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."