Help Needed With A Very Slow Learner! Options

[teachiepoo]

Hello teachers,

I am a relatively new teacher, and was really hoping for some advice from more experienced ones. I have just started teaching piano to a 9 year old girl, and I am really struggling to work out how to progress with her. She is an absolute beginner, and when she started with me she didn't even have a keyboard at home (but she has since got one for christmas). I started off with John Thompsons Earliest piano course, book 1, which is what I learned on, and has always been very good in teaching absolute beginners. However, after five half-hour lessons I've given her, since december, we have still not progressed beyond the first few pages.

All I have tried to teach in these five lessons is the concept of semibreves, minims and crotchets and the concept of middle C, B and D and how they appear on the page. The first lesson was very unpromising, as we only dealt with middle C in that lesson, and the various different note-lengths and how to count them. At this first lesson, she seemed unable to link up the symbol with the concept of a length of time to hold it down. The book has a few worksheets interspersed with the pieces (i'm sure most people are familiar with this book) and she was able, with prompting, to complete those and correctly identify that a semibreve is worth 4 beats and crotchet is worth one. But then when it came back to reading notation and playing in real time with counting, she seemed confused between the fact of a crotchet being worth one beat, and there having to be four of them played in a bar.

I was frustrated by her complete lack of picking up these simple notational concepts, and wasn't sure, by the second lesson, whether to keep on trying until she understood the counting and note-length issues, or to progress to different notes (D and B) in the hope that things would slowly fall into place in the light of this new information (and also I considered it unhealthy and soul-destroying for both teacher and pupil not to move off middle C!). But at each subequent lesson, she has been unable to understand that the note's position on the stave moves to indicate a new note. A couple of weeks ago, after teaching her D and B, there was an exercise to write the new note in varying time lengths within a 4/4 bar. She has learned what a semibreve/minim/crotchet looks like and was quite happy to draw these, but she picked a random point in the middle of the stave to represent D, and didn't seem to understand that D must be at the bottom of the stave, otherwise it is not D! When we went through the next worksheet together last week (naming the note and saying how many beats it is worth) she picked it up and got them all right. However, this information has not stuck in her brain, and last night when I pointed to the note on the page and asked her to name it, she quite often said the two notes that it wasn't before, by process of elimination, naming the note! This is despite the presence of a chart at the top of the page which names the notes, and even pictorially represents them on the keyboard!!!!!!
I've tried being a bit more physical, and less conceptual. I have played rhythmic beating games with her, which she seemed to enjoy. I would beat a steady beat and say I was being crotchets, and then ask her to beat semibreves, minims or crotchets along with me. I've also asked her to clap crotchets, and stamp her foot as minims, so she gets a physical feel for these rhythmic concepts, and how they relate to each other, and can be felt simultaneously. However, the negative effect of this game is that now, when she sees a crotchet on the page, she plays it four times!!!! A bar with four crotchets in it became sixteen notes long!

So I realised quite early on that she has a problem with notation and linear concepts (the concept of left to right on the page denoting the passage of time, the concept of up and down on the page denoting right or left on the keyboard) so I thought, well perhaps we can try and just learn things by ear for now, and maybe reading music may fall into place at a later time. She wanted to learn how to play Silent Night. We found the starting note together and then tried to work it out through singing. However when I sang a note and held it and waited for her to move up or down on the keyboard in order to match my note, it was a very long time before she did and I ran out of breath! I worried that she doesn't have a sense of higher or lower pitch, so I asked her to sing the tune with me. Hallelujah! she can actually sing! (albeit along with me). Perhaps she does have pitch sense, but simply keeps forgetting that the left hand end of the piano is lower-pitched than the right?

I would really appreciate any advice, from anyone who's made it to the end of this long post! I'm happy to abandon the notation and try and give her a more wacky style of music lesson, if anyone has any advice about that, or can point me in the direction of a useful method. I'm aware she may simply have some form of dyslexia, and that there are known ways to work around that. I really do want to teach her something, and not just feel like a crook taking her mother's money every week, when I know that she hasn't progressed. Or maybe she would do better on a different instrument?!

Help please!!!

[petrat]

That little book is good ( I tink that you meant "Easiest Piano Course") but you will need to do more in the lessons than just the tunes there. Firstly make sure that her lessons are FUN! Play games such as finding all of the notes called D on the piano and playing them in different ways; loud ones, soft ones, long ones, short ones and so on. Play note naming games at the piano, teach her some easy tunes by rote, play tunes such as "Rain, rain, go away" by note-names only. Don't even write these down on paper. Play percussion games where you tap out a simple rhythm and then let her copy it. Sing the tunes that she learns too. Above all make her lessons something to look foreward to each week. The reading etc will all fall into place eventually.

[unmusicalmum]

wow! It sounds as though you will need a lot of patience with this one. Have you spoken to her mother about her difficulties yet? If she has similar trouble at school it may be they have found learning styles that suit her better than others that would be useful for you to know. Piano is a hard instrument - all those notes at once, two staves etc. If her heart isn't set on piano, trumpet or something might be easier - again talk to the mother.

[petrat]

That was odd. I sent a reply and it vanished! Here it is again:
The little book is good, and I think that you mean The Easiest Piano Course", but you will need to do lots of other work in the lessons too. Play games such as finding all of the notes called D for example and play them in different ways; high ones, low ones, loud ones, soft ones, short ones, long ones, etc. Teach her some very simple tunes by rote such as "Rain, rain, go away". You do not have to write these dwn, either in notation ar in letter names for now. Play percussion games where you tap out a beat and then let her copy it, but above all make the lessons FUN. You can do some written work in a large stave manuscript book but remember to keep it simple. Ask her to copy notes that you have drawn, then to write note names in. Use a few simple notes and note shapes to begin. It will all fall into place eventually.
OOPS! I don't know what happened there but now I have answered twice as the original post has returned! Sorry everybody.

[ad_libitum]

The first idea might be to check that she is actually practising what she learns in lessons, and knows exactly what to practise and how. At the beginning stage, not playing at home means it's back to square one the following week, even if they understood concepts at the last lesson.

Try not to get too frustrated - or at least don't show the pupil frustration (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Keep remembering that she is not making mistakes deliberately.

Sometimes one particular way of explaining something isn't effective for a certain pupil, so you might have to present the same idea five different ways before it clicks.

It's still early days, and the fact that she only got a keyboard at Christmas will have had an effect on how quickly she progressed at the start. Now that she has one, check how she is practising on it, and for how long, before you abandon the idea of teaching her how to read the notation.

Some pupils take longer than others to grasp the basic concepts, and i'd say it's too soon to start wondering about dyslexia or other such things. Things that seem obvious to us are not so clear to a beginner, so the chances are there's no specific learning difficulty present, as these are all normal confusions that can happen when first reading music.

[petrat]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) There is something very odd happening here! I added a reply, it appeared on the posts, then it went so I added another as did another forumite and now they have all gone! I don't like to add a third reply incase they all come back. Where did they all go??????

[ad_libitum]

Just testing to see if this one stays or goes (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[petrat]

Yours stayed! My computer obviously hates me! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[teachiepoo]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) There is something very odd happening here! I added a reply, it appeared on the posts, then it went so I added another as did another forumite and now they have all gone! I don't like to add a third reply incase they all come back. Where did they all go??????

Hi,

I think it is my fault for posting my post on the General Forum first, before realising it would do better on Teachers forum, so I've posted it twice.

Your two replies are on the general forum and are very helpful, thank you!

Sorry to confuse everyone. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[TSax]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) There is something very odd happening here! I added a reply, it appeared on the posts, then it went so I added another as did another forumite and now they have all gone! I don't like to add a third reply incase they all come back. Where did they all go??????

There are two identical posts, one in General Music, one in Teachers - maybe that's causing confusion?

[teachiepoo]

Hi ad libitum,

Thank you for your advice.
My problem is that she hasn't yet got to the stage where there is anything to practise. She can't play the little pieces properly in the lessons without a lot of help from me, and I doubt if she tried them at home she's get them right at all!

But just the concepts of semibreve/minim/crotchet and the reading of B, C and D---how does one prescribe practise for this???

[Dulciana]

I wouldn't worry too much about progress being slow at the minute as it's really only been a few weeks since she got something to practise on - but do make sure she is actually practising on it! She won't get far on less than 10-15 mins a day, so do make sure that both pupil and parents know that.

About understanding note values - it might help to write out something like this - all on middle C:

4/4 time. minim-crotchet-crotchet (barline) minim-crotchet-crotchet (barline) minim-minim (barline) semibreve (double barline)

She might find it easier at first to count like this - 1 2, 1, 1 etc, rather than count from 1 - 4 for a bar. (Does that make sense? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) ) Once she's got the hang of this on middle C, you could try rewriting it with C, D and E, ending with a C on the last semibreve.

[hazel]

Ignoring the concept of written music on a stave for now, can she grasp the concept of the note names being repeated in blocks up the piano keyboard? Can she find all the Cs, all the Ds, etc, and then make words with them e.g. find three ways to play BAD or EGG or ADDED? Even if you have to write the words out for her, that will give her something to take away and practice. Then get her to list as many more as she can think of during the week, and learn to play them. Then you can build this up into little phrases (A BAD BED, DAD ADDED ACE EGG), before transferring them onto a stave, when it might make more sense.

Does she like drawing? My son, who initially seemed uninterested in written music and notation, spent a week doodling on my manuscript pad until he had designed the "perfect" treble clef and bass clef for his music - suddenly he has now exended that to writing out bits of music and asking me what notes they are (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Regarding notation, there have been several threads (I sure someone will post a link (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I'd search myself but I really should get back to work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ) about words that reflect the patterns of different notations - obviously some of these are quite complex, but the basic ones could be useful.

Good luck!

hazel

[teachiepoo]

Thank you Hazel,

Yes she can play all the C's and all the D's. Perhaps I should try teaching all the notes on the keyboard before transferring the information to the page?

I have already hinted about all the other notes--told her it's the alphabet from A to G and we've played around with playing the highest pitch and lowest pitch on the piano, and exploring the whole spectrum of sound it can make (obviously this is very enjoyable for a child).

Mr frustration arose from feeling that I really wanted to make sure I was teaching her something that she coudln't work out on her own (like playing around with the different pitchs on the piano) but now I see that some people just can't pick up notational concepts very fast, and a bit of fun and love for their instrument is what is needed first.

I will try some of these games with the note names, and also try writing out different rhythms that Dulciana suggested.

Any more advice is gratefully received however! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Andy-piano-flute]

I have been teaching a little boy who has some similarities with your pupil - problems with differentiating right from left (hand), notes moving up the ladder (stave) or down, "seeing" whether a note has a line going through the middle of it or sits between 2 lines. Sometimes even recognising whether 1 note is identical to the preceding one, yet in other ways bright & yes, has had his eyes checked, is not dyslexic.
Have you tried moving away from the crotchet is 1 beat etc to just saying that when we see a crotchet we say "Taa", a minim say "Taa-aa", semibreve "Taa-aa-aa-aa". It seems to be far more meaningful to children than saying count 1, 2 etc ....with hindsight as a child I couldn't relate counting 1,2,3 to what was written on the page.
How about considering the Alfred Premier piano course - I'm just trying it with a couple of mine. It starts with playing tunes but not getting them to read conventional notation until halfway through the book...& then introducing it in a very gradual way. It means they can play something immediately with only having to concentrate on rhythm & relative pitch, not whether it's middle c, d or whatever.
I also tried the working out how a tune goes by singing it as you have done....but you do have to spend ages on small sections saying "does it sound the same? Is it going up/down/? Is it walking up/down or does it jump?" You have to choose something they know really really well.