The Music Jungle

Non-identical twin classes

Posted on November 8, 2018 by Kirsten

I shouldn’t be that surprised that the two classes in the same year group with the same sort of mixture of children and lovely, experienced class teachers should be so different. But I am having to think hard about these classes…

Up to now I have just been teaching more-or-less the same lesson to the two classes, which follow each other in the afternoon. However, after about eight weeks the differences are beginning to show, and one class is definitely further along than the other.

I haven’t managed to put my finger on the reason for this difference.

Maybe I’m running out of steam part way through the second class, and teaching with less energy and pace? Or maybe it is because the first class comes in straight from play, and the second class has had an hour of academic-style teaching before their music lesson.

Perhaps it is the time of day? The last lesson of the afternoon is notorious for a dip in energy levels for teachers and children alike.

Or has the first class simply used up all the air in the music room, so that it is too stuffy and too warm for the second class? There’s not much I can do about that, as it is an internal room with no outside walls, and air conditioning doesn’t seem to be happening.

Whatever the reason, I need to re-think the lessons from now on. It is not fair to teach identical songs and pieces to both classes if the different rates of progress are going to become glaringly obvious to everyone, especially to the children. If each class has their own programme, then they can’t make direct comparisons with each other. The important thing is that both classes learn and play and perform with enthusiasm and excellence even though they are on parallel, rather than the same, pathways.

So, as soon as I can, I’ll be surreptitiously introducing different songs and pieces to the classes. Meanwhile, I’ll devise class-specific performances with the material I’ve been using up to now, so that all the children in both classes will get to experience the satisfaction of making good music together.

Post from https://bennewmark.wordpress.com

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Kirsten

I follow this blog (among many others!) and was struck by this post:

https://bennewmark.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/things-that-havent-worked-for-me-and-the-things-that-have/

Ben Newmark is a Humanities teaching in a secondary school, and that will give a certain direction how is has arranged his lists. Maybe some things are different for primary class music, or individual piano tuition, but there are many similarities.

I found it well worth a read through, and a bit of ‘ponder-time’, so I asked if I could share it here.

Posted in Class Teaching, The organised teacher | Tagged teacher development | Leave a comment

Pretend you can’t play it

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Kirsten

How does that work?

And how did I even think of it as a solution to a problem? It’s not what I would usually suggest.

Let me explain…

I was teaching a young lad the other night. He was trying to play ‘Summer Fair’, his ABRSM piano prep test piece with zero success. Everything would go wrong halfway through the first line. Every time.

‘I’ve practised this loads,’ he wailed, close to tears of frustration. ‘I can do this at home.’

(If I could have a penny for every time I have heard that, and even said it in my own lessons, I would be Very Rich)

‘Tell you what. I know you CAN play it, and you know you can play it, but let’s pretend you can’t play it. Only pretend, not for real.’

He was very doubtful.

‘So if you can’t play it (and we are only pretending, yeah?) then if you make mistakes then that’s fine because that’s what happens if you can’t play your piece yet?’

I counted him in, and pointed the way through the score with my pencil, and he played it perfectly. Barely a hesitation, and no rhythmical or note errors. Somehow, removing the pressure, and maybe the personal responsibility for ‘getting it right’, made it possible for him to get through it all.

Weird. I don’t know why I thought of that as a solution, but it worked.

We went through a few tricky patches together, and then he gave it another go, still pretending that he couldn’t play it yet, but with less support from me.

By the end of the lesson, he had proved to his satisfaction (and mine) that he COULD play it, all by himself.

Posted in Lessons that have happened | Tagged confidence building, Piano | Leave a comment

A Step in Time Saves Nine

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Kirsten

I was teaching ‘finger-swaps’ today in a piano lesson; something along these lines…

It was the last lesson of the day, and the young man at the piano had more or less used up all his brain-power for the day. He was getting more and more confused, less and less interested, and things were not progressing in any useful direction.

Looking round for inspiration, I found some weird piece of plastic lying on a shelf. I think it was the red bit from one of these hoppers that gets left behind once the blue bubble part gets broken.

Tobar Rock-n-Hopper Hopping Toy

Anyway, there it was, and I plonked it on the floor, stepped onto it, hopped to change feet, and stepped off, saying something along the lines of ‘finger swaps go like this…’.

He was only too pleased to have an excuse for abandoning the piano to hop on and off a plastic thingy.

After a couple of goes, I suggested he go back and try the exercise.

Result; complete comprehension of the ‘skill’ (that’s the word they use in football training) and he was able to do it with any pair of fingers, with either hand, with no problems and great enthusiasm.

Hours of explanation (I’m prone to exaggeration) and faulty learning and negative experience, all averted by the use of a broken plastic toy and a bit of large scale movement.

I’m sure something along these lines can be used in other instrument teaching as well.

Posted in Lessons that have happened, Piano | Tagged movement activity | Leave a comment

Subdividing the Pulse – Movement

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Kirsten

One of my piano teachers, the one that taught me through to my Teaching Diploma, was fanatical in demanding accuracy in subdividing the pulse. So much so, that when I heard a subway busker playing Bach on her flute, it took all my self-control not to stop and give her some hints about subdividing her crotchets, quavers and semiquavers with more precision. And as for church organists who don’t give the last note of each line of the hymn its full length…

Anyway, here’s how I have started this topic with my year 4 djembe class.

First of all, I had a track with a strong, moderate tempo beat – I used ‘Cyborg Chase’ from this book/CD combo

Music Express Extra - Developing Music Skills

which is tailor-made for this kind of pulse, rhythm and pitch work, (and entirely well worth the money in my view!)

Anyway, whatever you choose, listen to the music, and clap on the first beat four times, then on beats one and three four times, then on beats one, two, three and four, and finally on beats one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and-

The next stage is to show them how to move their arms, like walking, first on beat one, then on one and three, and so on.

All this preparation is well worth the time – as well as reinforcing the learning, it prevents chaos at the next stage, which is Movement!

Now, choose a couple of children (I’m working in a small space so I chose just one) demonstrate moving to the music like this; take a single step on beat one (four times, as before), then a step on each of beat one and three, a step on each of beats one, two three fourth. Before you let them go, make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that when you get to one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and, they MUST run on the spot..’No travelling’ seems to be the magic phrase, which I took from a PE lesson.

If all has gone well, you can let the whole class join in together. Because of my space issues, I chose ten children, and then let the final twenty loose.

I’ll be introducing the notation for semibreves (whole-notes), minims (half-notes), crotchets (quarter-notes) and quavers (eighth-notes) later on.

Posted in Class Teaching, Djembe, Lessons that have happened | Tagged pulse, Pulse game | Leave a comment

Questions, questions, answers, answers

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Kirsten

The ‘asking questions‘ method that I was using for teaching children to learn, and trying to improve their practising at home, seems to be working.

Now, sometimes, in a lesson, I hear the student asking themselves useful questions as we tackle some new tricky moments!

I have one older student, in year 9, who still needs a lot of help to interpret the notation. He is someone who needs to go at a slower pace anyway; quick fire questions and explanations just confuse him and then everything stops while he pulls the threads of his concentration back together.

It is so, so, SO tempting to just tell him; “Fourth finger, this one here, on that B flat there, yes, like that,”, but he’ll never be independent if I always tell him exactly what to do!

So, last lesson, I found myself repeating a litany…

At first it went like this;

“Which clef?”
“Is the note a line or a space?”
“So is that ‘All Cows Eat Grass’ or Good Boys Deserve Football Always?’
“How close is it to Middle C?”
“Which finger needs to go on the note?”

After a while I didn’t need to ask quite so many questions. He would volunteer the answer to the next question before I’d asked it.

Finally, I was able to change to

“What question do you need to ask now?”

repeated as many times as necessary. I tried to be very careful to use an encouraging tone of voice, rather than exasperated, in order to keep the questioning positive and useful to him.

It seemed that having the familiarity of repetition helped him learn a structure and strategy to work out what needed to happen with fingers and notes in order to find his place. The consequence of going through this process was that he experienced a whole series of small successes, as he was able to answer simple questions with one hundred percent accuracy. I’m hoping that his burgeoning note-reading skill becomes enveloped in an aura of success rather than continual correction, and he develops the ability, and confidence in his ability, to be less dependent in the future.

We shall see…

Posted in Lessons that have happened, Piano | Tagged reading notation | Leave a comment

My Small Group Beginner Recorders

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Kirsten

I’ve a couple of small groups of recorder pupils – two or three in each group – young children aged around seven or eight years old. After talking to other woodwind and recorder teachers and looking through various books, including these old favourites;

‘Recorder Magic’ by Jane Sebba and David Moses
‘Recorder from the beginning’ John Pitts

I’ve gone with ‘Red Hot Recorders’ by Sarah Watts, because the one book takes you quite a long way,

Red Hot: Recorder Tutor 1

and supplemented it with ‘Recorder Boppers’ by David Moses (link to website here). STARTERS PLUS Pack

Most of the children had already received one term’s whole class tuition, so we weren’t starting totally from the beginning.

I’ve chosen to intersperse ‘Red Hot Recorders’ with ‘Recorder Boppers’ because I so enjoy the clever writing – short elements that you build into something that sounds pretty amazing with the backing track. It is quite an expensive resource for a teacher to buy, but is then freely photocopiable to give sheets to the children.

‘Red Hot Recorders’ goes along at quite a pace for young beginners, and for children who don’t put in the time at home, so Recorder Bopper pieces are very useful to slow things down a bit, and consolidate what the children (are supposed to) have already learned!

The sheets are greeted with a good deal of pleasure by the children, which means I can use them both to consolidate what they are already supposed to know, and as a reward/incentive/fun concert piece as we go along.

So far the children can all read and play B A G E D. I have introduced slurring a bit earlier than the Sarah Watts book using a Bopper piece, ‘Sweet House Party’, which is their number one favourite after just a couple of weeks. They are all desperate to revisit ‘Lonely Mountain’, which I used in the whole class lessons, but I’m holding out until we have reached ‘C’ with Sarah Watts.

Now all I have to do is find an effective way of encouraging them to do more practise, and more effective practise, at home!

Posted in Recorders, Resources | Tagged reading notation, recorders, wider opportunities | Leave a comment

How to Practice for the beginner pianist

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Kirsten

This week I have been creating practice charts for many of my beginner students. They are tailored to the age and ability of each students, and how (if?) they are progressing.

This example is roughly what I wrote into their notebook for a young beginner; The idea is to get them to move on from just playing everything through once and then getting bored.

Pick at least one thing from each column in every practice!
Warm up	Pieces	Have Fun
Play ‘I like eating chocolate cake’ right hand and left hand	Rufus – all the Left hand until it is comfortable to play	Play a conversation between an elephant and a mouse
Roly Poly right hand and left hand	Rufus – right hand first line until it is comfortable to play	Make a rainstorm
Play some words from notebook	Rufus – right hand second line until it is comfortable to play	Play ‘spooky piano’ (silently hold down a load of bass keys, Play some treble notes loud and staccato, listen) Does it make a difference if you use black or white keys?
Play all the Ds on the piano. Now do that with your eyes shut	Clocks – try first two lines hands separately and then hands together	Play a piece from your old book
Play all the Gs on the piano. Now do that with your eyes shut	Clocks – try first two lines hands separately and then hands together	Have a look at the other pieces in the yellow book. See which one would you like to learn next.
Play 111 222 333 444 555 anywhere on the piano	Play all of clocks hands separately and together	Play the notes in Rufus in backwards order

The idea is to give them a structure for their practice time which provides variety, helps them to be a bit more thorough in their learning, and helps them see some progress.

I have also sent an email to their parents with a detailed worksheet for four practice sessions; I did this for a couple of weeks for a girl I inherited who Never Ever Practised and was ‘still on book 1’ after three years! It was a bit of a pain creating and sending these emails, but after a month she had made so much progress that she continued under her own steam and has (almost) never looked back.

I do find it all a bit of a fiddle, especially the individual emails home, but it is worth the effort for the sake of the rewards for both pupil and me later on!

Posted in Learning, Piano, Practising | Tagged practising | Leave a comment