Color In My Piano » improving as a teacher

My Summer Camp Plans for 2012!

joy (admin) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:27:33 +0000

I recently started to do some in-depth planning for the summer camps I plan to offer this summer! My studio policies provide students with two options for the summer months (June-August):

Students ages 6-12 may participate in a camp each month plus take 5 lessons scheduled approximately every other week around family vacations, or…
Students may continue weekly lessons (10 total) as normal. Students who choose to continue lessons as normal are welcome to sign up for 1, 2, or all 3 summer camps on top of their lessons if desired, at a special rate.

Because I have such a range of ages/levels in my studio, I decided to make my camps very flexible so that students of a wide range of musical backgrounds (even those with no music background) can attend camp. When my studio is larger, I will probably design camps for certain ages/levels. For this year, I think it’s best to be flexible. I’m encouraging my students to invite their friends to attend camp and I’ll put posters around town too. I’m hoping for a turnout of about 4-8 students attending each camp.

Below are the descriptions I came up with for each camp. What do you think — do they sound like fun?! :)

JUNE 11-14: Musical Olympics!
This camp is designed to get students experiencing and learning about music through movement activities and team games like Rhythm Toss, Musical Hoops, Rhythm Splash, and the Musical Alphabet Relay. On the first day of camp, campers will be divided into two teams that will compete for the gold medal throughout the week! Campers — be sure to wear your swimsuit under your clothes, because there just might be a game involving water planned for each day of camp!

JULY 9-12: So, You Want To Be A Composer?
During this composition bootcamp, campers will gain inspiration and tools for composing their own music! Students will examine the creative process of a famous composer each day, and then create/notate their own composition in a related fashion. For example, the French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy was inspired by colors, so we will learn to notate a composition using various colors of paint! In addition to individual work, there will also be opportunities for improvising and composing as a group throughout the week. Students will also craft a musical instrument to take home each day.

AUGUST 6-9: Music History Blast From The Past!
During this camp, we will be traveling back in time to get a glimpse into the lives of the great classical composers. Each day, we will focus on a time period from music history and create a scrapbook page of pictures/notes to take home. As we study the composers we will be not only listening to the music of each time period, but also looking at the instruments, clothes, and art of each time period in order to make the past come alive. Campers will be sure experience the thrill of a blast from the past during this music history camp!

Many of the activities I’m planning for each camp are from Sheryl’s blog (because she has lots of great game ideas and lots of experience with summer camps too) and from Pinterest. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more of the details — and hopefully photos too — eventually! Are you planning any summer camps this year?

Forum Q&A | New Year’s Resolutions for Piano Teachers

joy (admin) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:15:24 +0000

I’ve already blogged a bit about my New Year’s Resolution. Now it’s your turn!

Our previous Q&A Forum brought about a great discussion about whether or not to lesson plan for piano lessons (and if so, how to feasibly do so even if you have a large studio). Today, let’s start a discussion about what change you’d like to make in your teaching this year! I think it’s important as teachers to continually be making little changes and looking for ways to improve our teaching. It not only makes us better teachers, but it also helps keep things fresh for our students as well as ourselves. :)

So, tell us:

As a piano teacher, what would you like to START doing this year?
What would you like to STOP doing this year?
What would you like to KEEP doing this year?

Comment away!

Thoughts for the New Year

joy (admin) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:46:13 +0000

The new year always brings about a time of reflection for me. I find myself thinking back over the past year and looking forward to the future, wondering what the new year might bring.

This year was a time of great change for my husband and me. In May, I graduated with my Master of Music degree. We also moved to a new state. It has been an adjustment to be out-of-school. I still keep myself just as busy as I was during grad school, but it’s a different kind of busy. Instead of having a schedule where nearly every half-hour of my day was portioned out to a class, rehearsal, or other appointment, my schedule is suddently much more flexible. Now I have the flexibility to choose when I complete the items on my “to-do” list. And I have to time to work on various projects that I never would have had time to do during grad school.

Do I miss being in school? Yes and no. I have always loved school. And I haven’t had a break from school since Kindergarten. That’s 19 years of formal schooling! But, of course, education and learning does not have to end when school ends. I am continuing to develop myself as a professional through reading books/magazines, attending conferences, attending local association meetings, staying in touch with my colleagues, and blogging/reading blogs. I’m so thankful for all of these resources — especially for this wonderful community online! (What would we do without the internet?! My network would be so much smaller without it!) Deciding to stop after my Master’s degree was a tough choice for me. While a small part of me would love to be working on a DMA or PhD right now, I am thrilled to be finally “living the dream” and doing what has been my goal throughout those six years of college: running my own teaching studio. I learned SO much during the coursework for my degrees, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be putting it all to good use now. All that time, money, and effort for college was so worth it.

Most years, I don’t bother to make a New Year’s resolution, but this year I do have one. My goal over the next year is for my husband and I to learn how to budget effectively and in general to be more aware of our finances at any given time. When we were both full-time students, our finances were pretty straight-forward. As things become more complex, we’d like to have a good system established for tracking our income and spending. This, of course, includes keeping good records for my business as a piano teacher. I asked for a budgeting software this year for Christmas that I hope will help with this goal.

Another goal, of course, is to continue growing my studio. I am proud to be teaching 11 students, which is not bad considering we’ve moved here just six months ago. We are still getting familiar with our new surroundings, but we consider ourselves very blessed to have found a good church home, to be living in a lovely old house that is perfect for piano teaching, and to be making new friends. (And guess what — there’s even a group of us local teachers who are working on starting a new music teachers association affiliated with MTNA!)

Best wishes to you all as the 2011 comes to a close and the New Year approaches! And, Merry Christmas too, of course. I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the next week or two as we spend time visiting family. See you in January!

Forum Q&A: Lesson Planning for Private Lessons

joy (admin) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:50:13 +0000

It’s been a while since we had a Forum Q&A! Sometimes I run out of ideas for discussion topics, so if you ever have a question you’d like to see addressed here to get other teachers’ input, please let me know. :)

Last time, we discussed the role of the parent in private lessons. We received some well-thought responses, so thanks for that! Click here to read them, and remember, it’s never too late to add your thoughts.

Here’s today’s discussion topic: Lesson planning! Here’s a few questions to get you thinking:

Do you create lesson plans for the private piano lessons you teach? Why or why not? If you do create lesson plans, what is your process? How much time do you spend lesson planning each week? Is your method feasible for even if you full studio of say, 20+ students?

Although I’ve been teaching privately for over 6 years now, I still don’t feel I have a good system for lesson planning. Fortunately, I have a pretty good memory for knowing where in their books my students are at any given time. However, I have a feeling that eventually if I get over 20 students to keep track of, this would be become much more difficult. I need to keep better records so I can be more effective in preparing to introduce new concepts to my students before the method book does! I’d love to hear any thoughts you have on this topic. :)

Photo Credit: Bright Meadow | CC 2.0

9 Tips for Teaching Piano To Young Ages

joy (admin) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:42:00 +0000

As piano teachers, we wear many hats. School teachers often teach only one age group, or a few age groups. Piano teachers are usually expected to be able to teach from age 5 to 95! But as we all know, teaching a 5-year-old is much different from teaching a 15-year-old, or a 55-year-old. :)

In recently thinking about this challenge of being able to effectively teach various age levels and maturities, I decided to make a list of some of the things I’ve learned over the past few years about teaching young ages — I’m thinking, ages 6 and under. I learned some of these things from an Early Childhood Music course I took during grad school and various piano pedagogy courses — but I learned many of these things purely from experience. Here goes:

Don’t ask questions that you don’t really want answers to. Examples: “Did you like that?” or “Do you want to try it on your own now?” Sometimes if given the option to opt out of something, children will say “no” simply because you’ve given them a choice. :) It’s better to make statements.
Give them time to think. When you ask a question, wait for them to process and compose a response. Sometimes we ask questions and then blow right on without getting an answer. Young children need this think time. If you don’t really want to wait for an answer, then don’t ask the question in the first place.
Only give them tasks and activities that you are 100% sure they will succeed at. Studies have shown that the most effective way to learn is to have a series of successive challenges, where each challenge is only slightly more challenging than the previous. Huge challenges often discourage students — especially when they are young children. Give them small challenges, so they experience many small successes as they learn. My mantra: Always set the student up for success.
Give concise instructions. If you speak only a few choice words at a time, the student will really listen when you speak. In Dalcroze training, teachers are taught to give no more than a few words of instruction at any given time to children (I think the magic number is 6, if I’m remembering correctly). Sometimes, I find myself babbling when I teach, which can easily lose the child’s attention. I’m trying to teach myself to take a moment to think before I speak. Word choice is important. Challenge yourself to use a limited amount of words before an activity. It will really make you think about what you are saying!
Be a motivator. A fellow teacher recently said to me: “One of the primary goals of a teacher is to be a motivator.” I think he’s right! Remember that the chief goal is not to get through X amount of pieces or concepts, but to motivate them to want to learn about music. If a child doesn’t “get” a concept on the first try, it’s okay! If you’ve nurtured their excitement about making music, you’ve still met your goal as a teacher that day.
Model curiosity. Whenever I can, I phrase things as if we are experimenting: “Let’s find out what happens when we…” Student are always excited to find out what what exciting sounds they can make! Actually, this tip works for all ages, but is especially good with young ages in order to capture their attention and nurture a love of learning.
Get off the bench! Break up sitting activities with activities that allow them to move around a little. Young students need to move! They should not be expected to sit for an entire half-hour lesson. Find or create your own interactive and movement activities that effectively teach the concepts you want them to learn.
Experience, symbol, then name. Research studies have suggested that this progression is the most effective way to learn. I think this is especially true with young ages. Instead of starting with the terminology for a new concept, start with an activity that allows the student to experience the concept. Then, find an activity that shows then the symbol. Lastly, share the term with the student. This was something that was drilled in my early childhood music college course, but I was also reminded of it in a recent conference session by Marvin Blickenstaff.
Reinforcement is the way young students will begin to remember things. Don’t assume they will necessarily remember new things after only the first introduction. In my experience, young children will often remember that they learned about the concept, but might not remember the name (which corresponds with the research studies mentioned in the previous post). Don’t make them feel bad for not remembering things the first time. Pleasantly refresh their memory. Strive to present concepts in a variety of ways, from different perspectives, to appeal to different types of learners.

Have any tips to add about working with young students? Leave them in the comments!

Photo Credit: Camera Eye Photography | CC 2.0

2011 OhioMTA Conference (4): Piano Pedagogy 101, by Marvin Blickenstaff

joy (admin) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:28:17 +0000

Here’s another session given by the well-loved pedagogue Marvin Blickenstaff from the 2011 OhioMTA Conference:

Piano Pedagogy 101: Reviewing the Basics

Mr. Blickenstaff introduced this session by commenting that at conferences and workshops, we often hear ideas for teaching intermediate and advanced students, but we don’t very often hear ideas for teaching beginners during that first year of piano lessons. The purpose of this session to give a refresher of sorts and to provide new ideas for teaching beginners, particularly in groups.

Mr. Blickenstaff basically led us through a series of short activities that he uses during group classes with beginners. He begins the first few classes with some icebreaker activities that all students can succeed doing. These initial successes set the tone for the entire year!

Here are a few examples of some of the beginner-level icebreaker activities Mr. Blickenstaff likes to use with his students:

Ask, “Can you play a piece at the piano?” Every student can play something on the piano that they’ve made up or learned from someone else. Let them all play, then gush, “Wow, you are all already pianists! This is going to be wonderful.”
Ask, “What is the piano made of?” Let students walk around and look at the piano and discover: wood, metal, plastic, etc.
Explore left hand versus right hand. Here is Mr. Blickenstaff’s chant: “When you point your thumbs together, can you find the big capital L.” He also says this statement frequently: “Downward to the left, upward to the right,” to help students learn that “up” on the piano means moving to the right, and vice versa.
Flyswatter versus a knock motions: This activity uses exaggerated motions to learn the basic piano technique of using motion from the wrist and from the elbow. He instructs students to pick up that imaginary flyswatter with the right hand from the table. Swat 3 flies together. How do you move? Observe the motion from the elbow. Now, suppose the doorbell doesn’t work at your friend’s house. So instead you say (in rhythm), “Knock, knock, knock–, an-y-bod-y home? Yes, yes, yes–, ev-ry-bod-y’s here.” Observe the motion from the wrist. Once students can recognize and reproduce these motions, they can together choose which motion will be more efficient in different circumstances. I.e., smaller motions are more efficient for faster notes/tempi.

Later on, activities can become more complex and utilize some of those basic skills learned during the first few weeks.

Mr. Blickenstaff also provided some tips and guidelines for lesson planning. Here are my favorites:

For a well-rounded lesson at the first lesson and every lesson, include TERRAC: technique, expressivity, creativity, rhythm, reading, and aural awareness.
Another tip to write on the top of your page while lesson planning: OTB… “Off the bench!” Be sure to find activities that get change the pace and get the student moving.
Successful teaching at the early levels means three stages: Preparation, Presentation, and Reinforcement. The stage that most commonly gets missed by teachers is preparation. If you do not lesson plan and simply follow the piano method with your students, you cannot prepare students for the next concept to be learned. Teachers must always know what the next concept is for each student. Piano methods also fail to do enough reinforcement. It’s up to the teacher to find multiple ways to reinforce concepts, using singing, moving, creating, sight-reading, etc.
Research has shown that the best way to teach new concepts is to do so in this order: Experience, Symbol, then Name. Students should experience the concept aurally and physically first, then be shown the symbol, and lastly be introduced to the name/term.
Find the easiest way to do things to ensure that the student will be successful.
“Remember that children take lessons for one reason: to make exciting sounds at the piano. Anytime our lessons do not emulate this goal, we are nurturing a potential dropout.” – approximate quote from pedagogue Richard Chronister.

I just LOVE all the inspiration and pedagogically-sound activities that Mr. Blickenstaff provided in this session! If these notes doesn’t show just how important ongoing professional development is for music teachers, I don’t know what does. Personally, I think every teacher should be a member of a local association and attend conferences whenever possible. Okay, I’ll get off my soap box now. :) Hope you enjoyed the notes!

P.S. — Is anybody else currently saving up to get to the 2012 MTNA conference in NYC in March? I am…not sure if it’s feasible yet, but I’m trying to figure out a way to swing it! Unfortunately, I don’t qualify for the student rates anymore…bummer. ;)

OhioMTA Conference 2011 (2): Toxic or Terrific Teaching by Nicole Biggs

joy (admin) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:10:40 +0000

The next session at the OhioMTA Conference was given by Dr. Nicole Biggs, the new piano professor at Bowling Green State University in my town:

Toxic or Terrific Teaching: Exploring the Strategies that Bring out the Best in our Students

Dr. Biggs began by pointing out that our goal as teachers is to inspire and motivate our students in such a way that they can go on independently without us. Our goal in effect is to teach ourselves out of a job.

A potential problem for some of us as teachers is that we may unintentionally emulate the teaching models we experienced, whether good or bad. It’s a challenge, but if we perhaps experienced “toxic teaching” during our own studies, we need to find ways to ensure these teaching strategies don’t filter into our own teaching. We need to transform any toxic teaching strategies into terrific teaching strategies.

Dr. Biggs discussed a number of toxic teaching strategies, each followed by a description of the terrific teaching strategy that should replace it. Here are a few of my favorite points that she made:

TOXIC TEACHING: Disrespect. This teaching strategy uses exaggeration, sarcasm, and embarressment to bring about learning. The teacher might copy the students’ playing with an added “…only you weren’t this bad; I’m just exaggerating.”

…TERRIFIC TEACHING: Nurturing students. Instead of using methods that might show disrespect to the student, teachers can use methods such as asking guided questions, and demonstrating an optimal sound model to nurture artistry from the beginning.

TOXIC TEACHING: Fixating on the obvious. This is when teachers focus on wrong notes (especially with advanced students) instead of providing help with technique or artistry. This leads to the student feeling that they don’t need the teacher until their playing arrives at a high level.

…TERRIFIC TEACHING: Teaching towards the greatest change. As Nelita True once said, “Hear every student as if they are great artists.” Teachers need to be able to provide help with technique or artistry even at the first few weeks of work on a piece. Having all the notes correct should not be considered a pre-requisite.

TOXIC TEACHING: Demonstrative teaching. Demonstrative teaching can be a joy killer. If all the teacher does is talk, talk talk and the student never gets to play or input their thoughts, the student can become bored very quickly. Similarly, if the teacher teaches that their is only one way to play a passage or a piece, students may become uninspired and uncreative in their playing.

…TERRIFIC TEACHING: Facilitating curiosity. Students should be enthusiastic and curious! Books on creativity talk about curiosity as fluency, flexibility, and originality. They talk about trying to be surprised by something every day, and to surprise someone else every day. As teachers, we need to model curiosity to our students, and find creative ways to nurture their curiosity. As Jane McGrath once said, “Excellence breeds excellence, and curiosity breeds curiosity.”

To summarize terrific teaching, Dr. Biggs suggests:

Provide a sound model for students. Words aren’t always necessary; much can be said through the music itself. For example, this is done through playing for students yourself and showing YouTube videos of the great artists. This implies that the teacher must have the student’s repertoire in their fingers.
Aim for the stars. Even with intermediate level students, expose them to great artists such a Horowitz. It will inspire them more than anything else.

In closing, Dr. Biggs encouraged us that if we recognize any of these toxic teaching strategies in our own teaching, we should strive to improve ourselves by transforming these habits into terrific teaching strategies. Our teaching strategies should reflect our goals as music educations: to direct students towards lifelong music making, independence, and beautiful playing.

Forum Q&A | The Role of the Parent

joy (admin) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:40:44 +0000

I apologize for being a bit MIA around the blog lately. I have a couple of projects that I am working on right now for my local MTNA association. One of them is designing a website. It’s about half-way done and if you’re interested in taking a sneak peek, you can click here to see it. :)

Anyway, our last Forum Q&A was a discussion about accepting and then teaching adult students at the students’ homes. We also hit on a few other situations, like females teaching male adult students at the teacher’s home. There was a good overall consensus about handling such situations. It’s so great to get advice and support from others, so thank you all for your contributions to the discussion! (As always, it’s never too late to comment if you haven’t already!)

Here’s the question for today:

What is the ideal role for the parents when it comes to piano lessons? If a parent asks about what they can be doing to help and support their child, what is your answer? Do you require or encourage parents to sit in on lessons? Do you require parents to help young beginners practice? Do you hold yearly or semesterly meetings with parents to discuss progress?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks | CC 2.0

Tips for a Successful First Studio Recital

joy (admin) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:21:49 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a reader asking advice regarding planning a studio recital for the first time. For the sake of others who might be in the same situation, I decided to create a whole post about this topic — read on.

Q: How do I decide what kind of music to have students play?

I would suggest buying separate sheet music rather than the usual pieces in their method books. There’s something special about having a separate sheet music for the recital. I even like to write on the sheet music something like: “Johnny’s 1st Recital – May 1, 2011.” It is an extra expense for students which I personally feel is worth it.

Q: How much time should I give students to work on their recital piece?

It depends on the difficulty of the recital pieces you plan to assign, but I don’t think 6-8 weeks is too long for students to prepare their pieces for a performance, especially if you want them (all or some of them) to perform by memory. If your teaching style is heavy on performance, your students might be able to be ready in a shorter time, but if you’re not sure how they’ll do, I’d play it safe and give them plenty of time. Personally, I like my students to have at least 2 or 3 weeks that they are able to perform their piece by memory for me during the lesson. So that leaves just 3 to 5 weeks to learn and memorize the piece. You can explain to your students that this piece is “special” and they need to work on it a long time in order to get it as musical as possible. It is much better for students to have too much time to polish the piece than not enough. Of course, even with plenty of time to prepare, you may still have some procrastinators. Despite all your preventative efforts, you might still have a student’s performance “crash and burn.” It’s okay if that happens! It’s a learning experience for everyone involved (including the teacher).

Q: Should I have beginner/elementary level students play more than one piece since they are so short?

Absolutely! Also consider playing the duet parts with them. You can ask the student which way they prefer, but usually they will choose to have you play along since it “makes them sound good.” (Parents love it too.)

Q: Should I play a piece on the recital too, or would I look like a show-off?

I personally feel that teachers should play something on their recitals, especially if students rarely have the opportunity to hear you perform. It does not have to be a long, showy piece. Even a Chopin nocturne or a hymn arrangement, played very well and musically, would be a wonderful thing to hear. It is all about setting an example to your students — that they can play even when they are adults someday if they want to, and that you know how to successfully prepare, memorize, and perform pieces too. It’s also important for the students and parents to be regularly reminded of your qualifications as a musician and performer. To see more opinions on this matter, see this post.

Q: Do I need to have a theme for the recital?

You don’t have to have a theme unless you want to. Many teachers have great success with it. I think it requires more time to plan a themed recital — but they can be a lot of fun. Traditional recitals are great too — it’s good for students to hear a variety of styles and pieces.

Q: How do I decide the program order?

I used to always make the program order by student level, beginners to advanced. I now think it’s better to mix up all the ages and levels into other random groupings (by historical period, for example). Otherwise, it gets difficult to know where to put a precocious but young student, for example. The mix of ages and levels helps the focus of the recital to be a sharing/celebration of music and not a comparison of who is “doing the best.” Another thing to consider — carefully choose a strong performer to put at the beginning of the program, and one at the end of the program. It is nice to get a positive start to the recital, and to finish strong. Visit the Printables page to view a few templates that can be used to type up recital programs.

Q: I also have guitar students, and I haven’t quite figured out yet what to do with them.

That’s great! I think I would mix up the guitar and piano students in the program order — not necessarily every-other, but in groups of threes or fours. Just make sure you have a good set-up — chairs/stands/benches all ready to go. I recommend having the students sit in the front row during the program, in program order, so they can easily tell when it is their turn to play. Mark their seats with a printed program that has their name written on the top of it. If they want to go sit with their parents after they play their piece, they can.

Q: Where have you had your recitals? Any particular places I should consider?

My past recitals have mostly been held at churches, mainly because they were free or very affordable to use. I did try a school classroom once, but found it to be crowded. I look for someplace that has a grand piano that can be moved to the center of the stage/front. It is nice for the students (and impressive to the parents) to get to have the opportunity to perform on a grand piano, especially if you don’t have one in your studio. If your own church is not suitable for a recital for one reason or another, you can ask some of your students/parents what their churches are like. I used one of my student’s church for two years in a row because it worked so well there. Sometimes music stores have a recital hall you can rent, however, they can be pretty expensive.

Q: Have you charged a fee in the past for recitals?

Many teachers charge a recital fee. Personally, I dislike charging and going around collecting yet another fee from students/parents, so I consider it a yearly studio expense and factor it into the annual tuition rate. And, of course, you can declare your recital expenses on your taxes which is helpful. Of course, I have always kept my recital expenses very low. My student’s church that I mentioned earlier cost $25 to use (an honorarium to the janitor), and then I baked two dozen cookies, and I bought punch, paper plates/cups/napkins, etc.. I also bought two dozen roses so I could award each student with a rose at the end of the performance — a nice touch which was great for the photos afterwards. Many teachers give out awards or certificates that correspond to their incentive program. It’s a great time to do it if you have something like that going on in your studio.

Q: Do I need to hold a reception afterwards?

Having some sort of small reception is a nice gesture. It does not have to be extravagant. I think you have to read your students/parents and consider what they will best appreciate. If you teach in an upper-class area, you might want to do a big bash; but if you are in a middle- to lower-class area, keep it simple but nice! As I mentioned, I brought enough punch and cookies for everyone, but I also politely asked students/parents in a newsletter if anyone would like to volunteer to bring goodies to the recital. I usually had 2 or 3 parents bring something, which was helpful to get some variety in the goodies. At the beginning and end of the recital, you can announce the reception and invite the students/parents to stay around for goodies and photos. Click here for a post with ideas for what to say at studio recitals.

Q: Do I need to have a dress rehearsal?

Ideally, yes! It doesn’t have to be held at the recital location if that is not feasible, but at least have your students all perform their pieces for each other during a group lesson. One year, I decided to have them do their dress rehearsal at a local assisted living facility. That year, one of my students could not make it to the recital because of her sibling’s wedding (and I couldn’t move the date just for one student), so it was really nice that at least she could perform her piece at the assisted living facility. And the folks there always enjoy the music!

Q: What else do I need to do to prepare for the big day?

Create a planning checklist for yourself of all the things that must be done in the weeks/days preceding the recital. There are certain things that must be arranged in advance, and there are things that must be bought and taken along on the big day. Here is a list to get you started.

Ask you own questions or offer your own recital tips in the comments below!

Photo Credit: Raybdbomb | CC 2.0

NCKP 2011 | (13) Student-Centered Teaching, by Randall Faber

joy (admin) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:53:01 +0000

I don’t normally post on Saturdays, but I’m so close to having all my conference notes posted that I decided to finish up today with the last one rather than wait until Monday! Whew, thanks for bearing with me through the long haul! Lucky for us, the last one is a good one. :)

I’ve always wanted to hear Dr. Faber speak since I am a huge fan of the Faber Piano Adventures method, and I’ve heard such good things about their sessions. At the NCKP, I had the privilege of attending their publisher showcase and this session on student-centered teaching, which provided a lot of insight into the Fabers’ research on human learning and their teaching philosophy in general. It was fascinating!

Student Centered Teaching: The Process, by Randall Faber. F @ 11:15am.

Dr. Faber began by talking about the teacher perspective. He shared a wonderful photo of a child sitting on the piano bench, eager and excited to learn, looking up into the camera (or into the teacher’s eyes). The next photo was of a stern looking teacher, looking over his reading glasses from his chair alongside the piano. Everybody laughed when they saw this photo! This is the student perspective!

Joking aside, though, sometimes we aren’t always doing the job we think. Sometimes we simply tend to teach the way we were taught because that’s what we know. Dr. Faber made an argument that in order to be the most effective as teachers, we need to be as student-centered as possible.

The “gifts” of piano lessons include things like physical skill, self esteem, mental ability, sensitivity, focus, creativity, discipline, skill development, etc. Now, are all these things the process or the product? And do we pursue the product at all costs, or are we aware of the process too in order to achieve the full gamet of those gifts we mentioned? It’s the process that actually brings those gifts, not the product.

What does the process look like from the student’s eyes? Dr. Faber showed a slide of a piece of music with tons of strange accidentals and intervals, and asked us to quickly memorize it as if we were going to play it on the piano in a moment. Then he showed a slide of the same piece with all the notes spelled enharmonically correct this time, and it turned out to be a simple piece in the key of C with a simple melody and arpeggiated accompaniment! This illustration shows that when our mind is overwhelmed by the complexities of notation, we miss even the most obvious aspects of musicality. When the piece was written the second way, we could all see the patterns and we were able to effectively chuck small pieces of information into larger, meaningful chunks. This is what we need to teach our students to do. We need to help them learn to find patterns and chunks so that there is brain-power free for focusing on expression.

And so, one of the keys to student-centered teaching is Pattern Recognition.

As teachers, we need to be aware of the student’s actual recognition. We can’t assume that the student is seeing the same patterns that we are seeing!
In addition, we need to be taking ongoing assessment. We can’t assume that just because we taught it, the student has learned it. Students often need multiple explanations, repetition, and reminders. We need to be aware and ask: what does the student really know?
And, we as teachers need to be careful not to assume that just because something is important and meaningful to us, it is important and meaningful to the student. Perception can’t be forced. It must be invited. This leads us to another key of student-centered teaching…

…Engagement.

Are we operating on the student’s 90% attention capacity, or 6%? Just like perception, attention can’t be forced. It must be invited. When a student tries to contribute and direct learning, do we inwardly swat them away and stick to our lesson plan? Harnessed attention is a gift, and yet we so often forego perfect opportunities for learning when the student shows interest.
One secret to engagement is the idea of curiosity. Curiosity is a wonderfully useful state of mind! It engages attention, and is a prerequisite to learning. Not only should we let the student lead learning with curiosity, but the teacher must also model curiosity. The student will learn how to learn, and want to learn to how to learn. :) Curiosity leads to more curiosity, which leads to careful, focused attention.

Engagement is most important in learning. Then you can correct things along the way. The most important thing is to prevent breaks in attention.

Now we can see that the engagement key to student-centered teaching is really the prerequisite to the pattern recognition key mentioned above. We need to engage the student before we can teach the various aspects of pattern recognition (which is kinesthetic, visual, and aural).

In closing, Dr. Faber suggested an adjustment to the triangle diagram we commonly see in pedagogy textbooks, where the parents, teacher, and student each have a corner of the triangle (representing the relationships needed for success). The diagram really ought to include music. The triangle really should be 3-D, with the bottom three corners (parents, teacher, student) reaching up towards the top point, representing MUSIC — both the process and the product.

Throughout this session, Dr. Faber showed video clips of his wife Nancy teaching lessons to students to demonstrate the points he was making. It was wonderful to see the examples of the students becoming increasingly curious and engaged as a result of Nancy’s close attention to the student! They have some very creative and effective ideas for teaching various concepts. I suspect that the videos he showed us are from the new Teacher Guide with DVD for the Primer level that is now for sale (see here) — I’ll bet it’s a great resource to have. There are, however, some free videos on their website about teaching from the “My First Piano Adventures” books that anyone can view (see here). Check them out and see what you think. I really enjoy seeing Nancy’s teaching in action, no matter the age or level!

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