For almost a decade of teaching piano, I was a song-centric instructor. My lesson planning involved selecting a piano piece, identifying the required skills, and then teaching those skills within the context of that piece.
Yes, I did technical exercises, ear training, and sight-reading, but they were typically unrelated to the piece and taught as separate skills.
I’m fairly certain that this method of instruction is familiar to many piano teachers. After all, it’s how most method books are organized! Working piece by piece our students reach the end of a book, and then we assume that they’ve collected the required skills.
But can you imagine if children in school followed a similar structure; only learning to read by reading books?
What If teachers simply handed out a new book each week without providing supportive learning activities?
A few students would cope, but many would get left behind, unable to master the skills in the early materials. The result? A classroom of students with a very small percentage of confident readers.
This is, of course, not the way things are done in an elementary classroom.
Why then should piano instruction be any different?
Open most mainstream method books and you’ll see a collection of repertoire. Flip the pages and you’ll see piece after piece after piece. Not all that much different than handing out book after book after book…
If this sounds all too familiar, in today’s post, we’ll help you make the change from a song-centric teacher to a concept-based teacher.
Moving From Song-Centric To Concept-Based Teaching
Progressive educators use a myriad of teaching strategies to give learners the opportunity to engage with a concept in several different ways before then applying that knowledge.
But what does concept-based teaching look like in a piano lesson?
Instead of teaching piece by piece, concept-based teachers identify a learning goal within a scaffolded progression of skills and then use different strategies to teach, reinforce, and check for understanding. Plainly put, the technical exercises, piano games, ear training, rhythm instruction, and repertoire choices you use should all be closely related to an identified goal or concept.
Sounds like a LOT of planning, right?!
It is so much easier to just teach piece by piece… until you start using the WunderKeys Method Books!
Inside you will find just as much repertoire as in traditional method books, but you will also find a wide variety of teaching tools that all work to contribute to clearly defined learning goals. We separate these teaching tools and concepts into units so both teacher and student know what the expected outcome is and how all parts work together. This makes lessons easier to plan for teachers and easier to comprehend for students. It also makes it more effective for teachers to assess student progress, to quickly intervene when a concept is not yet mastered, and to provide many interesting ways of demonstrating understanding. In fact, every WunderKeys Method Book, from preschool to intermediate, is laid out to enable concept-based teaching.
Concept-Based Teaching In Action
An easy way to begin adopting concept-based teaching without drastically increasing your planning and preparation is to hop into WunderKeys Level 1 books. Why? Because we’ve done all the work for you! WunderKeys Level 1A and 1B books are separated into units, each with clearly defined learning goals.
In WunderKeys Level 1A and 1B, every unit includes:
- Introductory teaching pages where a concept is introduced and practiced on the page and at the piano
- Pick-A-Path sight reading where the new concept is applied to sight-reading
- Technical exercises to provide short, focused practice of the new skill
- An ear training game where the new concept is explored aurally
- A Lap Tap Clap rhythm duet where rhythm is explored alongside the concept
- Repertoire and duets
Using these different strategies, your piano students will have a thorough understanding of a concept before it is applied to a piano piece.
Click here or on the image below to explore these books further and to see inside.
Once You Start, Everything Else Falls Into Place
Once you start concept-based teaching, everything else becomes so much easier: choosing piano games for lessons, selecting supplementary repertoire, keeping track of progress/assessments, providing parents with information on how to assist with home practice… it’s all drastically simplified.
And, if you’re looking for even more efficiency, Andrea and Trevor Dow’s Very Useful Piano Library goes one step further.
Not only are these books concept-based (they are micro-leveled allowing you to select an entire book to solidify a given concept) but they also contain a multitude of different activities to enable you to continue teaching to the concept and not only “to the piece”. With 11 books currently available and a bunch more on the way this year, adding this library to your piano studio is a great way to “up” your teaching game this term.
Click here or on the image below for a leveling chart and to see inside each book.
A Small Change With Big Results
Once you break free from using repertoire as your only teaching tool, and once you adopt this concept-based approach, you will have well-rounded piano students who experience less frustration, have a deeper understanding of each skill, enjoy multi-faceted lessons that hold their interest, and develop efficient practice habits.
Questions? Wondering how to transfer between your current method book to a WunderKeys book?
Hop on over to our online community here where you have constant access to our assistance!
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