Imagine the excitement on the faces of your youngest piano students when you open up your piano, give them a mallet (xylophone…not kitchen!) and tell them to smack those strings. While a mallet in the hand of the wrong student may be inviting disaster, exploring the inner workings of the piano can be a valuable learning experience.
Every Pianist Should Know Their Instrument
Every week your students come to piano lessons, strike some keys, and make some sounds. But do they know why those keys make the sounds they do? If not, then spending time inside the piano can be a valuable learning experience.
But it’s not enough to simply open the piano and give them a guided tour. Discovery through exploration is always the best learning tool. So, under careful supervision, let your students use their mallet to explore the piano.
Encourage them to strike a low (bass) string. Encourage them to strike a high (treble) string. Discuss the appearance of each of these strings and why they make the sounds they do.
Ask your students to step on the right pedal while striking a string. Discuss the effects of the pedal on the dampers and of the dampers on the strings.
Now get your piano students to drop their mallet (not into the piano) and strike a key. Discuss the effects of the key on the hammer and of the hammer on the string. You might also point out that the hammer striking the strings has led to the piano being labeled both as string and percussion instrument…or you can get really fancy and break out your use of the words “keyed zither”.
Now that the mallet is out of your piano students’ hands, it is a great time to close the lid and get on with your lesson. Hopefully, like me, you will discover that your piano student’s new knowledge will lead to improved touch and use of the pedal.
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Anna Linzey says
I always enjoy watching a youngster when the lightbulb turns on in their little brain through their ability of discovering how something works! The “scary” part is that it’s up to us teachers to spark their intrest by opening that door of discovery and allowing their inquisitive nature to lead them in! Y’all do a superb job at that, and I really enjoy watching the creativity the Lord has given you in the area of teaching! Keep up the good work!
robin mdden says
This is a lesson I keep in my back pocket for the day when a student is dropped off and has forgotten books, or arrives in tears for one reason or another, and just can’t do a good lesson. First we take care of the tears and /or how not to forget the necessities next time. Then I take my piano apart. It’s a Yamaha console and the panels come off very easily. Hadn’t thought about the mallet, but may take a trip to the music store fore a nice padded one. Great idea. I review the bit about why this instrument is called a piano but is a pianoforte – for a reason. It really does help with the idea of dynamics and how practicing technique and attack studies helps you manipulate those hammers smoothly and subtly. It also explains those pedals, even though they may have been pedaling for a while. Seeing is believing and understanding so much better. (And you can’t do all that on an electronic keyboard.)
Catherine says
Hmmm…not so sure about striking the strings with a mallet–I teach on an historic spinet, and I’m afraid the results would not be good. My students do enjoy looking inside the piano and watching what the strings do when high and low keys are struck, using different speeds and dynamics. It is motivating to do so from time to time.
Rebecca Brown says
An item I plan to buy the next time I have the extra cash is a working model of the action of the piano…one of an upright and one of a grand. I am a huge advocate of teaching my students the “how” and “why” of everything. The front panel of my yamaha studio piano is too heavy and awkward for me to take off by myself. But I do my best to explain to my students how the action works, and why striking a key harder makes a louder sound, why holding a key down makes a longer sound, etc. I think this approach to teaching any instrument is much more effective than what I call the “because I said so” approach (expecting a student to execute an action just because you told them to).
Janet says
This is why an acoustic piano is on my wish list! To this day, I still love to remove the panel on the piano and watch it work. My students would love it, I am sure.
Christine says
Thank you for the reminder! I used to do this with all my students, and somehow forgot how important (and alluring) this easy exercise can be.
I will definitely be opening up my piano this week;)
Esther says
This is something that my mom did with me while I was growing up and learning to play the piano. One of the things she used to do inside the piano was to put news paper between the hammers and the strings and then we would play the piano. Try it, it’s really interesting. Just hang the whole page of the newspaper over the back of the piano so that it comes between the hammers and the strings. Now, the majority of my students do not have acoustic pianos and since I now live an hour away from my day job, old home, and piano students I go to their homes after I get done with my day job. It’s just too bad for them that they can’t actually see what makes the music.