Fluency can be a real speed bump for young piano students. Their brains are too busy trying to grasp note-reading, rhythm, fingering and dynamics to pay much attention to fluency.
And while I sympathize with my young students as they face a barrage of musical information, I do not let fluency go by the wayside.
The most obvious way to help your students develop fluency is to encourage them to practice regularly, ensuring the “nuts and bolts” of their pieces become easier and internalized. But even with lots of practice, many students have trouble achieving that true sense of fluency.
Today we’re sharing 5 “smooth” strategies for developing the speed, accuracy and expression that young piano students need to take their skills to the next level.
Developing Fluency in Young Piano Students
When a piano student is playing fluently, his tempo is even, his hands are working together effortlessly, phrases are grouped correctly, expression is present, and hesitations are non-existent.
Check out our 5 Tips for Teaching Fluency To Young Piano Students below:
1. See It, Hear It, Play It
For your piano student to understand what fluent playing sounds like, she needs to both see and hear it frequently. Make time to play for your student so that she can have a visual and aural memory of what her piece should (and will!) sound like. Before you play, discuss with your student the different elements of your performance that your student should watch and listen for (and be sure to use these tips for playing for your students).
2. Echo Playing
Using one measure at a time, play the treble or bass line for your student and then have her immediately play it back, being sure to match your tempo, expression, and phrasing. Repeat the same measure and echo several times in various octaves. Once a measure has become fluent, add a second one to create a two-measure echo. Repeat this process, working your way up to a four-measure echo.
3. Mirror, Mirror
Play the treble or bass clef line of a piano piece along with your student so that you are both playing the same line at the same time. Instruct your student to match your tempo, expression, and phrasing. Through mirroring with your student, you will become instantly aware of technical areas that need assistance… without putting her “on the spot”. We blogged in detail about the “mirroring technique” here.
4. Measure Swap
Instruct your student to sit at the piano and place her hands in the starting position of the selected piece. Next, sit beside your student and place your hands in the same position but an octave lower. Play the piece together, swapping measures as you go (ie. student plays measure one, teacher plays measure two etc.). Attempt to complete this task without any “break” between the teacher – student swap. While this will inevitably sound disjointed at the beginning, swapping measures quickly becomes a great way to reinforce playing with an even tempo
5. Speed it Up!
Choose one phrase in your student’s piece and have her play it at its normal tempo and then repeat the phrase over and over, gradually increasing the speed until she has reached what I call “Mach 4″… (4 repetitions, each being faster than the last). After reaching “Mach 4” she should continue to play, while gradually decreasing the tempo with each repetition… until she is back to the regular tempo.
These are my tricks… what are yours? We’d love to hear how YOU work on fluency with your piano students. Share in the comments below.
And Now Add Expression!
Taking the time to work on your piano students’ fluency is time well spent. Not only will they develop a more expressive and musical touch, but their enjoyment of the piano will increase. Even beginning piano pieces sound impressive and pleasing when they are played with a well-developed sense of fluency.
Apply that new-found fluency to pieces that your students can really connect with! With our comic-based series “The Adventures of Fearless Fortissimo your young piano students will be encouraged to play with expression as they create the soundtrack to the thrilling comic adventure! Perfect for students working in a Level 2 method book. Find them on Amazon here.
These are excellent suggestions! Planning to use them soon – thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks so much for reading Vicki!
This post came just at the right time…I have been struggling with this concept with a few of my students! It seems like by the time they finally get a piece learned fairly fluently, they are so sick of it that we end up bagging it and moving on. I will definitely be using some of these suggestions. Thanks! By the way, one of my teen piano students commented the other day on the Amadeus Anthems I gave her, and said she thinks the books are “just getting better and better!” I had to agree, they are great!
Hi Cassie – there’s a careful balance there isn’t there? I’ve actually found that kids now a days are not used to being asked to do most things to the point of “perfection”. They’re used to being allowed to try their best and then move on once they get bored. As much as I want my students to enjoy the piano, I know that working through this “boredom” to get to a point of true mastery of a piece is important not only for their long-term enjoyment of the piano but also for their ability to do this with other tasks in every day life. We piano teachers teach so much more than how to play the piano don’t we?! 😉 So happy to hear that you’re enjoying the PianoBookClub 🙂
That’s a great point, I’m going to keep that in mind in the future! I think I maybe lean too much towards the enjoyment of the piano and have somewhat ignored the fact that fluency contributes to the enjoyment.
My fluency issues usually come at the bar line so I make sure we “jump over” it to the first beat of the next measure!
Hi Karen – it’s so true! I almost wish bar lines weren’t a “line” but rather some sort of arrow LOL! It’s a real mental block for some kids. Play and stop… play and stop… it’s hard habit to break but much easier if you start when they are little 🙂
I sometimes white out bar lines and redraw the staff lines that got whited out. Bar lines are a visual problem to some students. It’s amazing how they immediately quit stopping at the bar line when you have them play without the bar lines. It takes about two minutes for them to “get it”. Then you never have to white them out again.
That’s a great idea too! Must try that.
I am new here and have been soaking up all the posts I’ve been reading. I’ve been teaching for 5 years and am ready to make some changes in how I teach. I am wondering how you fit everything in with each lesson? How do you structure your lessons and how do you have time to do even all of these 5 steps with just one piece? Plus time for off the bench activities? I teach 30 minute lessons–are yours longer? I feel like it’s nearly impossible to fit everything into each lesson. How do you incorporate composition/improvising into your lessons? Do you teach from particular method books? How many songs do you typically assign each week? I’m sorry for all the questions and understand if you don’t have the time to answer them!
Always have time to answer Diane 🙂 This is a great question and one that I myself struggled with for a long time. My students take 45 minutes when they are able to, but even with my 30 minute students I make sure that my first priority is a well-rounded lesson experience. This means that we don’t do absolutely everything every single lesson. In fact, when I learned to let go of the preconception I had that I had to try to cover everything It was so freeing. We’ve blogged about this – it goes into more detail than I can in a comment… but in short, I learned that a) It’s okay to not open the method book every lesson b) If my student is really engaged in a particular activity (off-bench, composing, improv etc.) it’s okay (in fact it’s great!) to spend the whole lesson doing that one thing and c) Lessons are a year-long pursuit not a weekly one. Everything contributes to overall progress but everything doesn’t have to happen every lesson. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of trying to cram it all in, but it’s so much more relaxed and meaningful for everyone involved when you let yourself avoid that way of thinking. Here’s some blog posts on this topic:
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2014/08/27/30-minutes-of-shock-and-awe-the-piano-teacher-trap-youll-want-to-avoid/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2012/11/14/whos-the-boss-apparently-my-6-year-old-piano-student/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2013/09/26/who-made-the-piano-method-book-rule/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2014/10/14/kick-flick-i-know-youll-make-time-for-this-soccer-themed-piano-game/
Wow, thanks so much for the response and resources!!! I think I’ve gotten too focused on “getting through” the method books, rather than on my students’ actual needs. This is partly because I’ve had one parent/student who constantly tell me how long he’s had his pieces (even if it’s only been a couple of weeks and sometimes it’s because he’s been absent). I try to remind them that we can’t cover everything in every lesson and that there are things he needs to work on in the pieces (even though he and his mom claim he has them down perfectly…….). So yeah, I think I need to take on the “teacher” role a little better and let them know I’m trying my best to get to everything! Sometimes it’s hard to teach your friends’ kids! I’m excited to read all the articles you listed! And I loved the other video you posted in my other comment! I have at least two students (but probably more than that!) who I think will really benefit from doing that! Thanks again!
@ Diane – I have told students who have become too bound up in the length of time pieces are kept that it’s a natural progression – as a student advances through the levels they need to keep pieces longer. They like to think that it’s because they are becoming more advanced 😉
Also, as far as fluency goes, yes, it is a struggle, especially for my beginning students. One thing I’ve done is I take a flash card or similar sized piece of paper and cover up the measure that they are in the middle of. I try to force their eyes forward so they are looking ahead to what’s next, rather than focusing solely on the measure they’re in. I feel like this helps them get over the bar lines and to the next measure without stopping. I also tell them that bar lines are not stop signs and that the end of the line is a “green light,” not a red one.
Great tip Diane! Thanks for sharing 🙂 Learning that “eye tracking” is so, so important! We did a post on tracking here if you’re interested and missed it: https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2016/04/18/after-watching-this-video-you-may-never-ask-your-piano-students-to-clap-rhythm-again/
I have really appreciated the tips and encouragement that I find comes through this site. Many I have tried and have success. Thank you.
Thrilled to hear it Judi – it’s such a great community of helpful teachers isn’t it? 🙂
I love all of this input! Thank you so much! It always gives me a fresh start into each year of teaching. One thing my teacher did with me and I have used it often to build fluency is to use speed work. This is used after they have learned a piece pretty well and they are trying to get the flow and forward motion down. I have them go as fast as they can without worrying about any mistakes or timing. It creates a lot of laughter! Sometimes we do it together, especially with duets. We might try this a few times, then we take it back to the original tempo. It is amazing how their fluency is so much better in just 5 minutes of fun. The technique forces them to keep their eyes moving forward and they build a trust in what their fingers will do. This has helped a good majority of my students. The perfectionists hate it. 🙂 🙂 So I don’t push it as much with them. Thank you again!
@ Sue – love this idea too!
It’s true! The Tip #5 is a variation on that that I use with my really young students. Thanks so much for sharing Sue!
I love your suggestion of swapping out measures and can hardly wait to try it. I already use the other suggestions and it is great to know that I am on the same track as other teachers. I also compare reading music to reading paragraphs aloud in class at school: you must read ahead to play fluently.
Great point Nancy! Yes, so much of what we teach to young beginning note readers translates to beginning reading as well. I can only assume that playing the piano must help their reading fluency as well as they get used to that idea of “looking ahead” 🙂
I love your tips! It’s nice to know and hear what you are doing and it validates what I do as well. I currently do #1, #2 & 3… And it’s been very effective. I love interacting with my students.
I’m going to also implement #3. Thank you so much for your fabulous FB page!! I read it all the time and work times send my student’s parents your posts and it helps so much!
Deborah
Thrilled to hear it – thanks so much for reading Deborah!
I meant I will be implementing #4 into my lessons now. I think my students will enjoy that. Thank you again!
Thanks for these wonderful ideas. I’ll be using them! 🙂
I’ve been working with an 80-something student who has stops and starts in playing a simple piece. I cut a whole out of the middle of an index card, just the size of a measure plus the downbeat of the next measure. and have him repeat each unit several times. After one week of practice this way, he has made noticeable improvement! I think I will try this with other nonfluent students. Thanks for the ideas! My studio theme this year is “Focus on Fluency”, so this is timely!
Great suggestion Alice! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Excellent suggestions! I find when I play a piece for my students, they think it should sound just like mine the next lesson. That rarely happens. I remind them that speed (not fluency) is the last thing we add. And I ALWAYS find something I can genuinely compliment.
It’s true Patsy! Some of the most beautiful things that piano lessons teach is patience and diligence 🙂 And yes, there is always something you can say about a students’ performance to bolster their confidence (even if it’s just their posture 😉 )
If you have access to a newer digital keyboard, some have a function that turns it into two small keyboards, which would be very useful for the mirroring and swapping.