Music Teachers Blog

I am currently teaching two very enthusiastic 8-year old boys. They are in their first year with me and, to my knowledge, piano is their first instrument. They are unique in that they both are sons of well-known, successful musicians in New York. They are very musical, are clearly happy to come to the studio each week, and truly want to learn. The one problem is they just can’t sit still. Sound familiar? They are, after all, 8-year old boys.

I have decided to create games that work specifically to their desires to learn and to move at the same time. The first game I call ‘Jumping Jack Hand Position.’ It is very simple in concept, but amazingly effective in focusing the student’s attention. I use it with new pieces that require an unfamiliar hand position. The student first sits at the piano and takes as much time as needed to find the hand position for the first measure of music. I then point at a note, and he plays each note as I point. I am not interested in rhythm and not even that interested in pitch precision. I only allow him to play the 1st measure, though. I then have him jump up from the bench and run to the center of the room and do three jumping jacks. He then quickly returns to the piano and has to refind his hand position. I then point him through the first two measures (again, not concerned with rhythm or pitch). This pattern repeats with the number of jumping jacks increasing each time. Simple but effective. The best games usually are!

Another games uses drum beats to keep the student moving. The idea is to take a fairly new piece that the student is just getting comfortable with and create a game that gets her to play it many times. Here is how it works, again very simple but surprisingly effective. I either sit behind the drum set in my studio and play, or program a simple beat in Apple’s Garage Band (or whatever sequencer you can get your hands on). The beat has a cowbell ‘count off’ in the appropriate time signature, and the beat lasts the length of the piece being played. The student has to stand on one side of the studio and listen and clap to the beat (dancing is OK too!) all the way through. Then while the beat loops back to the beginning and starts off the count again, she has to run to the piano, sit, get hand position, and play with the drums. The student only has a short period of time to get to the piano and get set, so they need to focus. They play the piece through as best they can once and then must get up and return to me across the studio. We clap and dance again together one time through the beat until it loops back, at which point they sprint back to the piano and try the song again. Often at the beginning, I need to sing the song with them to help them start at the downbeat or find their place after a delayed start. They eventually, though, get into a groove and may end up repeating the song 10 times before we stop the beat. Any song is fair game. Easy, difficult, it doesn’t really matter.

The idea behind these games is to help a student focus by getting his or her whole body involved. Some students need to move in order to expend the proper amount of energy.

Posted in Music & Technology, Teaching Tips |

About the Author

For 20 years keyboardist Nate Shaw has been performing around the globe. His touring groups have included Bebop Jazz sextet, Motion Poets, which released three CDs to wide critical acclaim, the explosive world music trio, New Power Trio, featuring Yo Yo Ma’s percussionist of choice, Mark Suter, and his current favorite, the Brooklyn based, Gowanus Reggae And Ska Society. Nate has released 9 CDs and can be heard as a sideman on dozens more. Nate's goal as a teacher is to inspire and cultivate a desire to explore music and all of it’s magic. He encourages creativity and discourages fear of the unknown. He is a strong believer in the notion that music lives in each and every one of us, it simply needs to be nurtured in the correct way in order to blossom. He also believes that developing a student’s musicality takes time, focus, support, and discipline.