Young pupil has developed a habit of..... Options

[hammer action]

One of my young pupils (aged 5) has developed a habit in the last few weeks of naming notes wrongly. When we use flashcards and i hold up middle C for example and ask her what note it is, she'll say D, E, F, G. She knows the names of the notes as we've spent time on them. The strange thing is though, that she will give me every other note name except for the correct one, so i'm sure she's aware what the correct answer is but for some reason gives me the wrong one. Same thing happens when i point to notes in tunes. I'm unsure why she's doing this and also what to do about it! I'd appreciate suggestions please! Thanks.

[Seer_Green]

Try effective questioning: show two cards and ask which is A and which is C (etc. etc.) In that way, you've given the answers, but she's got to work out which is which. In this instance, the element of guessing has partly been removed.

[fsharpminor]

She is not trying to play silly games with you is she ????

[dolce@piano]

She is not trying to play silly games with you is she ????

Exactly !

When you hold up the card and say 'play this note', does she play the right note ?

Is it just the naming she's got confused with or is messing you around with ?

Frankly, if she's playing the right notes, I'd drop the naming exercise for a while.

[linda.ff]

She is not trying to play silly games with you is she ????

Exactly !

When you hold up the card and say 'play this note', does she play the right note ?

Is it just the naming she's got confused with or is messing you around with ?

Frankly, if she's playing the right notes, I'd drop the naming exercise for a while.

I often get a surprised rection when I get them to complete the question - what is guessing? Guessing is a quick way to get it - "

Many of them will say "right" and be surprised whn I tell them it's "wrong"

Guessing can be a difficult habit to break, and it also extends to the habit, when they know they're wrong (either because they can hear it or because I say "no") of just GRABBING at the next nearest possibility. It's one of the few things that I tell them is "naughty"

[miffy]

Try agreeing with her wrong answer. You'll know by her reaction whether she was giving the wrong answer on purpose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[Bass Clef]

Try agreeing with her wrong answer. You'll know by her reaction whether she was giving the wrong answer on purpose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

Ooh, sneaky! I like it!

[Halka]

When we use flashcards and i hold up middle C for example and ask her what note it is, she'll say D, E, F, G. She knows the names of the notes as we've spent time on them.

Sounds like she's bored with this game and is trying to make it more interesting!

[dolce@piano]

When we use flashcards and i hold up middle C for example and ask her what note it is, she'll say D, E, F, G. She knows the names of the notes as we've spent time on them.

Sounds like she's bored with this game and is trying to make it more interesting!

Yes, that's what I wondered, which is why I'd drop the note-naming exercise for a while and just make sure that she's actually playing the right notes.

If she can sight-read a piece correctly or work out a completely new piece for herself from one lesson to the next it doesn't really matter if she can't/won't name the notes correctly . . .

[Aquarelle]

[quote][quote name='Halka' date='Mar 12 2012, 05:09 PM' post='1134853']
[quote name='hammer action' post='1134787' date='Mar 12 2012, 01:02 PM']
When we use flashcards and i hold up middle C for example and ask her what note it is, she'll say D, E, F, G. She knows the names of the notes as we've spent time on them.
[/quote]

Sounds like she's bored with this game and is trying to make it more interesting!
[/quote[/quote]]

Nice, thought and you could be right - she might be having her teacher on. However, this is something which has happened to me on several occasions, mostly with children under the age of 10 but one or two older ones as well. They appear to know the names of the notes, appear to read reasonably well and then, suddenly they seem to have forgotten everything.

I do watch very carefully to see that the concepts are being acquired, that enough revision is done, that activities are varied but lots of the same material seen. I watch to see if they are playing by ear or memorising the pattern of the keys. I do everything I can think of to be sure that when I am teaching the reading of music that is exactly what the child is learning. But that hasn't stopped me occasionally discovering a little later that everything seems to have gone out of the window.

This has happened very recently with a nine year old who after two years of reading quite nicely suddenly can't seem to remember anything much about the notes on the page or the keys on the piano. Yet she remains cheerful, and motivated!

An interesting parallel is that when I was class teaching juniors I found a similar thing happened sometimes .
in mathematics - concept grasped and used correctly and then - nothing.

If the OP's pupil is not playing games, then I really don't know what causes this, but it does happen.

[DaisyChain]

I had exactly this situation back in January with one of my young ladies, aged 10. One minute she was reading and playing her grade one pieces beautifully, the next she had developed a note 'blindness'. She couldn't even play other pieces she knew very well. Naming notes (in games, flashcards etc.) was a nightmare.

On speaking to mum, she assured me that daughter had been practising and I could see that she'd completed note naming exercises I'd given her between lessons. However, she'd done these by counting the lines and spaces to work out the letter names. Before, she could name a note just by looking at it.

I decided to have a gentle chat with her to find out if maybe she was not enjoying her lessons. She then told me she was under a lot of pressure due to this year being her year for taking the eleven-plus exam. Mum has set aside three evenings a week (is this excessive? I don't know not having children of my own) just for eleven-plus work, and she also was pushing daughter to go for her grade one exam, not to mention tuition in French, tennis and ballet! In the end, I said to her that we could leave grade one until after her eleven-plus, with the agreement that she takes it in the winter session. The look of relief on her face was enormous! Who knows if she was doing this just to get out of taking grade one? Whatever her reasons, (and I've no cause to doubt her having taught her for nearly two years), I believe this note blindness was genuine. She can play and read music as well as ever now.

At five years old, your student may be having a joke with you, but perhaps there are exterior reasons for her naming notes wrongly? Just a thought..

*I like miffy's suggestion though! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) *

[miffy]

Hehe..I have naughty pupils. But 2 can play at that game (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Regarding sudden 'loss' of knowledge - it's not usually gone, it's just that they are using that bit of brain for something else new at the moment. It'll come back when they realise where they've stored it..
On the violin, it doesn't matter how wonderfully straight their bow is, as soon as they do something new with the left hand, bow goes squiffy. But it comes back because it was there originally.
So in general it's not a problem and the more naturally you let it come back in it's own time, the better all round, rather than stressing them with too much information. If they are generally playing the right notes it doesn't always matter how they got them. We end up using all sorts of methods, learning to use the one that is the most convenient at the time.

[Jane S]

She may be bored, but she could also just be having a bit of fun, as the others have pointed out. Currently I have a 4 1/2 year old, who without prompting from me, will start playing chopsticks (black note version) but deliberating mixing the groups of 2 and 3 black notes up. She normally starts this whilst I am writing up some notes. She is not disruptive. I just laugh. As long as you don't lose control of the lesson, I think a bit of levity helps with rapport.

[morceau]

I sometimes see this kind of temporary blankness about things. I've mostly seen it in the little ones - up to about 8. I wonder if it's when they've had a lot on at school. I've also wondered if they have a growing spurt and they just haven't got the energy left for their brains!! It usually comes back after no more than a week or two. It can be very disconcerting though to find that all that stuff you thought you'd crammed into them had just drained away!

However, as you say she names every note but the correct one it may just be a little test of the teacher. Kids love to find a boundary and give it a little shove to see what you will do. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[emsmummy]

Sounds like she may be playing games - as mentioned above, the best way to find out is to agree when she says the wrong note and quickly move on to the next one - if she's anything like mine she will take great delight in correcting you!

Also worth asking parents what else she's got on - there's an awful lot of new stuff to take in at school at the age of 5. Is she doing any other instruments? Mine is a little older at 7, but with piano, bassoon and 2 different recorders she will happily read and play the right notes on whatever instrument she is practising but is having a 'confused phase' when it comes to naming them - I know it's in there somewhere though!