What Do You Do With Transfer Students Whose Reading Level is Far Below Their Performance Level?
Keyboard Companion Winter 2004; Vol. 15, No. 4
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor Before enrolling any student, I always conduct a pre-enrollment interview. I think that this first meeting is especially important if the student is a transfer student. When this is the case, over the years I have...
How do you handle reversals in reading?
Keyboard Companion Summer 2008; Vol. 19, No. 2
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor When you stop and think about it, what we often ask a young student to do at their first lesson is completely unreasonable. They sit at a huge keyboard, barely able (if at all) to reach...
What are your favorite teaching aids for music reading?
Keyboard Companion Summer 2007; Vol. 18, No. 2
Whenever I visit the exhibit hall at MTNA and other music teacher conventions or browse through the advertisements in publications for teachers, I am always a bit overwhelmed at the number of teaching aids available. For me the bottom line is whether or not the...
What common pitfalls occur in the teaching of music reading?
Keyboard Companion Spring 2008; Vol. 19, No. 1
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor For this issue my colleague Bruce Berr and I wanted to share our thoughts on common pitfalls that occur in teaching music reading and in teaching rhythmic subdivisions. Having dealt with these issues in our own...
What common pitfalls occur in the teaching of rhythmic subdivisions?
Keyboard Companion Spring 2008; Vol. 19, No. 1
from the series: The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm Bruce Berr, Editor My colleague Craig Sale and I have swapped departments this issue by each contributing an article in the other’s subject area. Both essays deal with avoiding common teaching pitfalls. It has been stimulating for us...
How is Teaching Adults to Read Music Different Than Teaching Children?
Keyboard Companion Spring 2004; Vol. 15, No. 1
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Adult beginners seem to challenge everything we think we know about teaching. From the books used to the rate of skill development, adult learners are different from children. One thing we can do to understand our adult learners is...
From notes to beauty: When, why and how?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2008; Vol. 19, No. 3
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor This department generally focuses on the teaching of secure music reading. Although our regular consideration of how to successfully teach students to play correct notes and rhythms is important, we also need to widen our view...
How does ‘experience before definition’ apply to your teaching of reading concepts?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2007; Vol. 18, No. 3
The natural order of learning1 , as described by Piaget and specifically applied to music learning by Frances Clark2 , begins with the child hearing, feeling, and seeing a concept before it is presented (i.e. sound-feel-sign-name). Experiencing a concept before learning its name and symbol, is...
How do you teach reading in group lessons?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2004; Vol. 15, No. 3
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor Group lessons are able to facilitate the learning of music reading concepts in an efficient, effective manner. A recent Keyboard Companion readership survey showed that roughly half of those responding utilize group instruction in some way –...
Rediscovering the Past: Alexander Borovsky
March 2018; Vol. 10, No. 2
Editor’s note: Clavier Companion reviewed these recordings for the May/June 2018 issue. Click here to read it. It is a delight to uncover lost gems from the last century such as Alexander Borovsky, a great 20th century pianist and teacher, and his paper entitled “The...
To Judge and be Judged
May 2017; Vol. 9, No. 3
Teachers should always strive to provide positive and successful music experiences for their students. Within the walls of the teaching studio, it is much easier to create these experiences—the environment and people involved are familiar, and the teacher has more control of outcomes. However, this is...
A Life-Changing Decision
Summer 2020; Vol. 12, No. 3
In 1981, the year I received my graduate degree in piano performance, advanced degrees in piano pedagogy were just beginning to appear. Thanks to the work of the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, there would be a blossoming of pedagogy degree programs in the coming years,...
Interdisciplinary Inspirations: Using Visual Images to Enhance Your Teaching
September 2013; Vol. 5, No. 5
Meaningful connections Successful teachers always try to make connections for students— creating and demonstrating meaningful relationships among various activities and concepts. They strive to show students how a good technique enables them to play their repertoire with greater ease; how understanding music theory makes reading...
How Do You Teach the Dotted-Quarter Eighth Note Rhythm?
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
In this issue, we address the teaching of a basic, but often challenging, skill—the dotted-quarter eighth note rhythm. We wanted to take a different approach and survey several teachers to assemble a wider collection of ideas for you, the reader, to consider. Nine teachers of...
How Do You Teach Students to Read Patterns Rather Than Note-By-Note?
January 2013; Vol. 5, No. 1
The idea of reading patterns in music first became important to me when I began teaching young students how to read music. In my formative years I was raised on a note-by-note approach that began at Middle C. It worked for me… at least I thought it did. Today, even...