I've a student who has been learning (initially through school) both keyboard and piano. The pupil sat her prep test last year and then gave up for a bit before joining me about 5 weeks or so ago. It seems she has managed to get through almost 3 years of tuition without actually reading music much at all and has learnt most of her pieces by ear.

I realise it's not uncommon, but I do need her understand and connect the dots on the page to what she plays. I've been working on using flashcards and timing games, writing her own music using rhythm cards and a limited range of notes, but it's not going in very well. And I can sense she really doesn't see the value in it.

Any advice on how to make it interesting enough?

There are other issues as well that I have to combat like flat fingers and hyper-extensive joints, plus a complete lack of rhythm and pulse when playing, although she has a good sense of pitch when singing and can clap a steady pulse to recorded music. It's puzzling me and I don't think it is necessarily a case of bad teaching in the past, just perhaps a pupil who decides to do her own thing!

Perhaps this is a good thing. She has been learning music ... not mechanical translation of symbols into finger movements, which is what a lot of classical pianists do. Instead of seeing it as a problem you could build on it, by branching out into harmonic theory, learning to create different accompaniments to a tune, learning to create "jazzy"sounds and so on


I think you have pin-pointed the problem. We have notation because it is just too much work to work out complex pieces by ear, because classical compositions are meant to be played exactly as the composer intended, and because someone has to play each composition for the first time, so playing by ear is not always possible. WHen she finds a piece that she really wants to play, that might be the time that she has the motivation to learn to interpret notation. And then you'll probably find that she learns it very quickly indeed.

It is not that it needs to be made interesting. It is interesting enough in its own right. What she needs is a good reason to make the effort.

There are far worse sins in piano playing than flat fingers. I would not stress over it. Finger shape often improves of its own accord as the student matures physically and grows as a musician. As for lack of rhythm/pulse it is hard to believe that it is a "COMPLETE lack" . This is an excellent teaching/learning opportunity. There are all kinds of things you can do to develop the sense of pulse, and any good text on teaching will give you plenty of ideas.

So she's coming to you as well as me ?! How old is she?

LOL. She's 9 and a very nice girl but I think has her own mind on how things are done!

VH2 I think that you're right in that she needs to a reason to want to learn the dots on the page. Finding the right music to play is part of the issue as I think she prefers familiar tunes from TV, film and shows rather than following the classical route as classical music is "boring". We are working on a version of Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter (in the Magic Piano Book) and I'm hoping that this might inspire her a little. But... she also wants to sit Grade 1 as she's been promised a better piano if she passes(!) so we will need to learn go a little way down the classical route.

What about Rock School?
Though I looked briefly at the syllabus once and saw that I'd have a few things to learn myself even at the start.

I know I go on about Hal Leonard a lot, but I've recently used their Adult Piano Method Book 1 with an eleven-year-old who is in a similar position - around grade 1 but could hardly read a note when she came to me. The tunes are nicely presented and carefully graded to make music reading natural and easy, and the backing tracks are a great incentive. My student loves taking home a new tune every week and playing it to the disc when she returns. Her reading is coming on really well.