Second Year Piano Sight Reading Instruction

A sight reading program should be designed for students based on a level of reading that is slightly below the current repertoire level.  Second year students shouldn't be assigned music at the second grade level because these pieces are too difficult for that purpose; they aren't meant for casual study.

Most piano courses are designed around a progressive reading program, but often the rate of progression accelerates too fast for good reading. So, it helps to add books or assignments on sight reading that give supplementary easier works to read.  Additionally, sight-reading flash cards are great in individual lessons.

As the card is held, the student should quickly acknowledge the cleff signs, key signature, time signature, and ascertain the correct position on the keyboard for both hands.  The note values can be tapped before beginning to play to get the correct rhythm.  Any changes in the hand position that might happen should be noticed.  While playing the student can recite the counts out loud and look far enough ahead to keep going in tempo.  He needs to play straight through without stopping.

For more information about piano lessons in Basking Ridge, please contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Chromatic Scales

Playing the chromatic scale facilitates the use of a contracted hand position and therefore is useful in developing broad technical ability. Additionally it helps in learning to read sharps and flats. By reading the chromatic scale and practicing it ahead of time, students will be helped when they come across songs in the first year literature containing little chromatic passages.

Chromatic exercises can be created by the piano teacher starting with just a few notes. Each time it is repeated, a higher note is added. In this way the student learns to play up and down with equal ability.

A helpful book in learning chromatic scales is A Dozen A Day, Preparatory Book and Book One.

For more information about piano lessons, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio in Basking Ridge, NJ.

Beginning Piano Technique

Technique is the method or details of procedure essential to expertness of execution in any art.

Within the first year of piano lessons, the pianist should begin to learn matters of the singing touch of legato, the hammering snap of stacatto, two-note slur phrasing with a graceful, swan neck-like wrist, and finger coordination with combined mastery of black and white notes, whether in arpeggios, close finger dexterity, rolls, or accurate two-octave notes.

These are essential concepts for first year piano classes:

Posture and hand posture
Arm drops, large muscle motion
Legato touch
Staccato touch
Balance of melody and accompaniment
Down-up wrist motion for phrasing
Turning the thumb under or crossing over the thumb
Chromatic scale
Double notes

Posture and Hand Position

The student must sit toward the front of the bench (not all the way back nor in the middle) and lean (not slouch) slightly forward over the keys. The feet are planted squarely on the floor, not crossed nor tucked under the bench. The back, legs and feet support the body, never leaning on one hand or the other on the bench. The hands, wrists, and forearms should be held in a straight line; the fingers should be well-curved.

In the beginning, triads and five-finger positions are helpful for shaping the fingers and developing the correct hand position. Playing triads requires curved fingers. Additionally, the hand easily forms the correct position with the bridge of the hand held up with the knuckles protruding. In the beginning the student will need to concentrate on the arched position of the hand and will have to work at maintaining firm, curved fingers.

The tendency is to cave in at the first joint on the second, fourth and fifth fingers. The little finger is particularly weak, and in addition to caving in, it often plays on the side, falling over.

The beginner will not perfect these basics within the first year, maybe not even in the second year. But over a period of time matters of posture, hand position, curved fingers, and so forth can be repeatedly corrected by the teacher (and observant parent) until these become natural.

For more information about the area of Basking Ridge piano instruction, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

First Year Piano Lessons - Learning Notes

When teaching the names of lines and spaces, it is helpful for the student to see how notes relate to each other on the entire staff, not just part of it. Note names can be learned by relating all the lines or all the spaces on the staff. The student learns one landmark for each clef and relates the other notes from this point.

For example, G is on the bottom line of the bass clef. A skip up from G on the next line is B (skipping A in the space). Each line note is named by going up a skip. The student will be able to name any line note on the staff by thinking skips up from these notes. Jingles such as "Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always" are not lasting tools. They do not teach students to think and reason. If the jingles are forgotten, so are the notes along with them.

For thorough drill, direct the student to write the line notes four times a day. After the student has worked with line notes for a week or two, he may be given the space notes to write. Teach the space notes in the same way as the line notes.

A lot of drill must be done in the first year of lessons on learning the notes. Aids to learning individual note names include:

• Flash cards
• Singing note names
• Writing note names
• Numbering the lines and spaces of both clefs

The student should name the note on the flash card and play it in the correct location on the keyboard. For first year students a few minutes of each lesson should be devoted to flash card drill. Singing note names establishes good sight reading. The student should name each note aloud thinking directionally up or down, skip or step. Most theory books contain note drills. Note spellers provide additional work on individual note recognition.

For more information about NJ piano lessons, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Musical Orientation

Singing. Just because a child is a non-singer (monotone), does not necessarily imply that he is not suited to piano study. Sometimes these children correlate eye, ear and hand better than singers do.

The song approach, though, does make the ear the guiding force. Singing helps develop expressive playing. The song approach provides a connecting link between music associated with text and absolute music. Singing naturally introduces the study of music form and interpretation. Singing is a much truer and more musical rhythmic guide in early piano instruction than is the practice of counting aloud. It reduces mistakes at the piano and allows for self-correction. Further, the song approach easily leads to ready playing in all keys. Singing is the best background for the development of fluent sight reading. The song approach has the strongest, simplest and most interesting appeal for home practice.

Rhythm. The piano teacher can play or sing something in simple duple time, having the student clap keeping time, gradually accenting more strongly, making crescendos, diminuendos, accelerandos, and ritardandos. Then change to triple time and try the same game.

Pitch. If children have been singing with so-fa syllables, you can test pitch discrimination simply. Play or sing various intervals, having the student name them by syllable. If they have had little or no music experience, give them an idea of "high" and "low"; then, playing or singing, start with the extremes, high and low, and gradually bring the intervals nearer and nearer together. The readiness with which a student distinguishes between the higher and lower tones indicates his power of pitch discrimination.

For more information about piano lessons NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Parental Support of Creative Practice

Home assignments usually take for granted some kind of parental supervision. Many parents oversee the practice of their children, and have assumed the responsibility for timing the practice periods and seeing that the student is kept consistently at a routine. While this method sometimes is effective, not infrequently it degenerates into a system of policing that is irksome to both the parents and student. Few things are more dispiriting to a student's progress and enjoyment of music than the constant nagging of parents to make him practice his home assignments. Besides, parents eventually tire of supervision, and there are few, naturally, who have the patience, tact and influence over the student to carry him along year by year until he has reached the point where his own interest prompts him to keep up with sufficient practice. Additionally, the quality of enforced practice, with a ticking clock as a constant reminder, is seldom going to bring the best results.

Parental Cooperation

One of the first essentials to the success of creative practice is to make the plan clear to parents. So much stress has been laid for years on the necessity of parental supervision of home practice that parents expect to be called upon to assume this responsibility. It is often difficult for them to keep away from the child and leave him to his own devices at the piano. Parents should be urged to leave the child alone with respect to home practice. The following forms of cooperation are ones the parent should give, and are vital to the success of creative practice.

Best Place for the Piano

The piano should be available to the student whenever he feels like playing it. This is not always easy - sometimes the piano is in the living room where the student's playing disturbs others; sometimes visitors interfere with the student's freedom of action; sometimes in winter it is hard to keep the room well heated at hours that suit the child's convenience; sometimes a tired father or mother is disturbed by the student's playing. Conscientious parents can work out the most satisfactory solution possible under the circumstances.

The piano should be placed where there is enough light to read music and learn the keyboard both during daytime and evening. If at all possible, a separate music room, free from family gatherings, visitors, cell phones, television, and other interruptions, and where the student can go at any odd leisure times, is an ideal condition.

Let the Child Correct His Own Mistakes

Parents often find it extremely difficult to refrain from giving help and suggestions when the child makes mistakes. They might hear or see the child doing something contrary to their own experience as piano students, and are naturally anxious to offer assistance. But such help is exactly what the student should not have. He needs to develop his own interest and initiative, learn to detect his own errors and find his own ways of correcting them. He will find his stimulation in piano lessons. A student should be so engrossed with the music he is working out that the urge to practice comes from within. The spirit of emulation (see earlier blog post) will help motivate him to perfect his practice.

Other Home Music Projects

There are many music projects that interested parents can start, that serve not only to stimulate the student's pleasure in music study, but also to make the home a center of interest that will carry over into his whole life. Reading matter on musical subjects of interest to children should be abundant. The child's room can be decorated with pictures of musicians or musical subjects, chosen by the student and arranged as planned by him. A music cabinet can be available, where he can be encouraged to organize his music. Attendance at concerts and recitals should be planned, with advance preparation by reading about the repertoire or hearing the music on iTunes. The use of all of these will contribute to the growth of the student's musical culture and his musical life. They will vitalize piano study by associating it with the broader world of music.

For more information about piano lessons NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.