Keeping a Steady Pulse

Keeping a Steady Pulse

This is a challenging issue! Some students naturally have a great sense of pulse, and some…not so much. Assuming that the issue really is a lack of pulse awareness and not a symptom of another problem (poor fingering, note-reading difficulties, etc.), there are a variety of things that you can do to help your students (and yourself!) improve in this area.

1. Learn conducting patterns and try conducting along with music as you listen to it.

2. Learn about Eurhythmics and incorporate elements of it in your teaching. Things like dancing a waltz or minuet, marching to a beat, swaying in rhythm, etc. are effective approaches for internalizing the pulse.

3. Play lots of duets and ensembles! A lot of method books also have accompaniment recordings available so that you can play pieces along with them. I have had a student using the Scales, Patterns, and Improvs bookthis year and we have seen huge progress in her sense of pulse!

4. Here are a few other specific activities I’ve used that have been helpful:

• Have a Heart – Feel the Pulse!
• Call and Response Improv
• Rhythm Runs
• Rhythm Back and Forth

Practice Incentives

Monday Mailbag – Practice Incentives

I am a huge proponent of practice incentives and have been developing practice incentive themes to use with my students each year for quite a while now. It is amazing how much this has contributed to the overall spirit of enthusiasm and excellence among my students. Having a cohesive theme to tie together the lessons, group classes, recitals, and studio atmosphere is so much fun! Plus it also makes lesson planning much easier because I establish the general lesson plans and structure into the incentive theme so that it’s almost like it runs on auto-pilot throughout the year.

If you’re interested in putting together your own practice incentive theme, you may want to read this post on 4 Components of a Good Practice Incentive. I’ve noticed that using this type of framework in my studio also helps me maintain enthusiasm and freshness in my teaching. I highly recommend incorporating different practice incentive ideas for the sake of both teacher and student!

Teaching Eighth Notes

Monday Mailbag – Teaching Eighth Notes

(Click Above for Link) by Natalie

How do you teach eighth note rhythm patterns to students? Any tricks?

I’ve used all sorts of approaches for this over the years. In fact, I distinctly remember a phase I went through where I would use different food names for rhythm patterns. One of my students was struggling with rhythm, so we spent a good deal of the lesson learning and saying things like “ap-ple pie pie ap-ple” and so on. Her mom – an accomplished pianist – was observing that week. As we concluded the lesson, I congratulated myself on this clever approach that I had picked up from some workshop. When the student returned the following week she had the rhythmic counts written in throughout her who song and explained matter-of-factly that her mother said the other approach was silly and she should count it. So much for that cleverness!

I quickly reached that same conclusion for myself and have reverted to being a firm believer in just learning to count with numbers right off the bat. Usually to first introduce eighth notes, we set the metronome and tap along with the beat. Then I have the student imitate me in tapping two times per beat. Lastly, we attempt to tap the beat in one hand and two times per beat in the other. I make a point to explain that eighth notes do NOT mean that you play faster. The tempo is what dictates the speed, not the notes themselves. When you see eighth notes, you just easily play two notes in the space where you would normally play one quarter note. The goal is to avoid two things:

The short-long rhythm that many students play, rather than an even distribution of the beat between the two notes.

Tension in the student when they see eighth notes and think that they have to play faster.

Ultimately, they have to both understand the division of the beat intellectually and be able to feel the beat intrinsically. Much easier said than done, right?! But this is why we start with tapping and often incorporate other body movements as well. The more they can feel the beat, the better!

There is another method I heard about a while back from my friend and colleague, Amy, called Takadimi that sounds and looks interesting, but I haven’t investigated it in enough detail to know if it’s something I would switch over to or not. Do any of you use Takadimi or some other approach to counting? Any tricks you’ve learned to help students learn eighth note rhythms effectively?

Teaching Students to Play Beautifully

Teaching Students to Play Beautifully

(Click Above for Link) by Natalie

One of my families (I teach three of their children) has quite a different view on what is important in their musical education. They want to learn as many pieces as possible each week, without worrying too much about all the important details (dynamics, mood, rhythm, etc.). They also put technique down at the bottom of the list, so the one student is quite behind. How do you suggest I get them to understand the importance of learning to play each piece to the best of their ability? I want to help them become wonderful pianists that are a pleasure to listen to! Please help!

I love questions like this! Why? Because when I first read it, my response is, “I have no idea!” Since that’s not especially helpful, though, questions like this force me to think long and hard, thus formulating philosophies and approaches that I trust will help me become a better teacher. Here are some of my thoughts at this point:

1. Communication is key. There is a proverb that says, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” This is how I try to approach my students (and their parents). Everyone comes to their musical studies with different expectations and aspirations. I want to understand what they expect, what they want to achieve, what make them feel successful, etc. and then use that knowledge to guide them appropriately. The best way to do this? Ask lots of questions! The better you understand your students, what they think, and why they think it, the more effective you will be as their teacher.

2. Praise character, not achievement. Many students pick up the notion that the supreme goal is to “pass a song.” (I really dislike the whole practice of “passing songs” and putting stickers on pages to show that a student can move on, but I digress…) Instead of presenting a vague expectation of using better dynamics, articulations, etc., try pointing out very specific elements and tying it to the student’s character (e.g. “Wow! I really appreciate how attentive you were to the staccatos here in measure 4. Every one of those notes was so crisp-sounding!”). You can praise their diligence in consistently playing one thing correctly, or their perseverance in trying repeatedly until they mastered a difficult concept, or their sensitivity in bringing out a different mood at one particular place. The point is that character is transferable, but achievement is not. Even if you are letting a student “pass” songs, try incorporating these elements of praise and see if you start to notice them applying the same character as they learn new pieces!

3. Make it relevant. Motivation is closely linked to relevance. Whether it’s putting together a studio-widepractice incentive theme, signing the student up for a competition or evaluation, having them participate in a recital, or just giving them a one-week challenge, if a student is working toward something specific there will be much more motivation to do it well. Most of those are self-explanatory, but for the one-week challenge, here’s an example. Print off a copy off the Personal Performance Evaluation and write on it the title of a piece on which the student is currently working. Tell them that the following week you will evaluate them on each of those areas on a scale of 1-10 and their goal is to see if they can get every single area to the level of a 10. If you feel so inclined, you could even offer them a special award for reaching that goal.

Eventually, of course, you want to get to the point where the student listens to their playing and appreciates the beauty of the music itself. But often it takes some very creative measures to get to the point where you can even begin to instill this appreciation. I would sure love to get some feedback from others on this. How do you help students and parents realign their expectations so that they are more concerned about playing beautifully than just learning lots of songs?