Practicing...

Lately, I've been trying, myself, to practice more at the piano, rather than always crowing at my students to practice without doing it myself. It's been off-and-on successful -- I've learned a few new pieces (like the Debussy below) in the past few months. Still, I'm nowhere near where I need to be! The problem is our inconsistency, as we all know too well. It's a lifelong issue: we have to learn to make things we weren't born doing (e.g. making our beds or practicing piano) come as naturally as it is for hunger to remind us to eat, or pain remind to us that we are hurt.

In my "Parent/Student Information Packet," I make this statement:

"Consistency in both attendance and practicing are essential. Students should practice every day for an appropriate amount of time (e.g. beginners should practice 15-20 minutes a day). As the student’s skill level increases, so will the expected practice time."

It's funny, I don't get in what a beginner should some of the time -- how can I expect all these busy little children to, with all their volleyball and cheerleading and dance classes? Granted, they have parents to remind them to practice; but still, parents are busy, too. What reminds us to do the things we want to do? Well, it comes naturally...

So the question is, can we make practicing piano, or any other such "learned" habit, a natural part of our existence? I think the answer is in setting our priorities straight in our cluttered minds. I heard once that, "A brain remembers what it thinks is important." Maybe we have control over what our brains consider to be important -- if we do something consistently every day, I think that over time our brains will naturally become accustomed to the routine and it will be more and more natural.

Ultimately, it's really what we enjoy that we remember. The best kind of practicing is when you actually enjoy it, not when you are simply doing it out of duty. I remember when I was in about the eighth grade, something "clicked" with me and I became almost addicted to practicing piano. I think it was that the success I'd wanted to see from constistently practicing finally surfaced, and there was no other motivator like it. Success was the vessel for expression, too -- piano practicing became an outlet for me, a place to go when I felt awkward or shy, a way to express myself or relate to people when I couldn't really do it verbally or in social situations. Now, I'm not an awkward middle school girl, but I am a woman in my twenties that has found that the stability of practicing piano, or any other kind of routine like that, is almost therapeutic in nature. We don't know it, but we crave routine, predictability -- things we can trust will happen day in and day out. When I miss a practice session, I don't feel guilty as much as I feel I've missed out on a little of the spirituality that is in a routine...

"And all work is empty save when there is love; and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God."

-Kahlil Gibran, from "The Prophet"

Debussy and Emotional Well-Being...

Tonight I was playing one of my favorites, the Prelude from Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque." The harmonies and rising and falling of the passages reminded me why I love playing music so much: not only can I respond to the music, but it can respond to me. My hands are telling the piano what to express, and in the best of circumstances, the piano carries it out with perfect understanding.

When I'm not emotionally "in tune," however, I find that it is reflected in my piano playing. If I am distracted, it goes without saying that my playing will sound distracted. I think I've discovered that throughout my life, I've used the piano as sort of an indicator of what's going on internally. It's a healthy way for me to disengage from life in a productive way -- instead of ignoring my emotions, it allows them to be gently exposed, leaving my body just a little less cluttered from the world.

Meanwhile, you've got to listen to Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. Most people only hear Clair de Lune, which is the suite's last movement, but the first two movements are gorgeous and have their own character, and will give greater depth to your understanding of the more familiar Clair de Lune...anyway. Have a good night.

Summer Lessons: to do or not to do?

I am teaching summer lessons this year, and I am finding that, like most things, there are challenges and rewards. The rewards, so far, have been 1) the lack of school-related stress interfering with piano practice, 2) attitudes are much more relaxed in general, and 3) it's just more...fun! Music should be something people enjoy, and maybe summer lessons can provide a bit of "healing" from associating piano with the mundanity of the rest of the year. However, the drawbacks, other than "summer sluggishness," are mostly associated with crazy vacation scheduling, summer camps, etc.

At http://pianoeducation.org, John Zeigler wrote an article to piano teachers encouraging them to offer summer piano lessons. He suggested a few things that I found interesting:

• Communicate with the parents and students that it has negative effects to stop for such a long time during the summer -- they lose a lot of skills that will have to be regained during the already busy fall semester.
• Use the summer to bring in any ignored aspects of piano education, such as music history, theory, and (heaven forbid!) songs the students might actually want to learn! :)
• Prepare for any upcoming competitions, such as recitals, auditions, etc. This will motivate the students to come to lessons, if they are the type that are motivated under pressure.
• Have a summer concert! I like this idea. Especially since many of my students will be learning songs they have picked out themselves this summer.
• Have a summer "clinic" -- I have considered this, because even students that have stopped taking lessons for the summer might be willing to give up a day.
• Even give a few free "music appreciation" classes! Involve adult students and advertise around town.

Just thought these were some interesting ideas...hope you find them useful!

Re: Learning Styles and Teaching Piano

I wanted to clarify after my last post that learning styles are not the "end-all" of how we all learn -- they only indicate our tendencies as people. However, as I applied my (limited!) research to each of my students, I found that kids just like to know that people care enough to try to get to know them as individuals. So many times we lump them all into the same group as "good," "frustrating," or "unable to focus," but I found that the more I take the time to get to know my own students, the more I am able to overcome those stigmas and really teach them.

One interesting "experiment" I did with one of my "visual" students went like this: he has a problem with playing only with his fingers, and not using his whole arm's muscles, so I gave him an analogy to help him "visualize" what I was getting at. I told him his elbow is kind of like a door hinge, and that when he plays, his whole arm from his elbow on should be moving up and down. It stuck with him apparently, because at the end of the lesson, I asked him what he learned, and he said, "That my elbow is like a hinge and that I shouldn't play only using my fingers." I felt like cheering!

This summer, I will have a few students that will keep taking lessons, and I want to take the opportunity to try some new things with them. Instead of teaching only classical pieces and theory, I want, not to replace, but to supplement that with teaching chords and improvisation. I have tested most of my students, and almost three-fourths of them are primarily kinesthetic learners. This means that they do well when I physically show them things, and when they are playing things that literally "feel good" to play. So, I am hoping that if I begin to teach them chords and how to improvise music, they will begin to enjoy the "playing" part of piano instead of only focusing on the music-reading aspect of it. This is not to say that music reading is not important; however, not everyone learns to enjoy music through reading it, but rather many of us have to hear or experience it first. I don't know if that makes much sense, but I'm hoping that it will sort of unfold as I keep trying to redefine teaching piano.

Learning Styles and Teaching Piano

I have just spent the past hour reading the most interesting material concerning learning styles and piano pedagogy. I have recently been researching more into the different learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic), and it is now so enlightening to apply it to teaching piano.

I took a test on the website listed below, and found that I have a strong aural preference in learning. I found that as I read about how to teach aural learners piano, these techniques were already familiar and came natural to me as an aural learner. Aural learners are naturally not sight-readers, because they live in a world of sound, and are unfamiliar with visual things. Therefore, the most effective techniques for teaching sight-reading to aural learners are to use their aural skills to help them see it. I remember in college when I finally connected sounds with the physical music, and it made a huge difference in sight-reading for me, because before, all written music meant nothing more than a bunch of shapes on a page. Helpful techniques for aural learners include:

• Model the sound for the aural student. This is considered "taboo" in my experience, but maybe that's because most people aren't aural learners!
• Help students listen for familiar musical ideas (e.g. scales, triadic patterns, and recurring rhythms)
• Then, locate those ideas in the score -- "Connect the notation to their familiar world of sound."
• A good exercise would be to have the student recognize different sounds/intervals and then match them with the written music/icon on the page. This will improve sight-reading, because then the visual ideas aren't so abstract to them.

Visual learners, however, make up the majority of the world's population of learners, and are, I admit, the hardest for me to understand. I want to get better at teaching my students who are visually oriented. Their biggest fault is that they tend to play mechanically, but according to Susanna Garcia, teachers can utilize their visual natures to help their musical expression. Helpful techniques that she listed are as follows:

• Locate the melody in the score, and point out visual clues (e.g. dynamics, melodic contour, etc.)
• Use highly visual imagery.
• Have the student draw a picture to represent the mood of the piece (if they're younger).
• Diagram the musical shape of phrases -- e.g. when is the climax? ending?

Lastly, kinesthetic learners, or those who learn by "doing," tend to have trouble focusing when they are learning a piece. I have noticed this tendency in certain students who are smart but have trouble focusing -- I hope this helps them learn better. Apparently, "showing" is the best way to present information to the kinesthetic learner. Learning by rote and repetition is actually effective and meaningful to the kinesthetic learner, since he/she learns by physically moving. Here are some effective teaching strategies for kinesthetic learners:

• Modeling and repetition are extremely important keys to the kinesthetic learner's success.
• Have the student walk, clap, and play problematic rhythms before even seeing the printed music -- that way, when they see it, they will relate the score to something they've already done.
• These students may tend to "bang" on the piano (I have experienced this), which means they aren't listening to themselves playing. Make them more aware of the musicality of the piece by repetition.

In essence, I think a teacher's job should be to fit the instruction to the students' needs. I have been insensitive until now, I think, because I assumed everyone was an aural learner like me, and didn't realize how different everyone really is! I'm going to research and try to find new music and materials that will fit each student's needs, and I'm hoping I'll see a difference in how they respond.

Sources:

Online Learning Styles Test (VARK): http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/vark.htm

Garcia, Susanna. "Piano Pedagogy Forum."