I've not been teaching long and have picked up a few pupils with around a year's experience from another trusted local teacher and have a couple of absolute beginners.
I understand a bit about learning styles and have always been a very visual, notation-based kind of musician myself.
I am mixing a number of ways to try to get my pupils to play new pieces - not necessarily in this order
- I will play it (a very small part of it) (slowly - perhaps not slowly enough?) - sometimes twice asking them to look at the music while I play and then my hands.
- I play a few notes and ask them to copy
- I ask them to name the note it starts on and play it or to play it without naming it and then maybe the whole of the first bar, looking for patterns (stepwise or thirds - without calling them thirds)
- I may get them to clap the rhythm
- Get them to sing it is another idea, although not one I've really done
- I've given them homework to either name notes in a tune or write named notes on the stave
- I have some flash cards
- I go through the is it in a space or 'on' a line routineand the mnemonics

Basically, I get a lot of incorrect responses or very slow responses. And to avoid taking 20 minutes on 8 bars of music or less, I sometimes have to move to another activity for both our sakes

I have been reluctant to say it starts on a C and the first 4 notes are ..., as I have thought of this as spoon-feeding. Am I expecting too much ? Am I taking too much of an 'adult' approach ? Or could it be that there is little or no midweek practise - I do intend to starting setting expectations/asking about practice - I assumed the non-beginners would have a routine already

Yet my absolute beginner is good reader and her reading ability is ahead of her co-ordination - without my intentionally stressing it (hmmm) - I think her learning style and the way her brain works are like mine.

How many weeks would a pupil at this stage typically learning a piece? how long is a piece of string? what's the range. My aim is to work in small increments and do more,easier pieces rather than spend 8 weeks on something harder

Any ideas ? I am slightly concerned that I will be recognised from this post and that I am confessing to an incompetence, yet the majority of my pupils are progressing and seem to enjoy their lessons.

I simply want every pupil to have something they can play with a high degree of fluency to a grandparent or whoever.

Even after nearly 25 years teaching beginners I still constantly question what I am doing, and trying to find new effective ways to teach. However, the crucial part of our job is to enable learning and that seems to allow for smooth progress if the child practises and follows instructions at home - and also if the parent doesn't try to 'teach' the child at home which also bring its own problems.

I try to avoid the child actually just 'copying' me and try to coax them to 'listen' and 'look' together so that somehow what they are playing makes some sense to them. If they understand a concept they internalise it ready to use again in new pieces - same standard or harder later on.

Typically I will start a lesson with some basic pulse and rhythm practice with Kodaly flash cards and I make the rhythms into phrases for them to clap or tap. They can also choose any note on the piano while following the flash cards fairly easily - they are 'reading music' without realising it. The pupil will then be asked to find the rhythm/phrase in the new piece in front of them and I get them to draw in a big 'umbrella' over the notes. Next I might sing the notes and ask the pupil which way my voice is going - up or down = and then which way on the piano. There is still a lot to sort out. what are finger numbers? what would be the best fingers to use for these notes? do we play them detached or smooth? how to make a nice sound etc

Question them lots - that way you will find out how much they are taking in. Constanly assess - ask them to try out a new piece with similar patterns/notes while you write in the diary for next week. Lots of praise for trying etc.

I have found that the concept of lines and spaces for very young children is a little bit too much for most of them. I was thinking about this today. Perhaps make a 'staircase' warm-up for them by sequencing letters by step all the way up the stave and then by skip with a small teddy bear sitting on middle BCD to keep those out of the way. I am going to try this and relate back to notation later.

Hope no-one recognises my teddy bear!!!

Most of my comments apply to post Prep test pupils aged 9 and I am typically using pieces from towards the end of Piano Time 1 and early in PT 2.

[quote name='jch48' date='Jul 7 2008, 10:17 AM' post='718395']
I've not been teaching long and have picked up a few pupils with around a year's experience from another trusted local teacher and have a couple of absolute beginners.
I understand a bit about learning styles and have always been a very visual, notation-based kind of musician myself.
I am mixing a number of ways to try to get my pupils to play new pieces - not necessarily in this order
- I will play it (a very small part of it) (slowly - perhaps not slowly enough?) - sometimes twice asking them to look at the music while I play and then my hands.
- I play a few notes and ask them to copy
- I ask them to name the note it starts on and play it or to play it without naming it and then maybe the whole of the first bar, looking for patterns (stepwise or thirds - without calling them thirds)
- I may get them to clap the rhythm
- Get them to sing it is another idea, although not one I've really done
- I've given them homework to either name notes in a tune or write named notes on the stave
- I have some flash cards
- I go through the is it in a space or 'on' a line routineand the mnemonics


Sounds like what you are doing is great! In my humble experience (14 years teaching), some beginners will pick up notation quickly, others will try to do everything by ear and still make progress if their ear is good, and others will put a spurt on later, and some will never get there, usually the ones that don't practise. My best pupil, who is now 16, started with me age 6 and could hardly read a note until the age of 12. Get them doing theory books - monkey puzzles and Music Theory in Practice Grade 1. But remember notation isn't everything - not all great musicians are musically literate.

[quote name='funkiepiano' date='Jul 9 2008, 11:38 AM' post='719466']
[quote name='jch48' date='Jul 7 2008, 10:17 AM' post='718395']
I've not been teaching long and have picked up a few pupils with around a year's experience from another trusted local teacher and have a couple of absolute beginners.
I understand a bit about learning styles and have always been a very visual, notation-based kind of musician myself.
I am mixing a number of ways to try to get my pupils to play new pieces - not necessarily in this order
- I will play it (a very small part of it) (slowly - perhaps not slowly enough?) - sometimes twice asking them to look at the music while I play and then my hands.
- I play a few notes and ask them to copy
- I ask them to name the note it starts on and play it or to play it without naming it and then maybe the whole of the first bar, looking for patterns (stepwise or thirds - without calling them thirds)
- I may get them to clap the rhythm
- Get them to sing it is another idea, although not one I've really done
- I've given them homework to either name notes in a tune or write named notes on the stave
- I have some flash cards
- I go through the is it in a space or 'on' a line routineand the mnemonics

I agree with the last post, the time it takes students to grasp the concept of note reading varies widely. You are doing a great job, don't panic about it. I have a student just about to take a place at a top university on a performance course who swore me blind that it was not necessary to read the bass clef until she was well past Grade 2!!!! Very bright and musical, but could see no point!! Of course she does now, but it took some time and every method I could think of to encourage her! I have been teaching 28 years now, so seen many through the years!


Sounds like what you are doing is great! In my humble experience (14 years teaching), some beginners will pick up notation quickly, others will try to do everything by ear and still make progress if their ear is good, and others will put a spurt on later, and some will never get there, usually the ones that don't practise. My best pupil, who is now 16, started with me age 6 and could hardly read a note until the age of 12. Get them doing theory books - monkey puzzles and Music Theory in Practice Grade 1. But remember notation isn't everything - not all great musicians are musically literate.
[/quote]

You appear to have plenty of good strategies there. End of PT1 seems like an awful long way to have gone without being able to make much sense of the written music.
You do sometimes get children who actively choose NOT to learn (I've seen it in action). There often not a lot you can do about that except just keep on with all the other things you are doing until they decide that they will bother now or that it's now getting too difficult without this skill and they give up.

Personally i think the PT books move too fast for kids but look nice and colourful. I don't use them.

I prefer to use pieces the kids can identify with and back this up with written out sightreding and theory work.

Also - to help with their note reading ability i tend to write out all the notes on the trebel and bass clef stave and then see how many they can get right (as i point to them) in a minute. It's encouraging when a student sees they got 12 right one week and then 3 weeks later they have 25 right - really boosts their confidence