I always tell my young piano students “every tune tells a tale”. It helps them connect to the pieces they are playing, which in turn helps them become better at memorizing and interpreting piano pieces.
Today’s piano teaching activity will show you how to teach young students to find the story in every piano piece (even if the composer did not intend the piece to be story-based).
Every Tune Tells a Tale
You will need:
1. One photocopied piano piece on colored paper (be sure you abide by copyright laws)
2. One blank sheet of white paper
3. Scissors/ Glue/ Pencil Crayons
Activity Procedure
1. Begin by playing the “brand new” piano piece for your student.
2. Then, go back and play each bar of music on its own.
3. Discuss visual images and story lines that arise from the sound of each individual bar of music.
4. With your piano student, cut out each bar of music and arrange the bars on the white piece of colored paper.
5. Staple or glue the left hand corner of each bar of music to the white piece of paper.
6. You should now have a sheet of paper with several flaps (bars of music).
7. Instruct your student to raise each flap (bar of music) and draw a comic strip inspired by each bar of music.
8. The comic strip should continue as each progressive flap (bar of music) is raised until the story reaches its conclusion beneath the final bar.
Music Connections Are Crucial
Turning piano pieces into stories makes music relevant for young piano students as it turns abstract sounds into concrete images. If you have used The Adventures of Fearless Fortissimo or our technical exercise resource TEDDtales then you know how valuable an exciting story line can be to the development of a student’s piano skills.
Rebecca Brown says
We are often told that the thing that makes my daughter’s french horn playing stand out from others is her natural sense of musicality. I think a big thing that contributes to this is that, in addition to being a strong musician, she is also a very talented writer. And she applies this to her playing. When she is learning a solo, she will listen to a recording several times, until she develops in her mind a story that she thinks the music is telling. Then, she tells the story while she plays. Her audience won’t necessarily imagine the same story she is imagining. But it definitely takes them “somewhere”. She gets lots of comments about this when she performs. I accompany well over 100 high school solos every year, and hers are always my favorite to play for, because it’s always music, instead of just a series of notes and rhythms.
I try to encourage this idea with my piano students, as well. It’s a pretty abstract concept for young students, however. I may try this activity as a way to encourage even my teeny tiny students to think in this direction.
Andrea says
Thanks for the comment Rebecca – everything you say is so true. I watched a master class once where the adjudicator said that every Sonatina should be viewed as a mini Opera, and that there should be clear male and female roles and somewhat of a “plot” to the piece. I’ve used this many times with my teens who are playing difficult Sonatinas and it not only makes it more enjoyable for them to play (we write funny plot lines right on top of their score) but they also play with much more musicality as you mention your daughter does. It makes a big difference! Using this activity with little ones gives them the beginnings of being able to think this way about their music.
Happy teaching!