Mood:
lyricalYesterday, I taught mostly private (Traditional) students. Two of the kids whom I taught are both 6 years old. One is using Celebrate Piano, and is almost done the book. The other little guy has just started lessons with me, and we're using HLSPL.
Both of these kids are struggling with the technical aspects of playing. So, I borrowed the 'Body Awareness' ideas from the MMP Lesson Plans book. At each of the kids' lesson, I had them stand up in the middle of the room, and go through some body awareness.
It struck me as odd, that in 16 years of teaching piano, this is the first time I've ever done activities like this, away from the bench. It makes perfect sense to do this, so why didn't I do it before?
As piano teachers, I think sometimes we get caught up in the "must teach child to read notes" frenzy, and forget about technique. Perhaps the thinking is, "Oh, I'll teach technique when they start learning scales for their exams".
I think that's too late. I'm beginning to see that, before the student ever plays their first song, they should receive instruction on the physical gestures needed to play.
Some resources I'm finding helpful in this area:
- F&F Piano Adventures Technique and Artistry Books
- HLSPL Technique Books
- Those wonderful little videos of Nancy Faber teaching on the Faber website!
- And, of course, the Music Moves for Piano material.
Think about this: how can you expect a child to play with "your wrists up, please" if they're not sure how to move their wrists!
Try this today with a student: Have them stand in the middle of the room. Ask them to raise their arms from their shoulders, keeping their arms-elbows-forearms-wrists as one unit, all straight from shoulders to finger tips. Make sure their arms are really straight. Then, have them raise their hands up from their wrists (so you can see their palms), and then put their hands down from the wrists (so fingertips are pointing to the floor) Repeat a couple of times.
