Wow… we piano teachers have a lot on our plate. We teach hand position, correct fingering, note reading, rhythmic accuracy, correct posture, phrasing, articulation… I could go on and on and on. But even when all of the mechanics of being able to play the piano are finally in place, there is sometimes just a little something lacking.
Teaching Beautiful Tone To Piano Students
But this “little something” is actually a BIG something; without attention to tone your students may play well… but they won’t play beautifully.
Check out our 5 tips below for working on touch, tone, and how to ad that spark of beauty to your piano students’ playing.
1. Check the home instrument – I’m a big proponent of “piano for everyone” but I am also the first to suggest an upgrade in a home instrument as soon as a student shows definite interest in lessons. Your student spends 167.5 hours away from your studio piano each week and it is next to impossible to develop beautiful and expressive playing in just 30 minutes a week. Your students need a piano at home that responds to nuance, and they need the consistency of a good piano under their fingertips.
2. Listen, listen, listen – Teaching young piano students to play beautifully when they haven’t really ever heard beautiful piano playing is like teaching someone to cook who has never tasted good food. It’s so important for your piano students to be listening to great pianists in an active and guided way (“What did you just hear?”, “How do you think he is achieving that sound?”, “What did you like about that last bit?”)
3. Teach Tone With Technique – When you are going through technical work with your students, avoid simply focusing on notes and rhythm; every time your students play it should be with an awareness of the sound they are producing. It is therefore helpful to use some warm-ups and technical exercises that are memorized or taught by rote. This way your students’ ears can be actively engaged rather than their eyes.
4. Correct Hand Position – Encourage and teach correct hand position (see our post here) and work to build strong first finger joints which will lead to the ability to add arm weight. Short and easy technical exercises will help to develop both your students’ finger muscles and their sense of legato. Think two-note slurs to start rather than multi-measure exercises.
5. Hand Balance – I’m sure you’ve heard of “ghosting” before (playing on the keys without actually depressing them). This is a wonderful technique for teaching your students how to keep one hand quieter than the other (one hand plays the melody line and the other “ghosts”).
Attempting this with complex repertoire makes this process a bit too difficult to fully comprehend the end goal, so start simply (even just with pentascales) and focus on the ability to phrase one hand while the other plays silently. As your students’ awareness of balance is developed, seek out simple repertoire that will allow your students to focus on the sound without worrying about notes, rhythms etc.
Everyone Has Their Own Tips and Tricks!
These 5 tips will get you started on developing beautiful tone in your piano students’ playing… but we know that everyone has their own wonderful tips and tricks on this subject! We’d love to hear from you… share your strategies for how you teach the concept of beautiful tone in the comments below.
Joanna says
Great suggestions! I tell my students they have to imagine they are two different people when they’re playing the piano: the person at the piano, and the person across the room listening. So sometimes if they’re very focused on just the mechanics at the piano we can stop and ask what the person listening would say. Also, I find immediately listening back to a sound recording is so helpful because then they have all their focus to listen objectively. They’re always fascinated to hear how different it sounds on the recording than it does inside their heads!!
SonicPiano says
I concur with you on listening to a recording of themselves; it’s a real eye-opener. I periodically devote entire lessons to recording and analyzing students’ performances, then emailing the file to the parents for the students to use as a guide on what to change artistically. The difference from one week to the next is often dramatic.
lynn kiesewetter says
what do you record with?
Andrea says
Either my iPhone or Garage band 🙂
Denise says
Thanks for the reminder. Sometimes developing a beautiful tone gets lost in the midst of everything else we are trying to teach. I would love to know what materials you use to teach technique.
Andrea says
Hi Denise – I use a lot of “by rote” technique and I do use Dozen a Day and sometimes the “Technic is Fun” books… but my kids find them horribly dry (shhh… we’re working on a new product as a result that I’m so excited about! 😉 )
vicky says
Dozen a day and scales
Eleanor Baldwin says
I use humor to get my students to play legato. “Did Mary have a little lamb or did Mary have a typewriter?” ” Did Old MacDonald have a farm or did he have a typewriter?” They usually laugh, relax and play legato.
Andrea says
Love this (and your sense of humour as always) Eleanor!
Yelena Dadgar says
Of course the tips will be so different depending on the age and the level of your student. With any age though it helps when you pick up a phrase and ask them to listen to it while you will play it several times using different techniques each time. Then you can ask what version did they like the best, and why. Then you could ask what version will be the most appropriate for the piece they are learning. They will be amazed by different effects and would love to imitate your playing.
For teaching legato/staccato concepts with smaller children it’s fun to ask them to perform the movements away from the piano. They would love to jump for staccato, and glide for legato notes. It takes away the boredom if there is any, and helps relax and get back to the piano refreshed with fully understanding the concept. 🙂
Karin Brown says
Sometimes kids just need to get out of the “mechanical” mode of playing a piece, so I like to do a fun exercise with them. Tell them to play the piece in different moods, such as sad, happy, excited, angry, etc. This helps them to listen to the way they are playing the music and feel it more, giving it a better tone.
Karin says
I love to turn songs into a story. A fun example is La Cumparsita (Jennifer’s version), which sounds like an argument in Section A. Section B sounds like loneliness and begging for forgiveness. I articulate the words to match A, and clutch my heart and drop to the ground to match B. It is a blast to watch their improvement in articulation and rubato!
Christine Dell says
I use Faber Artistry & Technique books. I also tell them to imagine something with some pieces, a story or a mood and to feel the music.