Pre-College Piano Development

One of the most valuable pre-college experiences is the senior high school recital which can serve as preparation for both the college entrance audition and the ultimate graduation recital. A typical program might include one or two of the easier preludes and fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a Haydn or Mozart sonata, a group of nineteenth-century works of the level of the Chopin waltzes and nocturnes or Schumann's Fantasy Pieces opus 12, and possibly closing with an impressionistic or twentieth-century group of the difficulty of Debussy's Pour le Piano, Copland's Cat and the Mouse, or Bartok's Allegro Barbaro. Even at this level, though, an effort should be made on the teacher's part to expose the student to as wide a range of musical periods and styles as possible.

A common error in the pre-college training is the assigning of pieces that are overly difficult both technically and musically. The experienced teacher will develop the student's playing gradually so that proper attention may be given to all areas of musicianship.

The prospective piano major should not only have acquired a degree of competency in performance, but should also be well-grounded in technique (scales, chords, arpeggios, etc.), have a thorough knowledge of theory, and have some knowledge of the literature. Supplied with an adequate pre-college background, the student will be well prepared to meet the demands of the college music department as a piano major.

At California State University at Los Angeles, for example, the Bachelor of Music degree is a rigorous curriculum for students who wish to prepare for a professional career in music or for those who wish to reach a professional caliber of music attainment. Within the Bachelor of Music degree program, students may pursue specialized study in vocal, instrumental, or keyboard performance; composition; jazz studies; and music education.

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When is a Child Ready for Piano Lessons

Not every young child will be ready to begin piano instruction. The maturity level of young children varies greatly. Girls generally are better coordinated and exhibit better dexterity than boys at an early age. Before rushing headlong into piano lessons, parents should ask themselves questions concerning their child's readiness level:

1. Does he show an interest in learning to play the piano? Perhaps he tries to pick out melodies on the piano, or perhaps he sings well. He may also just enjoy listening to music.

2. Is his attention span long enough to practice at least fifteen minutes at a time?

3. Does he have fairly good coordination of his small muscles? If a parent has taught him to draw letters, numbers, or to write his name, is he able to handle a pencil fairly well? A parent who has taught a child any of these things probably will be willing to help him practice.

4. Does he take instruction well from the person who will be helping him at home? This could be a parent or an older sister or brother.

5. Does the child receive a great deal of satisfaction from learning new things? Is he eager to learn?

If a significant number of these prerequisites are missing, it is recommended that piano lessons be started later when conditions are more conducive for learning. The readiness age will vary with each individual child.

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Teaching Plans and Outlines

Here are some suggested first steps for beginner piano students:

1. Playing by imitation
2. Melodic analysis of song for form (AABA, for example)
3. Five finger hand positions of right and left hands
4. Tonic and dominant-seventh chords
5. Rhythm exercises
6. Sight reading
7. Transposition
8. Theory
9. Technique
10. Home Practice
11. Creative work
12. Block and broken chords
    
13. Analysis, melodic and harmonic
14. Playing the song and observation of cadences
15. Melodies for the left hand
16. Technical development through varieties of fingering
17. Increasing finger independence
18. Piano pieces without words

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Adding Chords to a Melody

Adding chords to a given melody is a great type of creative work to learn keyboard among beginner piano students. In supplying an accompaniment to a given melody, the student first studies the melody thoroughly until it can be played fluently, and until the child can think the tones away from the keyboard. Then he experiments at the piano with the I and V7 chords until an acceptable accompaniment is evolved. Each child decides for himself the way he thinks the chords may best be used. Then, the student plays his arrangements to the piano teacher and comes to an agreement as to the most effective accompaniment. That may be transcribed to his composition book.

Another creative project might be to have the student complete an unfinished composition. This gives him the opportunity to make up some music. Give the student the first half of a little song, and have him finish it. First have him complete the melody. The part which is given is like a musical question, and the student completes the answer. Then he must complete the accompaniment with chords which sound well with his part of the melody. When it is all done, it will be fun to sing and play some pieces which he has helped to compose.

His attention should be called to the balance and proportion of the two phrases. He should observe the feeling of "question" in the first phrase and of "answer" in the second. Children enjoy the game of musical "question and answer" in which the child or teacher invents the question and the other invents the answer.

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Piano Student Performance Review

Review pieces should be used to build a repertoire. Each student should master five or six pieces that can be played with confidence and polish, preferably memorized. This repertoire may change frequently, with newer pieces replacing older ones. Such pieces could be played at home when company comes or relatives visit. When it's time for a recital performance, the piano teacher and the student can choose the best from among present or former repertoire pieces.

According to Julie Gunvalson who teaches piano lessons Agoura Hills CA, there must always be a purpose for review. Tell the student what needs to be improved. Accuracy of rhythm, notes, fingering, dynamics, phrasing, and pedaling are elements that often need extra work, especially when preparing for piano performance.

A typical student will work one, two or somethings three weeks before finishing a piece of music. During that time, most practice effort is devoted to the basics -- correct notes, rhythm, fingering, dynamics, etc. Although you give an award seal or star when a piece is completed, there are often things that the student could have done better. Review is an opportunity to improve and work on the fine points of performance.

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Chopin and the Keyboard

Chopin advocated the unrestricted use of the thumb on the black keys, and often used it to strike two adjacent keys simultaneously, much to the dismay of the conservative pedagogues of the day; he would sometimes pass the longest fingers over the shorter ones without the intervention of the thumb if that would secure a better legato; he recommended a flat finger for a singing touch; he employed the organist's favorite device of finger substitution to sustain melodies; he favored a low piano stool, finding it more comfortable than the high one adopted by the hard-hitting virtuosos who liked to descend on everything from a great height. Above all, there was his "flutter pedalling," that continuous vibrating of the sustaining pedal, which cast a warm glow over everything he played, yet gave it at the same time its unusual clarity. He reacted strongly against the so-called "finger-equalization" schools of Czerny, Kalkbrenner and others, maintaining that each finger has individual characteristics, which are there to be enhanced, not equalized away. "The third finger," he would tell his pupils, "is a great singer," and he would then go on to unfold entire phrases with this finger taking the major share of the work.

From the Music Teacher by Alan Walker.

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Piano Teaching Tips

1. Singing the Song. Young piano students should try singing the song before trying to play it on the piano. The piano should consistently be a medium of expression. The student first knows the tones that he wants to play, and then makes the piano express what is in his imagination.
2. Playing by Imitation. The piano teacher should play a phrase on a keyboard so that the student can observe every detail, and then they imitate what they see the teacher do. The early stages of every form of endeavor begins with the process of imitation. Students, however, are expected to begin the graduation development of independence in their work with recurring ideas and technique. The teacher should gradually withdraw assistance reserving the imitative processes for unfamiliar ideas only.
3. Sight Reading. A firm foundation for sight reading can be laid in the first year of piano playing -- not through laborious note-by-note reading, but by teaching the student to learn to think and feel tones and notes in groups, melodic and chordal. Note-to-note playing seldom develops into skillful sight reading. The student can learn to sight read from recall of phrases or parts of phrases of familiar songs.
4. Form. All music, and all other forms of art, is based on principles of form. The two essential principles are repetition and contrast. A song, for example, might consist of four phrases, each phrase on a separate line. Three of the phrases are alike (repetition) and one is different (contrast). The letter A is used to designate the first phrase and all similar phrases in the piece. The letter B designates the contrasting phrase. A study of the form of a song will have immediate application in the process of learning the song, because the student will perceive that when he can play the first phrase, he is also able without further study to play the next. The rhythm of one phrase covers the rhythmic problems of the complete song, at the simplest level. a) The teacher shows the student how to play the first appearance only of a phrase which is repeated. b) The student must be led to realize that the repetition of a phrase should be played with the same fingering as its first appearance. c) The phrase divisions of the song must be carefully indicated by raising the hands at the point of the song where the singer would breathe. Sometimes this motion of the hands can be slightly exaggerated until the principle of phrasing becomes firmly established.
5. Technical Development. Insistent development to position of body, arm and hand should be emphasized from the beginning. The relative height of the keyboard and bench should be correct for the student. The distance of body from keyboard is also important. Constant attention should be given to the position and action of the arm, hand and fingers. There should be no rigidity, only ease and relaxation. Some five-finger and chord studies are designed as technic drills.
6. Major Scales. The practice of all the major scales should be continuous. Pieces can be transposed as a helpful practice to play the scale of the key into which the composition has been transposed. Scale work eventually should include the major scale, natural minor scale, harmonic minor scale, and melodic minor scale.
7. Further Technical Development. Development of freedom in the feeling of relationship between the student and keyboard and ease of attack and release, through constant changing of the location of the hands up and down the keyboard should be promoted. The development of accuracy, smoothness and singing tone by keeping each hand in position directly above the five keys of the phrase or group of tones to be played is encouraged. Over time, a gradual extension of range over the keyboard can be encouraged, but the student should not be advanced so rapidly that he loses the feeling of the presence of the keys directly beneath his fingers. This feeling may be maintained through relaxation, from the shoulders, of the arm and wrist. Varieties of fingerings introduced should include replacement, expansion, contraction, substitution, broken chords, perhaps organ point, finger crossings, and hand crossings.
8. Pedaling. Too early use of the pedal can likely lead to many bad playing habits. The student should be trained to listen to his own playing, and to secure a smooth legato and musical phrasing without the pedal. Gradually introduced, the pedal will enable the student to sustain a chord while adding other tones too distant to be played at the same time. A richer closing effect is then established. Practice may be given to developing a graceful sweet of the hand from the first position to the other distant key. An effort should be made to play the effects without looking at the keys, thereby developing the important feeling for the keyboard so essential to pianistic freedom. This development of playing with less visual attention to the keyboard should be gradual.
9. Creative Work. The student should be encourage in original thinking by experimenting at the piano until he achieves a desired sound, and then to write the notes accordingly. The student can learn a melody until he can think about the tones when he is away from the keyboard. Then he experiments at the piano with the I and V7 chords until an acceptable accompaniment has evolved. The student decides for himself how the chords should be used. Then, in class, the student plays his arrangement for the teacher, and they come to an agreement as to the most effective accompaniment.
10. Call and Response. The teacher can sing or play the first phrase of a two-phrase song, and have the student reply by singing or playing the second phrase. His attention should be called to the balance and proportion of the two phrases. He should observe the feeling of "question" in the first phrase and of "answer" in the second. He could himself invent a question and answer.

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