Monthly Archives: February 2009

Monday Mailbag – Finding Time: Part 1

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How do you get so much accomplished in one day? What is an average day’s schedule like for you (including things that aren’t necessarily part of teaching piano)?

This is a good question from a reader who recognizes the importance of using time wisely and is trying to figure out how to get all the things done that she wants to do. Most of us wear many different hats, and it’s hard to know how to find the time to do everything that must be done in the course of a day. In fact, at the beginning of this year, in order to evaluate my involvement in different areas and make some critical decisions, I made up little index cards to identify the different roles I currently fill and the responsibilities associated with each one. I ended up with thirteen different cards that each constituted a pretty significant involvement of time and energy. It was a really helpful exercise to lay these out and think through what my priorities should be, and if I should relinquish any of these roles and responsibilities. I highly recommend it if you’re trying to figure out where all your time is going, or how to use your time more productively!

The principle for this is the same that guides financial management decisions – if you’re trying to get out of debt or develop a budget you can live with, the first step is to track all of your expenses for a period of time to find out where your money is going. This provides a starting point from which you can work as you determine if a line item should be funded, and if so, how much should be allocated to that particular area. In my opinion, time is an even more precious commodity than money , so it’s definitely worth it to figure out how to get the best ROI (return on investment)!

Since this is a question I’m asked fairly often, I thought it would be helpful to think through it in more depth and put together some practical ideas. I’ve decided to break this up into a short series on Finding Time. Check back throughout this week for future installments on this series. Tomorrow, I’ll share more about the cards I mentioned above and some thoughts on Tracking Your Time. And feel free to chime in with your own thoughts, ideas, and tips!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail me sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Fresh and Fun! Idea #3

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Can you tell I’m more than a little behind around here?! I had a group class last week that took some time to prepare for (hopefully pictures will come this week!), and, on a personal note, I made an announcement on one of my other blogs about some exciting news! So hopefully you’ll forgive my negligence!

Now…on to week three. Most of my students did a decent job with the improvsation activity last week. They all did much better keeping the pulse in 3/4 time than in 4/4 time. So that was interesting. It’s definitely an activity worth doing again. But for this week, here’s what I’m planning to do: Rhythm Runs. I got this idea from a friend of mine who is also a music teacher. Using a rhythm drill sheet (I use the leveled worksheets that Wendy has available on her website), set the metronome to an appropriate tempo depending on the difficulty of the rhythms and the level of the student. Then instruct the student to walk in time with the metronome. Big, well-defined steps are probably the best. Once they feel comfortable staying with the beat, have them clap the rhythms in each row on the page while continuing to walk at a steady pulse. I’m guessing this will be a bit more challenging than some of the other activities, but we’ll see!

Also, my students are still loving the Have a Heart challenge! They’re saying things like, “I played this with perfect pulse at home“, “I’m pretty sure I’ll get a heart on this one“, “Can I try it just once more and see if I can get it with perfect pulse?“, etc. So far, the maximum number of hearts racked up in one week is 11, and they’re all intent on setting a new record!

We’ll have one more week of focusing on Feeling the Pulse, so if you have a suggestion for a corresponding Fresh and Fun! idea, please leave it below or e-mail it to me. Thanks!

Monday Mailbag – Large Group Games

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I didn’t receive any questions specifically designated as a Monday Mailbag question this week, but I did receive a really great question asking if I could recommend any activities that wouldn’t require a lot of props or materials and could work in a big class setting with 50+ students? That’s a tall order since most of my regular teaching is done in private lessons of groups of less than 30 students. But here are a few ideas I thought might fit the bill:

Rain Storm – Split the class into four groups and just designate the groups by “drawing” an invisible line to separate the sections. The class has to be totally silent. Point to the first group and start rubbing your hands together, creating a small sound. Then point to the next group and do the same. Continue with all four groups. Then go back to the first group, point to them and start snapping your fingers. Follow suit for the other four groups. On the third rotation, clap your hands. The fourth rotation, stomp your feet. Then gradually work your way back down until everyone is rubbing their hands again. This whole thing creates a really cool sound effect and usually captures the imagination and attention of the students.

The Concentration Name Game – Have the students gather in a circle (you could do two circles to be a little more manageable). Have everyone simultaneously do this pattern in rhythm – tap thighs twice, clap twice, snap right hand, snap left hand. Once everyone gets going with the flow designate one student to be the head of the circle. Everyone follows his lead on when to start the pattern, then when he snaps his right hand he says his name, and when he snaps his left hand he says the name of another student. The student whose name he said on the second snap continues by saying his name on the first snap and then another student’s name on the second snap. Play continues until someone fumbles and doesn’t say the name correctly or in rhythm. If you want the game to be competitive, have the person who fumbles move to the end of the circle (the spot to the right of the leader). The goal is to try to get to the head of the circle. As the students improve, the tempo can be increased for a greater level of difficulty.

Bean Bag Grab – Ahead of time use the masking tape to make two long lines across the floor, parallel to each other with as much space as possible in between (10 feet is good). Place a bean bag or other easy-to-grab object in between the two lines. Divide the students into teams of seven, and have each team stand behind one of the lines, with the teams facing each other. Each student becomes the opponent of the student directly across from them. Assign each pair of opponents the same note, interval, chord, scale, etc. Stand at either end of the playing area so that all the players can see you. Hold up a flashcard with the note, interval, chord, scale, etc. As soon as the student identifies it as the one they have been assigned, they should run and grab the bean bag. Whichever team grabs the bag first gets a point. If you have more than two teams, have each set of teams play a round and then have a waiting team step up to the line on each side for round two. Encourage the waiting teams to watch closely and learn their notes, intervals, etc. really well to improve their own performance. The team with the most points at the end wins! (Obviously, this is a high energy game – it’s a ton of fun!)

Name That… – Divide the students into two equal teams. Place a bell on a solid, flat surface between the two teams. Have one contestant from each team stand on either side of the bell with their hands behind their back. Hold up a card for both students to see. Whoever dings the bell first gets to answer. (To prevent students from dinging the bell before they know the answer, as soon as the bell is dinged hide the card so that it is no longer visible to the contestants.) If the student answers correctly their team receives two points. If they answer incorrectly, the other contestant has a chance to answer. If they answer correctly, their team gets one point. Have these two contestants rejoin their team and have the next contestant from each team approach the bell. Continue the game as long as desired. Whichever team has the most points at the end wins!

Team Rhythmic Dictation – Split the students into equal-sized teams. Give them some blank sheets of white paper and instruct them to draw on each sheet of paper the note values that you specify (one per sheet). Play a rhythm pattern for them. Each team must arrange themselves in the proper order to represent the rhythm pattern that you played. The students should hold their sheet of paper in front of their chest and make sure that their rhythm pattern goes from left to right as you would see it. If you play more than one measure, extra students should stand sideways to represent the bar lines. Each team that correctly represents the rhythm pattern receives one point. Play the pattern for them up to three times so that they can double check themselves.

Let’s let this be our open discussion question this week. Anyone else have any game ideas that could work with a big group?

(Also, we didn’t generate much discussion on last week’s question about scales, but check out the excellent post by Laura in response to the question. Teaching Scales: One Comes Before Two.)

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail me sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Fresh and Fun! Feeling the Pulse #2

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How did week one of the Feeling the Pulse emphasis go for everyone else? The Have a Heart activity was a big hit with my students! I did it with every single student, and had some unexpected surprises. Some of the students I thought would do really well struggled quite a bit, and some of the ones I expected to have a little trouble caught on quickly and did a great job.

They are all getting into playing their pieces with perfect pulse, too. I decided to let them keep track of the hearts they earn on the studio door (nothing like a little healthy competition!):

I have a confession to make, though. Most of my students are really bad at this. I realized how little I’ve actually worked with them to develop the skill of keeping the pulse going in their playing, even if they make mistakes. We’ve talked about it a lot, but it’s amazing how well your ear can compensate for pulse inconsistencies when you’re not making a concerted effort to play through those mistakes. It’s especially difficult when you’re playing solo. Duet playing helps, but it doesn’t take the place of learning this skill in the context of playing solo repertoire. We’ve definitely got a long ways to go, but I’m super excited to see the progress we make in this area by the end of the month!

Now, on to next week’s Fresh and Fun! idea for Feeling the Pulse. This one doesn’t requires any extra materials. It’s a Call-and-Response Improv. If you have two pianos/keyboard instruments, you sit at one and have the student sit at the other. If not, just position yourself at different registers on the same instrument. Determine the time signature and then count-in two measures of the beat. You play a two-measure pattern completely improvised, using any notes. Then the student picks right up and plays a two-measure pattern also improvised on any notes. Continue back and forth, keeping the pulse flowing continuously between both of you (set a metronome, if necessary, to help the student keep track of the beats). Try different time signatures for variety. For more advanced students, you could even specify specific keys in which to improvise.

Remember, if you have an idea to contribute to the Fresh and Fun! ideas – either for this month’s Feeling the Pulse emphasis, or for a future month, leave it in the comments below or e-mail it to me. I’d love to incorporate some ideas from others!

Review of Twister and 6 Steps for Teaching a New Piece

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As soon as I played through this hot-off-the-press piece from Hal Leonard, I thought of several students who would love it! Twister by Wendy Stevens is fast and it sounds flashy, but the patterns make it accessible for an ambitious elementary student. The quick left hand position changes add to the excitement, but could easily lend themselves to a less-than-continuous flow – very un-twister like! Since our theme here for the month of February is Feeling the Pulse, I thought it would be fun to outline steps to help a student achieve success with this piece.

For starters, I would make sure that the student who is going to learn this piece already has experience playing cross-hand arpeggios and staccato vs. legato between hands. So, without further ado, here are the steps I would use to help a student successfully learn Twister:

1. Play the piece for the student up to tempo. I know there are different schools of thought on this, but I almost always play new repertoire for my students. They can develop their reading skills from their method books; with these supplemental repertoire pieces, I want them to have a vision for what they can accomplish. It’s hearing cool-sounding music like this that inspires them to aspire to new heights.

2. Ask the student to make at least 5 observations about the piece. This helps me see what they are most aware of, whether their perception is that it’s too hard, whether they like the piece, etc. Then we develop and discuss those observations. In a piece like Twister, I would expect them to notice things like: there are staccatos and accents on some of the notes, the time signature is 3/4, the dynamics go from piano to forte, you use the pedal at the end, your right hand moves into higher octaves, there are a few sharps and flats, etc.

3. Identify what key the piece is written in. For younger students, identifying the key of a piece means figuring out the scale upon which the piece is built. Twister is in c-minor. I have them play the c-minor pentascale and chord, and in this case would have them demonstrate a c-minor cross-hand arpeggio (this is setting the stage for a future step!).

4. Label the form of the piece. I’m definitely not a form and analysis expert, but together we look for how long the phrases are (8-measures mostly), whether subsequent phrases are the same or different than the first one, and any patterns within the phrases. For example, in the B-section of Twister, I would briefly highlight the concept of a sequence and show them how three of the 2-measure patterns follow the same interval pattern with each one moving a note higher than the one before. We would likewise look at the places where the right hand moves up in octaves repeating the same pattern. All of this gives the student an overall picture of the piece and makes it easier to learn.

5. Tap the rhythm hands together with the respective hands tapping each part. We do this together at a slow tempo, with me keeping a steady pulse throughout the piece, thus forcing the student to keep going even as they make mistakes (which they almost inevitably will!). As I’m tapping, I incorporate dynamics and articulation elements, but I don’t expect the student to do so at this stage. After we’ve gone through the whole piece like this, we choose one section to focus on first. For Twister, I would teach the last 8-measures first for several reasons: it sounds cool!; they’ve already played the first four measures without even realizing it when they played their cross-hand arpeggios for number 3 above; and it encompasses most of the elements that will be encountered in the rest of the piece.

6. Successfully learn the selected section. I would have the student tap and count the last 8-measure section again, this time moving their hands up or down on the fallboard to portray the octave changes. Sometimes, depending on time constraints, I also have them finger it out by “playing” on the fallboard the fingers that they will use when they actually play it. Once they determine that this feels easy, I let them try it on the piano. I make sure that they incorporate the dramatic crescendo at the end and finish with a brilliant accented staccato. And of course, the rhythm and notes must be correct! With this section “under their belt,” they are ready to go home and apply the same practice strategies to each additional section of the piece. I let them learn the sections in whatever order they choose – forward, backward, or random.

Obviously this takes considerably more time than showing a piece of music to a student and saying, “Go home and practice.” But one of my primary goals as a teacher is to equip students with the skills they need in order to effectively learn new pieces on their own. I aim to teach conceptually so that they can transfer the things they learn to other repertoire. At lessons, I rarely get to hear everything the student has been working on, but that’s okay. There’s only so much you can accomplish in 45 minutes! And if I have to pick, I’ll pick analyzing a new piece in depth so that the student is much more likely to experience success with it than if I just haphazardly assign it. If I do this with a few special pieces periodically, we reap the rewards many times over in all their other playing and learning. And this piece, Twister, is the perfect tool for doing just that. Plus, it’s just in time for tornado recital season here in Kansas. :-)

I’m planning to have a student start Twister this week, so I’ll try to post back with a progress report. If you order your own copy and teach it to a student, I’d love to hear how it goes!

Monday Mailbag

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I happened across an assignment page and wanted to ask about the $$ for practice at the bottom of the page. Do you or the parents give money to the students for practice? Or do they earn a privilege/reward after accumulating a certain amount of money?
I don’t give real money for practicing (and I’m pretty sure none of the parents do either…they’re already paying for the lessons! :-) ). I think what you are referring to is the place where I recorded the Diligence Dollars that my students earned as part of our Climbing the Ladder to Success practice incentive program.

What kind of software did you use to create your assignment books?
For all graphic design work I use a low-end program called Print Shop. You can pick it up at any office store or order it on-line. For the interior pages, I just use Microsoft Word.

Open Discussion Question: How do you prepare students to play scales where they are solid, 4 octaves, the quarter notes = 126 BPM with four 16ths per quarter note, and whip them out one after the other?
Use the comment box below to submit your advice to this question. Thanks!