NAFA School of Young Talents - Discussion
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kathyh:
What is the disadvantage though? May we know who else promotes it except for the principal ?
Victor Khor also teaches tapping in his lessons AFAIK. Most obvious disadvantage of tapping is limited range of sonorities and percussive sound. If not careful may have tension problem leading to carpal tunnel as well. But the benefits of clear firm sound and high notational accuracy are attractive to many teachers who practice finger tapping. -
CatLoh:
Which technical exercise your DD is doing now to train the tapping? Then I can try to advise you.
No technical exercise per sa, was told to practise on a piece in Czerny over and over again with tapping. But my son does not seem to be able to lift each of his finger high enough. The Teacher mentioned that she is worried for my boy as he does not seem to be able to do the tapping as per required. Heard from the principal during the master class that NAFA kicks students out just beacuse they can't master the tapping. Really stressed![/quote]
Czerny is technical exercise. Which number and opus? You can try exercise no 2 from dohnanyi's essential finger exercises. That exercise is to train lifting up of individual fingers while holding the others. -
DD seems to benefit from tapping on Hanon. On the other hand, repeating the same piece over and over again seems to result in diminishing return for her.
During DD’s practice, I usually try to get her to do this order: Hanon, scales, Czerny, exam piece 1, 2, free choice of whatever she feels like playing (which usually ends up being exam piece 3, 4, 5 unless I remind her to play something else). -
waiyean:
DD is doing Grade 2. For Grade 2 there are 7 in her class. Interestingly enough, out of 7, 5 are new students including DD who were accepted into NAFA only after the May audition this year.
Hi ThinkingLoft, thanks for sharing.ThinkingLoft:
Masterclasses are held every 5 weeks. All students have to participate in the masterclasses. The size of each class depends on the size of the cohort. Typically the prep and Grade 1 classes will have bigger sizes and the numbers become smaller the higher the grades.
Which grade is your DD doing, and how many are there in her class?
How many pieces does each child play in each masterclass, and what are the selections? Is it mostly exam pieces, or other pieces selected by teachers?
You mentioned that the experience in the masterclass is quite positive. What about the usual weekly classes? Is it equally positive, or are there big differences between teachers and principal?
Sorry for so many questions, but I am contemplating sending my DD to NAFA next year, and was wondering if that is the best place for her to be in.
Number of pieces played at masterclass depends on the child. The teacher will be the one to make the call. As the focus of the first masterclass is on tone quality, the basic is at least one piece of technique piece (i.e. either Hanon or Czerny). Some children also played one piece from the G2 exam repertoire.
So far the experience at NAFA has been a positive one for both DD and myself. However, I cannot vouch for other teachers but the one we got is very nice. No screaming, yelling or scolding and on top of what she teaches, she also recommends various recordings, concerts for DD to attend to help motivate DD's interest in music.
As for whether to join NAFA or not I think will really depend on what it is you want for your child. NAFA made it very clear from day 1 that their objective is to develop the child ready for performance and competition. Therefore, their focus from day 1 is technique, technique and technique. They feel that without the right technique foundation, children will not be able to tackle the higher grade pieces for example sonatas. Besides technical pieces and exam pieces, children do not get exposed to other pieces. In addition, little training in aural and sight-reading as well.
For me, DD's previous teacher was very good in terms of exposing her to different genres of music. She will also spend time to talk a little about music history, the story behind different composers, and even the story behind the pieces that she asked DD to play. Previous teacher was also very into interpretation and expression. We both love the previous teacher.
Thus, for me, joining NAFA is to expose DD to some technique training which was a bit lacking when with the previous teacher. And I must say, I could see huge improvement in DD's finger strength and finger posture within the very short period of time with NAFA. We are not decided whether we would continue with NAFA or go back to previous teacher. I think it will depend on how things go. But not matter what, I am quite confident that the 20 weeks (minimum commitment is 1 term which is 20 weeks) experience will be a beneficial and positive experience for DD. But one warning is that technique practice can be very dry and boring for young children. So you have to judge for yourself whether your child can take this kind of dry repetitive training or would it kill your child's interest in music/piano altogether. -
it seems the focus for lower grade is basically the same.
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Who is v. khor? Is he here in sg? So this is a commonly used way not as u said the principal's or PRC way
Dreamaurora:
Victor Khor also teaches tapping in his lessons AFAIK. Most obvious disadvantage of tapping is limited range of sonorities and percussive sound. If not careful may have tension problem leading to carpal tunnel as well. But the benefits of clear firm sound and high notational accuracy are attractive to many teachers who practice finger tapping.kathyh:
What is the disadvantage though? May we know who else promotes it except for the principal ?
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kathyh:
[/quote]Yes, he's here in SG. French piano school, PRC, and to certain extent Russian employ finger tapping. I would not say it's common but there are a sizeable amount of teachers who do it. I used to do finger tapping also and when I started lessons under Benjamin Loh he vemehently asked me to stop doing it. It all boils down to personal preference. Like what I said finger tapping has its benefits that cannot be ignored. But to proclaim it as the ONLY correct way of playing piano is doing disservice to the breadth of piano techniques available.Who is v. khor? Is he here in sg? So this is a commonly used way not as u said the principal's or PRC way
Victor Khor also teaches tapping in his lessons AFAIK. Most obvious disadvantage of tapping is limited range of sonorities and percussive sound. If not careful may have tension problem leading to carpal tunnel as well. But the benefits of clear firm sound and high notational accuracy are attractive to many teachers who practice finger tapping.Dreamaurora:
[quote=\"kathyh\"]What is the disadvantage though? May we know who else promotes it except for the principal ?
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I don’t know about the other teachers, but in addition to tapping, DD’s teacher at NAFA does teach her other ways to make noise on the piano for the exam pieces.
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If a child passed grade 8 in NAFA, but she is not among the Best that Nafa will send her for Performance . Even for competition, she may not win any prize because there are few better ones. All these year had been hearing negative comment from the teacher, very demoralized.
Should she stay on to do the diploma or leave Nafa?
The child’s will 50%-50% but mummy had dry out… -
I think I will quit , and probably do it at a lot earlier stage such as Grade 5 or Grade 3
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