Mood:
lyricalI am constantly amazed at how well my Music Moves students play. Not only how they play, but how quickly they learn new concepts.
Once again, I'm writing about my "10 year old boy" class. In my last post, I wrote about the younger group, and one thing I've noticed since then is how well this curriculum works for all age groups. You'd be hard-pressed to find that in any other main-line "traditional" method!!
Anyhow, this group of boys is now at Unit 10, and keeps me on my toes. They're farther ahead than any other Book 1 class, so they're my "learning class" (that is, I learn new things by teaching this class, then I apply it to the other classes).
This past week, they were working on 2- and 3- note slurs. Now, in the past, I wouldn't ever have dreams of trying to get first year students to play 2 note slurs! But, these boys did it, and did it beautifully!!
Here's a few reasons why I think they "got" it (that is, the technique required to play two and three note slurs) so quickly:
- They know how to listen. They have become accustomed to listening for differences in sound. Differences such as same/different, soft/loud, connected/separated, duple/triple. Their ears are becoming fine-tune to hear details in the music.
- They know how to move. All those body awareness excercises are really paying off. These kids play without any tension in their hands, arms or shoulders because they have learned, away from the piano, what proper playing technique feels like. They've also learned to isolate different body parts (fingers from hands, hands from wrists etc).
- They're comfortable at the keys. All those "keyboard geography" lessons have been worth it. They know their way around a piano and how to produce different types of sound.
This all became evident on Sunday afternoon. I was down in my studio cleaning up and organizing some things, and my 10 year old son came down and started playing two-note slurs all over the piano. I listened with interested, and mentioned to him/reminded him that the last note should be softer than the first (he had been bumping the ends of the slurs). He said, "Oh yeah. I remember. It should sound like this, right?" and then played a beautiful sound!
As I write this, the use of terminology comes to mind. I told the boys that the last note should be softer, not quieter. And really, from a purely physical aspect, isn't that true? Playing it softer (as in a physically softer gesture as you play that last note of the phrase... not just a term to refer to dynamics) is a much better term than quieter which implies only dynamics. Interesting.
