What Is Your Opinion of Counting Aloud and How Do You Encourage This Activity at Home?
“I don’t believe in counting aloud. I just feel the beat.” You can imagine my surprise at this response from an adult student who was playing incorrect rhythms in passages of Rhapsody in Blue. I thought, like most of us would, that the fastest way to solve the problem would be to have this student count aloud. My suggestion was met with the “I don‘t believe in counting aloud” statement. For a moment, her comment caught me off-guard. Then I realized that we were dealing with an issue of learning steps...
How Do You Teach Cut Time (Alla Breve)?
Keyboard Companion Summer 1995; Vol. 6, no. 2
In the Winter 1994 issue of KEYBOARD COMPANION, several writers responded to a question on teaching downbeats. As if in unison, those teachers gave suggestions for feeling large groups of beats, the sense of moving from one down beat to the next instead of from...
When Does Rhythmic Training Become Training for Interpretation?
When one first reads the question posed for this month’s column, an initial reaction is that the question may be a loaded one. Or perhaps the reaction is: “Obviously, from the very beginning.” However, the intent of the question is neither to trick the reader...
How Do You Teach Dotted Rhythms?
Keyboard Companion Summer 1991; Vol. 2, No. 2
Although the steady pulse is fundamental to the concept of rhythm, the lilt and forward movement of rhythm is created through the variety of note values. Dotted rhythms are vital to our rhythmic experience. Folk tunes, patriotic songs, hymns, and Christmas carols are replete with...
Do You Use Recordings to Reinforce Your Teaching of Repertoire?
Keyboard Companion Spring 2004; Vol. 15, No. 1
from the series: Putting It All Together: Repertoire Marvin Blickenstaff, Editor “Listen carefully.” How many times did you use that phrase yesterday in your lessons? Listen…for what? How? Why? Most of us readily would agree that the hallmarks of artistic playing involve shaping of sound, balance of...
Teaching artistic phrasing
Keyboard Companion Spring 2008; Vol. 19, No. 1
from the series: Let’s Get Physical: Technique Pete Jutras, Editor My wife and I have spent a lot of time lately teaching our young children how to read. I’ve never taught anyone to read language before, and it has been a fascinating and enlightening experience. One mild...
How Do You Teach Your Students Not to Hesitate at a Bar Line?
Keyboard Companion Spring 1995; Vol. 6, No. 1
In one of the earlier issues of KEYBOARD COMPANION, a subscriber wrote to the Rhythm Post Box offering a suggestion for handling the problem of students who pause before a bar line. Her suggestion was to “white out” the bar lines, removing that visual barrier. The...
How Do You Use Computer-Assisted Instruction to Teach Rhythm in Your Studio?
The greatest innovation in our teaching studios this past decade has been the new technology. This fact is made obvious by the topics of our teachers’ association meetings, presentations at conferences, and the display areas of conventions. Each issue of KEYBOARD COMPANION has one section...
The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Marvin Blickenstaff is Professor of Music at Goshen College (Indiana) where he teaches applied piano and courses in piano pedagogy and music literature. With Louise Bianchi and Lynn Freeman Olson, he co-authored the series Music Pathways (Carl Fischer Publishing Co.). What Kind of Counting Do You Use...
What repertoire do you use when a student can play with only one hand, and how do you assign it?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2004; Vol. 15, No. 3
from the series: Putting It All Together: Repertoire Marvin Blickenstaff, Editor All teachers become skilled in dealing with the unexpected. Most of us have had stud en ts enter the studio with an arm in a sling or cast, or fingers wrapped in heavy bandages. Our...
How Do You Teach A Piece Containing Both Duplet and Triplet Eighths?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1993; Vol. 4, No. 3
from the series: The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm Subdividing a beat is not such a formidable task to experience and understand. Many of the words we use are made of polysyllables (that one has five!). Our names and the names of towns and states are...
How Do You Teach Students to Feel Tempo Before Beginning to Play?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1994; Vol. 5, No. 3
For the elementary piano student, the act of starting to play a piece of music is a complicated synthesis of many factors. Do I have the correct position? Does the piece start with skips or steps or some other interval? Where does my hand move next? Involved are several aspects...
When and How Do You Introduce the First Rubato
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1992; Vol. 3, No. 3
Onw of the finest musicians I know, a world-famous teacher/ performer, says, “Flexibility and nuance make music human. Without them, music becomes mechanical.” This idea is also expressed when Nelita True speaks of making like things different. I find that most of my young students are wonderful imitators. They...
Spring 2020: Questions & Answers
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
I model practice with my students. Although the student sees the progress she makes in the lesson with our practice plan, she doesn’t follow through at home. How can I help her use our practice plan at home so that she improves during the week?...
The power of one–a legacy of beautiful music
July 2014; Vol. 6, No. 4
Back in the 1930s a young Venezuelan pianist wished to further her musical studies, and did exactly what many aspiring musicians from North and South America chose to do in those days: she went to Europe to study. After completing her studies in Paris, she...