Using Sight Reading Pattern Cards and Updates

I think I've posted before about how much I enjoy using the Sight Reading Pattern Cards at Jennifer Fink's Pianimation site. (They're free!) I use them with every beginner starting at about the 4th lesson while they're still in pre-reading notation as an introduction to how notes move on the staff, and I continue to use them throughout the first and second year. I pulled them out for a 2nd year student yesterday. She came up with a great variation for using them all by herself, and I thought you would all enjoy seeing it!

She wanted to make a composition with them. So, I let her choose 2 at random (pick a card, any card), and then she assigned a rhythm to the notes. We considered  rhythms in 3/4 and 4/4, and she chose this one. My cards are laminated, so we can write on them with dry erase markers. As a follow-up step, we could notate this on a full staff. 

Here she is, with her 2-measure composition. 

On other fronts, I thought I'd update you on how our covid policies are working out. So far, everything is going well. I did resort to online lessons for a couple of days while one of my family members had a cold and waited for the results of a test. Thankfully, it was negative. One of my students had the same situation, and returned to in-person lessons after her negative test. I'm lucky to have a great group of families, and we all benefit from the mutual trust that everyone will do the right thing.

I tried out this barrier tape on my piano as a way to cover the finish so that I could wipe it with a clorox wipe. Meh. It did work, but it looks messy because you can't pull out one long strip. It's perforated, and too flimsy to cut the width to the right size. While it didn't hurt the finish doing it one time, I felt that prolonged use might. So, I'm sticking with my original plans as described in this post. 

The masks I sewed for students turned out really cute! You can find the link to the pattern in this post. Several of my students wear them to every lesson. This is the child size on one of my first graders. It's slightly big, but she'll grow!!

I hope you are all faring well during this crazy corona year. My tech skills have improved exponentially, so I guess if I look hard enough, I can find a silver lining! 

Embracing Technology in Piano Study

Apple iPad Mini Piano by iadwords

Technology has been slow in coming to the traditional piano studio. Most teachers over 40, like myself, didn't use anything more techy than a digital metronome and a cassette tape recorder in our own study. However, if we want to stay relevant in the decades to come, that means embracing technology such as apps, digital recording and composing tools, and digital collaboration via social media or other means. This is not just true for those who want to teach popular styles. Respected music schools and conservatories around the world are increasingly using technology in their courses, and young, tech-savvy music majors will soon transform the landscape. I want to continue to be a tree in that landscape for at least a couple more decades, so I'm working to evolve my teaching practices one baby step at a time!

A few years ago, I resisted technology in piano teaching because my impression was that the technology had become the primary goal rather than learning. While this is still sometimes true, better educational applications and practices have come along to improve on that situation.

I think, as piano teachers, we must consider two truths:

1. Students feel limited within traditional piano study when they know from their other learning experiences that so much more is possible with the judicious use of technology. Piano teachers who have not been inside a grade school classroom since they graduated from one may not realize that technology has created a new standard of service that is expected in 2016.

2. Students are going to access the internet, social media, and other forms of technology for piano study whether we are involved or not. We lose the opportunity to guide that discovery when we reject technological tools.

Even classically-oriented piano students live in the 21st century. They expect to use resources online and to have collaborative experiences that are facilitated by social media, even while also benefiting from the expertise of a highly-respected private teacher. Read this article to see how classically-rooted pedagogy is incorporating technology at schools and conservatories around the country: Conservatory Tech Makes Sweet Music. I still hear traditional piano teachers reject the idea of having students watch YouTube videos because there are so many poor ones out there. That's laughable when it also offers pages like this one from New England Conservatory. Instead of dismissing it, we need to give students a road map to navigate it, as we need to do for all of the online resources available for pianists. There are some really good examples of online instruction out there and some really, really bad ones. Our students are going to visit those sites with or without us.

Beware The Technology Generation Gap

While I assert that we should embrace technology, I'll also assert that we need to use it judiciously. One of the things I learned as a long-term sub in a middle school English classroom is that using technology for learning is no longer novel and exciting for the kids, but is as normal as a dictionary was for me at that age. While we piano teachers are dipping our toes cautiously into YouTube, my 7th and 8th grade students are using 3D printers and making "smart" clothing in their computer class. So, when a piano teacher uses a digital tool as a sort of bait to make learning more "fun," students are going to roll their eyes. They are highly perceptive (and frustrated) when teachers use tech tools merely for technology's sake. In fact, that may be the new definition of "generation gap." I asked my 13-year-old daughter what she saw as the pros and cons of using technology in her classes. Her number one con: "Sometimes, teachers will get too attached to it and rely on it way more than they should. It can become an extra that is just more busy work." Adam Schoenbart writes about potential pitfalls of tech tools in the classroom in his online article 5 Mistakes I Made With Educational Technology, and my daughter's frustration is one of his points. However, he also asserts that technology is the new normal. The lesson is always to consider the learning outcome you hope to create by using that particular technology.

Embrace The Opportunity For Student Discovery
 
If some obscure subject like circumzenithal arcs piques my daughter's interest, she can look it up online and, in the space of a few days, practically become an expert on the subject. She has the opportunity to communicate via email or within online forums with bona fide experts, perhaps college professors or working scientists. If I wanted to do the same at her age, my parents had to drive me to the library. It isn't at all likely that I could have had a conversation with the author of the book I read. My school teacher and my textbook were my narrow world, but kids today don't have to depend on anyone else to explore their interests. As the internet becomes a more prominent feature of human life, teachers and schools naturally lose the role of being the gatekeepers of knowledge. While I have resisted the death of the "sage on the stage" model of teaching (expertise still matters), the truth is that no single teacher can compete with the internet. We must be the navigators in a vast, wild sea. We need to see the internet as an advantage in piano instruction, not a threat, and find ways to encourage students to use technological tools to discover things that go far beyond what we teachers know ourselves.

Embrace The Opportunity For Collaboration

My daughter told me that one of the best benefits of using technology at school was that it "allows you to connect to what other teachers and students are doing." As my very old-fashioned dad frequently reminds me (he still uses a typewriter), "two heads are always better than one." Collaboration is good. If you read blogs and watch webinars on the internet to improve your own teaching, you are using technology to learn from many teachers. We need to facilitate the same kind of learning opportunities for our students rather than corralling them into one stable with one trainer. Again, I have to throw out the caveat that while I think collaboration is good, I also believe that expertise is important. Collaboration with peers is not a substitute from learning from experts.

So, as a 51-year-old, classically-trained teacher, what should I do? I can start by considering how technology might enhance my student's learning experience. We should always start with the desired learning outcome, not the technology itself. But, the technology available right now is absolutely mind-blowing, and failing to embrace it is like a doctor failing to consider the newest medical technology. There are more fantastic apps and programs out there than I can stay current on. When I can't figure out how to use them, I can enlist my students or students' parents for help.

Second, I can look for opportunities to allow students to collaborate in any way possible using technology. This might involve using MuseScore to share student compositions, or allow them to work collaboratively on compositions. It might mean creating a mini masterclass using Instagram. They want this community. (Update from 2019:  I have a high school student who wrote a vocal arrangement for a girls' trio on musescore. She emailed me the link, I helped her edit it over a school break. We were 200 miles apart!)

Third, I can use technology as a means to bring in experts besides myself to broaden the knowledge base my students have access to. This might include creating a webquest for students to complete at home, a quizlet for learning musical terms, collaborating with another studio, or watching really fine teachers teach students online.

Explore what music schools around the country are doing in their degree programs. Make friends with your local school music teachers. They've been using technology for a long time. Follow some mus. ed. blogs and resist the urge to click away out of intimidation/fear when the article gets techy. Ask questions. And keep reading here because I'll be elaborating on those ideas above!

Improvisation Inspiration - See How Lame I Am!

While looking for something else today, I discovered a fantastic set of videos by Dr. Peter Schubert of McGill University. Using an exercise first conceived of by Mozart to help a piano student who played well but "had no ideas" for creating her own music, Dr. Schubert coaches a student through the creation of his own piece. Supposedly, Mozart presented the student with an opening phrase and said, "See what an ass I am! I've started this piece, but I can't think of anything to come next! Can you add something to this to finish it?" While you might want to change the name of the exercise to something more kid-appropriate, it should be something funny! Off the top of my head, I can imagine calling it "See how lame I am!" Maybe you can think of something better. Incidentally, the existence of the story is evidence that even amateur students were expected to compose and improvise in those days.

In no particular order, here are some factors that I think make Dr. Schubert's exercise successful:

1. No wrong answers. Dr. Schubert makes a big point of this in one of the videos.
2. It's playful. They're laughing and having fun.
3. They're singing rather than laboriously picking out the notes on the piano. That can come later. Singing is instant.
4. Dr. Schubert is liberal with compliments and encouragement.
5. Rather than trying to manage full chords as accompaniment, they use only one note. This student is clearly already thinking of the harmony and playing a chord root, but with a younger piano student, the accompaniment could be delayed until the melody was worked out.
6. They work on one short phrase at a time.

What other aspects do you see that make this work so well? How could you adapt it to piano students at a variety of levels?

Ten Steps To Hosting Your Own Piano Festival

Whether you call it a Piano Festival, Achievement Day, or something else, an evaluation event is a great way to motivate your students. There are lots of reasons why you might want to host one just for your studio. Maybe you live in a rural area without a local music teachers association. Or maybe the events in your area are not appropriate for your students, and you'd like an evaluation that suits your needs better. Maybe the date of your local MTA's event conflicts with another thing that your students are involved in. Whatever your reasons, hosting your own Piano Festival is a great way to encourage your students to work up their pieces and skills to mastery, to give them an achievement to feel proud of, and to get valuable feedback about your own teaching. And, it's easier to pull off than you might think!

Most of my students participate in our local MTA's annual Piano Festival at a local college. This involves playing two memorized pieces, a scale test, and a sight reading test before a visiting judge and taking a written theory exam. Students receive comments and a rating in each category:  Superior, Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor. While I've never actually seen a judge award a rating of Fair or Poor, the kids don't know that, and they work hard, hoping for a Superior. My students know that I consider Festival a mandatory event. But, this year, 4 of them had unavoidable conflicts. I did not let them off the hook. I just held THEIR Festival at my house, visiting judge and all! I'm fortunate to have several colleagues who are qualified to judge, and one of them was available. It all went well, and if I ever find myself living in a rural area again, I'll do this for my entire studio. If you'd like to host your own Festival, here are ten steps to organize an evaluation event. Of course, tweak these ideas to meet the needs of your own studio.

1.  Set a date well in advance, and get an an early verbal commitment from your students.

Check the school calendars. You'll want to avoid a long holiday weekend, or the All-State Chorus Festival, or whatever big event might be going on. Set your date far enough in advance to allow plenty of preparation. It's not too early to start thinking now about doing this in the spring of 2016. Set your date over the summer, and start talking it up at the beginning of the school year. Ideally, your students will be perfecting their performance literature, scales, sight reading, and theory skills all year long in preparation for the year-end Festival.

2.  Engage a judge.

Use a well-qualified judge. One of the benefits of having your students participate in this type of evaluation is the feedback you receive about your own teaching, so choose someone who can give expert feedback. If you're not as lucky as I am to have local friends to call on, start with the closest college. Even if the piano faculty there isn't able to judge for you, they are likely to have recommendations for someone else. Our MTA often uses doctoral students. Your state MTA may also have a list of judges who are willing to drive an hour or two to events. It's not too early to engage a judge in October for a spring event. There will be lots of events which need judges in the spring, and if you wait, you may have a harder time finding someone.

You'll need to decide how much to offer to pay your judge for time and travel. I'd offer a fee based on the approximate number of hours you'll need them for, and offer to pay at least as much as you'd expect for the same amount of teaching time. You'll be asking your students to pay registration fees to cover the expense.

3.  Decide what events your festival will include.

My students did sight reading, scales/cadences, and took theory tests in addition to playing two memorized pieces. You might also consider ear-training, arpeggios, etc., but keep your program small enough to be manageable. For each skill challenge, you'll need to create tests at various levels as needed for your students. (Keep reading for more on preparing these tests.)

4.  Set a registration fee for students. 

Find out what it costs to sign up for sports tournaments in your area. For instance, the fee for my daughter to participate in a local tennis tournament is usually at least $35. Fees for Piano Guild exams start at $26 and go up. Don't charge less than what the experience is worth!

5.  Consider T-shirts.

Our students love buying Festival T shirts. We sell them as a fund-raiser, but if you did this for your studio, you might just charge for the cost. When your students wear them, you get free advertising for your studio.

6. Sign up your students.

Make an information form that includes age and performance level of student, how long the student has studied, and what level of sight reading, scales, or other challenge the student will be doing. Keep it handy as a reference as you are preparing for Festival, and then include this in the students' folders that you'll be giving to the judge. Set a deadline about 6 weeks before the event and have them turn in their money. I recommend making the registration fee non-refundable. This guarantees that you can pay the judge even if the student bails on you at the last minute, and it keeps students from waffling around about their commitment to the event. Ideally, you will have already talked it up and received a verbal commitment long before this time. Ideally, they will have been planning to play at festival for the entire year, and working on their theory, sight reading, and scale skills all along.

7. Make adjudication forms and student folders.

You need adjudication forms for the performance evaluation, and one for each of the skills challenges except theory. Decide on your criteria for each event (other than a theory exam) and on the adjudication forms, include a rubric which will give the judge guidelines for rating the student. You'll need a photocopy of each form for each student. Make a file folder for each student, and put the forms for each of the events in which the student will participate inside of the folder along with the student's registration form. Here are links to some adjudication forms online that might give you some ideas.
Solo Performance 1       Solo Performance 2 (scroll down for rubric)   Solo Performance 3 

Criteria for judging scales might include steady tempo, even tone, correct fingering, and note accuracy.  On that form, you'll need a place for the judge to write which scale is being heard, and then a rubric for each scale played. For sight reading, good criteria might include rhythmic accuracy, note accuracy, observance of dynamics, and observance of articulation and phrasing.

8.  Create your skills challenges.

Sight Reading:  Choose a sight-reading selection for each of a variety of levels. Have these pieces bookmarked for the judge with sticky notes on the front of the book indicating which level it is. When the student enters the judging room, the judge will check their sight reading level, and pull the appropriate selection for that student.

Scales/cadences: For my 4 students, I provided the judge with a list of all the scales/cadences that each student was prepared to play and said "choose any 4." Another option is to create a list of required scales corresponding to levels as with sight reading. The judges guidelines can include instructions for how many scales the judge should ask for at each level.

Theory tests:  decide what you want students to know at each level, and then you can make tests yourself with a notation program or hand write them on manuscript paper. I made the ones for our MTA Festival, so I just printed those off my computer. (Sorry, I'm not at liberty to share them.) There are excellent sample tests that you can print off at some of the state MTA websites such as Texas (has an early level 1 test which includes naming keys on the piano and fingers on a hand) and Georgia (earliest level test is a bit harder than the one from Texas). You could use these sample tests as your festival test if the student has never seen them before.

9.  Certificates / Awards

Prepare your awards. Our big Festival (and my small one) is a non-competitive event. Students compete only against a standard of excellence, not each other. I gave a certificate for each skill challenge, reflecting the rating the student received. At our MTA's Festival, we award a gold seal on the certificate for a superior rating and a silver seal for excellent, so I did the same. Other good ideas include medals and ribbons. But, do give the students something to celebrate their achievements!

10.  Create a schedule and send it out to the students.

With your student registrations turned in, you're ready to create a schedule. Allow each student enough time in the judging room (your studio) to play their scales, their sight-reading, and their pieces.  This will depend on the student's level and length of their music. You also need to allow a few minutes for the judge to write comments. For an elementary student doing performance, scales, and sight reading, I'd allow no less than 10 min. (At my home festival, once the student had played for the judge, he/she took the theory test at my dining room table.) Instruct the students to arrive about 10 minutes before their scheduled time so there's no lag time for the judge - students are always ready to go. Remind them to be sure to bring their music so that the judge can follow the score while they play from memory.

NOW, you're ready!
My students arrive and check in, play for the judge in my piano room, take their theory test at my dining room table, and then leave. I collect the test and the adjudication forms from the judge, and later that day, I make out all of the appropriate certificates. The student gets their results at the next lesson and we celebrate their accomplishments.

If you don't have a local festival to participate in, I hope you'll take a stab at hosting your own. It's such a great motivator, gives your students a sense of achievement, and helps you to be a better teacher as well!