In another life I taught elementary school. That was a tough gig… to put it mildly. While I hated tying shoes and opening Fruit Roll-ups, I loved teaching children to read. And while I never regret my decision to pursue business instead of school teaching, I learned a lot of valuable lessons about teaching children piano from my days in the classroom.
Does that sound right? A Simple Piano Teaching Tip
Want to help a struggling reader? Simply ask, “Does that sound right?”. Want to help a child struggling to play piano? Simply ask, “Does that sound right?”.
As someone who teaches kids piano, you are probably well aware that children can become slaves to the staff. Every single note on the staff is located, decoded, and translated to the piano keys. Piano students become so focused on playing each individual note that they forget to listen to the piano; which is a similar error to one commonly made by struggling readers. Struggling readers are so focused on sounding out each individual letter in each individual word that they forget to pay attention to the meaning of the sentence.
When you teach children piano do they hear the music?
Have your piano students stopped listening to the music? If so, when teaching children piano, ask them, “Does what you played sound right?” If the answer is no, ask them “What do you think might sound right?” And then have them find the right note on the piano, without looking at the music. By doing so, your students will begin to develop the ability to predict common note sequences, and to identify and correct their own piano playing mistakes.
I often have the opposite experience, to tell the truth. Some of my students would rather figure out the music by ANY OTHER process than actually reading the notes…guessing, sounding it out, just anything else. I also am frustrated when they have to stop every time something sounds a little odd. I tell them, have faith, in the larger context that will sound fine. Trust the music. It is definitely a balance though, because the ability to predict common sequences is a powerful tool in sight-reading. My adult beginner students are the least likely to make the transition into reading full phrases, and get stuck on the note-by-note way of reading. I enjoy your posts.
Hi Lori,
Thanks for commenting! You are right in that it is a fine balance to be struck and it often comes down to a child’s personality too! We’ve all listened to those beginning readers who just throw in any old word and keep going even if the sentence makes no sense and who randomly guess at the word without using any cues from the page. Some beginning piano students are like that too (not using the music to help cue them) while others are so stuck in the note-by-note way of reading. That – to me – is the fun part of teaching…working on finding ways for each individual to achieve success as they are all so different.