My MLT Journey: Part 2

I have been working in Music Moves for Piano course for over a year, and am very excited by how it’s going.

Every week, I meet with my teacher Anne (who is fabulous), and we go over principles from Keyboard Games. We sing, I do some improv for her, we chant rhythms, and we talk about how to teach specific pieces.

I currently have five students who are doing Keyboard Games book A, and I loving it! I think they are, too. I’ve had almost all of the parents come in for a fun observation time, and they all seem to really enjoy it as well. My big project at the end of summer (when I have some time off) is putting together little booklets for them so that they know exactly what to expect from lessons.

One of the biggest differences I am noticing is how engaged the kids are and also how quickly they latch onto the pattern of each lesson. They often know what is coming and look forward to moving or singing. Week to week, their understanding grows even if they don’t practice as much.

This past month I was able to share several Music Moves activities with my colleagues at work, and it went really well! Our group classes are currently all online. Most of the time, I see a lot of bored kids during these classes. To be fair, staring at a screen while someone lectures you on note values is a full proof zone out recipe.

For my two separate presentations, I used:

1. Two recorded chants from Keyboard Games- students could move or just watch as the two teachers moved. We also did a very simple chant and improvisation at the end.
2. Two songs from Keyboard Games A- students could move or just listen to the recordings. I used Laban movement for each slide and then had the students sing back the resting tone at the end.

Goals:

Use more Music Moves activities and songs to help my colleagues in group classes

Complete the Keyboard Games course from Music Learning Academy

Continue to practice and post some of my improvisations on my Youtube channel.

Rachel’s Reflection 9/12

I decided not to write these over the summer because each week was so different, and the students often had a lot of time between their lessons. But we are back to a regular schedule now, so here I am reflecting again.

Coming into this past week of teaching felt very relieving, partly because I didn’t have any new students. It is a wonderful thing to come into a studio with a student I’ve already worked with for a year and know that we have an established rapport. I also made decorating easier for myself this year. I’m overjoyed to report that it was definitely worth it to not cut out or buy a lot of decorations.

My studio has done a big overhaul of their awards program, which is nice, even though I’m not always the biggest fan of awards. I like recording achievements and celebrating them, but giving out a ton of awards and badges always seems a bit superfluous in light of how life changing music is. Why should I have to give kids trophies for accomplishing things that are beautiful in and of themselves? Why can’t the reward be more duets, or playing with a cool backing track, or recording a little set? Real life musicians don’t get trophies very often, and when they do it isn’t really the norm. More importantly, it isn’t why musicians play and keep playing for the rest of their lives.

I wouldn’t want someone to constantly be holding awards over my head as a reason to practice. I’d want them to remind of the beauty and mental strength and stamina that come from playing an instrument. That’s what I hope to do with my students.

Since I’ve started doing MLT based activities in my own practice, I am now bringing them into my own studio. With the younger students, it’s easy enough to ask them to do free flowing movement around the classroom while they listen to a new piece. With the adults, it is a bit harder to convince them to move, but I’ve had great success with using the third finger to trace out a melody and also using the “buh” syllable. It’s exciting to learn more about it all.

Goals for this week:

-Mapping out pieces and assignments for each student’s semester.

-Deciding on Christmas collections and solos

-Continuing to set clear expectations for practice and assignments.

My MLT Journey Part 1

I first learned about MLT from a teaching friend in Wisconsin. She brought me over to her house and proceeded to demonstrate free flowing movement, chanting, and singing. I was intrigued. At the time, I was preparing for a move and didn’t have the time and energy to pursue it. Now, though, I am beginning the journey of certification and becoming an MLT teacher.

What is MLT?

MLT is the abbreviation for Music Learning Theory, a theory developed by Edwin Gordon, pictured below. He wanted to understand how to best help people learn music. He began by studying adults, and then college students, then high school students, then middle and elementary students, before finally studying young children. One of the biggest points he made is that music is like a language and should be studied in that way. In practical (and very simple) terms, that means listening will come before reading.

Edwin Gordon

There’s also a really fun term that I am coming to appreciate: audiate. Audiation is to music what thought is to language. You know how sometimes someone doesn’t finish a sentence, but you still know what the word was, or you think in your head what the ending could be? Something similar can happen when you learn to audiate with music. You might come up with another ending for a song, or hear and think a melody in your head before singing and playing it. It’s a fascinating theory that I am beginning to understand more in depth as I listen and study.

My goal now, after a lot of reading and listening, is to become a certified Music Learning Theory teacher. I’ve seen a few other teachers write about their journey, and it’s an extensive one. The way I learned music was through reading, and I always assumed this was the front door way into the world of music. After reading about MLT, though, I think reading is the back entrance. Music is an aural art. We hear it with our ears. Listening is the front door to music. I hope to become a listener who truly understands what she’s hearing.

I have started taking lessons again with a Music Moves for Piano teacher (more on that in my next post). I also have a lot of resources that I am digging into and really enjoying. The journey continues to break apart my assumptions of how we should learn music.

Here are a few that I really enjoy:

The Music Learning Academy and their podcast Keys to Music Learning. I love these two!

Website: https://www.musiclearningacademy.com

Podcast: (seriously, it’s fabulous!) https://www.musiclearningacademy.com/keystomusiclearning

The Everyday Musicality Podcast is a personal favorite. She lists an incredible amount of resources in each show, and it’s exciting to realize a lot of other people are starting out on this now, as well.

Podcast Link: https://everydaymusicality.com/podcast/

I also recently participated in a book club where teachers read aloud from Marilyn Lowe’s Keyboard Games. I highly recommend buying the teacher’s version and using that as a way to understand more about this method.

Keyboard Games link: https://musicmovesforpiano.com/books/teacher/

Here’s to the journey! And here are a few goals I’m working on this month

Goals:

Finish a second read through of Keyboard Games.

Learn all of the song and chant in Keyboard Games Book A

Continue to practice and learn more in lessons about the Music Moves for Piano method.

Composing Project Spring 2021

In Which I Do A PSA & Discuss My Studio’s Composing Process This Year

Every year Piano Central Studios has a big Composing Contest that my students are invited to participate in, and I try to have several students participate. In years past, I had everyone participate. This year, though, I wanted to be more focused in teaching composing, so I decided to only have second year students and older participate.

Excluding two overachieving first year students who surprised me with semi-completed pieces of their own, and my oldest teenage student (who wants to become a video game composer), I had seven students to try some new composing ideas with this past spring. Seven little apprentices to do my bidding. (Cue maniacal laughter as I steeple my hands beneath a single bare lightbulb)

In my experience, the idea of composing is often accompanied by a bright excitement, as though there’s a neon sign above the teacher flashing COMPOSING! EXCITING! NO PROBLEM!

Here’s my PSA: it can be challenging to teach what it is essentially creative writing on an instrument.

Don’t believe me?

First, there has to be a musical idea. Then they have to remember that idea. It has to be sung over and over, played again and again, and then written down so that both of you don’t forget it. Sometimes you might have to reteach the student what they did in previous lessons because they literally don’t remember it. Second, they have to not only remember their original idea, but also have more musical ideas, too. And you as the teacher have to help them keep track of those ideas. You have to take videos of them, help them write it down, and then also help them generate more ideas. Once they have it all together, these ideas need to be written out in a score, which is mostly the teacher’s responsibility because students are not well versed enough in writing a score.Third, these are opportunities for teaching expression, dynamics, and articulation, so you have to make sure you do that, too. And I haven’t even mentioned rhythm, meter, whether or not they can play a melody with both hands, switching between the hands, or adding a pedal.

If it’s a competition, they have to be able to do a recording of it, too.

The point is: it’s overwhelming. I hated it my first year, and maybe enjoyed the process once or twice during the second year (thanks to my teenage students). But this year I realized I was trying too hard, and I needed to simplify the process. Otherwise I was going to be sitting there with more than one student flitting their hands back and forth across a keyboard while saying, “I don’t know what to do!”

I noticed that Leila Viss over at 88keys likes to do what she calls cookie cutter pieces with her students. I decided to use some of her ideas this year. You can read more about her work here: https://www.leilaviss.com/store-home/cookie-cutter-composing?rq=cookie%20cutter%20composing

(Thanks Leila! You’re the best!)

To start off, I put my students into two groups of composing. They were either using:

1. Pre-written rhythms
2. Mother Goose rhymes.

Leila Viss talks about removing the obstacle of choice, so that it is easier for students to being composing. With that in mind, I presented two parameters to the Rhythm Composers and Mother Goose Composers:

1. Pre-determined penta scales.
2. Pre-determined textures: parallel motion playing, tonic/dominant whole notes in the left hand with right hand melody, or a combination of the two.

The Rhythm Composers were presented them with a set of sight reading cards that they had already played. Most of my students are in Piano Safari, and we use the sight reading cards every week. The students picked two sight reading cards that they liked, and then chose a pentascale. This was followed by a week of messing around with the rhythms and writing in any note patterns they liked. (Note: we did not use manuscript paper for this, just regular paper or the note cards themselves).

I was saved from having to do as much writing for them, and they embraced the challenge. The benefits of the Rhythm Composers were:

• Easy organization and execution
• Pieces were 16-20 measures long, with variations on the chosen rhythms
• Pieces used question and answer phrases (and it was very easy to teach this idea)
• Interesting melodies within a pentascale
• Secure student performances (they’d played those rhythms so many times!)
• Patterned introductions and endings could be added on easily.

For the Mother Goose Composers, I brought in books with pictures and rhymes that I had marked as options. This was the most experimental part of the composing project for me. My thought behind it was that students love rewriting songs, and often ask me if we can come up with lyrics for pieces that don’t have any.

Once we had the rhymes chosen and their pentascale picked out, I printed the words on paper, with a lot of room above and below for right hand and left hand parts. Students wrote in note names, and tried out different patterns for a few weeks before they were satisfied. This system also made it easier for me because I could take a picture of their work at the end of the lesson, and then send them home to practice it. I spent a lot less time writing notes in MuseScore.

The benefits of the Mother Goose Composers:

• A wealth of ideas already existed within the text, including a rhythm in the lyrics.
• Text painting came up frequently.
• Pieces had predetermined phrases.
• Secure student performances (they remembered their tunes!)
• Patterned introductions and endings could be added on easily.
• Fantastic titles to inspire students: Little Miss Tucket, Kadiddle, Tabitha Twitchit, or Babbity Bouster Bumble Bee.
• Question and answer phrases were easy to explain.

A Word On Texture:

My students had three textures to choose from: parallel motion, tonic/dominant whole notes in the left hand with right hand melody, or a combination of both. This eased the process considerably. A lot of them had already played those kinds of textures in Piano Safari, which made it easy to explain. They have all since noticed those textures more readily, and there’s a deeper level of confidence when playing them. After all, they’ve composed in that texture, too.

Major Takeaways:

Giving the students as much structure as possible was a great way to get them started. Helping them decide a texture and pentascale at the beginning made for a lot less stress on their part (and mine).

I loved using rhymes as a way to get into the composing process. I’d like to try that again with small rhymes, particularly for seasonal events, like Valentine’s Day or Christmas. Copying romantic sounding textures or finding “Christmas sounds” on the piano sounds like a good way to encourage active listening.

I am so thankful for Leila Viss’s ideas and her willingness to share. It definitley helped ease the overwhelming feeling of composing. It was actually fun to show up for those lessons, and, of course, that’s what we all want.

Sunday Reflection May 23: End of the Year Recital

Glowing Recital Thoughts

I am sitting in my backyard as I write this. The sun is setting just beyond the prettyish sort of wilderness in our neighboring lot, and the scent of honeysuckle hangs in the air. It’s a perfect moment, and I am happy to be able to savor it.

My recital was last night, and although it turned out to be one of the best recitals I’ve ever had, there’s still a touch of those post event blues. For this purpose, I have the perfect playlist, aptly titled Post Event Blues and Recovery. It’s got everything from Adele to Sierra Hulla to Liz Vice to a bunch of Irish guys playing banjos. It’s nice to have good company.

For this recital, I tried a couple of things that I’ve never done in a recital before:

• Original compositions performed by students
• Several Little Gems for Piano by Paula Dreyer
• An introduction that used the titles of students’ pieces.

First, the original compositions came about due to my most successful year of composing (more details to come on that this week). Four students performed their originals. The first embraced the idea of ABA format in her black key piece and created a beautiful soundscape called Shimmer, Bright Star. Another composed a super catchy tune to the Mother Goose rhyme Babbity Bouster Bumblebee that was in 12/8 time. (She’s too young to know what she did, but it definitely worked in that meter!) I still sing Babbity to myself because I love it so much. A third student chose to set her piece, The Dark Swamp, in D minor. We ended up finding a piece called Storming the Castle that was also set in D minor. She performed them very effectively as a set. The fourth student composed a piece that she wanted to use as a score to a romantic anime called Shiro Memories. It was fun to hear her develop the themes, and to also go on a journey completely imagined by her.

Second, with this recital, I wanted the younger students to play something outside their method books. I was very tired (VERY TIRED) of having a beginner perform Ode to Joy, or something similar. I decided to use a bunch of pieces from Little Gems so that the students and audience could hear something unique. It ended up being a great decision. For the shy students, the pattern pieces were easy to learn, and they could focus on having good technique. For the more confident students, the pieces were an opportunity for creativity. I asked them to add on to the patterns, and several performed their extended versions for the recital. Thank you, Paula Dreyer!

Small side note: One of my favorite parts of the recital was sitting out of sight behind the grand piano as many of my older students played. They have been with me for two years now, and have developed their confidence to the point that they don’t need me playing duets with them in order for them to sound good. They can fill a room with sound on their own.

Third, I’ve often looked at recital lists and tried to come up with a story using all of the titles. It’s a fun little game to play, and I definitely recommend it. This year, I decided to use that idea to set the stage for the recital. Below is what I said after my opening reminders about phones and such. The italics are all either word for word titles, or slight twists on them.

Together, we have all been on a musical journey this year. Everyone’s journey looks and sounds a bit different, and each new discovery and skill add up to a beautiful adventure. Tonight, I invite you to listen to snapshots of these journeys. 

This journey will take us to many places, past old moons covered in moon dust, beyond shimmering, bright stars, through a Japanese garden where a current runs softly. We will hear frogs leap on lily pads in the clear stream, while robots stare at their reflections. We will listen to a giraffe talk about her day, watch prairie dogs jump and bounce. We will hear minuets, all night and day. Be advised, you may also have to hunt for your umbrella.  We will dance with Frankenstein and flamingos, remember Shiro, and watch Chinese lanterns light up the sky. There will be dangers here, too, diversions fearful and wild: dark swamps, castles, pirates…and bumblebees. You might have some questions, like “Where has my little dog gone?” or “What do you do?” or even “What’s that noise?” 

Wherever our journey takes us, I hope you students remember that when I’m feeling blue, I think of you, and you bring me joy. 

I loved writing this. I know the students caught onto what was happening, and were listening for their pieces to be mentioned. That is infinitely better than sitting there quaking from nerves.

My favorite line is the last one. “When I’m feeling blue, I think of you, and you bring me joy.” The first piece of the recital was a jazzy duet that I played with one of my younger students titled When I’m Feeling Blue. I could hear him singing along very softly as we played. For the final piece, I chose to play I Think of You by Alma Deutscher. Playing it always helps me think about how pure love changes us. Knowing that those two pieces were on the same program brings such a glow to my heart.

I am one happy teacher.

Future Plans

Even with all that happiness, though, I am also excited about having a semi-break from regular teaching this week. As one piano teacher once told me, “Make sure you have a life. It’ll help with the burnout.” I will be putting together some ideas for my own summer repertoire, finishing some books, writing, and building my garden. And I’m planning a quilt. I also plan on hanging out with a lot of adults. I love my kiddos, but for all my ability to teach piano and talk about unicorns and/or the Mandalorian, I also want to talk about other things, like books, the economy, and podcasts. Oh, and Bible commentaries written by women. Here’s to a great recital and having a life.

Sunday Reflection May 3-7

Weekly Teaching Rant & Possible Solutions

This week started out frustrating.

I had two students not attend their back to back 45 minute lessons. Waiting in an empty studio is not my favorite thing, even when I have a piano to entertain me. Waiting in an empty studio while also waiting in an empty Zoom room is somehow worse. It was 24 hours before the parents communicated with me. Both students are always prompt and prepared, so I offered to do a makeup lesson that same week, which included staying late on Thursday and working at a time I’m otherwise available for on Saturday. Both students did well, regardless, but it started the whole week off badly. The next day, I had two cancellations, and two unexpected Zoom lessons. I am glad I can do Zoom, I really am. It’s the constant state of flux that bothers me.

The dreaded “I did not practice or do my theory homework” was the general refrain of the week. I am still trying to work out whether students do not practice because they aren’t listening to me and/or don’t care what it is I have to say, or if they are actually as busy as they claim. A lot of it is habit, I think. Most of the book 2 students are not used to having little bits of writing homework to do.

I really don’t want to be a nagging presence when it comes to that. Theory can and should be incredibly exciting. I’m struggling with how to do that, though.

Some of it comes back to being ready to label concepts. I never want to get ahead in their theory books, and so sometimes we fall behind, and it can feel discombobulated. I am working on keeping track of their theory assignments more so that I am absolutely prepared for their lessons.

I noticed a lot of kids were also really bored with their sight reading cards. They’d be listless while playing them, or have forgotten to practice them at all. The common refrain amongst the 10-12 year olds was, “I practiced my pieces.” The trouble is, the practice doesn’t seem to be going very well, and the sight reading cards are a big part of what we do.

This coming week, I will be trying a few things to see if I can encourage more depth and creativity in practice.

First, I will be playing a card from the older students’ sets and deliberately messing up when I do. I will do this on two levels: melody and rhythm. If there are any articulation markings, I will ask them to pay attention for that too. Then, they have to play it correctly for me. On the second card, I will play in response to one of their phrases, and they will need to respond with the same phrase two to three times. I am hoping that by doing this, this aspect of their music lesson will become less “check the box” and more engaging.

Second, theory will come at the end of the lesson, as a quick review. A lot of times, it keeps taking up a bunch of class time, and that’s not what I want. If they’re practicing pieces, that’s what they’re excited to show me, and that’s what I want to hear, anyway.

I also have a few silent students. By that I mean that they are students who rarely communicate verbally. They come in quietly, they rarely seem to have an opinion, and don’t really want to talk. My natural tendency when dealing with this is to overcompensate and be really excited. I stopped at one point this week and really heard myself. My voice was high, bright, and cloying. I hated it. I can imagine how these kids must feel having to sit in a room with a piano and my cloying voice, and they probably just want it to be over.

This week, I’m going to try being more quiet with these students. Edwin Gordon talks about using small amounts of words, and large amounts of demonstration. I don’t have to defend music or make it more exciting than it already is. I plan on being a lot more quiet with these kids this week, and seeing if they decide to speak up more. Or maybe we’ll just have a lesson full of music and very little talking, which sounds like an excellent idea to me.

To conclude (and just so I don’t forget what I’m committing to)

• Play students’ sight reading cards for them and mess up.
• Do theory at the end of each lesson.
• Speak less in my silent students’ lessons.

Books I’m Reading and What I Think So Far

***Piano Technique Demystified by Neil Stannard

I saw this talked about by another teacher on a piano teaching page ( I think. After a while, all those comments blend together, and I’m not sure where I got the idea anymore)

This one has been interesting thus far. I am enjoying the way he breaks down differently technique issues in specific pieces. I really like Chapter 15, which is subtitled “Making Music Is Not A Competitive Sport.” I’m going to write a more in depth post about this soon.

***Quick and Easy Introductions by Edwin E. Gordon

I read this once a couple of years ago, back when I had first heard of MLT. At the time, I didn’t pursue it, but I am now starting my MLT journey in earnest and wanted to get started with something simple. Gordon is an incredible researcher, and this book is really helping me understand the basics of his vocabulary. The Types and Stages of Preparatory Audiation were particularly helpful. More on my MLT journey coming soon!

Student Profile: Shreys

Shreys was six when he started lessons with me. He had difficulty paying attention, and frequently did not want to play the piano at all. He also could not seem to understand what I wanted him to do, no matter how patiently or repeatedly I explained it. I thought his father wanted him to be there more than Shreys did, which didn’t help matters.

One day, after a long day of lessons and frustration, I am embarrassed to say I lost my temper with him. He had not been practicing, and I became very annoyed. However, near the end of the lesson, Shreys looked up at me and said, “Please don’t throw me out of piano, Miss Rachel.”

I realized that he wanted to be there, and after that our relationship changed. With Shreys, I had to figure out how to make things more fun, how to let him see that playing piano was just that: play.

First, I had to determine how much he could handle. We started doing a lot of rhythm games. One thing he loved was to clap patterns after me, which we did nearly every lesson. Another one of his favorite activities was tapping the rhythm with his feet. That, along with a five finger scale and one song, were all he could do before losing focus. It was enough, I realized. I had been placing too many expectations on him, and needed to let him learn at his own pace.

Shreys became one of my favorite students. He would race into my studio to hug me before lessons, and did not want to leave when our half hour was up. I learned how to make him laugh. One of my favorite memories is of Shreys falling off the bench in laughter. “Oooooh, Miss Rachel. You’re soooo funny!” He began practicing more regularly, and when he didn’t practice, I still figured out ways to help him love what we were doing, even if it was our fourth week with the same eight measure song. At the recital that spring, Shreys and I played a simple duet. His rhythm was excellent, and he was excited to play. I couldn’t have asked for more, and I was glad I did not.

Teaching piano requires a difficult balancing act. I do want to challenge my students, but I don’t want them to not have fun or not hear how beautiful the music can be. Shreys helped me rediscover how much fun playing the piano is, even when it is an eight measure duet.

The Endless Frontier

“I want to be a pianist.”

The first time I remember thinking this was when my choir teacher arranged for the church’s children’s choir to attend a piano recital at a local university. I was seven, sitting in a red auditorium chair with my feet dangling above the floor, all the while feeling stuffy and uncomfortable. Then I saw the piano. It was sleek and black, shining in the stage lights. A moment later, the pianist began playing, and I was completely absorbed. I had never heard such beautiful music before, and knew that I wanted to be able to play that instrument.

Soon after, I started taking piano lessons and have been playing ever since. In May, I graduated with a degree in General Music with an emphasis in piano. Piano is now not only something I do for enjoyment, but also how I make my living.

A music teacher once said, “Music is an Endless Frontier. Never pitch your tent.” This has become my motto for myself as I pursue my art form, and also as I teach. I want to instill in my students a love for music that helps them explore and create in the world of piano. To that end, my students are taught to set goals for themselves as they take lessons, so that they are taking ownership of their piano experience. They are allowed to bring in music that they have heard and want to play, and encouraged to listen to many genres of music, not just classical. I want them to be equipped to explore.

Music is a wonderful gift, and I hope to share my enjoyment of playing and teaching it on this website. To the Endless Frontier and all it holds!