Monthly Archives: April 2011

Ear Tunes

by Julie Lovison

Why is a big ear hanging on our wall in the studio? This reproduction of Michaelangelo’s David’s Ear sculpture is a fun way to bring focus to a favorite activity at LSMS – finding “ear tunes.” Ear Tunes is a term coined by us to represent a song that one has found strictly by ear – in other words trying various notes until your ear finds the right keys for a tune. Often students will bring in an ear tune of a song from the radio, a song from music class at school, or choir or church, or the ever popular Ode to Joy or Happy Birthday. We write them down on our Ear Tunes of the Week chart to give other students ideas for songs to try to find.

We actively encourage students to use their ears to find songs – Music is experienced and enjoyed with the ears. Therefore, the better your ears can discriminate the sounds the more rich your experience of music will be and the easier time you will have playing piano.

In the words of our mentor, Dr. Robert Pace, we want to develop “The ear that sees and the eye that hears.” That means, when you hear music, you form a mental image of the notes going up or down, and when you see printed music, you can hear the music playing in your head..

Some people naturally begin with an ability to play by ear well. Others may have a good relative sense of some notes’ relation to others. We find our students can improve this skill to a large extent through practice.

How do we develop this? We begin on a simple concept. Beginning with a 3 note range (we use 3 triplet black keys) –we develop the ability to hear whether the notes go up, down or repeat. Once this is secure, we add discriminating between a step (an adjacent key) or a skip (skipping over one key, making a larger interval between the first and second.) Once success within a 3 note range is achieved, this can be expanded to 5 finger positions (a range of five notes, and then to an 8 note scale.)

Some songs are easier because the intervals are smaller, and they stay within the 8 notes of the scale.

Others meander more and are more difficult.

Here are some “ear tunes” to try, to begin developing your ear.

3 note range (use three triplet notes or CDE)

Mary Had a little lamb on CDE *Hint – it starts by going down , not up (so play EDC or High Middle Low first)

Hot Cross Buns (also begins going down)

5 note range (CDEFG)

Ode to Joy (begin on E)

Alouette

6 note range

Twinkle Twinkle

Frere Jacques

Pentatonic (black keys only)

Amazing grace

Old MacDonald

Those Were the Days (from All in the Family, by Charles Strouse)

The Farmer in the Dell

Other popular starter ear tunes

Lean on Me

Happy Birthday

If you insist on beginning with Take Me out to the Ballgame or Star Spangled Banner

remember, you were warned, some songs are more complicated.

Metronomes

by Julie Lovison

Little kids love them, older students want to throw them against the wall and are sure they are conspiring against them. Just what is a metronome?

Metronomes are devices that keep a steady beat. The first metronome was invented, according to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, in 1812 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel but named after Johannes Maelzel, who took the idea and popularized it. Beethoven was the first to publish suggested metronome numbers as a guide to correct tempi for his pieces. A metronome marking of 60 to the quarter note would mean each quarter note would equal a second. Most Sousa marches are played at 120, (imagine Stars and Stripes Forever at two beats per second.)

The original mechanism was a pendulum whose speed could be altered by moving a weight up or down. The familiar triangular shape was popular for many years. In addition to the original pendulum type, electronic, quartz and digital metronomes are also popular today, and many keyboards and software programs have built in metronomes. Many play along jazz educational CDs have built in combos as a very cool way to feel the beat. In our Moppets programs, we build “human metronomes” into our playing in the form of a partner playing a steady beat duet to our songs.

Young students are captivated by the original metronome mechanism, and enjoy keeping the beat with rhythm instruments or with body movement as they enjoy their songs. A typical use for a metronome for an intermediate level student would be to practice a piece like a sonatina a bit under tempo, with very deliberate attention to staying with the beat of the metronome. The metronome identifies which passages a student might be rushing or hesitating on, and helps pull these passages into steadiness. It very often FEELS like it surely must be the metronome that is off, thus causing frustration for students who are not used to working with the metronome. A good way to become friends with the metronome is to begin practicing 5 finger patterns or scales. These are easier to keep a steady beat with initially than a piece which has many types of musical and technical complexities involved. A general feeling among music teachers is that metronomes help students in many ways, but that students also need to establish a good natural sense of internal beat that can be relied on without a metronome’s help.

For more about metronomes see www.en.wikipedia.org/metronomes

OUR “PIANO TEAMS”

by Julie Lovison

Soccer, basketball, baseball, chess, swim, track … our students have much familiarity with these teams. Did you know your children are also members of a “piano team?”

We began this term with inviting students to think of their class as a “piano team.” Just like any sport, our team requires practice. All team members are responsible to the others to come to their lesson sufficiently prepared through their weekly follow up at home, to move on as a group. This means they need to have assimilated, memorized or mastered the requisite skills and concepts. This could be physical mastery of technique or memorizing some fundamentals such as note names, chords, scales, or key signatures (the structures of music.) Our curriculum layers new concepts upon previous ones every week in a systematic structure. The student’s assignment sheet gives them the “game plan” for practice every week.

The practice “game plan” includes many components beyond simply playing through their new piece once or twice. Each component is budgeted into a few minutes of concentrated practice per day, with the new piece being one aspect of the total practice time. Students need to budget ½ hour of practice time minimum at least 5 days a week to accomplish the required practice for our programs (6 and 7 year olds may begin with 20 minutes).

Each team member makes sure the whole team “gets” each new concept, by helping to explain it in their own words, then by evaluating each other. Teaching one another crystallizes their own knowledge.

As in any team activity, when players miss practices, it fragments the team’s cohesion. This is why it is important that attendance at lessons is a priority. It is better to come to even a portion of the lesson, or leave early, if your schedule has to be adjusted for some reason.

As team members we celebrate each other’s victories such as when we achieve success with a new piece, master a technical skill or memorize important fundamentals.

Yes we are a team. We do not have weekly contests to “win” against outside opponents. Nevertheless, we do have challenges to meet against two opponents – – discouragement and commitment as we challenge ourselves to improve. Our score is kept by evaluating our growing musical knowledge; our improving skill level; and our ability to perform and enjoy beautiful music.

The improvement in student progress since focusing on our “piano teams” this year has been dramatic. Students have been eager to share their accomplishments with their team members. Each lesson is infused with a creative, dynamic energy that has made teachers and students excited to be in this piano sport together.

When competing against ourselves we are often facing a formidable adversary. All teams thrive on energetic cheerleaders and fans. Parents, friends and family can help our teams and players by recognizing their efforts, supporting their activities and enthusiastically appreciating their exhibitions.

Building Blocks of Success – Getting the Most out of Your Lessons

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by Julie Lovison

Everyone loves to hear the polished pieces performed by students with confidence at the recitals. This is an easy measure of what students have accomplished at the piano. What is not as well known is the depth of comprehensive musicianship students are gaining as they work through the years at LSMS, and the methods by which this is achieved.

We have an ongoing curriculum of study of applied theory and technique. Every week we present new concepts. We rely on students to follow up with daily study and digest this new information and skills to be ready to add a new layer of understanding to the previous concepts and skills the following week. Students take home a weekly practice plan which outlines the expectations for practice in many areas (technique, sight reading practice, theory fundamentals, creative reading and improvisation, transposition, new and review pieces). Students need to spend a small amount of time working in each category every day. The purpose of the check off boxes is to help students keep track of which categories they have completed so they make sure they get to everything every week. Each student must pull his or her own weight to enable the group as a whole to move on.

Parents, you can help students get organized by asking your child to explain the assignments to you and show you how they do them, then checking to make sure they do them. The goal of LSMS is to create independent learners, that is students who know how to ask the correct evaluative questions as they practice to achieve results on their own and make new discoveries unaided by a teacher. This will ensure a personal lifelong relationship with the piano.

Getting Organized

The night before the lesson, help your student organize all books and the practice sheet into his/her music bag and put it wherever it will go to make sure it gets to the lesson. Students need their own books for the lesson. We do make important personal notations in the books, and also with several students in a group studying the same book, we would not have enough spare studio copies if several students forget the book on the same day. Another important concept in building success is continuity of attendance. Although our policy does allow students to visit other classes when unable to attend their own, students need to feel that their weekly input into their own group is important. The spirit of cohesiveness that develops with a group is sometimes the one thing that keeps our students happily involved in piano study. Arriving on time is important as well, as the teacher plans the curriculum around a particular agenda, and a student who arrives consistently late will miss a significant aspect of the lesson. However, it is better to come to a portion of the lesson than miss it for the week. Even 20 minutes of contact time will secure a new forward direction of practice for the student.
If you have to come late or leave early, please come anyway. If you forgot your books, come anyway. If you didn’t practice all week, come anyway. If you jammed a finger, broke an arm, sprained an ankle, have drops in your eyes from the eye doctor, come anyway. We can work with all those. However, if you have the flu, it might be best to stay home!

Autumn Reflections

Teaching Piano Music Theory Concepts Using Frere Jacques

The Lake Shore Music Studio

Activities of the Lake Shore Music Studio Chicago