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The Piano Teacher’s Cheat Sheet To Teaching a New Piece

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“How do you teach a brand new piece of music to a student?”

We get this question from piano teachers a lot.  Usually padded with embarrassment, bursts of honesty and explanations of how just coping and teaching as they themselves had been taught simply wasn’t working for some of their students. We should all know the answer to this question, yes?!

But the fact is, we often simply teach the way we ourselves were taught.  And while it might have worked for us… it might not work for our students.  There’s no shame in wanting to improve.  

If you have a nagging feeling that your approach to teaching a brand new piece of music is falling short, then this post is for you!

Hand-Holding and “Over-Teaching”… A Solution to Both

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The key to approaching a new piano piece is to give your students the tools they need to decode a piece on their own with minimal supervision.  If you feel like you do a lot of “hand-holding” or “over-teaching” then try this with your students to gradually wean them from needing you for every inch of their learning.

We’ve created this sheet you can print out for your own reference, or you can give it to your students for them to take home.  I like to send my students home with a “decoding” project regularly to see if they are able to complete each of the 5 steps on their own. The steps they have difficulty with are the steps we then spend our time on in lessons.  

The “Step by Step” to Learning a New Piano Piece

1.  Search out patterns.  This can be done with the easiest of pieces right up to the most advanced.  Grab your colored pencils and circle each pattern you find in a cohesive color (all patterns that are the same are circled in the same color).  You may end up with 3-4 different colours of patterns or you might just have one.

2.  Search out rhythms.  Identify rhythmic patterns and color the note stems in a cohesive color for each pattern set.  You don’t need to do this for every rhythm in the piece, but if there is a clear repeating rhythmic pattern (or two, or three) then identify them in this way.

3.  Search out intervallic relationships and chord shapes.  Look for parts of the melody line that aren’t simple steps, skips or repeats and then identify the intervals involved.  Don’t write the letters above the notes, but instead write “6th” or “7th” above to get your students used to how that interval both looks on their page and feels under their hand.

4.  Search out Chord Shapes.  Look for places that outline root chords and inversions. Identify what chord it is, and write the root note above.  Highlight the notes within that measure that come directly from that chord.  Discuss the relationship between your student’s hand shape and that chord.  This works particularly well for left hand patterns like Alberti Bass.

5.  Search out Key Signature and Accidentals.  Look for places in the piece where notes are influenced by either a key signature or accidentals.  Discuss the patterns that may be involved with this aspect of the piece (ie. “Every time I play this pattern it involves an Eb”, or “All of the F’s are F#’s” or “An Ab always follows the pattern that ends in G.”

Now What?

Now that your piece is effectively decoded (and awfully colorful!) you can start to play.  But avoid the “start from the beginning and play to the end” approach.  Instead, use cues like “Can you play me the blue section” or “Can you play me the melody line where you reach up a 6th” or “Can you clap me the main rhythmic pattern” or “Can you play me the measure that outlines an A major chord.”  

Once your student can find and play everything you ask for, then you can head into the hands together play through.  And as they play you can watch those connections you just created set off little light bulbs of understanding.  You’ll save yourself reams of time in starting new repertoire, in memorizing repertoire (with this approach memorizing is so much easier), and your students’ performances will be more confident.  Why?  Because they have made very strong associations within their piece.  It is no longer 2 pages of jumbled notes, but rather a very logical arrangement that your student now understands inside out.

And now that your student understands how their music is created… it’s’ a great time to get them creating on their own!  There’s no better way to further your students’ knowledge of music than to have them compose their own!  And… there’s no funner (and easier!) way to do so than with The Curious Case of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff: Adventures in Composing.

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23 Responses to The Piano Teacher’s Cheat Sheet To Teaching a New Piece

  1. What suggestions do you have for working with students who get angry when I introduce a new piece and make them follow a similar set of steps before playing it? I use these steps with my students from the time they start playing songs in the primer level but students who have had another teacher before me don’t understand the value of studying their new piece before diving in, hands together, playing first to last measure, making upteen mistakes (especially rhythm!) and not being able to correct them because that’s the way they’ve played it for an entire week?

    Reply

    • Could you maybe work out a compromise with these students? Either give them two pieces, and let them learn one their way and one your way, or let them spend one week on a piece learning it their way and the next week learning it your way? Either way, they will probably (hopefully) begin to experience why you do things the way you do. It might help to track and compare their progress with the two ways of learning a piece.

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    • Some students might be helped by an explanation. Every time they play the song, they’re laying down a path, whether in the right direction, or a sideways one. If they’re very careful about how they lay the track, it’s easier to keep the train going in the right direction.
      In addition, I’ve stopped giving out prizes for practice times. Instead, I’ve switched to points for accomplishing specific tasks. For example, clapping and counting the rhythm accurately for the first four measures will earn a point. Each goal is assessed with the student’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and should be reachable within a week. The extrinsic reward (music points) is only a stepping stone to help them focus on the little bites instead of trying to take in the whole piece (like stuffing a whole cake in their mouth) at once. Now I need to transition my own students into discovering and determining their own weekly goals.

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    • You might try going over concepts in the new song before the students sees the piece. (EG: “Hey! Let’s try a game today! I’ll clap a rhythm, and let’s see if you can copy it!”… clap the rhythm of the new song; or, “I have a fancy fingers challenge for you! Watch carefully… 1-3-5-2-4. Can you try that? Feel it? Hear that? Awesome! Now let’s turn the page and try to find it!” I find this helpful with all my transfer students, on different levels.

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  2. This is just an observation. When doing this do you work from photocopies?

    I would be very reluctant to colour up a student’s original copy like that. Sometimes I have what I call ‘working copies’ — a photocopy of the piece that we can colour or write on without defacing the book. In the original copy I only write lightly in pencil so that it can be later erased. …The exception is that I sometimes mark things in colour in a primer method book. …Like circling the featured new note; or colouring landmark notes.

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    • I have recently discovered erasable highlighters and colored pencils. They’re great for things like this! I really don’t like to use photocopies most of the time. As an added bonus, kids get really excited when they get to erase markings because they don’t need them anymore!

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    • Hi Sandra – I don’t photocopy – I’m okay with their original copies having markings on them (especially if it’s in a method book – I view that as a working book). In fact, I actually prefer their original copies to have markings on them so we can go back and say “remember what was here in this piece, what similarities to you see to your newest one?” etc. Are you concerned about the originals having markings for exams or competitions? I’ve actually found many adjudicators appreciate seeing a student’s understanding of a piece visually as well as aurally. *shameless plug* if you have music from PianoBookClub you can print as many copies as you need and mark them up like crazy but always have a new fresh copy to use 😉

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  3. Thank you SO much. As being fairly new to the piano teaching world, I wondered why, as ‘teachers,’ we aren’t required to get some sort of specific “piano teaching” degree or certificate, or in the least, to have a course available to specifically outline various ways and concepts that can get a new teacher started down a road to success for the students. It seems like such a guessing game or as was stated, “we teach as we were taught.” I am so grateful for your site and wanted to say thank you to both of you (and to the many people who comment, which is also so very helpful). Just recently I unbelievably started doing a few of these exact tips for teaching a new piece, but I only realized the need AFTER many weeks of seeing the students struggling. Now I’m excited to use these tips BEFORE I begin their new pieces. (Cue Heavenly Hosts singing the Hallelujah chorus).

    Reply

    • anna: your comment “we teach as we were taught.” struck a chord with me – I look back now (at the ripe old age of 54) to how I started teaching and I realise I’ve changed SO much since then. The first few years of my teaching were indeed, as I was taught, then gradually I started expanding the tutor methods I use, so that I end up with about 8 different methods used during the week – keeps me fresher, and each pupil has a slightly different speed of learning and approach.
      I never had games, experimentation or note names in my childhood lessons (as far as I can remember), but what I do realise is that nowadays the pupils make slower progress; they have so many other distractions: other hobbies + activities/ TV/ phone/games/ social media which we are competing with.

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  5. Could you make another version of this printable that requires less ink? Just inverting it could work.

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    • Hi Jeanette – we’re totally okay with you using the info and putting it into whatever format works for you. If I have time I’ll try to re-do it for you 🙂

      Reply

    • Jeanette, do you have the option to do a “fast draft” and convert to “grey scale” in your print properties? It still requires ink all over the page, but it would be a fast way to reduce a little.

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  6. Your printable is lovely but not too practical. Think about the ink used to print this! Even if sent to Staples or Kinkos we would be wasting a whole lot of ink. Hoping you get bit by the “Green Bug” soon because I love your stuff!

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  7. I’ve always taught my own simple strategy for students learning a new piece, but this year I put it into a handout form that they can use at home. It is similar to your approach. With my young students I am also using a ‘Scavenger Hunt’ worksheet to play a ‘game’ with their music before they play it. So we use the worksheet to see how many different things we can find in the piece (dynamic markings, time signature, key signature, intervals, slurs, repeats or whatever). They keep the worksheet with their piece and usually mark up their music less. I also use pencil to mark and encourage them to erase markings eventually. Each student is different so I also have to figure out how to connect the music learning strategies to other things they do like soccer or ballet. For some that really helps. Thank you for the great resource!

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  9. Thank you so much for this sheet! They are some great ideas! None of my teachers did this with me when I was growing up (or at least not that I remember!) Instead, it was just “tackling”the piece without a plan. I am going to try this with students this week!

    Reply

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