by Lina Ng), or using flash cards.
Teach piano technique, not just "songs".
The most ridiculous and repeated error we see currently is the use of the word "song" in contexts other than where singing is involved. A song is sung. A piece of music may or may not be sung. The second is the claim, promulgated by some, that learning to play the piano and learning to play some "chords" to accompany "songs" are remotely comparable. There is an advert on YouTube at the moment wherein the overenthusiastic antagonist claims that learning the piano is easy because one can learn to play one hundred songs with just four chords. None of this, of course, carries any weight for anyone who knows anything about the subject.
There is a world of difference between playing the piano and playing "songs" on the piano. For one thing, anyone, trained or untrained, might sit down and pick out a tune by ear. Anyone with sufficient knowledge of stave notation, perhaps due to learning another instrument, could play a short melody on the piano. And, even beyond that, with only the most rudimentary help someone might become proficient in pressing the keys in the right order for more complicated pieces. But playing the piano is not simply about playing pieces of music.
When we talk of teaching the piano, it is of the educating of a pianist in how they play the keys as much as which keys to play. It is about ensuring the correct posture, producing the best sound, developing expression, and building maximal technical proficiency. None of these things is automatic.
This is why the teaching of basic technical skills, such as scales and arpeggios, should not be delayed. Furthermore, from the very beginning, we must insist on curved and not flat fingers, which includes the fifth finger. Finger exercises are also essential for finger independence and "strength". They may appear to have little value at the elementary level, but by beginning at that stage, the student will already have attained the necessary technical proficiency to attempt more complex repertoire.
Without these skills, and more, the student will never truly be a pianist. They will forever be someone who simply knows a few "songs" on the piano.
Teach music theory
The other essential component for piano lessons is music theory. Without it, the student will never understand what they are playing. Naturally, teaching basic note and time values is technically theory, but here, I am talking about analysing the pieces of music they play.
This involves learning and understanding the different musical periods and genres, and what there typical features are. It involves learning about the forms of musical composition, such as Binary, Ternary, Rondo, and Sonata forms. And, crucially, it also involves understanding chord progressions and being able to understand why composers have used specific harmonies where they have.
Conclusion
Whatever differences of opinion there may be from teacher to teacher about the best way to approach certain topics, one thing is all too clear. There are far too many that teach children only to play the notes, without understanding the music or the instrument they are playing. I hope this article might inspire some curiosity among any who do not yet employ a holistic method (it is necessarily to brief to be a complete exposition).
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