Alice

In October, Marshmallow Avenue played a Halloween party show at the studio. We brought "Alice" as a decoration, and I guess we forgot to take her back because she was still there on Monday for lessons. Students were quite intrigued by this glittery skull bust wearing a pink wig. I told them her name was Alice, and then at some point when a student made a mistake I said "Alice! Knock it off!" And explained to the student that she likes to try and mess people up when they play piano. "How?" "She uses her sparkles to distract you," I said. Then I used Alice as a competitor in games: where students would earn points for doing something correctly, if they made an error Alice would get a point. Previously, it would be me who took the points for the students' mishaps. Playing against Alice turned out to be much more fun, and then I could root for the student also!

Kids delight in having this nemesis. They are excited to take on challenges when they are presented by Alice, or when Alice is standing in their way trying to trip them up. They feel extra good when they avoid Alice's trickery. When Alice DOES trick them, they can laugh and say "Alice! You won't get me next time! I'll be ready!" Instead of feeling bad that they made a mistake. In group lessons, students high-five each other when they defeat Alice in a game.

Alice is certainly weird, and kind of creepy looking. When students first meet her, they are very curious. "Did Alice lose a tooth?" A student asked once. "Is she a kid?" If a student wants at any time, I will put Alice in the closet. Over time, however, I've found that most students grow to love Alice. Just the other week, Alice wasn't there. "She's on vacation," I said (she was put in the closet for an event at the studio). "I hope Alice is back next time," the student said.

Every so often I'll remind students that Alice is not real. I think they know, though.

Telling Left from Right

In early childhood music and movement training, I've learned that kids shouldn't be expected to distinguish left from right until 2nd grade or so. From experience, I know that many adults still do not know their left from right. But, in piano, how can we avoid this concept? I find that it's a waste of time to try and get kids to remember which is left and which is right consistently, and then expect that they'll always know the correct hand to use. Piano method books give some cues such as stem direction in pre-reading, but it's still so easy to get mixed up.

I find that having visual cues on the piano can help to quickly solve any momentary confusion:

On the left side we have "Mr. L." L is often used to help kids remember their left hand. In piano, L also stands for "Low notes", which the Left hand plays. On the right is a character named Alice. Alice is a lady who sings high notes. She's on the high side. Whenever I need someone to find their right hand, I might say "Right hand, hi, Alice!" Students can hold both hands out in front of them and quickly find the hand closer to Alice, and they'll know that's the right hand for high notes.

When students start to learn treble and bass clef, I'll put a picture of treble with Alice, and bass with Mr. L.

Alice is rather strange-looking, and, perhaps to some, creepy. In another post, I'll talk about Alice's role beyond helping students identify high notes and their right hand.

Two of my favorite pianists

Here are two pianists I love. Both of them play music that is lighthearted yet full of soul, and they both sing, each with a uniquely expressive voice.

1. Tipitina - Professor Longhair

This is one of my favorite tunes that is based on the twelve-bar blues. His playing style is emblematic of New Orleans Piano, which, incidentally, is the name of his first album. Tipitina is a song that could go on forever without getting boring.

2. Your Feet's Too Big - Fats Waller

This video showcases Fats Waller's sense of humor and incredible facial expressions.

3. Handful of Keys - Fats Waller

This song really represents the stride piano style of which Fats Waller is the original master.

Pipe Cleaner Staff

Students who are new to the staff as well as those who have been working with it for awhile can benefit from a kinesthetic experience. I got the idea from Dan Shure at Evolving Music Education, who makes a grand staff out of clay and calls it ClayTime Piano. Being able to touch and feel the lines and spaces gives students a new awareness that they can apply when they're reading notes on the page.

My version is made out of pipe cleaners and foam board:

 First I hooked the both edges of the pipe cleaners around the back of the board. The board had an "invisible grid" on the back - I spaced the lines two gridlines apart. I put a piece of scotch tape on both edges and one in the middle. I chose to make treble clef lines one color and bass clef lines another, and then I made the guide notes Treble G and Bass F both green.

 Then, I decided to fashion a treble clef and a bass clef out of pipe cleaners. One of the first things I have students do is place the clefs in the correct place on the staff.

 So far I've used foam shapes as notes. A student discovered that you could tuck the notes behind the lines for line notes! This way, it's really hard to confuse line notes with space notes.

My students love the fuzzy feeling and the colors! There are lots of ways it can be used for students of all different levels. I like Dan Shure's activity where students move one note around to the correct place on the staff matching a song in their book. It can also be good for practicing intervals, note naming, chord building, key signatures.... time to make pipe cleaner sharps and flats!

Teaching Aids

Since graduating, I've had more free time to devote to lesson planning. One of the things I've been able to do is build my arsenal of teaching aids like flashcards, card games, and board games. Most of them are printed from other piano teacher's blogs, such as:

Susan Paradis
Pianimation
Color in My Piano

I am amazed by the wealth of resources available for free, shared among a vibrant and generous music teacher community online. I have been able to make good use of the Scotch Thermal Laminator I bought last summer.

Games are such a great way to activate the brain. Students love games, and they love winning, so a game is always a surefire way to get them to exercise their brain in doing something that will help their piano playing.

I wanted to highlight a couple ones I have used recently. The first is a resource from Susan Paradis, Note Flies. On her blog, she has many ideas for how to use them. I have used them as just plain flashcards, hid them around the room for students to find, and also as a slapjack game.

Note Fly Slapjack Instructions: 
Deal out all the cards, then identify which ones are to be slapped. I found that it's best to have three or more of these, for example, the C, F, and G guide notes. Take turns putting down a card. When a guide note (or whatever note is being drilled) appears, slap it! Whoever slaps first gets the whole pile of cards, IF they can correctly name the note they slapped. The winner is the person who ends up with all the cards, or whoever has the most cards when you need to stop. This game requires students to focus in on what the note looks like, and they develop an eye to find it quickly.

Another one I used is for really young students, from Color in my Piano: Piano Hands Hunt Game. In this game, cards are hidden around the room. Each card has a RH or a LH, and one finger number highlighted. Students must find a card and come up to the piano to play the correct hand and correct finger, then go back and get another one. I recently started a group lesson with three kindergarteners. I've learned from early childhood music and movement training that you shouldn't expect a child to know right from left until second grade. But, how can you avoid right and left in piano? This game was fun and helpful with right and left. In a later post, I'll talk about a couple of visual cues I use on the studio piano to help young students find the hand they need.

In my next post I'll highlight a teaching aid I came up with using pipe cleaners and foam board! Stay tuned....

Group vs Private Lessons

When I was learning piano, I only ever had private lessons. Since becoming a piano teacher I have read about group lessons, and over the past couple of years I have been able to try it with some students. I've come to the conclusion that it would benefit every student to be a part of a group that meets regularly as a supplement to private lessons.

Here are some of the benefits of group lessons versus private lessons:

The dynamic is completely different. In a private lesson, there's just one teacher telling one student what to do. There are creative things teachers can do to play with that dynamic, but it's practically impossible to escape that. In a group lesson, the presence of more students takes the pressure off.

Motivation increases. A student needs more than just two adults (teacher and parent) to please. They need to please themselves, and impressing the other students in the piano group is a very satisfying feeling. The right group can provide just enough of a friendly competitive dynamic to push each student to reach their potential, more so than just having to face the same teacher who can only do so much to compel the student to work hard.

They learn more. A group provides an atmosphere appropriate for games which can be used to teach concepts that will not be remembered from just being told in a private lesson. Playing a game against other students of the same ability is infinitely more fun than playing against the teacher who you know is just going to set you up to win. Private lessons tend to focus mostly on playing ability, with concepts being thrown in when they become useful. A group lesson can be used to present these concepts in an exciting and organized way that is more likely to be remembered and can then be applied in the private lesson. It also takes the pressure off the teacher to spend time on these concepts in the private lessons.

It's more fun! It's always more fun to learn and practice with friends.

This was the first year I tried doing a group lesson as a weekly lesson for three girls whose parents wanted to try it. I was very surprised at how well it worked, and how far they could advance in just a year. Of course, their parents have done an excellent job keeping them practicing and ready for each lesson, but I believe the group dynamic also has played no small part in their success.

Around the middle of the year, different learning styles and rates emerged, and I began to consider whether the girls would need to start having their own private lessons. It wouldn't be fair for anyone to be either held back by the group, or to be overwhelmed by the fast pace. This is the main problem with group lessons, because of course, each student is unique.

I and the parents have decided to do private lessons for each student followed by one group lesson for the last lesson of the month. This way, the students can progress at the right pace with private lessons tailored to what they need, and can still have the group lesson to look forward to at the end of the month where they can share what they've been working on, and can learn and practice theory and eartraining.

 Ideally, I would like all students to participate in such a model. Scheduling and determining which students to group together makes it logistically hard to do, but I'd like to start working towards it.

Piano Camp

This year marks the second year I've done beginning piano camp for kids age 4-6. Last year we had five kids, this year it doubled! Having ten students and only two pianos made things a little bit tough at times but I was lucky enough to have two other teachers working with me. Between activities away from the piano, super fun team games, and cramming four kids on one piano at the same time, we made it work and had fun, too!

Students learned how the piano works and got to see and touch the inside of one; proper sitting position and how to use the hand and arm; how to identify high and low sounds and where they are on the piano; finger numbers; steady beat; quarter, half, dotted half, and whole note rhythms; the groups of black keys and all white key names. They also learned several songs and each performed one for their parents on the last day of camp. This camp was four hours a day for five days, so we did a LOT!

A few of my favorite moments:

• Finding notes while wearing the google goggles (a crazy-looking blindfold mad from plastic safety goggles, masking tape, and big googly eyes). Finding notes without looking solidifies knowledge of the topography of the keyboard which will be very helpful when playing.
• Falling down when the beat wasn't steady - when learning about steady beat, I told the campers that I could only march to a steady beat. If it's not steady, I fall down! Of course, they all delighted in making me fall down.
• Giving directions on the giant keyboard mat - someone had a funny idea to face backwards when finding a note on the giant keyboard mat and everyone wanted to do it that way! It made it more difficult to find the note, but maybe it was a good brain exercise!
• Animal charades - in partner teams, one partner acted out an animal while the other provided music that expressed the character of that animal. 

Having a camp is a great way to give young kids an opportunity try out piano and learn basics quickly. What we covered in one week normally takes several weeks of lessons to master, so if the student decides they want to do piano, they will be ahead of the game when they start lessons.

The group atmosphere does wonders for motivation, too. Last year, three of the girls in piano camp ended up doing a group lesson for their regular weekly lesson. It's turned out better than I could have ever imagined! More about group lessons in the next post....