Piano with Vanessa
Beginning Notes from your Piano Teacher
Monday, April 20, 2015 by Vanessa Miller | General
First, let me thank all of you warm wonderful parents and students for beginnging this endeavor with me. I appreciate all your flexibility and compassion during this time, figuring out exactly how I want to teach, what I want to teach, and what to do with my own kids while I'm doing it! I do think all this experimentation is serving your kids ultimately. I am getting to meet each one where they are, see how they learn best, and do things differently for each individual. I am really honored to be doing this work, thank you for your trust and for your lovely lovely kiddos.
I want to let you know what I am starting to focus on in the lessons. I do think it's imperative that we learn to read music, so we are still focusing on the Piano Pronto book. But, I want to spend at least half of the lesson focusing on improvising/composing and playing by ear. I think improvising is just as important of a skill as reading music. In all my years with my beloved neighborhood teacher, she never taught me to improvise, and it was always so embarrassing when someone would ask me to just play something after they found out I took lessons, or even to tap out a simple Happy Birthday during a party and I couldn't. ("Um, do you have some music I could read?...") I don't want my kids in that boat, so I'm starting them right away. Improvising is fun, makes you feel great, and gives you great access to future playing in all sorts of settings. I use different improvisational activities in the lessons. Sometimes, I will play a bass line while they improvise on top. Other times, we might just totally make something up together. It teaches great listening skills and really gets them to open up and be free at the piano. When they make something up, I can then point out some theory behind what they are doing and they have a further learning experience. ("Do you know what key you were playing in? What chords those were?")
As part of their practicing homework, I will often be asking them to explore at the piano and bring back something that they composed. Could be an interesting set of 5 notes, or maybe a whole minute or whole song. The point is to get them experimenting at the piano and seeing what sounds good to them, without rules or guidelines. Or, maybe I will ask them to figure out their favorite Katy Perry song by ear. It's fun! And educational!
Speaking of pop music, I really want all my kids to play the music they love. I do think the Piano Pronto songs are tuneful (especially when the teacher duet is added), but playing what they really relate to and already love is so motivating and easy to spend lots of time at the piano with. If they are having trouble remembering song names or artists that they love, please help them so that they can tell me. My house has a Sonos speaker system hooked up so they just say the word and I use my phone to put the song on right away. Usually they have to dance through it the first time through then we can get to work figuring it out. This will first be picking out melodies, but then lead to learning chords and chord progressions. Then, they will realize how simple most music really is! ("It's only 4 chords??")
I am also moving away from the piano bench sometimes, working on rhythm with my trusty and universally loved Casio Rapman (thank you 80s!), or the beautiful deep tone of the djembe, or maybe the mini accordian. Rhythm is so very important, you could play all the right notes, but miss the rhythm, and it won't land in the listeners ears as impactfully as it could. We Westerners are trained in melody from an early age, but children in a South American or African countries learn complex rhythms from an early age. I sadly have white girl rhythm.. But I try! It's about moving the whole body, which is why I move away from the piano bench to work on it.
A lot of parents have asked me about practicing. This is such a hard question! Mostly, this is hard because every child and family (and their goals) are really different. In some cases, like me, my parents never asked me to practice, but I usually did. However, when I was MADE to practice in my music conservatory at least 4 hours a day, I become such a great player! (PS - I am NOT asking you to enforce a 4 hour a day practice schedule.) It is great for our kids to learn that working hard for something they love doing can pay off in a big way, even though that pay off may be way off in the future. Some families may not have any guildelines in place, others may. I am willing to meet all of you wherever you are. If I were to give an example of some practicing guidelines, I would say they should do it 4 or 5 times a week at a time of day that is consistent and they aren't too taxed. And parents, I would say give them total space and freedom during this time. Don't make comments or stand too close by, if they seem to just be banging for 20 minutes, let them bang! I promise it will lead to something. I am very eager for you to share how your guildelines (or lack of them) work in your household. Does it work better for you to set a timer? Do they practice more freely if you don't? Please experiment and let me know!
I've also seen that even in the case of kids not practicing, they come back to the lessons better each time. Our brains do need a certain amount of resting time when we are integrating new information. If there is absolutely no practicing for an extended period of time though, then they run the risk of getting frustrated with their slow progress. But again, this all can be decided family by family. I promise to meet you all just where you are.
This brings me to the question, "but where are you going?" What are your goals as a parent? What are your children's goals in learning piano? I really want to know, so please share this with me after you give it some thought. A recent example goal I heard from a parent: "I want them to be able to sit down at a random piano and play something they love." Beautiful! A recent student's goal has been to play Fur Elise. Great! If I know what your goals are, I can really help you get there.
Lastly, I thought you might be interested in a recent phone training I did with a veteran piano teacher at the original Sudbury Valley school. Her name is Sharon Kane, and I was lead to an online interview with her by the local Sudbury school (Clearview). I was so intrigued I tracked her down and she agreed to a phone consult. It was a great learning experience! In some ways, I was already doing what she has spent 30 years proving works, so it felt very validating. And of course, I learned quite a bit of new information from her as well that I have already started using in my lessons. If you want to read the interview that inspired me, you can find it here.
See you all at your lessons! Have a great week!
