Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[Dreamaurora]

peanut_butter:

Dreamaurora:

For the younger ones, phankao is correct, need to refer to the fingers by the names instead of numbers first.

err.... are you still referring to your visual scale book?

Phankao, by numbers, I am referring to the scale book la. There is no notes inside.

Yup. Anyway, the visual scales book is meant more as a reference so students know how to practice them at home. So actually, you just need to go through once in lesson how to read the diagrams and then ask your students to learn and memorise at home. Then when they come back for lessons, you can ask them to play from memory. If the notes and fingerings are wrong then you just open the book and do the necessary correction.

If they have difficulty processing the diagrams, you can try to block the notes together first. Take example C Major, CDEFGAB. For the right hand, you can split to CDE and then FGAB. Then you ask your students to depress the notes in each group together first. You can also use colored pencil to circle the groups in the books for better clarity. Younger kids process information slower and even sometimes they can misintepret simple instructions. Sometimes when I asked my young students to play left hand only, they will still use the right hand and play. :slapshead: I find that young kids respond to visual cues more easily. So let's say that you ask them to use the thumb and they still use other fingers, you can lift your hand and visually point the thumb at them.

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

sunshine4:

Hi Dreamaurora,


May I consult you on the following:
My son just started learning piano at age 5 and it has been 8 months. However, I noticed that he has a tendency to memorise fingerings and still have some difficulty reading notes. When I asked him, he told me that he needs to look at his fingerings as he does not know how to look at the notes and fingerings at the same time. May I know if you have any suggestions to this? I am not a pianist myself and I feel that his difficulty is valid. Thanks.

Piano students, regardless of age, will acquire digital (finger) memory of the piece once they practice the piece enough times. So it is natural that students afterwhile prefer not to look at the score so they can free up their eyes to coordinate the more tricky bits on the keyboard e.g. big leaps. Digital memory combined with other memories such as aural memory, theoretical memory, visual memory etc is quite essential to a sucessful performance. I normally encourage for my students is that they memorize their core pieces they are going to play for exams or performance. They can still use the score but the score is only used to remember important reference points. :

I think being able to memorise the tune and all the fingerings is already admirable for preschoolers. It's not easy to remember a whole tune made up of several patterns. One reason I like the suzuki method is that it is not averse to using lyrics to help along with memory.

When I find my son having problems remembering a song I would search for lyrics online - often I would adapt it to something he can relate to. And I would need to edit a bit too, so that similar words are used where the pattern for that phrase is similar. Sort of an identification. And I change the words when it becomes different. A bit difficult to explain. HAHA. But it's great that it helps him remember. Afterall he's only 3.

[metz]

Dreamaurora:

Haha, okay lar, the book is only slightly more expensive than one grade 5 theory lesson by a good teacher.

Very true, very true. Next time must think twice before asking you for advice. Tends to burn big holes in my pocket

Dreamaurora:

Anyway, even if you are not taking lessons, still recommend that at least you know someone knowledgeable to clarify things, maybe your kids' teacher?. One of my adult beginner students prepared his grade 5 theory by himself (he's a uni grad) because of budget concerns and he just asked me in his practical lessons his queries.

I'm counting on you people here whenever I run into problems. My children's teacher is a French who is not proficient in English.

Dreamaurora:

When the prototype is ready, I let you try FOC lar.

:thankyou:

[Dreamaurora]

Dreamaurora:

sacredmusicals:

I concur with dreamaurora about young pianists' capabilities nowadays. But I do find the instance of the YouTube recording provided above suspicious. It sounds too clean like it was recorded in a recording studio and not at home studio. Normally can hear things like background noise but there is none totally there as far as I can tell. But this is just a hunch and for all we know he could be a sound engineer too. And oh by the way dreamaurora, are you going to perform anytime soon? Would love to see you play.

Possible to get that kind of quality at home, need very good condenser mic and the piano should be in a soundproof room. Anyway, passing off artists' recordings as their own are quite rampant even among students applying to conservatories. So much so that many established conservatories only accept video recordings now. And in the professional classical world, there was this very embarassing scandal that made a lot of professionals see red; google Joyce Hatto.

Oh yes, this year is quite exciting. I actually have at least 2 small concerts scheduled this year, one of them is a solo (details to be confirmed). The last time I played full solo was during my graduation recital in NAFA 2 years ago. So, keeping fingers crossed it will turn out good. Can always meet you for a chat and will be happy to play for you in a piano showroom.

[windows]

Thanks for the article. When is a metronome needed?

[Dreamaurora]

windows:

Thanks for the article. When is a metronome needed?

My personal opinion on this is that as soon as first lesson is started. I am a firm believer that students must have a good sense of rhythm and pulse; and this has to be emphasized even when playing the simplest tunes. It is true that good music is seldom metronomical and depending on metronome too much can actually be detrimental to actual music making. But as a practice tool, metronome is a powerful tool that is especially useful to slowly practice sections of pieces to their intended speed. However do take note that different teachers may have different opinions regarding metronome usage and even in professional world this topic is still debated quite often, so don't take my words on this matter as the absolute fact.

[i3mum]

Hi all,


Wanted to ask if it is common to skip grades for piano?

[Dreamaurora]

i3mum:

Hi all,


Wanted to ask if it is common to skip grades for piano?

It is common for students to skip exams, but not skip grades. Teachers understand that it is a hassle to take every single graded exam from grade 1-8, so most will only choose selected grades to be taken. For my studio, most of my students take either grade 3 or 5 as their first exam. This does not mean any grades is skipped. Skipping grades is dangerous and will cause massive difficulty spike for students, not to mention weaker foundation overall because of lesser time spent building foundation and acquiring repertoire. So let's say even if the first exam a student takes is grade 3, the teacher would have gone through the materials and pieces in grade 1-2 before preparing for grade 3.

[i3mum]

Hi Dreamaurora,


Thanks for your reply. Now I have a better view. I understand that those from NAFA take 2 grades in a year, it's amazing and I guess it must be very taxing on the students!

Dreamaurora:

It is common for students to skip exams, but not skip grades. Teachers understand that it is a hassle to take every single graded exam from grade 1-8, so most will only choose selected grades to be taken. For my studio, most of my students take either grade 3 or 5 as their first exam. This does not mean any grades is skipped. Skipping grades is dangerous and will cause massive difficulty spike for students, not to mention weaker foundation overall because of lesser time spent building foundation and acquiring repertoire. So let's say even if the first exam a student takes is grade 3, the teacher would have gone through the materials and pieces in grade 1-2 before preparing for grade 3.

[phankao]

i3mum:

Hi Dreamaurora,


Thanks for your reply. Now I have a better view. I understand that those from NAFA take 2 grades in a year, it's amazing and I guess it must be very taxing on the students!

Dreamaurora:

It is common for students to skip exams, but not skip grades. Teachers understand that it is a hassle to take every single graded exam from grade 1-8, so most will only choose selected grades to be taken. For my studio, most of my students take either grade 3 or 5 as their first exam. This does not mean any grades is skipped. Skipping grades is dangerous and will cause massive difficulty spike for students, not to mention weaker foundation overall because of lesser time spent building foundation and acquiring repertoire. So let's say even if the first exam a student takes is grade 3, the teacher would have gone through the materials and pieces in grade 1-2 before preparing for grade 3.

In NAFA, they might not actually take the ABRSM exam. Bc they do conduct internal exams 2x a year, I think.