Benefits of Practicing Technique

I have made a discovery in the last three months that made a huge impact on my teaching.  In practicing my own music over the last few years, I only just started practicing technique on a regular basis in January.  Since then I have noticed a significant improvement in the speed of learning a new piece.  Some of the ways technique has helped me out are:

• reading notes
• finger patterns
• harmony (knowing what you should expect to hear without having heard a recording of the piece first)
• even rhythm
• speed (when needed)

Since noticing this, I have made technique more of a focal point with my own students.  Instead of learning pentascales and scales to the point of understanding them, we are continuing to revisit them weekly and cycle through the different keys more quickly.  I haven’t yet seen a direct benefit to the students, but expect to see a huge improvement in those that actually practice their technique diligently by the end of the year.

~ Ms. Natashia

Playing with Ease

It has been probably seven or eight years since I last attended the Olds Kiwanis Music Festival.  That year, Peter Jancewicz was the adjudicator for the advanced performers.  After playing my piece, he did a little bit of spot work on some of the more complex sections where I tended to get tense while playing.  One of the exercises he had me do was play very slowly and lightly with the idea, “See how easy it is to play those notes?”

It isn’t until all these years later that I actually fully understand the concept that Mr. Jancewicz was trying to present, I think.  I had a student come to her lesson this past week.  We had just learned about slurs and playing legato the week before; however, when she came back this week her normally very good technique and firm fingers had completely left her.  She was concentrating so hard on playing legato that she was pressing the keys so hard that her fingers were buckling backwards at the joints and even turning white.  And so I applied the theory Peter Jancewicz had explained so long ago.

We worked on making sure she was nice and relaxed to start.  Before playing each exercise/line in a piece I had her take a deep breath, bringing her shoulders up to her ears, and exhale, dropping her shoulders into a relaxed position while still sitting tall.  Next we made sure that her wrists were level with the keys.  Lastly, we started playing the music.  I had her concentrate on playing slowly and softly.  It worked.  Her fingers were nice and firm again while playing relaxed and legato.

~ Ms. Natashia

Learning Line and Space Notes

I recently had a lessons with two girls in which we started introducing the staff.  After discussing the concepts and reviewing what they needed to do for their theory assignment, it was still quite clear that they were struggling to determine the difference between whether a note is written on a line or in a space.

After some quick thinking, I was able to pull out the game, Goofy Piano.  Even though we haven’t learned the note names and their location on the piano, I was still able to use them in a game.  Alternating turns, the girls were given the change to name the note as a line or space note.  The student with the most cards at the end won.

I think I might use this as a review game at their next lesson as well.  To make it more challenging, I will try having the girls name the specific line number or the space number.

~ Ms. Natashia

A Not Quite Spring Recital

Our third recital for this school year was held on March 5.  It wasn’t until after I had printed the programs and run out of ink that I realized spring doesn’t officially begin until March 20.  Perhaps hoping for a turn for better weather worked because it is now so much warmer it almost feels tropical.

Students came prepared to play at least one song and some even played a second song in the form of a duet.  It was quite interesting to see how many students were prepared to play their pieces from memory.  One of my 5-year-old students brought her books and surprised both her parents and me by going to the piano and playing without them.  Quite a feat for a 5-year-old, I think.

One thing I have noticed with students that perform from memory is that they remember to bow before sitting down.  Students that have their book with them at the piano are so concerned with remembering to take it with them, they forget to bow.  We review performing and bowing at all of our group lessons, so this is something that I think will just come with time.  Overall though, students seem less nervous to perform now than they did at the beginning of the year so the combination of group lessons and multiple recitals seem to be doing their job.

~ Ms. Natashia

Group Lessons…Take Three

It seems that I am very behind in my blogging.  Our third set of group lessons took place two weeks ago.  It has been interesting to see how the students interact in a group setting.  While they were very shy at the first group of lessons, they are now greeting each other by name and are more outgoing.  This has been very positive not only at the group lessons, but also during recitals and music lessons in general.  Piano lessons are no longer a solo undertaking, but a chance for social networking (face-to-face) and interactive learning.

These group lessons started off with history.  Our composer in focus was Chopin.  We again utilized the Classics for Kids website.  The students were able to listen to his bio and a portion of the Military Polonaise followed by a short question and answer period.  I based my questions on the activity sheet provided on the website, but modified them to an appropriate age/piano study level.  We did not complete a bulletin board activity because we needed the extra time to discuss the composition activity…read on to find out more.

Some of the review games placed were Name that Tune, Interval Word Race Game, Music is FUN, and Cover the Keys.  Of course, the games played at each lesson were based on the level of study for those students.

Students then performed their pieces in preparation for the recital we had the first Saturday of March.

For our last activity, I announced the winning cartoon characters.  We went on to discuss motives and how we can repeat and change them slightly so that they sound different but are still recognizable.  Using examples such as Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and other songs that are currently being learned, students were able to understand how the various techniques could be applied to a motive.  Next we brainstormed ideas for each character:

Arabella the Wizard

• travels to different universes: repeating at a different octave, sequences, different keys
• waves a wand: smooth long motion using legato, the magic is performed using shorter, staccato notes
• plays jokes on friends/funny/laughing: down low and repeated like Santa, in mid-range and up and down in a circular pattern like giggling, rapidly repeating on high notes like a witch

Peach the Fairy

• funny/laughing: see Arabella the Wizard
• grows a garden/flowers grow up slowly: repeat the motive using sequences getting higher
• flowers tickle her: use a tickling motion for the note pattern in the motive
• falls asleep: getting slower (diminution/ritardando), getting softer

Slippery Sally:

• slippery: long legato notes or it’s hard to hold on to so you play short staccato notes
• happy-go-lucky/laughing: see Arabella the Wizard

Mrs. Butterfly:

• happy: see Arabella the Wizard
• flying: wings go up and down so your notes go up and down in your motive, length of notes depends on how fast she flaps her wings
• in the clouds: playing high on the piano or gradually getting higher

I made sure that we did the composition activity last so that it would be fresh in the students’ minds when they went home.  Over the next few weeks, I will be following up with students and their ideas as well as encouraging and assisting them to write down their motives.

~ Ms. Natashia