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....

How can you stand all those wrong notes?

That question was a response I once got when I told someone I was a piano teacher. Those of us who do teach music and love it understand that it's about so much more than correcting errors: it's about putting a puzzle together; going on a journey; making discoveries together; always learning more as we strive to illuminate music to each unique student in the way that works best for them.

"Wrong notes" is not something to be annoyed with, but a puzzle to solve, different for each student. The first step is to identify the problem. For right now, I'm talking wrong notes in reading situations; in other words, when students are playing music from a sheet. The following is a list of problems I've noticed:

1. Being tethered to five finger positions - the main problem with five-finger positions happens when students have been learning from books that present note reading by teaching positions such as "C position," "G position," etc. All the student has to do to find their position for the song is look at the top of the page where it might say "G position" or whatever position. Then they know where to put their hands, and they can just play the finger numbers. This still can develop skills of directional and intervallic reading, but some students struggle terribly when they encounter a song in a new position, or if they ever get a song that doesn't tell them the position! This is a huge pain for both teacher and student.
2. Reading finger numbers only - this problem is often a byproduct of problem #1, but not always. It also occurs almost inevitably when a student is learning a piece that requires hand moves, or ventures out of a five finger position for the first time.
3. Guessing notes by ear - some students rely on this more than others: they trust their ear more than their eye and will try to find the right note just by guessing. If it doesn't sound right, they'll try a different one until it sounds right to them. Sometimes their ear might be so good they can trick the teacher into thinking they are reading it for a long time.
4. Not knowing the white key names well enough - It can be so discouraging to be working with a student, maybe for years, and suddenly discover they don't REALLY know their white key names. Especially if students are playing pieces always in the same positions, they don't even have to think about what note is what, so are quite susceptible to losing that knowledge.

For problems 1-3, I can think of no better solution than switching method books to one that emphasizes landmark notes and intervals, and that includes songs in all different positions, all over the piano. I have had several students who were more advanced players but had trouble reading, switch to Frances Clark's The Music Tree series starting with Part 1 and all have improved dramatically.

For problem number 4, I use Laura Lowe (over at The Piano Studio)'s tricks for teaching white keys, and review them often with additional games:

Hats-n-Baskets - Students have to draw a card from two different baskets or hats - one contains letters, and one contains words "high, middle, or low," and then play the correct note, in the correct location on the piano. Sometimes I include only C, D, and E, or F, G, A, and B, so they get used to looking for notes by black-key group.
Cover the Keys - a great game by Susan Paradis
Keyboard Flies - another one from Susan Paradis. I hide these all over the studio, and give students letters. They have to find the cards that match their letters, and then place those in the correct spot on the giant keyboard mat.

Today we learned all the notes on the piano at our In Tune Studio beginning piano camp! More to come on that.