I had a terrible performance experience as a child. I was a 4 year old Suzuki student in a fluffy pink dress on stage in front of 300 people… and I couldn’t remember my piece. I’ll never forget the image of my piano teacher huffing up the aisle hissing “D! It starts on D!” At that point, in my nerve-induced stupor, ‘D’ meant nothing to me. It was horrifying.
This experience changed my life as a piano student. The sinking feeling of failing on stage (and the annoying “Next time you’ll do better dear” comments at the reception afterwards) stayed with me. Even at 4 years old I promised myself it would never happen again.
As a piano teacher it is my top priority during recital and exam season to do all I can to prevent this same experience from happening to my students. I spend copious amounts of effort and time preparing them in as many ways as I can; I know how badly a botched performance stings! And I’ve had immense success with a piano teaching tip that has completely changed the way my students prepare for performances.
Tap Practice; My Super Little Secret
Before a performance, my piano students spend a lot of time away from the piano. Yup… away from the piano. In fact, they happily report back to me just how many minutes they have spent not playing the piano.
Crazy? Some would think so… however, my students are actually practicing in one of the most efficient ways I have found to commit a piece to memory.
Intrigued? Read on!
Before a performance, my students are spending time playing their piece – but on a flat surface… not on the piano. They tap their way through their piece, playing exactly as they would on the keys, but with no sound involved. They still play hands together, with phrasing, with dynamics, in the same hand positions as they would on the keys, but it is all done on a table top.
Why Does Tap Practice Work?
I call this Tap Practice, and it works for several reasons:
1) While there is no sound involved, your students will still “hear” their piece. The human brain is a wonderful thing – and your students will be developing their ear in leaps and bounds. As they are learning to hear their piece without the ability to actually hear it, their memorization of the piece will be much stronger and much faster as they force themselves to commit it to their aural memory. It’s wonderful to watch your students Tap Practice and then stop abruptly and say “Ooops.. I made a mistake!”.
How did they know they made a mistake when there are no keys and no sound? They know because their ears are connected to their finger movements; and a slight miss-tap with their fingers translates to an off sound in their mind. Your brain is completely engaged during Tap Practice without the distraction of sound… and so learning happens at a faster rate.
2) The only thing they hear is tapping… and so their fluidity improves as they learn to create an even tempo and a sense of underlying beat. Hearing just the rhythm of their piece with no notes attached brings these two aspects to the forefront. When they return to the piano their muscle memory will preserve the evenness they found away from the piano. Phrasing and dynamics are still accomplished through the varying degrees of pressure exerted on the flat surface. Kids who struggle with phrasing find Tap Practice really beneficial as it helps them to “plan out” how hard each of their fingers will push within each phrase, and changes in dynamics become much more well-defined.
3) Kids think Tap Practice is fun! This is one more way of making piano practice fun. Not only is it completely portable, meaning that your students can Tap Practice literally anywhere (my students Tap Practice on the back of a book in the car, on the table of a restaurant… you name it!) but it’s also enjoyable; they love the notion of playing the piano in their mind.
Tap Practice takes a bit of … well.. practice! Start off with music much simpler than the level at which they currently play to get their brain in tune with their fingers. Some students benefit from humming along as they Tap Practice, but eventually you want them to be hearing the music in their mind only. I even do Tap Practice sight reading exercises – your really musical students will know right away when they have made a “mistake” even in a piece they have never heard … it’s rather wonderful to watch!
Give it a shot – not only have you expanded practice time opportunities by making it a moveable activity that can be done anywhere, but you have also tapped (pun intended!) into a new way of accessing the brain’s ability to learn to play the piano.
If you can get your students practicing (at the piano, or away from it) you’re one step ahead in so many aspects of piano teaching. If your students practice they progress… if your students progress than they are happy… if your clients are happy your studio will be successful! We’ve poured all of our creative energy into making piano practice both enjoyable and fun for your students… and all YOU need to do is press print! Check out “Shhh…Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Practice” and find out why a teacher wrote to say…
“Not only are these exercises creative and fun, but they also encourage good and sound practicing techniques. I think that through doing these exercises students will not only have more fun with their practicing, but they will become better and more thoughtful practicers.”
Great Stuff just before recital Season!
Thanks
How far in advance of a performance do you recommend doing this? Also, do they use the music or is it done from memory? Thanks!
Hi Lori – They start as soon as they can play the piece well hands together, first with the book and then for most of time time without. Some kids need the book longer than others – and that’s okay, it’s still beneficial that way.
Genius! Another useful way to use Tap Practice is for all students just before their lessons, especially the ones who come to lessons directly from school, meaning they probably haven’t touched a piano since the night before — at least. This will be a great thing to teach students early so they feel comfortable tapping any ole time. Thanks for yet another wonderful post!
Hi Barbara – yes.. I’m sure many of my students do some last minute cramming in this matter before the lesson! Thanks for commenting – I hope it works well with your students.
I do remember doing this as a student because I’d have things that I was working on in my mind and no piano was available at the time. But, I’ve never suggested this as a technique to learning. Actually, I think it puts us very “in touch” with finger contact on the surface we are playing on and the process of “audiation” starts from within to provide response from a brain that is trying to make sense in a musical sounding of what we are doing. This is fascinating and I’m going to start plugging into experimenting with this concept with my present students. Such a great “break through”, Andrea! Really “tapping” into the “genius” of the brain and it’s “problem solving” status.
Hi Betty – So glad it will be helpful for you. You can accomplish a lot through visualization, and this is just one form of that. I’d love to hear how it works with your students once you try it. Happy Teaching!
My two cents:
First of all, you were ONLY four years old and you had a piano teacher that hissed? How, that’s pure embarrassment! I think i would’ve failed too! What kind of teacher was she in non-recital life?
Also, just for the record, I dislike the Suzuki method and for all sorts of reasons. I have taught from them but ONLY when a student wants that method, it is just so far removed from reality so far as I am concerned. Ask me why in a private email!
When recital time comes, I work very hard to make sure my students have picked their FAVORITE songs for recital. This is because it IS their favorite and they will memorize it. At my recitals they can take their books up. The reason is I do not want any hurtful hard feelings such as you experienced. My students can all memorize their pieces very quickly but I have MORE trouble getting them to read their notes. One of the reasons students have trouble with note reading skills is they will work on the piece long enough to figure it out and then never look at it again playing it without reinforcing the eye-brain-fingers that note reading skills need. This is one of my major problems with students memorizing their pieces. I can read as fast as necessary to play anything but I never take my eye off of the page. When I memorize things I still read them to make sure I’m not adding or subtracting something.
I pass this on to my students in the way I teach.
I sit by the piano next to my students. They know that if they get stuck in a piece they have a safe place to go back to. If they have trouble starting I can quickly show them the right place, it’s happened a couple of times. For those who really have a hard time I actually teach them to play a duet and I tell them that if they get stuck to hit a home chord (root/tonic) and then i will pick up the duet book and announce that we are surprising the audience with a special duet. It sure does take a lot of the fear away from them, I’ve even had children skip up to the piano to play smiling all the way.
Why make it stuffy formal and awful? Dress up, yes, pictures, yes but don’t do things that scare them to death!d And make sure they know you’re there with them, along side of them every step of the way.
In time – if they choose they can train to do formal judged recitals but don’t put that on a child unless he/she feels ready and YOU know they’re ready.
Gen
Hi Gen – your recitals sound lovely and exactly as I approach things now as a teacher 🙂 I do all I can in advance and on the day to prevent that horrible stage freeze that can happen and, like you, I “hover” just in case I’m needed to hop in to diffuse a potentially bad situation!
I am not a fan of Suzuki either – I started piano at just barely 4 years old with this method and stayed with it to the age of 6. I could play like nobody’s business… but understood none of what i was playing. I think this had a lot to do with why I froze that day. I had no tools other than my memory to rely on. My teacher was lovely and kind… she was hissing to attempt a sort of stage whisper I think! 🙂 It took me several years to backtrack after I switched teachers to learn how to read music and then translate that into what I already knew how to do on the piano. I’m thankful for Suzuki for somethings, but wouldn’t teach it myself. Thanks for commenting!
I would be interested to hear about your opinion on the Suzuki method as a Suzuki teacher.
Hi Lucie – while I started out as a Suzuki student at the age of 4, I have never taught this method so I wouldn’t be able to provide an opinion on it. What I can say is it gave me a fabulous grounding in musicality as a young child starting piano 🙂
Found a wrong word: Meant, NOW that’s pure embarrassment. (I should add, at any age!)
I can’t wait to try this with my students! Thank you.
Thanks for posting this. This is an excellent technique, one that is described in the book “Mental Practice and Imagery for Musicians” by Malva Freymuth – an excellent and, I believe, important read for every musician. My piano professor suggested it to me when I was a freshman in college and developed tendinitis – its one of the reasons I’m still able to play the piano. Check it out! There are lots of things you can incorporate into your lessons to not only prevent injuries but also develop a deeper connection with the music.
Thank you Kelsey – I haven’t read that book, but I’m going to!
I don’t know how I got here, last thing I remember I was on Pinterest but I sure am glad I did!
Awesome post! I’ve only used this as a pre-step to sight reading but I didn’t even think about using it as a memory enforcer! Thanks so much for your blog, I’m looking forward to digging through your other posts 🙂
BTW, I’ll bet you guys run an awesome music school 🙂 Keep up the good work!
I love this! I was using this technique with a piano class I’m teaching at an alternative high school, simply because I thought it was less intimidating for them in a group to have a few run-throughs without sound. How fabulous that I can turn this into ear training in the future!
Great idea! I had one student last year that completely forgot how the first part of her piece. She didn’t even know which hand position.. I felt so bad for her! I believe the main issue was lack of practice at home. Now I have students memorize what hand position they start with for each piece. If they can remember that much, they usually know how to get going. I’ll be trying this technique too. Thanks!
I use a variation of this technique, especially at the beginning of learning a new piece. Instead of using the actual fingers they put their hands on their laps and tap with the whole hand everything that’s written on the page except for the fingers. So they are tapping rhythm, articulation, dynamics, and balance. Thanks so much for your generosity in posting such great ideas!
Great way to shore up their audiation skills! We’re going to try this!