After a wonderful summer break, I am guessing most of us are going back to teaching this week. I have been really looking forward to seeing all my students again, which must be a sign that I enjoyed a rejuvenating holiday!
 
What I love about this time of the year is that every student comes through the door with a renewed enthusiasm for learning, and the delight of seeing them standing a smoot higher than the previous year!
 
The beginning of a new year is also a good time to establish a routine to encourage the practice of some of the “less popular” (or indeed, least popular) aspects of piano learning. I’m talking about scales. Arpeggios. Broken Chords. Sight reading.  Theory.
 
As I imagined myself repeating the above elements to my students, I pictured the smiles on their faces fading away, and their newly-gained stature starting to deflate. Those are not the words most students want to hear on their first lesson back. We have to find a more engaging way to get students to master these components of piano learning without them pouting over it!

A little studio challenge I am setting up for all my students this term is the “Around the World Key Signature Challenge”. I have done this a few times throughout the years already, and this is what the “challenge” looks like:

Objective of the challenge: The first student who collects a stamp for all 11 countries wins the grand prize, and every other student who collects a stamp for all 11 countries by the end of term wins a small prize.

Learning goal: To explore different key signatures through sightreading and scales.

Duration: Term one (Feb- April)

Cost: Printing of the Around the World Chart, prizes at your own discretion (I recommend Easter Eggs!)

And here is how the conversation usually goes...

If you get this kind of response from your student, you know you have them “hooked”. It is then time to lay down the terms and conditions:  
 
To earn a stamp for a country, a student has to complete a series of tasks for its correlated key signature. Depending on the level of the student, I will differ the tasks to reinforce pre-existing knowledge and skills, as well as nudging them a small step forward to stimulate their learning.
 
I would recommend teachers adjust the requirements for each student slightly each week to optimise the learning experience, but here I have included some examples of what I might do for the different levels:

Beginners

• Young beginners who are just learning to read: start with a single hand 5 -finger C major pattern, playing up and down, then playing the tonic chord. Move onto the next key the following week.
• For the little students who are ready for an extra challenge, teach them to transpose their favourite piece (e.g. Mary had a Little Lamb) to the new key the following week. 
  

Grade 1-2

• Pick a country/key for the week, help your students set up the notes including any black keys in the app Noterush. They have to practice this every day and earn 3 stars in the following lesson (below is an instructional video on how to set this up on Note Rush)
  

Grade 3-5

• Note Rush for the chosen key of the week
  
• Depending on the students’ abilities, we have the option here to either add the minor scales or only stick with the minor scales for the entire term. Not often students get to only focus on minor scales!
• Choose from either blocked chords, broken chords and arpeggios.
• Again, for the technical works I require students to practice slowly, carefully with accuracy

I tend to be flexible and alter the weekly task for each student, adding, subtracting or swapping activities depending on how much a particular student can process in a week. A good rule of thumb is that if this assignment takes more than 1/4 of a student’s daily practice routine for them to accomplish then chances are, they are going to be put off rather than encouraged to explore these keys. So, for a grade 3 student who practices 40 minutes a day, I may include Noterush, a natural minor scale, and blocked chords. But for a grade 8 student who practices an hour a day, I might include Noterush, sightreading, chromatic scales a third a part, and a contrary motion arpeggio.

It is important to find the balance - we want a student to feel like they are slightly challenged, but they still believe they can succeed and get that stamp by the following week. So, it is crucial to adjust the “difficulty” setting for each student.

I have done this challenge a few times in the past years, and although not every single student would finish the race, it really does benefit the majority of students in my studio. Last year there were 9 students out of 35 in the studio who ended up learning 12 keys or more in 10 weeks' time as a result of it. It was also the only time I got asked by students if they could do more than one scale that week because they really want to “win the race”! I always think if such challenges get even one student excited about learning more key signatures, then it is well worth the effort.

Happy teaching!
Melody

This week I attended the IRMTNZ Annual Conference in Dunedin. One of the highlights of the conference for me was Bridget Douglas’ masterclass. As a pianist and piano teacher, I have always been interested in how other instruments are learnt and taught, as I find lessons conducted by the top teachers of any instrument often spark inspiration and revelation to my own playing and teaching.

Although I have never met Bridget in person prior to this conference, her name has always been familiar. Bridget is considered as one of the top performing flautists in New Zealand. She is currently the principle flute in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Artist Teacher at Victoria University in Wellington. It was a treat to finally see her in action – her exquisite presence, exceptionally good posture and reassuring smile led me to imagine if Disney was doing a live-action movie about classical musicians, she would be casted as the “flute-goddess”.

And of course, one who has met Bridget cannot mention her without remarking on her dazzling head of hair.

In the masterclass, a young student performed a grade 5 piece, “Violetta’s Aria” by Verdi on the flute. The student played with a good deal of musical sensitivity, and it is clear she knew this piece very well. It is never easy however for anyone to get up in front of room full of music teachers and play, and we could unquestionably hear her nerves intermingled into her timid sound.
 
Bridget explained to the audiences who were not wind players that the breath is everything on the flute. The breath not only determines the length of the sound, but also the quality of the tone – from the biggest sounds down to the subtlest nuances and colours. Therefore, it is crucial any wind player knows how to breathe. Not just any sort of breathing, but deep breathing. 

Knowing how to deep breathe, not only help wind players have better control over their instrument, it can also benefit any instrumentalist when it comes to dealing with performance anxiety. Many studies have shown that slow, controlled deep breaths help to alleviate physiological symptoms of performance anxiety, such as an increase in heart rate, as well as emotion regulation whereas short, shallow breathing actually contributes to an unfavourable intensification of these symptoms (see this recent Australian Study).

So now that we all know the importance of deep breathing, how exactly do we do it and what does it feel like?
 
Bridget had the perfect method:

Any piano teacher of the 21st century would be well aware that Classical Sonatinas may not be the favourite genre of music to learn and play in your studio. There are always the exceptional few that love playing them as much as the next piece, but chances are, most students tend to learn them because “the teacher said I had to do it”, and the remaining few will defiantly avoid the genre at all cost.
 
I once asked a 12 year old student why he didn’t learn the notes of a the new piece for that week, and he said, “I didn’t like the sound of it. It is really old- fashioned.”. Yep, you guessed it, the piece was a Sonatina.

So why do some students perceive these mini classical gems as old- fashioned and dull? And is it possible to formulate these seemingly unimaginative genre of music into something kids find exciting to play? In this seminar I am here to explore some answers.

First of all, I want to start by saying that I love the Classical Sonatinas and Sonatas. Out of all the genres in Western Classical Music, I just “get” the Classical pieces more than others. Maybe it is because I could always see myself fangirling Mozart if I lived in the 1800’s, or perhaps I just associate them with all the witty and handsome Austenian characters. I am definitely not impartial when it comes to the charm of the music of the Classical Period.

Possibly it is my own biases, but I really do think that Sonatinas are indispensable pedagogical pieces for any budding pianists wanting improve their skills and musicianship. Below are just some of the benefits of learning and playing Sonatinas:

• Training for essential pianistic technique and abilities such as broken chords, Alberti bass, scales, balance between the two hands, finger dexterity and agility etc.
  
• Understanding musical form and the classical style: this will aide memorization and improve interpretation of the music, etc.
• Functional music theory and music analysis: need I say more on the importance of these two?
• Pathway to advanced repertoire: bite-sized Sonatinas pave way for more advanced and exciting Sonatas. Beethoven’s Pathétique, anyone?

As a teacher, I really do not see how it is possible for students to advance smoothly to something like the Pathétique Sonata without having gone through at least two dozen Sonatinas and “entry level” Sonatas. So here are some of the reasons I thought of that might be hindering student’s enthusiasm towards these pieces, compared to the more “popular” genres:

Now, we cannot control what kids are exposed to outside of their piano lessons, but what we can do is to help kids relate to the music they initially find boring and difficult to understand, and turn them into something they can appreciate and love. The beauty of a Sonatina is that because the titles are all the same, we can help children interpret them into a narrative their imagination can fathom and discover. When they can do so, you can instantly see their eyes brightening up and faces starting to beam, as they find themselves suddenly able to bring to life, a previously monotonous scale passage because it is now a part of a meaningful story. Even the same piece of Sonatina can be tailored to suit each individual student.
 
In this upcoming seminar, I will demonstrate how I help students to create their own exclusive story lines to help them connect with the music, as well as tips on how to use storytelling to improve technique and enrich their theoretical knowledge. I will also include a “fool-proof” guide to help teachers find the most engaging narrative for individual students.
 
Head to the conference website to register:
 
https://www.ivvy.com.au/event/IRMT19/home-page.html
 
A video of my seminar and handouts will be available on my website after the conference – look out for future updates on the blog!

Melody

I have a studio of about 40 students, with a wide range of ages and abilities, and on the whole are an absolute pleasure to teach. I have been building the studio across the last 10 years with an aim to cultivate a balance between work ethic and creativity in my students as well as modelling these traits within my own teaching.

Most students of mine practice at least six days a week and learn large numbers of pieces per year. Beginner students complete 80-100 pieces a year, and intermediate students complete 30-50 pieces a year depending on their level of playing. I think it is safe to say my students are all passionate about learning new music!

Read more about the 40 piece challenge on Tim Topham's blog!

One of the biggest challenges I face as a teacher with students working on a lot of new repertoire is that many students attempt to learn a little too fast, getting caught up in the excitement and novelty of learning new music each week.

The consequence of this is we end up spending a lot of the lesson time pointing out the mistakes the students have made in their learning. Silly, clumsy mistakes they can absolutely avoid if more care was taken in their practice.

Some common note learning mistakes include: not noticing rests, wrong notes and rhythms (in seemingly straight-forward pieces), blatantly ignoring simple articulation and musical directions and so on.
Furthermore, because the students are eager practicers, when they have learnt something incorrectly and practiced it incorrectly for an entire week, the well-practiced mistakes have sunk in so well in their memories that it takes us a painstakingly long time to correct them.

Being a teacher who believes the best changes come from the individuals themselves, I wanted to find a creative piano teaching exercise to encourage the students to be more mindful when learning new notes, not because I asked them to, but because they wanted to.
With all going to plan, we can then use the valuable lesson time to improve the more creative and enjoyable aspects of learning, adding character and expression to the music.

Shortly afterwards, the Student of the Week Challenge was born.
The rules were simple: any student who learns their assigned piece(s) in one week, hands together, with correct notes and rhythm, gets their picture snapped holding two of their chosen photo props. We then stick the photos on a Student of the Week poster on the studio wall, so everyone who comes into the studio will be able to see their achievements!
Here is the poster I designed and printed:

Initially, I had no idea how many students would achieve the Student of the Week each week, and therefore how much the poster was going to get filled up. In fact, I was clueless as to whether the children of 2018 would even find Polaroid cameras cool!
In week one of the school term, I explained to all the students in their lessons what the challenge is about, and gave them strict instructions to make sure they learn the piece carefully so they get their pictures snapped the next week. I also gave them tips on HOW to ensure they learn the correct material from the first day:

• I will point out any tricky rhythms and notes in the lesson and make sure there are no confusions before they leave the lesson
• I ask the student/parents to record me demonstrating the piece, and I ask the students to always go through the recording a couple of times before their practice so they know aurally what they are trying to achieve
• Practice hands separately every day
• Practice slowly every day

The things I am looking for the following week:

• Correct notes, rhythms and fingering. Alternative fingering is OK, as long as it works.
• Dynamics and articulation has been observed and added
• A sense of the student has put in good work to complete the piece with good continuity. For the trickier and longer pieces (grade 4+), it is OK if they make some mistakes in their playing as long as I can see they have put in effort in learning the notes correctly. I also do not count the mistakes if they are caused by incorrect technique, as that is something I am happy to work on in the lesson.

As the weeks rolled around, the poster was filling up.
Students and parents are delighted to be a part of this experiment and we all get a giggle and a cheer when a student picks up the photo props and strike a cheeky pose! 

Many students were absolutely enchanted by the ‘magic’ of the Polaroid camera. Some of them wouldn’t believe me when I told them the picture would appear after a few minutes. One even thought the Polaroid took a better picture than his mum’s iPhone, which his mum and I both found hilarious.
I was really impressed by the number of students that came in the following weeks with significantly more effort put into learning their pieces correctly, especially considering that in the past these same students would make a couple of unnecessary mistakes in every new piece they learnt.

Here are some more happy snaps:

At the end of the term, our poster was absolutely filled with cheerful portraits!

Overall I am really happy with how this experiment went, and here are some thoughts on it at the end of this term:

• The experiment did encourage the students to make an extra effort into their note learning, hopefully it will start to become a habit for the ‘clumsy’ students
• An unexpected benefit – I noticed a few students started to play with more physical movement and expression, and I think it is a result of watching and modelling after my video demonstrations
• Students and parents really enjoyed coming in each week to see if anyone they knew got onto the poster the previous week. Great way for them to connect with each other!
  
• Would I do it again? I will probably use the same strategy in the future if I feel the students need a boost in any other areas of their learning – maybe sight reading next time?
• Downside: this experiment can be costly. It comes down to be about $1 per picture, even if the cartridges are purchased in bulk.

Hopefully, this post brought you some inspiration or at least a grin. Happy teaching!