Some software that I LOVE

September 21, 2010 Jennifer Boster

So I need to tell you about some awesome piano/music software that I just bought.

I currently have a little student who is preschool-aged (not to mention an almost-3 son who LOVES learning about music and piano with his mommy). Because of Janina’s recommendation, I decided to buy Pianomouse Goes to Preschool. And let me tell you, I absolutely LOVE this software! You should go buy it. Seriously.

This software is published by Pianomouse (and I just discovered that if you go to their website, pianomouse.com, they are currently updating their software and creating a new product line for 2011 – can’t wait!) and it is made for children ages 3 through 5.

Some things I love about this software:

The characters are fun, and they fully narrate the entire game
Colorful illustrations and fun music
It is simple to use, even for young children (my almost 3-year-old loves it)
Teaches recognition of the musical alphabet, musical symbols, notes, musical instruments, and composers, as well as how many beats each note gets – can you imagine teaching a 5-year-old who already knew all of these things? I think it is great.
I think my favorite part of this is Khachaturian’s Keyboard – it teaches keyboard topography and includes finding high and low notes, finding groups of three black keys and two black keys, and finding groups of high black keys and low black keys.
I love that my son can already distinguish between the different types of notes and can even pick out a half note without seeing another picture of one, and that he is saying things like “treble clef”

Children select games from the interactive menu screen. As you move your mouse over each picture, the names of each game are narrated by the fun characters.

The software consists of twelve different games, some of which have a couple of different levels –

Gone Fishing

The Apple Note Farm

Musical ABCs
Khachaturian’s Keyboard

BOUNCE!
Pianomouse Coloring Book
Clara in the Concert Hall
Meet a Famous Composer
Pianomouse Concentration
Instrument Parade

Puccini’s Musical Hopscotch
Pianomouse’s Music Workshop

I think that this software is an excellent addition to any music class or studio that involves young children. It helps give them a great foundation for their continued music and piano study.

Teaching Teenagers

September 9, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Teaching teenagers – is it a joy or is it a frustration?

Joy

In my experience, it is either one or the other

Some of my absolute favorite students I have taught have been teenagers. I just love getting into the really “fun” repertoire, seeing my students really progress musically and really grow to love the piano (independently of their parents wanting them to take lessons), and I love the challenge of teaching more difficult (and more rewarding) repertoire. When teenagers are motivated, hard-working and make piano a priority, they can be a definite joy to teach! (I loved Mariel’s comment on my last post where she shared some ideas to help our students realize the importance of music and to help make piano a priority in their lives!)

Frustration

On the other hand, some of my very most challenging and frustrating students have also been teenagers. It can be so challenging when they are so busy with school and other extracurricular activities that they don’t make piano practice a priority. Picking repertoire is a definite challenge – for if the student hates their pieces, they will hate practicing and hate coming to lessons (and by extension you sometimes feel like they hate you!! not good!).

So what can we do as teachers to motivate our teenage students?

I decided that to really get into this topic, it would be helpful to actually talk to someone who has much more recently been a teenage piano student and get their perspective. So, I interviewed my little brother, Josh.

Josh Gibbons is an awesome guy, an amazing pianist and is a piano teacher, as well! Josh is 18 and just began college; he took piano lessons for many years. He recently performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with his high school orchestra for Concerto Night. He absolutely loves to play the piano and it is a big part of his life.

Is it true you almost quit piano lessons at one point during high school?
Yes, it was more in early junior high though. There was a point where I just totally stopped practicing and didn’t care for it too much.

What was it about piano lessons that made you want to quit?
I was never really good at practicing, and I would easily get frustrated while learning a song. I felt overwhelmed sometimes with all of the songs I had and that it was taking a long time to learn them. I guess I just wasn’t patient enough.

Why did you continue your piano study?
First of all, I realized that my friends and everyone else liked it when I played the piano. But also, around that time, I changed how I played the songs. I realized how much you can change each song to how you want it, through the dynamics. I loved having the freedom to change the tempo how I wanted, making the song my own.I then started loving the songs I was playing and enjoyed piano a lot more.

Are you glad you kept taking piano lessons?
I’m very glad that I kept taking lessons. I definitely would regret it now if I had quit. I love having the opportunity to serve in my church through music and I’m sure it’ll be wonderful to have this skill when I serve my mission for my church. Also, the better I got, the more I enjoyed playing. If I had quit, I would be missing out on something that is a huge part of my life now. Looking back now, I have a great feeling of accomplishment that I kept taking lessons all these years.

What opportunities would you have missed out on if you had quit?
If I had quit, I wouldn’t have been able to learn the great pieces I’ve learned in the past couple of years, and I wouldn’t have played in Concerto Night. Playing in Concerto Night was definitely one of the biggest highlights from my high school experience. Also, I wouldn’t have been able to play with my church choir as the accompanist, which has made me even better. I probably wouldn’t have any friends either because who doesn’t like it when someone can play the piano?

What things about piano lessons made you want to keep playing?
My teacher definitely made a difference for me. I can’t recall one piano lesson that I went into, that I didn’t leave with a smile on my face. Even after a week of little practicing, my teacher was very encouraging. She taught me great lessons on how to be a better pianist but also lessons on how to be a better person. The piano lesson was a great way to start off the week.

What are some things you would suggest to teachers of teenagers to help keep other teenagers interested in lessons?
I would suggest to teachers to make a great connection between themselves and the student. I was a piano teacher myself, and I think I could have done a much better job of really connecting with the student so they could trust me and they would trust my advice. Also, don’t just teach straight piano. Let them know that you care about their life and what they are doing, and give them advice to help them in their life. Once the student knows that you really care about them becoming a better pianist, and just a better person in general, they will want to practice more for you. Also, make sure the student knows HOW to practice. Even today, I still feel like I’m not the best at practicing. It’s different for every student, however. For me, it was hard to practice straight for a long period of time. Try to help them find the best way for them to practice.

Josh and his teacher

Thank you Josh, for some wonderful insights! I think there are some great ideas he gave us that we can all work on to improve our teenage students’ experience with piano lessons. He said some interesting things – which lead to some great questions we can all ask ourselves about our teenage students:

Do your teenage students know how to practice?
Are they frustrated or overwhelmed with their pieces?
Do they know how to make a song musical and put their own expression into a piece through dynamics, articulations, etc.?
Do they have opportunities to perform for their friends and other peers who think it’s “cool” to play the piano?
Do they have opportunities to use their piano skills for accompanying or other things where they will feel like their skills are needed and appreciated?
Do we help our students feel encouraged and motivated?
Do we care about our students and what they are going through in their lives (which is a lot during the teenage years)? Do they look up to us and trust us?

What insights and ideas do you have to share? I’d love your comments!

Poll Results & Making Piano a Priority

September 7, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Thank you to all who participated in our poll – it is great to see the variety of ways that we teach rhythm to our students!

How do you teach beginning students to count rhythm?

Other Answers & Comments:
1: “ta-ta-half note”
2: “ta-ta-ta-ta or ti-ti”
3: “Gordon method”
4: “I start with the 1-1-1-2, but I move them to 1-2-3-4 as soon as I possibly can, based on when they ‘get it.'”

This week we would like to talk about The Over-Scheduled Student and Keeping Teenage Students Interested. Although two different topics, I think that these are very related to one another in that they both fall into the category of Making Piano a Priority in a student’s life.

How can teach effectively to help make piano an important part of our students’ lives? Are piano lessons fun, exciting and engaging? Are our students progressing enough to keep them loving it? How can we communicate to our students and their parents the importance of consistent practice? What can we do to keep an open line of communication going with the parents to help encourage practice and continued piano study?

I just read a great post on this subject on the “Music for Tots” blog. One thing I loved about this post was that the author talked about weighing the importance of music study as a family and then prioritizing accordingly. So what does that mean to me as a piano teacher? To me it illustrates the importance of educating parents about the importance of music in their child’s life and about the importance of effective and consistent practice. It reminds me of my important role in making lessons a positive part in my students’ lives, in discovering each student’s unique strengths and abilities and in teaching each student in such a way as to help them learn and progress.

Thoughts? Comments?

p.s. Don’t forget to take our new poll!

Teaching Eighth and Sixteenth Notes

September 2, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Once a student has a pretty good grasp on basic rhythm, they are probably ready to move onto some trickier concepts – eighth notes, sixteenth notes, dotted notes, etc. Now what??

Understanding Meter

When teaching eighth notes, sixteenth notes, dotted notes, triplets, etc., I think it is good to make sure the student understands meter. Aside from knowing that 3/4 time means that there are three counts in a measure and the quarter note gets one count, can your student feel the strong and weak beats in each measure?

I just came across a great game on Susan Paradis’ Piano Teacher Resources blog – this would be a wonderful game to play at a group or performance class to get your students thinking about and listening for meter.

For a crash course (or a great review) on simple vs. compound meter, check out this lesson on musictheory.net.

Teaching Rhythm

But how do we actually teach these rhythms? Now there are so many out there who have shared much more creative ways of doing this than I have ever used (which I am so grateful for! I am excited to try some of your ideas and to use a lot more hands-on teaching methods in my own teaching). A good way to explain eighth and sixteenth note rhythms is to use fractions. This especially works well if your student loves math! I like to draw out a little chart for them, so they can see that there are two half notes per whole note, two quarter notes per half note, two eighth notes per quarter note, etc. There are so many ways you could make this more fun and exciting and hands-on. Check out Susan Paradis’ awesome Rhythm Pizza game, and Jen Fink’s Lego Rhythms. (In fact, Susan Paradis’ blog is an AMAZING resource – check out all of her rhythm activities and games!) The possibilities are really endless. How about taking a little “field trip” to the kitchen to do a little hands-on rhythm lesson using measuring cups – 1 cup equals a whole note. You need to pour two half cups of water to equal a whole cup, or four quarter cups, or eight eighth cups.

Counting Out Loud

I have always believed that counting out loud is so important when learning rhythm. I have had many a student who has struggled playing the correct rhythms during their lesson, but when they start counting out loud almost everything gets fixed. I know there are many ways to count (as seen in our poll this week!). For eighth and sixteenth notes, I personally prefer the “1 and 2 and 3 and” and “1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a” method. I think counting like this can serve as a good reminder of the main beats in the measure, helping the student to remember that all of the notes must fit into the overall rhythm and meter of the measure.

Practicing with the Metronome

A great help in learning this and playing the correct rhythm is practice with the metronome. Once a student can play the correct rhythm while staying with the beat of the metronome, they probably have a pretty good grasp on the rhythm.

What fun ways have you come up with to teach rhythm to your students?

I’ve got rhythm

September 1, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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The moving truck is long gone. My piano is acclimating to the humidity. At least half of my boxes are unpacked. I have a couple of new piano students, and my piano room is pretty much set up. I am back! And this week we are going to be discussing Rhythm.

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We have had many readers tell us they are interested in talking about how to teach rhythm. A few readers particularly mentioned eighth notes. I think this is a great topic and hope to have lots of discussion about this. (Don’t forget to take our poll this week!)

A few thoughts upfront about teaching rhythm to beginners:

Rhythm can be pretty tricky for some students! I have had many a student (as I am sure we all have) who just can’t get it. They can’t feel the rhythm very easily and have trouble getting the counting right. This can be mucho frustrating and hard to listen to week after week, am I right? (Takes me back to a favorite college music professor who loved to sing “I’ve got rhythm” while clapping his hands and tapping his feet completely out of sync with each other.)

I think it’s important to help our students internalize the beat. Not only should they be able to recite the names of the notes and how many counts each receives, but more importantly should be able to feel it. So how can we help our beginning students understand and feel the rhythm?

using a metronome?
tapping a foot?
counting aloud?
listening to a waltz to internalize the beat in simple triple meter?
{dancing around the room to said waltz??} – who of us are brave enough??
listening to a march to hear the strong and weak beats in simple quadruple meter?

I found a great article about teaching rhythm and meter that said, “Human speech, poetry and music moves in patterns of twos and threes.” And isn’t it so true – this basic rhythm is so natural and innate in so many areas of our lives – how can we tap into that to get our students to really feel it?

What ways of teaching rhythm have you discovered to be successful with your music students?

think about it.

July 28, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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One of the big problems that piano students face in memorization is that they only memorize by muscle memory. They play a piece over and over and over, hoping that their fingers will catch on and do the memorizing for them. Often this gets alright results, that is until the student is in a stressful situation (such as a recital!) and their nerves get the better of them. Their fingers get a little mixed up, and suddenly they are completely lost! Muscle memory is definitely useful in memorizing a piece, but we should not rely solely on it. As was written in my college pedagogy notes, “Don’t take chances!! Don’t just say, ‘good luck, fingers!! I hope you make it.‘” As teachers, we need to teach our students to actively learn and memorize pieces with their mind, not just their fingers….we need to teach them to

THINK.

In the book How to Teach Piano Successfully, Bastien says, “The student should think while practicing, not just play by rote.” (Bastien, p. 246)

Now that is some great (albeit somewhat obvious) advice – think while you practice! If your students learn their pieces thoughtfully and thoroughly, they should have no problem when it gets to the memorizing stage. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking…hehe…

Ways you can encourage thinking while practicing:

Saying letter names out loud

Counting rhythms out loud

Forcing your brain to learn the notes, not just your fingers

Not letting your mind wander while practicing…

Writing out the chords

Looking for patterns in the chords or in the melody

Knowing the form of the piece

What do you have to add to the list?

the important things

July 27, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Thanks to all who participated in our poll this week! I think the results to this poll were closer than any other – it seems that all of these factors play an important role in laying a good foundation for our piano students.

What is most important in laying a good foundation for a beginning piano student?

Other answers:

Trusting the teacher/Collaboration between student and teacher/Cooperation
All of the above!

Interestingly enough, “knowledge of theory” did not get any votes – yet if our students do not have a sound knowledge of music theory and how music works, do they really have a good musical foundation? Something to think about!

This week we’d like to talk about memorization. How do you teach it? What techniques work the best? Tips? Ideas? What are the challenges? Why is it important? I can’t wait to hear your comments

On a personal and somewhat unrelated note, today I visited my former piano teacher and it reminded me how important and far-reaching our influence as teachers really can be. My younger brother had his last lesson from her before leaving for college, and so my mom and I went to give her a little gift and to visit. She has been teaching my family piano lessons for over thirteen years, starting when I was an awkward thirteen-year-old girl with braces (gotta love awkward years). She has made such a difference in my life and the lives of my siblings who also studied with her – and I think of the many students we have each taught (my three siblings who studied with her have also taught piano for a long time) and realize that one teacher can have a very far-reaching influence. All the more reason to be the best teachers we know how to be, right? No pressure

a foundation of good practicing

July 26, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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A student can be bright and talented, have a true love and appreciation of music, can catch on to concepts very quickly and sight read well, BUT will they really be good musicians and have a good musical foundation if they do not practice consistently? If they don’t make an effort to apply themselves, or if they are not taught good practicing techniques/habits by their piano teacher, are they really becoming good pianists?

Teaching our students how to practice and helping them establish good practicing habits is key in laying a solid musical foundation for their continued music study. In the past few days I have read a few things that have really made me think about practicing – how I can better teach my students to practice, how I can help them enjoy practicing more, and how I can help them practice more effectively:

With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music

I have just barely started reading the book With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music by Seymour Bernstein. And I mean just barely – like I’ve read the introduction and a couple of pages. But so far I love it! It talks about how skills gained in practicing can influence your life. And something that really got me thinking was that it mentioned something about practicing and discovery. And it made me think – when my students practice, is their practice session full of discovery and excitement or drudgery and monotony? Is it a real joy for them to be learning new pieces and new concepts (and do they speed through their method books as a result) – or do they just do the bare minimum practice requirements and call it good? Something to think about!

I read a great article on The Musicians Way Blog about mindsets and how they influence practicing. The author talked about two different types of mindsets – the “growth mindset” and the “fixed mindset.” Those with a growth mindset might hear a great performance and “inquire about the ways in which the artist acquired fluency and then apply their discoveries in the practice room.” Those with a fixed mindset would hear the same performance and think, “They’re more talented than me. I could never do that.” Go check out the article!

Mariel Mohns wrote a post on her blog (fenwickpianostudio.blogspot.com) about helping her students become perfect practicers. She includes a great chart to help students apply good practicing techniques at home. I think this is a fabulous way to ensure our students are becoming good practicers at home!

Thoughts? Comments?

What I Want My Young Students to Know

July 22, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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If you were to teach a beginning student for maybe a few months or a year, what would you hope that they would know by the time they stopped taking lessons from you? In order to feel like you gave them a great foundation to build on, and that their new teacher will be able to pick right up where you left off without needing to reteach concepts, what would they need to know? Even if they will be continuing to study with you, what would you like them to know and learn early on in their study to lay a great foundation for their piano study over the course of the rest of their life?

Here’s a little list I came up with of skills & knowledge I would want my students to have. These are pretty basic, but sadly a lot of young students don’t really know these basic things. If I got a young transfer student who knew and really understood all of these things and was able to play them well, I would be thrilled!

Technique

*good hand position – curved fingers, no collapsing knuckles, plays on the fingertips instead of flats of fingers
*legato playing – able to play nice legato phrases, including lifting of the wrist at the ends of phrases
*staccato playing – able to play nice, short staccatos – see my “basketball analogy”
*dynamics – plays good, contrasting forte and piano

Theory

*knows all the notes on the grand staff – and really knows them – not just by finger numbers or by playing in C or G position
*basic understanding of intervals and primary chords
*knows and understands the rhythms of basic notes – quarter, half, whole, eighth
*knows and understands sharps and flats

What would you add to this list?

laying a foundation: the joy of music

July 22, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Tonight my sister and I were talking about teaching piano (she is also a piano teacher!). One thing we talked about was the challenges of transfer students. At times it can be challenging and slightly frustrating when you need to completely re-teach basic concepts, such as note names or rhythms.

This conversation got me thinking about my own teaching, particularly of young beginners. Do I teach them the things they need to know to become good musicians? Do I give them a good foundation that will help them succeed with other teachers they may study with?

Teachers of young beginners really do have a great responsibility. It is at the beginning that the student starts to form habits – good or bad – in their technique, their practicing, and their performance. A child’s first experience with piano lessons will probably remain with them for a long time. If they have a bad experience, they may not progress much, and probably will quit early on; if they have a good experience it will make all the difference in their success and their later piano study. If they learn how to practice early on, they will learn so much more and progress much more quickly. If their love for music is nurtured through a positive and engaging experience, they will likely be music-makers and music-lovers for life!

So how do we give our beginning students a good foundation? What are the things that are important? (I hope you take a second and take our poll this week, for it deals with this exact question!) I believe there are many factors, all important to some degree.

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I believe that two very important ways that we can give our students a good foundation of piano study are:

fostering an appreciation and a love of music, and by
making lessons a positive, fun experience that will give the student a good attitude toward piano study.

(I also believe that teaching them good technique and theory and practicing skills are of the utmost importance….we will talk about that later!)

Do we make lessons a fun and positive experience for our students? Do we plan fun and creative ways to teach and reinforce musical concepts? Do we introduce them to the joy that is found in music? I think these are great questions to ask ourselves periodically as we evaluate our teaching.

I think that Bonnie Jack said it so well in her post about teaching a first lesson. She talked about the importance of getting your students excited about piano lessons. She said,

“Do something fun! Young children especially have eagerly looked forward to this day, filled with the wonder of music that is so evident to their little minds. Be careful to nurture that wonder, rather than squashing it with lengthy explanations and assignments. Get off the bench. Move to the music. Do not for a moment let this newly opened mind begin to believe that music is boring and unmoving.”

I love discussing teaching and sharing ideas with other music teachers, and have really been inspired lately by so many of your blogs, particularly by ideas of how to teach concepts in fun and engaging ways. I am excited to use many of these ideas in my own teaching, and really want to strive to make my teaching more fun and engaging, particularly for young beginners.

Amy Greer, a pianist and piano teacher who blogs at tenthousandstars.net, shared a wonderful quote by Kodaly that I love:

“If at the most susceptible age, from the age of 6 to 16, the child isn’t at least once moved by the life-giving power of great music, later he will hardly be influenced by it. Many times one single experience opens the young soul to music for his whole life. This experience shouldn’t be left to chance: to obtain it is the duty of the schools.” -Kodaly (1929)

I think of my two-year-old son who is so into music right now. He sings as he plays with his toys throughout the day; he dances around whenever there is music playing; he climbs up on the piano bench and loves to play the piano. I think of the joy that music already brings to his life, and how much that joy and appreciation will grow if my husband and I continue to nurture that love of music in him. I believe it is the same with our piano students – if we nurture that love of music (that I really think is inherent in young children) by making piano lessons fun and engaging and by bringing great music into their lives, we really can lay a strong musical foundation that will bless their lives for a long time.