Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A
-
For the purpose of the discussion, I am going to adopt the definition of sightreading as being able to play an easier piece several grades lower immediately without any preparation or practice.
A pianist’s ability to sightread well is determined by a few factors. The most important is familiarity with patterns and vocabularies of piano repertoire. Our mind learns music similar to written language. As we acquire knowledge of vocabularies and sentence structures, we can read a book much faster. Our mind perceives patterns in music similar as well. Lets take for example the humble 5 note rising scale pattern: CDEFG. When we actually play this on the piano, we don’t think those notes as 5 separate notes; that will be the equivalent of pronouncing a word syllable by syllable. Instead, we play them as a 5 note ascending scale starting on C instead. The next time we encounter a 5 note ascending pattern again, our mind will identify it visually and process it accordingly. So, the more musical ‘words’ we know, the better we sight read.
Unfortunately though, a student cannot expect to be proficient in sightreading by just learning 3 to 5 pieces per grade. The breadth of piano repertoire is simply too wide and students will not be exposed to all the genres and eras in their core pieces. This is why there are various sightreading books on the market such as joining the dots and right at sights that attempt to address this issue. These books can be used to expose students to more musical vocabulary. The extracts are short enough so they don’t take too much time away from practicing core pieces. Another alternative would be to assign various easier pieces and duets for students to work on; i prefer this approach. This way, students can acquire actual repertoire and be exposes to different eras and styles more easily. So let’s say a student cannot sightread swing rhythm well, just give short jazz pieces to fix the problem. Do note that these sight reading extracts are meant to be practiced and played like actual pieces to get most benefit out of them.
Beside acquiring as much repertoire as possible, a student will need to be proficient in theory as well. Piano music is harmony based and an extensive knowledge in scales and harmony will go a long way in helping to identify the notes and chords on the page page to turn them into musical ‘words’. E.g. C E G Bb are perceived as C7 chord. I encourage students if possible to sit for grade 8 all the way to acquire sufficient knowledge to interpret their pieces and to aid their sight reading. Alternatively, students can pick up improvising to train their harmonic knowledge if they are not fond of written papers so much. Improvising also has the added benefit of being able to use musical ‘words’ in a more hands on manner.
Lastly, listening/aural skill also plays a part in sight reading well. When we do actual sightreading e.g in exam, we need to read ahead and process the information few bars ahead. So when we are playing bar 1, our eyes should be scanning bar 2 and bar 3 to see what is ahead. So what actually happen is our mind will process the patterns (which hopefully we acquire the knowledge of beforehand) and transform them into aural/sonic approximations in our mind. These aural approximations are then conveyed to the fingers accordingly. So basically when we read a piece, we must be able to approximate how the piece would sound just by looking at the score visually. There is a saying that we can only play what we can hear. It is actually quite true when applied to sight reading.
I hope the write up above explains how sightreading skill is actually acquired. The skill is one that is very useful and very enjoyable to have once proficient. Nothing beats taking out random books and being able to just read and enjoy on the piano. -
kathyh:
For aural, normally teachers won't go through every week. Usually I only go through the aural requirements 3 or 4 months before the exam (more if the student is quite weak). Highly encouraged that students join a musical activity especially choir though. Sight reading I just ask my students to learn one simple piece or duet per week.hi Dreamaurora ,
how would you like to prepare the students for their aural and sight-reading? I basically did it by myself as teacher seldom spent any effort on it, only focusing on practical. -
chamonix:
Oh, I don't mean reading just the notes, but also observing other areas like accidentals, clefs, timing, etc. For tempo, my kids will start slow first and adjust the speed accordingly when they get more familiar with the pieces they are learning. Found this online http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Sight-Reading-Piano-Music . Is there more to what is mentioned on the website?Angelight:
Sight-reading is more than just reading music notes, there's alot more to it. But I'll let Dreamaurora explain in details to you, he's the expert here.
[quote=\"chamonix\"]All these talks about sight-reading is making me confused. Don't kids learn to play music pieces by reading all the notes themselves, and the teacher corrects them whenever they make mistakes? Can someone please enlighten me on what is expected of sight-reading?
Do teachers usually go through the new pieces with the students before they start working on them?[/quote]Normally I will play through the pieces my students play unless it is their sightreading materials. I will then go through the notes for the more tricky sections; but in general I let them learn their own notes and they may refer to recordings if they are not sure. This is my personal belief and other teachers may have different methods to teach pieces, so don't take my words on this as facts. -
Angelight:
How do children do higher grade exams eg. g8 by having Yamaha group lessons?Phankao, did you send all your 4 kids for private piano lessons or Yamaha grp lessons? Wah, must be a huge financial investment!
I'm afraid we are JMC drop-outs. My eldest(18yo) and youngest(3yo) are the only ones who have taken piano lessons. The others 2 take different string instruments. The youngest does too. Yeah, all 1-to-1 lessons. Hmm... financial investment? Our kids don't have much enrichment classes. Just about what they want to do only..there was Karate at one point in the CC - quite cheap but all quit once they got their black belt.
All the 3 older kids' lessons were not very expensive. I only found no.2's costly initially as it was a SSO teacher, but he was very effective, so at least we were not wasting time/money there now. This teacher's fees are now covered by tuition grant from MOE for No.2 being with youth orch. No.3 also learnt an additional string instrument with fees fully paid for by his school. Not bad lah. If only he willing to join the youth orch also, then probably can get tuition subsidy as well. I think we are paying the most fees for No.4 now bc he is learning 2 instruments. Our total outlay for music lessons now are S$140(no.2's advance theory for a few more months) + S$200(no.3) + S$318(no.4) = S$658. No.1 does not take any lessons anymore. Not that expensive, is it? For 4 kids. -
Dreamaurora:
Hi Dreamaurora,
Normally I will play through the pieces my students play unless it is their sightreading materials. I will then go through the notes for the more tricky sections; but in general I let them learn their own notes and they may refer to recordings if they are not sure. This is my personal belief and other teachers may have different methods to teach pieces, so don't take my words on this as facts.
Thanks for the explanation although I must confess the earlier post on sight-reading is a little too cheem for me. Nonetheless, it will be a good reference for my kids as they progress to higher levels.
My kids' experiences are kind of different. Their teacher often leaves them alone to work on new pieces. She will then correct their mistakes and have them refined the pieces over the next few lessons. No additional easier pieces below their levels are assigned to them too. I suppose she is training their sight-reading ability using their current level materials.
However, I do find your method of getting your students practise lower grade pieces interesting. In fact, my daughter often seeks out the easier pieces, e.g grade 1, and practises them to relieve herself the boredom of piano practices. You mentioned sightreading as being able to play an easier piece several grades lower immediately without any preparation or practice. What expectation do you hold for such pieces? Would you expect the student to play the piece at the indicated tempo immediately to perfection, i.e with articulation and the finer details? -
chamonix:
Yes, when it comes to sight reading, a pianist should be able to play through an easier piece with almost all the details as if he/she has practiced it before. You can read up the exam boards' syllabus to find out the required sight-reading level for each grade. General rule of thumb is a student must be able to sight read 4 grades below his/her current grade.
Hi Dreamaurora,Dreamaurora:
Normally I will play through the pieces my students play unless it is their sightreading materials. I will then go through the notes for the more tricky sections; but in general I let them learn their own notes and they may refer to recordings if they are not sure. This is my personal belief and other teachers may have different methods to teach pieces, so don't take my words on this as facts.
Thanks for the explanation although I must confess the earlier post on sight-reading is a little too cheem for me. Nonetheless, it will be a good reference for my kids as they progress to higher levels.
My kids' experiences are kind of different. Their teacher often leaves them alone to work on new pieces. She will then correct their mistakes and have them refined the pieces over the next few lessons. No additional easier pieces below their levels are assigned to them too. I suppose she is training their sight-reading ability using their current level materials.
However, I do find your method of getting your students practise lower grade pieces interesting. In fact, my daughter often seeks out the easier pieces, e.g grade 1, and practises them to relieve herself the boredom of piano practices. You mentioned sightreading as being able to play an easier piece several grades lower immediately without any preparation or practice. What expectation do you hold for such pieces? Would you expect the student to play the piece at the indicated tempo immediately to perfection, i.e with articulation and the finer details? -
Hi Chamonix.
Rest assured. Your kids are doing well because they are able to learn independently. Their teacher is treating them as independent learners and that should be the goal of every teacher and pupil. Unfortunately here, the kids tend to be spoon fed alot. Many need to be led by the hand step by step, otherwise they can’t or won’t do it. Sad state. Partly because they expect everything to be done for them (with maids, tutors etc). Partly because their foundation is actually very poor. They learn only to take exams and so their actual level may be much lower than what they think. When the teacher assigns them a piece which is supposed to be at their grade level, they can’t manage to learn on their own becuase they are actually way below that grade. -
+1.
-
joyofmusic:
Some teachers do spoonfeeding simply because they can be in control over every single thing the student play; this will allow them to maintain a consistent standard of playing and translate to consistent mark during exams. The students may appear to play very well, but then we wonder if it is really the student playing or the teacher playing instead. But then some parents do not mind as long the result is good. I am against spoonfeeding, but nowadays in this instant digital age where a lot of young children expect information to be so readily available, students are little less willing to explore and discover on their own (thankfully my students are not like that).Hi Chamonix.
Rest assured. Your kids are doing well because they are able to learn independently. Their teacher is treating them as independent learners and that should be the goal of every teacher and pupil. Unfortunately here, the kids tend to be spoon fed alot. Many need to be led by the hand step by step, otherwise they can't or won't do it. Sad state. Partly because they expect everything to be done for them (with maids, tutors etc). Partly because their foundation is actually very poor. They learn only to take exams and so their actual level may be much lower than what they think. When the teacher assigns them a piece which is supposed to be at their grade level, they can't manage to learn on their own becuase they are actually way below that grade. -
Dreamaurora:
i think joyofmusic and chamonix refer to spoonfeed as in the initial stage of reading a new piece. Because if the student can follow every detail, he/she must be really good.
Some teachers do spoonfeeding simply because they can be in control over every single thing the student play; this will allow them to maintain a consistent standard of playing and translate to consistent mark during exams.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login