Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A
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Dreamaurora:
oh.. ok
Hmm, first you must acknowledge that your daughter's sight reading is simply not good enough if she keeps forgetting to check sharp and flat. Its kind of like saying someone is a very good driver but often forget to signal or check blind spots.sunflower2005:
Dreamaurora
hi, my girl currently is at Grade 3 level and her sight reading is very good. but one problem , don know why she always forgot to play the sharp notes or flat notes ? can advise how to help her on this area !
Anyway, I always ask students to check for the sharps and flats first and say aloud to me the notes affected. Then I will ask them to put their fingers on the said black keys so they can remember them visually. Then afterwards they can proceed to play the sightereading piece. You will need to keep reemphasizing this in practice until it becomes an automatic habit.
currently I need to keep reminding her to look for sharps and flats b4 starting to play.
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Dreamaurora:
My boy ’s teacher uses a ball. Very similar concept to the fruits.. also remind him to form hands like tunnels so cars or trains can pass under. To remind him, I sometimes used like eraser toys shaped like trains or dinosaurs or other animals at the below the keys. On the wood part of piano.
Still very young; fingers can still grow a lot more. Anyway an exercise that normally teachers use to determine if you can move your fingers independently is this: put your hands on a table and curve it like how you play piano. Then try to lift each finger one by one while maintaining the curves on other fingers. Not all fingers will be raised equal heights, but you should be able to lift all the fingers independently.Chattyirena:
Hi Dream Aurora,
My DS is 4.5 years old...
It's often due to physical maturity of hands. My son had to stretch his fingers when he started learning before 3yo. But now at 3.5yo, he mostly curves his fingers. I suspect the hand and fingers develop with exercise(practice ) too. -
The concept of "key" is important when it comes to remembering the key signature. Play through the scale of the key the sight reading is in, that’ll reinforce the key signature. At Gr 3 the hand position may not fixed as sometimes the hand is required to move to another register or another set of notes. This is when the key signature tends to be forgotten. So when a move is being called for, remind the child, "no baggage is to be left behind".
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jce:
The concept of \"key\" is important when it comes to remembering the key signature. Play through the scale of the key the sight reading is in, that'll reinforce the key signature. At Gr 3 the hand position may not fixed as sometimes the hand is required to move to another register or another set of notes. This is when the key signature tends to be forgotten. So when a move is being called for, remind the child, \"no baggage is to be left behind\".
True. This is why I like ABRSM's new books 'Joining the Dots'. Unlike other sight reading books, they go through all possible key signatures required for the exams. I also like their ideas of using improvisation exercises to get the students to think in the key signatures. -
Paul Harris does a good job too.
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jce:
Paul Harris does a good job too.
I used to use Paul Harris' books and my students complained that the exercises sound boring or weird (especially the higher grades ones) :rotflmao: I think the nicest sounding ones are Right at Sight series, but they feel like just another compilation of short pieces. -
Can i suggest 'ABRSM reader' for ipad? The trial version is free. The bars (key signatures as well) disappears as the metronume clicks. Students have to remembers their key signatures n stick to the pulse. Most of my students have the bad habit of trying to replay to correct their mistakes and receive a nasty shock half way through when the bar they are about to play disappears. :evil:
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Thanks Phankao, I'm going to try your suggestion this weekend...my DS' JMC teacher just shared that one of her student's parent was so frustrated that she grabbed a cane and threatened to hit her child's hands... Poor kid was so scared she immediately curled her fingers and has never ever played with flat fingers again since... :scared: ...I hope I won't ever resort to such threats :xedfingers:
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Chattyirena:
Thanks Phankao, I'm going to try your suggestion this weekend...my DS' JMC teacher just shared that one of her student's parent was so frustrated that she grabbed a cane and threatened to hit her child's hands... Poor kid was so scared she immediately curled her fingers and has never ever played with flat fingers again since... :scared: ...I hope I won't ever resort to such threats :xedfingers:
If the child's hand/fingers are not developmentally mature enough to stretch, then it's no point harping on it either, just remind on good form.
You might notice that for the young ones to stretch to reach notes due to their smaller hands, and when they need to move their hands to different positions on the keyboard, during the stretch and move, their fingers might straighten out although they may be curved while pressing the notes. So do observe what it is too... personally I wouldn't consider the straightened stretched fingers as \"flat\". One good analogy is to tell the child that when his/her fingers press on the keys, their fingers should form a curved tunnel and not a \"playground slide\".
Oh, and the young player will find it difficult to curve his palm/fingers if his piano bench is a little low. I'm somewhat guilty of not insisting my son sit higher most times, so I also \"close an eye\" as long as he doesn't rest the base of his hand on the wooden end of the keyboard (under the keys). We don't have an adjustable piano bench, so when I am more \"conscientious\", I'd put him on a booster seat (the car one. haha), or on a cushion (Lang Lang sat on TWO!). Their arms should be at the level of the keyboard. -
How hard will it be for me (with a Grade 8 theory from more than 20 years ago) to teach my son Grade 1-5 theory in one year? He is 7 and has not had formal theory lessons, but he has passed his Grade 4 practical.
The reason i’m considering this is that we’re going away for a year where it’s hard to find teachers familiar with the ABRSM syllabus. I think DS1 will be ready to take Grade 6 practical when he returns. So he needs to prepare for Grade 5 theory while we’re away. Is it feasible?
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