Music Teacher's Helper Blog

When we teach an instrument, we need to draw on the student’s experiences to help them achieve quickly, and also need to put a new spin on teaching that keeps students engaged and excited. In this blog I would like to share some techniques I employ for having students succeed at the piano – that don’t actually involve the piano at all (or even the written music, for that matter)!

To understand rhythm, the feel of a steady beat needs to be internalized first, and the rhythm grows from this fundamental feeling. I find the easiest way for students to get this is through walking. Every student can do this task, but it is amazing how differently they walk when they are thinking about the steady beat associated with it. We want to aim for it being as natural as possible before we try superimposing rhythmic clapping on top of this, which may take a few minutes.

The next step would be to clap with each step/beat, and then to change the rhythm so they are clapping ti-ti ta (two quavers, crotchet) while only stepping on the beat. The idea behind this is to give them the feeling of a steady beat so that at the instrument, they have the experience of walking steadily to draw upon, even when the rhythm changes. Getting a student to focus on this while they are walking anywhere through the week makes this feeling of steady beat even more concrete.

I also like to take this a step further, to include aural and visual ideas. Sounds such as dripping taps, alarm clocks, school bells, car indicators, etc all provide a steady beat. Getting students to find some of their own during the week is a great task, and heightens their listening skills. The same can go for visual rhythm – palings in a fence, bricks in houses, lines in a notepad, line markings on a road – the list is endless. Our world is a very structured one, and if our students take time to notice these patterns, it will make a lot of sense to apply the same idea to their music.

Obviously, the above is aimed towards the beginner student, and those who struggle with keeping steady beat, especially when rhythm is applied over the top of the beat. The more internalized these ideas can become, the more musical our students’ playing will become.

Technique is another task that can be overwhelming to students unless the idea is felt, internalized and understood before trying to apply it to the music. For example, piano teachers understand how challenging it is to first learn to play staccato in one hand, while maintaining legato in the other hand. Find out if the student can pat their head and rub their belly. If they are struggling at the piano, chances are, they can’t. This gives a bit of comic relief to a frustrated student as well, and can be a fun challenge for homework. In my experience, gross-motor skills transfer quite easily into fine-motor skills, so if you can come up with ways to get larger body parts moving first, technique comes more smoothly.

I teach music reading in two ways – intervallic, and note-naming. Initially, they read by intervals while playing, and do note-spelling activities in books designed for that purpose (I love the Hal Leonard Note Spellers – Click to Look Inside). Mostly, I find the challenge in reading the notes is that they have always said the alphabet forwards, but not backwards. I encourage them to practice saying A-G forwards and backwards at one speed (and even adults may struggle initially). Once this is comfortable, note reading improves noticeably.

These activities away from the instrument help to overcome obstacles at the instrument by giving students new references to draw upon. This makes the music less about abstract ideas, and more about creating new ways to apply these learned experiences.

I would love to hear any exercises or activities that you employ in your teaching that involves thinking outside the square, or moving away from the instrument! Please share your ideas below.