All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[fifiyeo]

Our teacher will put down in writing what DS is supposed to note and do for homework after every lesson in the homework book. She will comment on his playing too in that book.


So far I’ve never sat in for any classes but I do keep an eye on DS’s progress at home and assist only when I need to. DS likes to have an audience when he plays at home. So I’m the audience most of the time. Better still if brother and DH will sit in too. Otherwise he’ll run to me after every other song to ask what I think and if I heard it.

[Coolkidsrock2]

Dreamaurora:

bgmum:

Hi Dreamaurora, thanks for the clarification. Think that's probably what he did

Yup.

To attempt the sight-singing well at the higher grades do need consistent singing practice to develop the vocal cord and to familiarize the more complex intervals.

So basically, a student who lacks opportunity to sing outside of piano lessons are severely disadvantaged when it comes to the sight-singing component of the aural. A teacher who is faced with such student will make a calculated decision whether to improve or to just forgo the sight-singing component if an exam is looming. Sight-singing takes time to improve and cannot simply be fixed within months for most students. It is only 1/3 of the aural test, so technically, if the section A and C of the Aural test is executed well, it is still merit overall as the penalty will be at most 3-4 marks.

This is why recently I incorporate singing homework for my lower grades now to slowly make them more comfortable to sing. A lot of local students I teach are very shy when it comes to singing because they are very self-conscious. So I am also thinking of incorporating vocal ensembles in the future.

I do not notice my children singing much in their lessons. Actually, it is almost like non-existent. Will the vocal training from the child being in the Choir as CCA be useful? Is it the same kind of practice?

[Dreamaurora]

Coolkidsrock2:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"bgmum\"]Hi Dreamaurora, thanks for the clarification. Think that's probably what he did

Yup.

To attempt the sight-singing well at the higher grades do need consistent singing practice to develop the vocal cord and to familiarize the more complex intervals.

So basically, a student who lacks opportunity to sing outside of piano lessons are severely disadvantaged when it comes to the sight-singing component of the aural. A teacher who is faced with such student will make a calculated decision whether to improve or to just forgo the sight-singing component if an exam is looming. Sight-singing takes time to improve and cannot simply be fixed within months for most students. It is only 1/3 of the aural test, so technically, if the section A and C of the Aural test is executed well, it is still merit overall as the penalty will be at most 3-4 marks.

This is why recently I incorporate singing homework for my lower grades now to slowly make them more comfortable to sing. A lot of local students I teach are very shy when it comes to singing because they are very self-conscious. So I am also thinking of incorporating vocal ensembles in the future.

I do not notice my children singing much in their lessons. Actually, it is almost like non-existent. Will the vocal training from the child being in the Choir as CCA be useful? Is it the same kind of practice?[/quote]Yes, but still need to be supplemented by structured singing training. For grade 6-8 ABRSM, the student will be expected to sight sing a melody while the examiner plays either a higher or lower melody. Singing in choir will help develop student's independence to focus on his/her melodic line and not be affected by what the examiner is playing. Grade 8 is particularly difficult as student is expected to sing the lower part. So to prepare for this particular section the teacher will need to assign plenty of vocal duets from sight-singing books to practice.

Do note that the sight-singing only makes up 1/4 of the aural component if the student decide to play the melodic memory portion on the instrument instead. It is considered quite expendable in the overall big picture, so even a lot of well-known teachers do not go through it.

[Coolkidsrock2]

Thank you very much for the clarification/explanation.

[waiyean]

Dreamaurora:

Grade 8 is particularly difficult as student is expected to sing the lower part. So to prepare for this particular section the teacher will need to assign plenty of vocal duets from sight-singing books to practice.

Is it weird if someone finds the grade 6-8 aural easier than grade 5?
My daughter has no problem with the sight singing components in the higher grades, both with or without accompaniment. The cadences are also easy. However she still finds it a challenge to remember the melody echoing in grade 5. She can sing back the general chords, but some notes may be wrong as she substitute them with other notes. How should she improve this?

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

Dreamaurora:

Grade 8 is particularly difficult as student is expected to sing the lower part. So to prepare for this particular section the teacher will need to assign plenty of vocal duets from sight-singing books to practice.

Is it weird if someone finds the grade 6-8 aural easier than grade 5?
My daughter has no problem with the sight singing components in the higher grades, both with or without accompaniment. The cadences are also easy. However she still finds it a challenge to remember the melody echoing in grade 5. She can sing back the general chords, but some notes may be wrong as she substitute them with other notes. How should she improve this?

That is because your daughter has perfect pitch as what is common with kids who started young. So therefore she sees a note and she can just sing it out. I have a few students who are like this and basically pitching is really effortless for them, but still have to train to read the rhythm correctly.

Melodic memory will depend on how familiar your daughter with different styles of music. This is because the mind perceive musical notes similar to how we perceive words in English language. So the more melodic 'vocabulary' your daughter acquire, the better her melodic memory will be.

[waiyean]

Dreamaurora:

waiyean:

[quote=\"Dreamaurora\"]Grade 8 is particularly difficult as student is expected to sing the lower part. So to prepare for this particular section the teacher will need to assign plenty of vocal duets from sight-singing books to practice.

Is it weird if someone finds the grade 6-8 aural easier than grade 5?
My daughter has no problem with the sight singing components in the higher grades, both with or without accompaniment. The cadences are also easy. However she still finds it a challenge to remember the melody echoing in grade 5. She can sing back the general chords, but some notes may be wrong as she substitute them with other notes. How should she improve this?

That is because your daughter has perfect pitch as what is common with kids who started young. So therefore she sees a note and she can just sing it out. I have a few students who are like this and basically pitching is really effortless for them, but still have to train to read the rhythm correctly.

Melodic memory will depend on how familiar your daughter with different styles of music. This is because the mind perceive musical notes similar to how we perceive words in English language. So the more melodic 'vocabulary' your daughter acquire, the better her melodic memory will be.[/quote]So, more practice will solve the problem? Is there any way to train in order to improve melodic melody?

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

So, more practice will solve the problem? Is there any way to train in order to improve melodic melody?

Need more exposure to different styles of melody. A good way to achieve this is to sing from memory melodies from sight-reading exercises or easier pieces.

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

waiyean:

So, more practice will solve the problem? Is there any way to train in order to improve melodic melody?

Need more exposure to different styles of melody. A good way to achieve this is to sing from memory melodies from sight-reading exercises or easier pieces.

I have another problem. If it's a song, my son has less problem sightreading than the sightreading lines in the sightreading sample exam books! Seems like even if he hasn't heard those pieces before, he can predict how the melody line would be going as well as the LH harmony. But the sightreading in the sightreading exercise books, he seems to have a harder time with them. I guess more exposure too lah. Haiz.

[Imami]

Today we brought home Suzuki book 1 and 2 and one Lina Ng's theory book.


Actually I wasn't sure if the Suzuki books were planned and the teacher would have got us to buy them even if I didn't send her a video of my son doing allegro.

Allegro was one of those songs introduced during the lesson sometime back. The song, being so catchy and nice, stayed within the hearts of my son even though he heard it many lessons back. Last sunday, he surprised me by playing (rh only) it out. I helped a little when he got stuck but by and large, he was playing himself.

I think there is something called \"transposition of keys\"? Something like we cma play the same song using diff keys? That's what my son did, using one octave.

I took a video of him playing and sent it to the teacher. The next lesson, she asked us to buy the books. One thing I like about this teacher is - she is always so obliging whenever we want to learn something new.

I taught my son to play the \"do re me\" (sound of music). When she heard him playing in one of the lessons, she introduced c major. When I requested she teach my son a major due to violin lesson coverage, she came back with the notes of several majors for my son to practice.

She said she would be teaching my son \"the Suzuki method\" soon. :? Why only now? But I guess, for non-serious beginner, it doesn't matter.