Background information
With hundreds of years of evolution in the study of elementary piano, nowadays materials of this sort have been widely available, perhaps even gone rampant. This article argues the effectiveness of solely relying on certain elementary piano methods to teach, without the incorporation of a more holistic approach to piano playing. The beneficiaries of the renowned Taubman approach to piano technique are mostly injured concert pianists, conservatory students, and piano teachers, people who already have more or less a certain degree of piano proficiency. Since Taubman approach is so effective in helping intermediate and advance pianists, I would like to experiment the application of it to young beginning children’s piano lesson. Seeing that systematic materials for young beginner based on Taubman’s approach are extremely limited, my goal is not only to incorporate part of Taubman’s ideas to the standard beginning teaching, but to suggest a way to make it an essential part of teaching, using existing beginning materials. This article will discuss how the Taubman Technique can be systematically taught, learned in young beginner’s lessons with traditional materials, using the Alfred’s Basic Piano Library lesson series as a model.
The need to incorporate a more holistic approach to beginning piano teaching
"Piano methods and teaching materials have never been standarized" (Akins, 1982, p.1-2) there is always something different out there. Hal Leonard, the Music Tree, Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Piano Adventure and so on. The Hal Leonard Piano Student Piano Library starts with off- staff notation while the Music Tree starts with groups of two and three black notes. Although all the beginning books contain sim...
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...ual to being rigid. It’s a natural state, not an activity to be achieved.
Conclusion
Very few existing beginning materials have shed light on Taubman’s concept, and therefore this article encourages the exploration of incorporating the renowned Taubman approach into other existing pedagogy materials in a step by step manner.
Reference
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Akins, M. L. 1982 An analysis and Evaluation of selected methods for the beginning Private Piano student. PhD, Peabody College for Teachers, Vanderbilt University, USA.
Private lesson with Sheila Paige
The Golandsky Institute website
Piano wellness seminar: teaching beginning skills DVD
Virtuosity in a box DVD volume 1-4
Body map
Being a pianist presents itself a variety of opportunities, two common ones being playing in a jazz ensemble/band, or accompanying a choir. One may choose to be one, the other or both at the same time. However, there are distinct comparisons and contrasts between the two. Both are vastly different from each other, each harboring distinct qualities, yet there are similarities between the two.
The Piano Lesson written by August Wilson is a work that struggles to suggest how best African Americans can handle their heritage and how they can best put their history to use. This problem is important to the development of theme throughout the work and is fueled by the two key players of the drama: Berniece and Boy Willie. These siblings, who begin with opposing views on what to do with a precious family heirloom, although both protagonists in the drama, serve akin to foils of one another. Their similarities and differences help the audience to understand each individual more fully and to comprehend the theme that one must find balance between deserting and preserving the past in order to pursue the future, that both too greatly honoring or too greatly guarding the past can ruin opportunities in the present and the future.
Richard Colwell, Carol Richardson. The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning: A Project of the Music Educators National Conference. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Playing the piano and creating beautiful melodies is like making everyone connects to it. Playing the piano rejuvenates and exalts feelings and emotions at the strike of your fingertips. It is so powerful it can convey messages and communicate across bounds and limits. It makes everyone feel things in a very relaxing way through every tone and melodies it create as it hones mental ability. It could awake one’s consciousness and perform excellently. Playing the piano harmonizes life. Why not try to play it now? It is never too late to learn playing the piano and enhance your body, mind and
August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, tells a story of a family haunted by the pain of their past and their struggle to find peace to move forward. The story begins with character Boy Willie coming up from the south visiting his sister Bernice. Boy Willie introduces the idea of selling the family’s heirloom, a piano, to raise enough money to buy the land on which his ancestors were enslaved. However, both Boy Willie and his sister Berniece own half a half of the piano and she refuses to let Boy Willie sell it. Through the use of symbolism, Wilson uses his characters, the piano and the family’s situation to provide his intended audience with the lesson of exorcising our past in order to move forward in our lives. Our past will always be a part of our lives, but it does not limit or determine where we can go, what we can do, or who we can become.
Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (2009). A handbook for the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
The obstacle I had to confront a problem my freshman year in high school. I entered into orchestra class to learn the basics of playing violin. I use to play before, but I forgot how it was played. Our teacher gave us a book to read called the “The Inner Game of Tennis.” Told us to look through it and find the deeper mean towards the book. I found it interesting that he gave us a book of tennis theme. The thing we should focus on is the position of our finger patterns and note names.
Whether the student is a beginner, or someone who has studied music for a number of years, the way in which one views oneself as a musician can be an important factor in the kinds of experiences one has with music. A quality music education is one that challenges students to set clear and achievable goals, think musically and critically, and apply what one has learned in a meaningful way. If a musician harbors a negative view of his or her musical abilities, the lasting effects of this view on his or her musical experiences and achievement could be challenging to overcome.
Over the course of the semester, I observed at three off campus locations and experienced general music in grades K-5. In addition to my off campus experiences, I also observed Dr. Whitcomb’s in-class preschool demonstration. My final observation at the daycare on campus will not be included in this paper, as I will only be completing my field experience there a few hours before the submission of this journal.
I grew up in Yazoo City the middle out of nine children, and like the rest of my siblings I was almost entirely homeschooled. Music was possibly the most important subject, which incidentally happened to be the only one my mother didn’t teach. While my parents never actually said it, we all knew that it was a given that we would be taking piano lessons from around fourth grade to graduation. But when I was little I had zero interest in piano. I –for no reasons I can remember anymore- was very draw to violin and tried my hardest –without actually coming out and asking- to get my parents to let me take violin. As a six year-old my idea of “subtle hinting” was cutting out a violin shape from cardboard, and using a pencil as a bow to show my mom how well I “played”. In the end when I turned eight my
In most recent years, schools have been fighting to keep music programs alive in school systems across the nation. Some schools believe that due to budget factors, music should be cut out of the academic program, to save some money. But what is widely unknown is that schools that have good music programs do better in areas of math and sometimes reading. A high tech music program called Kodaly, was instituted into the schools of Hungary. If a person were to look at the school today, there are “…no third graders who cannot sing on pitch and sing beautifully” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Also, the students of the Hungarian schools academic achievement in math and science “ continues to be outstanding” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Another report shows that schools that spend 20% to 30% of their day on music (or the arts), have the highest academic achievement (Dickinson, 1993). One study was conducted involving first and second graders at two Rhode Island public elementary schools to show the effects of musical training on academic achievement. In this study, 96 children were used between the ages of 5-7 in eight first grade classrooms. Four of the classrooms were used as control classrooms, which received the standard amount of musical training; forty-five minutes of music that alternates weeks. The other four classrooms were called “test arts“ classrooms. These classrooms received an hour of music per week. After seven months of this training, the students were all given a standardized test. It was then concluded from the tests, that 77% of the “test arts” classes “…were now at grade level or above in mathematics, as compared to 55% of those in the control groups” (MENC, #1). This clearly shows that if ...
Like anything that has to do with music, it will take time for the student’s embouchure to develop and happen without outside assistance. A teacher should always be on the lookout for errors that th...
Music therapy is a strategy that can be tweaked and modified to fit each particular student and those student’s needs. Because every child who has ASD may not suffer with the same things. However, this strategy allows a teacher to differentiate the way it is administered to each student. A lot of students, who have ASD, struggle with communication. “MT is a non-verbal therapy;” (Kalyva, 2011, p. 91) “which is why the method is particularly effective for individuals with verbal expression difficulties, such as children with autism” (Landau,
Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Sylva, M., Kyriacou, M., Wild, M. and Glenny, G. (2009). (2009). Learning, Playing and Interacting Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage. [online], available: http://www.keap.org.uk/documents/LearningPlayingInteracting.pdf [accessed 5 March, 2014].