FERN is your friend. Or, teaching new pieces to intermediate & advanced students.

July 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

The ways you can teach new repertoire to students are as varied as the vast amount of piano repertoire available. But, I would like to share some general ideas and suggestions, as well as some ways of teaching FERN, using four different pieces to illustrate. Ready go…

Pick pieces that your students love. If they don’t like their pieces, they won’t practice. Period.
Divide the piece into smaller sections (have your student help you – a great way to teach form!).
Teach good practice habits – practicing a short section many times is so much better than playing through the entire piece once. You may want to have them practice until they get certain assignments done, instead of for a set amount of time – they may learn repertoire faster (and better) that way.
Hands alone practice! Helpful in learning notes, rhythm, and fingering really well – one hand at a time.
Slow practice = your friend. I like to pick a good metronome speed for my students – just make sure it is not too fast, that it is a speed at which they can play the section comfortably. You can always speed it up later.
Help your student find patterns in the piece. Help them analyze what is going on. They will learn it so much better and more easily when they recognize melodic patterns, chords, etc.
FERN – make sure they learn the four important elements of the piece. Give them specific practicing instructions to help them learn these elements. For example:

F (Fingering)

In Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1, help your student find a good fingering for the left hand right from the beginning. Have them write it in and use the same fingering each and every time. Encourage lots of hands alone practice in small sections (for example, one line at a time) in order to learn the notes and make the correct fingering a habit.

E (Expression)

In the Minuet from Bach’s Anna Magdalena Notebook, teach your student to produce a lovely, graceful sound as they are learning the notes of this piece. Help them decide where the phrases should be (if not already written in the score) and make sure they learn to play them legato with a relaxed lift of the wrist at the end of each phrase. If you wait to add in these important details after the notes, rhythm and fingering are learned, the student will have already formed habits of playing it with the wrong expression.

R (Rhythm)

In Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, the four-against-three rhythm usually poses a problem. Once the student has the right hand and left hand learned separately and is ready to put them together, spend some time on the tricky rhythm. I find it helpful to have them beat out a four-against-three rhythm on their lap, with their left hand beating three and their right beating four. It should go like this (try it!): together, right, left, right, left, right, together, right, left, right, left, right, together, etc.

Or, you can use this amazingly helpful sentence, taught to me by one of my dear teachers, which somehow magically solves the rhythm problem and helps you to play it perfectly: “My mother had a duck.” Seriously, try it. On “My” you will be playing the right and left hand together. On “mother had a duck” you will play the right and left hands alternating, beginning with the right hand. It will seem a little rigid as you learn it, but once you get it down (with lots of slow practice, my friend!) you can easily smooth it out and even out both hands. To this day, I cannot play Fantasie Impromptu without saying (in my head….usually…) “My mother had a duck, my mother had a duck, my mother had a duck, my mother had a duck……”

And, last but not least:

N (Notes)

Hopefully your intermediate and above students will all know the notes on the staff very well, and won’t need to say them aloud (as is very helpful for beginners). However, there are still some things you can do to help your student learn the notes quickly and efficiently. One such way is to have them look for patterns – in the melody, in the chords, whatever. When there is some kind of pattern to latch onto, note-learning is much easier.

When teaching Bach’s Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier, I always point out that each measure is basically made up of one chord. One chord, that’s it! And usually only a note or two changes from measure to measure. I actually like to have my students learn the notes of this piece by playing each measure as a block chord – so instead of playing the broken chord pattern all you are doing is playing a C chord, holding it for four counts. I have my students look ahead to the next measure to see which notes change, and then play the next chord. I find that this can be so helpful in learning the notes and getting your hand to be in the right position to play the entire measure. It eliminates any pauses and searching around for notes. And it is super easy to add in the real rhythm once all of the notes are learned.

The End. I hope some of these suggestions were helpful, or got you thinking about ways to teach other pieces!

p.s. Please share any great insights into teaching FERN – I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

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Teaching New Pieces: Beginners

July 15, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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There are so many things we could discuss in the topic of teaching new pieces! I think this is an important topic and I hope to get lots of input from you! I think today I will focus on how to teach new pieces to beginners. Since beginning pieces are rather short and very simple, I think it is a good place to start 🙂

Four Elements of a Piece

Basically, there are four elements which need to be learned in any piece. Each element is important and should be learned right from the beginning. A good way to remember these elements is by the acronym FERN:

F – fingering

E – expression

R – rhythm

N – notes

(I actually sometimes like to use the acronym NERF instead – especially for students who may be familiar with or into Nerf toys!)

I think it is a big mistake for our students to learn the notes and the rhythm, and then only after they are learned to add in dynamics and expression. We need to teach our students to play musically right from the beginning, to make it a habit to play slurs, staccatos, and dynamics as they are learning new pieces.

Teaching New Pieces to Beginners

Here are some techniques to teaching new pieces that I have used in my studio. I’d love to hear what you do in yours!

Look the Piece Over

Before a student begins a new piece, it is important to look it over with them (just like the first step of sight reading) and help point out all of the important elements of the piece, including key signature, time signature, accidentals, dynamics, etc.

Hands Alone Practice

Practicing hands alone is an important way of practicing a new piece, no matter what level the student is! Students should become comfortable with playing hands alone before putting hands together. For beginners, many pieces are not hands together anyway, so you won’t have to worry about this. When students first learn how to put two hands together, it can take some coordination and getting used to! Hands alone practice will make this a lot easier.

SLOW Practice

Pianist Rudolf Firkusny says this about slow practice: “I do advise practicing in a slower tempo. I think it’s a good idea because…you can overcome bad habits which can creep into your playing.” (The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher, p. 356) This is true at any level! Let’s help our students develop good habits in their practicing and playing.

Show Them How to Practice: FERN

In order to help our students learn the four elements of their new piece, it is helpful to give them specific practicing instructions. Here are some ideas:

Notes

Have them name the notes before playing
Play and say letter names (When learning new pieces, I find it so helpful to have the student say things out loud as they play, such as note names or counting – it helps keep their minds active in the learning process and, in my experience, helps to learn a piece more accurately!)
Play and say “intervals” – step, skip, or repeat (helpful in learning relationships of notes on the staff)

Rhythm

Clap and count rhythm (is helpful in learning the rhythm without needing to worry about playing the right notes)
Play and count rhythm (depending on the student, you may want to have them count “1,2,3,4” “1, 1, 1-2” or “quarter, quarter, half-note”)

Expression

Dynamics: have the student practice the piece, focusing mostly on dynamic contrast. I always tell my students to exaggerate the dynamics – make forte really loud, and piano really soft. Make a big deal out of how musical it was and how fun it was to listen to with such great dynamics! We should teach our students to listen to the sound and dynamics they produce from a young age.
Slurs: If the piece has simple, two-note slurs, you could have your student say, “down, up!” as they learn the correct wrist movement used in a slur.

Fingering

Although fingering is important at all levels, I like to be careful about not stressing finger numbers too much to beginners. Yes, it is important to teach them the finger numbers and help them play in the correct position with the correct fingers. But, I have had too many young students who rely way too much on the finger numbers and not enough on the actual notes. As a result, some students do not learn the notes well enough. This illustrates the great disadvantages of playing pieces only in C major position for too long. I think we need to get our students out of C position as soon as possible, get them playing notes all over the keyboard, and get them to realize that, although fingering is important, you can actually play any note on the piano with any finger (what a concept!! hehe). I like to have my students find the correct note first, and THEN look at the finger number.

Polishing Up a Piece

Whether or not a piece is going to be a future recital piece, the end goal should be for the student to be able to play it with correct notes, rhythm and fingering, with good expression and musicality, with no stopping and at a comfortable tempo…right? What are some ways you help your students achieve this?

If the student has learned the piece well, focusing on each of the four elements, and has practiced it efficiently, there should be no problem polishing it up!

If the piece needs some polishing, try breaking it into shorter sections (one line at a time) and challenge the student to play that line three times in a row, perfectly.

Teach the student to evaluate their own playing and to identify spots where they have problems. When my students play a piece for me, I like to ask them to evaluate their own playing. If they learn to be aware of when they mess up in a piece, they will be able to better fix it in their practicing.

Using the metronome is something that needs to be learned by young students, and can be very helpful in keeping a steady tempo. I try to pick a good tempo for them that is not too fast, one that they will be able to play the entire piece at comfortably. Once they are able to do that, we may raise the tempo a bit, depending on the piece.

I hope these ideas were helpful. I would love to hear ideas of how you teach beginning pieces in your studio!

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Studio Idea: have a sight reading competition!

July 3, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I hope everyone is having a great weekend, and for those in the U.S., I hope you do lots of fun fireworks or something to celebrate the 4th! I myself am having a grand time visiting my in-laws in Eastern Oregon – I sneakily (or not so sneakily) wrote this post a few days ago and post-dated it. I love technology 🙂

Here’s a little idea I have (but have not tried yet) – why not have a sight reading competition in your studio?

You could challenge each student to keep track of their sight reading – either by how much time they have spent or how many lines or pieces they have sight read each week. Keep track on a big, colorful chart in your studio and at the end of the month (or however long you decide the competition will run), the winner gets a prize. If you teach a lot of advanced students, you could challenge them to sight read pieces from the piano literature of the great composers (and maybe get in on the fun yourself!)

I think this would be a wonderful way to motivate your students to sight read, and to get them to make sight reading a habit.

ten ways to use your continued piano study to influence your studio

June 25, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Play at your students’ recitals – not only is it a great excuse for you to perform, but it’s a wonderful way to show your students and their parents that you know what you’re doing and that you practice just like they do, and to introduce them to some great repertoire.

Perform at a group class or performance/master class – a fun, informal opportunity to play for your students, giving them an opportunity to hear you play

Give new students a recording of your playing – I like to do this at interviews; I give them a copy of my resume and a CD recording. Of course you could also just perform for them!

Perform in some local ensembles or as an accompanist – I believe that participation in ensemble/accompanying work is extremely important in becoming a good, well-rounded musician. I have found that through accompanying I have learned so much about music-making, teaching, learning, listening, and performance, and I think that has helped in my own teaching. Plus, when you are involved in performances, you can always invite your students to attend!

Accompany your students in duets, concertos, etc. – Fun fun. Another great excuse to perform! Someday I will have two pianos and cannot wait for all the fun two-piano pieces that can be played….

Sight read through (or do a more in-depth study of) intermediate/teaching repertoire – then, of course, you will be much more familiar with it, be better able to choose good repertoire for each student, and will be able to teach it more effectively!

Be involved in studio practicing competitions! – ever think of this? I have never done this but think it could be super fun! You could even do something fun like students getting a prize if they practice more than the teacher – holy motivation! If that doesn’t get you practicing, I don’t know what would. And it might just motivate your students quite a bit, as well.

Learn or re-learn more advanced repertoire being studied by your students – that way you will be able to be so much more aware of the techniques needed and the difficult passages coming up, and will be able to teach the piece so much more effectively. You will also be able to demonstrate passages and techniques much more easily 🙂

Perform a solo recital for students or prospective students – could be a great way to get new students, and something wonderful to work towards in your own practicing!

Take piano lessons again! – I would love to do this sometime. What a wonderful way to improve not only your performance skills, but your teaching skills! Each teacher I have had has taught me so many things that I have been able to incorporate into my own teaching – what a great way to get some fresh ideas and perspective.

Intermediate Repertoire that Motivates

June 10, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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New topic: Teaching Music Appreciation

June 1, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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So much more could be said on th issue of practicing…I am sure we will re-visit the subject at some point 🙂 In the meantime, here are the poll results for this week’s poll:

On Practicing:

Other answer: “I could be a lot better about addressing this issue with my students!”

We’re moving on to a new subject…Teaching Music Appreciation. This may seem like a no-brainer; of course we all strive to teach our students to appreciate music. We’d like to talk about ways to go about this, and ideas for making it fun. In my mind this topic includes so many things – appreciation of classical music (that is a biggie for me, since I am classically-trained), music listening, piano literature, concert attendance, music history, etc. Can’t wait to hear your input!

The Power of Parents

May 31, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Just got back from a quick road trip with my family…twenty hours of driving in two days (with a toddler!)…and it’s good to be home 🙂 I’ve been thinking a lot about this week’s topic of Practicing & Motivation, and about a wonderful comment that was left on my last post. The comment mentioned the importance of parental participation in practicing, especially when the student is young. I couldn’t agree more!

I have found that students with super supportive parents who regularly attend lessons and help with daily practicing are much more likely to succeed in piano. If only all parents were like this! Well they can be – if you require it in your studio! I have never officially required parental attendance and help with practicing, but have always strongly recommended it. I actually may add it into my policy as a requirement for parents of younger students (ages 5-7 or so), because it really makes a world of difference. My mom always practiced with us when we were starting out with piano lessons, and I do believe it made a big difference. If nothing else, it helped me to feel that my parents supported me and expected me to work hard. I attribute much of my own success to my parents’ wonderful support.

Some ways parents can be involved and show support:

Attending lessons of young students
Sitting down and practicing with young students
Helping students make (and stick to) a consistent practicing schedule
Sitting down and listening to children play their pieces (my Dad has always been amazing at this – he LOVES laying down on the couch at the end of the day and listening to his children play the piano – what a great message to send to your children, that you really do love hearing them play beautiful music!)
Giving compliments and words of encouragement

In what ways do you encourage parents to help support their children in their piano study? Do you require parents to help children practice? To attend lessons?

Do your students know HOW to practice?

May 25, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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As teachers, we should not only expect our students to practice, but it is our job to teach them how to practice effectively. Practicing really is an art, and must be taught. It shouldn’t just be left up to chance that our students will figure out how to practice well.

In some ways I feel that I really didn’t learn how to really practice well until my last couple of years of college. I finally learned to really listen, to be harder on myself in not making little mistakes and demanding perfection, and to be more efficient in my practicing.

Young piano students especially need to constantly be taught the basics of practicing efficiently and effectively. Here are a few ideas:

Write out specific practice steps in their notebook. This is particularly important for very young students. Make sure the parents know the practice steps and help the student execute them! These steps could include things such as:

Practicing hands alone
Clapping and counting the rhythm
Saying letter names out loud

Section off the piece and have them learn it one line or section at a time. A challenging piece always feels much more do-able when learned one line at a time (and can be learned a lot more efficiently)

Teach your students to learn not only the notes at first, but to learn the dynamics and articulations right from the beginning. When a student puts the dynamics in right from the beginning, they will become habit much quicker!

Have your student practice slowly, with the metronome. As they become more confident in the piece, gradually increase the tempo.

Make sure they are watching the music, not their hands. A few weeks ago I had a student struggling with a piece – he had been working on it for a few weeks and was just not quite getting it. As I watched him play the piece during his lesson, I noticed he was hardly ever looking at the music, but at his hands. I suggested to him that he try to look just at the music. He tried it again, and voila! It was seriously like magic – the piece was perfect. His mom was amazed and he was so pleased with himself. It’s amazing the results you can get with changing such a simple habit!

Now this is an important one: teach your students to not stop when they make a mistake. The tendency of most people is to STOP when they make a mistake, and fix it. What happens, though, is that the student unknowingly creates a habit of stopping in that particular place each time the piece is played. I have noticed in my students that they often stop before they even make a mistake, because they are anticipating the mistake they usually make! Also, if your students are instilled with the habit of not stopping, they will perform much better under pressure at recitals and other performances.

Now, having said all that about not stopping, it is also important that your students be aware of problem spots as they play. After they finish the piece or section they are playing, they can then go back and find the problem spot, figure out what went wrong and why, and fix it.

Students must learn to LISTEN as they practice: listen for problem spots, listen for correct dynamics and musicality, listen for tempo, for note evenness, for articulations, etc. Sometimes it is very eye-opening (or, ear-opening?) to record the student’s performance (either video or audio) and play it back for them to really listen.

Have the student try to play each line or section three times in a row perfect. Make it into a game, use three candies or treats as a reward. Most often this results in the student doing a lot of repetitions – which is awesome! I think that sometimes young students don’t realize the importance of playing short sections over and over again.

Sometimes my students will come to lessons unprepared; as much as I hate it when they are not prepared, I usually see it as an opportunity to practice with the student and show them how to practice more effectively. We work on a section of a piece, and usually get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

In what ways do to teach your students how to practice effectively?

Practicing Incentives

May 21, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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My hope, as a piano teacher, is to eventually teach my students to love music, to love it so much that their motivation for practicing is that they want to become better, that they love making music. I want them to practice so they can perfect that challenging piece, so that they can experience that great feeling when they have really accomplished something wonderful.

But sometimes students (especially the young’uns) need a little bit of extra motivation and incentive now and then. Now of course, you don’t want them to solely practice just so they can get that prize – but what if they wouldn’t even practice otherwise? Isn’t it better for the student to practice consistently just so they can earn a prize, than to not practice at all? Rewards, prizes, and other incentives definitely have a place in early music study, and when used wisely can be a great help in training young musicians.

As a young piano student, my teacher gave us points each time we passed off a song. Each time our card of points was filled, we received a coupon for a free ice cream cone. How exciting it was to fill out those cards! Sometimes students need something like that to show them how much they have accomplished. And to be perfectly honest, for some reason my sisters and I hardly ever redeemed those ice cream cone coupons (I know, weird huh?) – we had this huge stack of them in our piano bench (why didn’t we redeem those?? that is so ridiculous). Even if you use a card or chart and students receive stickers for passing off certain assignments, having that visual representation of their progress can be very motivating for some students!

As a teenage piano teacher, I challenged my students to practice a certain amount each day and to record their practice time. In the summer when they came prepared to their lessons and had done their practicing, I used to take them out to our big freezer after their lessons and give them an Otter Pop (mmmmm…I can taste it now…). Students love getting small rewards, and a cold treat on a hot day might just be the motivation they need! It can be something very inexpensive (stickers and Otter Pops are definitely affordable, especially if you buy a lot at a time!), and it adds a bit of fun to the whole practicing thing!

My parents are very wise, and they instituted a great incentive program for my siblings and I: if we didn’t do our practicing, we were required to pay for our piano lesson that week! Holy cow, what a great incentive for a teenager with little income. Obviously this incentive would have to come through the parents, but it can’t hurt to suggest it.

Often in my teaching I have done a similar thing to my first piano teacher, in that I have Piano Point Cards for each student. Students receive different amounts of points for different activities: passing off a piece, reaching their practice goal (more on that later), performing a piece for somebody, memorizing a piece, arriving on time to lessons, attending a recital, etc. The great thing about this kind of system is that you can come up with your own categories for things you want to stress in your own studio. If you prefer that students complete assignments rather than practice a certain amount, then give points for assignments completed.

Another incentive program: hold a practicing competition. A whole new element is added to practicing when the student knows that they are competing against their peers. Sometimes a little healthy competition is just what your studio needs! Be sure to pick some good rewards for the winners, and make it lots of fun!

When deciding on what rewards or prizes to award to students, why not use music-related prizes? For example, a fun piece of sheet music (such as a fun pop song or duet) or a small gift certificate to your local music store is double motivation – not only will the student practice hard to receive it, but once they receive the prize they will want to go home and practice the new piece! Awesome.

Another idea: give out studio awards at a year-end recital. Make sure students know you are watching and paying attention to who practices hard, who improves different aspects of their playing, who has a good attitude, etc. Give out fun certificates and perhaps some small prizes.

My favorite story about practice incentives is from my little sister (my three younger siblings also have taught piano lessons!). When she was a teenager, she once had a student who would not practice. Week after week she struggled to motivate this kid to practice, but to no avail. So one week she asked him what his favorite candy bar was. He told her what it was, and she said, “If you practice this week, at your next lesson I will give you your favorite candy bar. If you don’t practice, I’ll eat it in front of you.”

Well, the next week the kid showed up and had not practiced again! So my sister proceeded to eat the candy bar. Way to follow through! hehe

What incentive programs have you used in the past? What has been the most helpful? What do you think motivates your students the most?

You only have to practice on the days that you eat.

May 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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…my former piano teacher had a sign with this saying taped to her studio door, a nice little reminder of what was expected of her students. As funny (or depressing) as this statement may be, it’s the truth! To become a good, proficient pianist, you’ve got to practice! And consistently.

Motivating our students to practice (and teaching them how to practice correctly and efficiently) is probably one of the most important things we do as music teachers. It can also be pretty frustrating at times.

In my mind, there are three basic types of students:

First, the student that we all wish and hope for: the one who always practices, and always comes to lessons prepared. These students are pretty self-motivated, and love music enough to make it a priority without needing extra motivation (or nagging) from a parent or teacher. Lucky you, you teachers who have these students!

Second, the student who usually enjoys piano lessons and makes an effort to practice, but isn’t the most consistent and may need some extra motivation at times. This type of student is pretty common.

And third, the kid who never practices. They are late to lessons, they never improve, they never pass off pieces. Teaching them gets more and more frustrating by the week.

How can we help all our students become like the first type? How can we motivate our students to really practice, to come to love music and to become good pianists?

There are so many answers to this question. There are so many ideas and incentives and rewards, so many ways to be successful at this. I hope that this week we can explore some of these ideas and help each other find ways to motivate our students better.

I believe that no matter what methods we use to motivate our students to practice, we should first consider the individual strengths, weaknesses and needs of each student. What motivates one will not motivate another. Sometimes the best way to motivate a student is to find that one piece that they just love and can’t get enough of; or to help build their confidence through successfully learning a difficult piece; or to discover a way to finally help a student understand a difficult concept (and isn’t it wonderful to see that light bulb go on in their head when they finally “get” something?)

If our students are not good practicers, they will not be good pianists. Our job as teachers is to find out how to best motivate each student until they reach the point where they are self-motivated by the love of the music and the joy they feel when they play it.