Music Moves for piano is a non-traditional approach to teaching piano. A traditional approach to teaching piano is to teach students: to read music, to know what a quarter note is and that it gets one beat, that a 2/4 time signature means there are 2 beats per measure and the quarter note gets the beat, that a quarter rest is equivalent to a quarter note because it gets one beat but unlike the quarter note the quarter rest is silent, and so on.
The Music Moves approach teaches children to hear and understand music BEFORE reading music notation. According to Marilyn Lowe, author of Music Moves, "The ear and mind must be trained before the eyes can read music notation with comprehension. The goal is music literacy" (Lowe, V). Consider language development. Children are successful at reading and writing sentences, phrases, and thoughts when they have the necessary listening and speaking skills required to read and write. The same applies to music. Music is an aural art just as language is an aural art. As children must hear and speak their language to read and write their language with comprehension, so must they hear and experience music alone and with others through developmentally appropriate activities to be able to read and write music with comprehension.
Class Structure
Our classes will be structured in 2 parts. For the first 30 minutes, we will meet in room 219 for musicianship activities. These activites serve the purpose of preparing your children for performing on the piano. Activities will include: singing and chanting in many tonalities and a variety of meters, movement exploration, and creativity and improvisation. For the second half of the class, we will move to the piano lab upstairs where we will have piano instruction. Children will be playing on their own keyboard.
Parental/Caregiver Support
Your job as caregivers is to facilitate your child's learning at home. You are your child's most important teacher. The teacher will only see your child for an hour each week so most learning will occur at home. Please reinforce at home terms and concepts learned in class. Be sure that you encourage your child to practice every day. Fifteen minutes per practice will suffice. Please be encouraging, but not demanding. Children learn at different rates and need to know that it is OK if they do not play as well as Johnny or learn songs as fast as Bob. We do not want for children to develop a dislike for the instrument because they feel pressured to do what they are not ready to do yet. Children will also need to be reminded that it is OK to make mistakes!
We will learn songs in class and the teacher will send your child home to practice them. It is important that they come back prepared as we will review what we have learned before moving on. Note that the teacher will not move on to the next song until she feels the majority of the class is prepared to move on. That being said, you will not play all the songs in the book this term. You might make it half way through the book. We feel that children should not be pushed to do what they are not developmentally ready to do.
-Nice , tall spine
-Feet flat on floor (if child can touch)
-Fingers naturally curved (practice holding a tennis ball)
-Relaxed Shoulders
-Wrists should be parallel to the keyboard, not resting on it
-Check your posture every time you sit down at the bench BEFORE you begin playing. Good piano posture can be applied anywhere: dinner table, school/work desk, bleachers at a football game, etc.
-Think about where your fingers are positioned on the keyboard.
-Practice any spot that gives you trouble FIRST. Do not try to play the entire song over and over.
-Sing the song to yourself before you play and as you play.
-Practice about 15 minutes.