Most of you know that I’m a huge fan of the Piano Safari method for teaching piano. I love the emphasis on rote learning, the early introduction of eighth note rhythms, and the systematic reading approach with the repertoire book and the sightreading and rhythm cards. I’ve also noticed that a number of songs very early in Level 1 lend themselves perfectly to introducing students to musical form and effective memorization strategies.
The songs Inchworm and Sam are where I usually introduce these concepts. Starting with Inchworm, I have the student look at the first pattern and airplay it, singing the finger numbers in rhythm. We decide to call this “the A pattern” and write an “A” on a small paper square. Then I ask them to look at the next pattern and tell me whether it looks the same as the A pattern, or different. They almost immediately recognize it as the same pattern, just a little higher on the page to indicate an octave higher on the piano keys. We write “A” on another square and proceed to analyze the next pattern. This one is significantly different, so I ask them what they think we should call it. Almost without fail, they decide to call it “B” – thankfully! So we write “B” on another square and move to the final pattern, which is quickly identified again as A. A final “A” is written on a square and we arrange the cards in front of them at the piano.
After this painless introduction to musical form, we utilize the same cards as a memorization aid. I ask the student to look carefully over the A pattern again to make sure the notes are in their brain, then take away the printed music, leaving only the paper squares. I ask them to play the A pattern by memory, which they usually do flawlessly. Profuse praise is offered and then we make the observation that they already have 75% of the whole piece memorized! The book is placed back on the piano rack and I ask them to look carefully at the B pattern, go over it in their head, and let me know when they think they have it memorized. At their signal, I remove the book and let them play the B pattern. Again, this is usually done flawlessly.
Lastly, we make sure that their paper square labels are in front of them in the correct order, then I ask if they are ready for the big challenge of playing the entire piece from memory, using only the reminder squares. We recall that as they move through each of the squares, they should move either up an octave (Inchworm) or down (Sam), then I let them give it a try. Most of the time, the student plays the piece effortlessly and we’ve set the stage for a lifelong process of understanding musical form and employing cognitive strategies to aid memorization – two things I didn’t have a clue about until high school or later. This is one of my favorite ways to give my students a solid music theory education even without using theory books at this level!
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