Recommended: Play It Again, Sam!

August 20, 2013 Jennifer Boster

I just read a really fabulous book that I think any piano teacher will enjoy and be able to utilize in their studio and in their own learning and performing. It is by Marienne Uszler and is called Play It Again, Sam… What, Why, and When to Repeat.

I absolutely loved this book that delves into questions about repetition in piano-playing and teaching. It encourages teachers and students to stay actively engaged in the learning process and to develop an awareness and an inner feedback that will ensure thoughtful and helpful repetitions.

It differentiates between kinesthetic and conceptual learning and gives many helpful, practical tips to help your students learn better and develop better technique. It’s all about differentiating between what type of skill is needed for different musical tasks – is it physical, visual, mental, auditory, or a synthesis of multiple skills? – and then knowing which skills require what type of repetition.

The author discusses how to teach your students to practice thoughtfully. I also loved the discussion on facts vs. “big ideas” and concept “chunking” – or the idea that small facts and basic concepts apply in larger examples and concepts and so on and so on until a student has a really sound understanding of advanced musical concepts and forms.

I was pleasantly surprised at the depth at which this topic was discussed, and kind of blown away by it! I had so many “a-hah” moments in reading this short book. I think it is an amazing resource for any teacher looking to improve their effectiveness.

I actually couldn’t put this book down. I can’t wait to apply these awesome concepts in my teaching and performing!

Find this book and more under my I Recommend page!

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? 🙂

Pedagogy Books: The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher

July 13, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher by Marienne Uszler, Stewart Gordon and Scott McBride Smith is a great book about piano pedagogy. This was one text used in my college pedagogy class. There are so many great ideas and suggestions in this book, that I really need to read it again! 🙂

Teaching Advanced Students

One chapter that I really enjoyed is the one about Teaching Advanced Students. Teaching advanced students is really an entirely different world than teaching beginners, isn’t it? I would guess that the majority of students that many of us have are beginners or intermediate students (at least that has been my experience!). Many students drop out of lessons before reaching the advanced level. This chapter, written by Scott McBride Smith, is a great one to read if you are a teacher of advanced students.

Practicing What We Teach

Smith says, “It is not possible to teach something that you have not mastered thoroughly through your own training and investigation.”

As piano teachers, and particularly as piano teachers of advanced students learning advanced repertoire, it is imperative that we are able to play the repertoire as well. How can we teach the techniques and musical expression needed to play an advanced piece of repertoire if we have not mastered it ourselves?

This topic came up on our Facebook Page recently, and one of our readers had a great suggestion. Here is what she said:

“One thing you mentioned is to ‘learn advanced music’ to be more aware of what’s needed in students’ pieces and to teach more effectively. I agree with your statement completely but take it to the maximum and usually don’t teach a piece that I haven’t pre-tested for my student first. I actually do written analysis of complex pieces and prepare written lesson plans. This was a new habit when I began 39 years ago and it has really helped me be secure in my teaching. Going the extra mile on all pieces just exercises your brain so much that you could eventually teach a new piece in your sleep just from observation…”

Skills of Advanced Piano Study

Scott McBride Smith talks about the different skills needed for intermediate study vs. advanced study. I thought this was a great list to get us thinking about what we need to teach our advanced students.

Intermediate Skills:

accurate note learning and rhythm
wide-ranging dynamics
good tone
appropriate balance between the hands and between voices
basic projection of form and harmony

Advanced Skills: (“…a higher level of artistry is needed for these challenging works.”)

phrasing
rubato
accent
tone color
pedal
sophisticated practice techniques (lots of slow, super-accurate repetitions, work at different tempos, practice in rhythms and shifting accents, etc.)
public performances

So many great books out there, so much to learn! What are some of your favorite pedagogy or music books?

Pedagogy Books: Practical Piano Pedagogy

July 9, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Practical Piano Pedagogy by Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan is a wonderful resource for any piano teacher looking for some great ideas and printable resources for their studio. Yes, this book includes TONS of free printables (you can photocopy them from the book, or load them on your computer from the included CD!) – including all sorts of studio forms and other resources. (I mentioned this book before in a post about personality types and piano methods.)

The author has written a great chapter called “The Business of Piano Teaching,” which discusses good business procedures which help to make you more professional. This chapter includes many forms such as a Telephone Interview form, a Beginner Interview form, a Readiness Evaluation for Beginner form, a Studio Policy, Billing Form, Yearly Tuition Schedule, Letterhead Stationary, etc.

Other great chapters include: “Tuition: Being Paid What You Are Worth,” “Strategies for Acquiring Students,” “Now You Have Them – What Do You Do?,” and “The ‘Black Hole’ of Piano Teaching: Why Does it Exist?” (Can you guess what the “black hole” refers to? – Improvisation, Harmonization, Composition and Transposition!)

I have not yet finished reading this book, but so far have enjoyed it very much. I definitely will use it as a resource in the future!

Pedagogy Books: How to Teach Piano Successfully

July 7, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Book: How to Teach Piano Successfully by James W. Bastien, Neil A. Kjos Music Company

I really like this book. Although possibly a bit out of date (first published in 1973, and the Third Edition published in 1995), particularly when discussing things like technology and piano methods (mainly because there are newer methods out there now that are not listed in this book), it really has a wonderful variety of topics and is a great overall piano pedagogy text.

Some sections I really like:

A Guide to Piano Fingering

Written by pianist Robert Roux, this twenty-page section on fingering talks about topographical fingering (using the most natural position possible), special uses of the fingers, physical versus mental convenience, and the relationship of fingering to musical content. Roux states that “the student should learn and apply general principles of piano fingering, and not blindly follow published fingerings.”

Editions of Keyboard Music

This is a great section written by Maurice Hinson. It is an awesome reference because he goes through each musical period and each major composer and lists the best music editions of each one.

Basic Theory Outline

This is a brief overview of basic music theory, found in the appendix – a great review for any piano teacher!

Music Reference Books

Also found in the appendix, this is a HUGE list of books about piano pedagogy and other music-related topics.

Ideal Precollege Training – Repertoire List

One of my favorite sections of this book includes an ideal repertoire list that a student should be familiar with after studying for about ten years and before entering a college music department. I’d like to share that list because I think it can be so helpful to us as teachers in choosing repertoire for our students. This list includes representative works from each musical period. I should also note that my pedagogy teacher in college emphasized that this list is only a minimum of what students should know at that point.

Baroque Period

Bach: Two- or Three-Part Inventions, preludes and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, French Suites

Scarlatti: any of the Sonatas

Handel: Aylesford Pieces, any of the Suites or Sonatas

Classical Period

Haydn: easier Sonatas

Mozart: Sonatas, Variations, or easier Concertos

Beethoven: easier Sonatas, Variations, or Concertos

Romantic Period

Representative works by Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms, etc.

Contemporary Period

Bartok: Rumanian Folk Dances, Three Rondos, later books of the Mikrokosmos

Barber: Excursions

Bloch: Poems of the Sea

Copland: The Cat and the Mouse

Debussy: Children’s Corner Suite, easier Preludes, or either of the Arabesques

Dello Joio: Suite for Piano

Hindemith: Sonata No. 2

Kabalevsky: Twenty-four Preludes

Muczynski: Six Preludes, Op. 6

Poulenc: Mouvements perpetuels

Tcherepnin: Bagatelles, Op. 5

There are so many more great sections in this book – check it out! I have learned a lot from it.

what are your favorite books about piano teaching?

July 6, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I hope you all had a wonderful week! I just drove for six hours home from visiting my in-laws in eastern Oregon (gearing up for a loooong drive from Utah to Texas in August!). Why is it that my two-year-old stays awake for the entire drive, until about 20 minutes from home when he finally decides to fall asleep? Good times. Well, here are our poll results from this weeks polls about sight reading!

How important would you say sight reading is in a piano education?

How often do you teach/require sight reading in your studio?

Thanks to all who participated in our polls!

This week I’d like to talk about books about piano pedagogy (or just about piano and music in general!), and some helpful things I’ve learned from them. I hope you will also share some of your favorite piano/pedagogy books, or books that have been most helpful to you in your own teaching. I am always up for a new read that will give me some fresh ideas about teaching! In place of our weekly poll, this week I’d love it if you could leave a brief comment on this post, telling us one of your favorite books about piano teaching/piano!

Technique from the Pianist’s Bench

June 18, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I was recently re-reading a great book by Boris Berman, Notes from the Pianist’s Bench. What a wonderful book! I highly recommend it for any piano teacher. Berman includes in his book chapters on topics such as Sound and Touch, Practicing, Deciphering the Composer’s Message, Technique, and The Art of Teaching and the Art of Learning. He illustrates his points with tons of musical examples from great piano literature. I find this book really inspiring to me as a pianist as well as a teacher. I think that this book is just as helpful for teachers of young students as it is for advanced pianists.

In light of our current topic here on The Teaching Studio, I was especially re-reading the chapter on Technique, which is fabulous and goes into great depth on what good technique is and how to teach it. I’d like to summarize a bit of his chapter on technique, because it has been so helpful to me (but you really should read the entire thing, it is chock full of incredibly helpful ideas!).

Did you know that the word technique is derived from the Greek word for “art”? I didn’t, until I read this book!

Berman talks about three fundamental physical actions used in piano technique:

independent use of well-articulated fingers
rotation movements of wrist or forearm
use of weight of the forearm and upper arm

He believes that most of the pianist’s movements are some combination of these actions, and that they are all equally important.

Berman also believes that two pillars form the foundation of good piano technique:

The economy principle (being economic in your movements; to not use a bigger part of the body when a smaller will suffice)
The extension principle (to regard the finger, hand, forearm and arm as the continuation of the others, with each individual unit ready to support and share the work with the others.)

He goes over each part of the hand/arm that is used in playing the piano (fingers, palm, wrist, elbows, arms, etc.)

Fingers

The fingers must always be active; this is essential for enunciation…The fingertips give definition to the sound…Finger technique is not only indispensable but also completely safe if practiced properly.

Wrist

It is essential for the pianist to develop a flexible wrist, capable of small and rapid movements. It should be able to work flexibly and smoothly in three ways: rotating, performing horizontal shifts, and making vertical movements….Wrist technique needs to be developed early in the pianist’s life.

Studies & Etudes

Berman briefly discusses studies and etudes, but says he is more familiar with the more advanced ones, as that is the level he most often teaches. However, for etudes he does recommend that Czerny, Cramer, Clementi and Moszkowski be used before more difficult ones such as Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov or Scriabin. As far as exercises go, he prefers Brahms, Tausig and Hanon. He says,

…some of them are well worth incorporating into a daily technical routine…to be highly useful for daily warm-up.

He also builds his daily technical routine on scales and arpeggios.

No technique without a musical goal

Important as the technical work is, it should never be done without a musical goal in mind. Realizing the musical content of the passage helps the pianist to find the right technical approach.

Personality Types & Piano Methods

April 13, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I just read a great chapter in Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan’s Practical Piano Pedagogy all about piano methods. In this chapter she has wonderful, in-depth reviews of ten different piano methods, focusing on Reading, Rhythm, Technique and Theory for each method. The ten methods she reviews are:

Bastien Piano Basics
The Music Tree
Faber & Faber Piano Adventures
Beanstalks Basics for Piano
Hal Leonard Student Piano Library
The Robert Pace Keyboard Approach
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library
John W. Schaum Piano Course
John Thompson’s Modern Course for the Piano
Piano Discoveries

I am excited to learn about some of these methods that I am unfamiliar with! Her reviews are so helpful. I also love how she has a section on “Methods and Character Types.” She says,

“You can’t force the student to fit the program – you’ve got to make the program to fit the student.”

I completely agree with this. Although we may have our favorite piano methods, they may not work equally well for each individual student. Each student you teach has their own personality type, their own strengths and weaknesses. Each student learns in different ways (not to mention that each teacher teaches in different ways!).

Baker-Jordan discusses four different character types: Idealist/Dolphin, Guardian/Bear, Rational/Owl and Artisan/Ape. She includes charts for the most common two character types of piano teachers/students which illustrate the types of approaches, methods, materials and components that are most effective for that character type, as well as which specific piano methods are most effective.

I wanted to share this because it is so interesting, and so helpful! I definitely recommend this book; I am about halfway through it and so far it has been really helpful!

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