An Alternative to the Suzuki piano learning method

On November 1, 2014 Patch published my posting about the Pro’s and Con’s of the Suzuki method as applied to the piano. And at the time, my views were either warmly embraced, or vehemently scorned. One commenter, in particular, challenged my credentials, and insisted that I offer an alternative to teaching youngsters at the earliest juncture of instruction.

http://patch.com/california/elcerrito/bp--the-suzuki-piano-method-pros-and-cons

Two years later, I’m delighted to heed his request and exemplify what I believe to be a viable BEGINNER instructional model without being locked int a fixed “method” paradigm that rules out creative diversions. (NOTE: I don’t teach 3 years olds, and recommend, a starting age of at least 5 or 6) The youngest child I have mentored was 4, and I accepted the teaching opportunity because she presented with unusual readiness, having had positive Music Together class exposure over two years time.

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The present:

“Liz” my 8-year old pupil, happens to have a benevolent environment for taking lessons. She was recently loaned my Steinway “M” grand, after I acquired a lovely Steinway “A” that was offered at a nearby estate sale, and because I could not contain THREE grand pianos in my North Berkeley apartment, I asked my neighbor to hold it in exchange for lessons given to the child.

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My teaching career has included decades of mentoring children from 6 or 7 through their teen years and sometimes beyond, though when I relocated to Berkeley, my preference was to mentor adults. In the present, I’m by and large an international piano teacher by Skype and Face Time, enjoying the experience of teaching students in Scotland, Australia, England and across the U.S. This summer I’ll be presenting at the Music Teachers Association of California’s Annual Convention in Los Angeles, on “Braving the universe of ONLINE music lessons.”

But back to mentoring children at the piano, and at least one alternative to Suzuki-based teaching in its purest form which embraces early learning “by ear” without a tie to notational symbols. Basically in Suzuki framing, the piano teacher models the pieces and the student copies. It’s supposed to emulate the way humans acquire language skills through a process of “imitation.”

Without retreading what I asserted in my 2014 Patch article about Suzuki precepts, I will fast forward to the here and now and offer videos of Liz’s first two (NON-Suzuki-based) lessons, with the text of my latest blog attached.

These appear at the following links, making it easier to view the content of Liz’s sessions.

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/an-8-year-old-begins-piano-lessons/

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/liz-age-8-has-her-second-piano-lesson-with-my-interspersed-thoughts-about-materials-and-teaching-philosophy/

The body of my most recent posting is snatched below. This particular writing does not reference the Suzuki method for comparison to my own approach, but rather cites the “five-finger position” primer launch, that in my opinion, hinders note-reading progress. (Faber Piano Adventures, for example, has a series of leveled books that embed these “positions” after a short romp of “floating notes”on the black keys.)

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LIZ begins piano lessons

“As I journey along with Liz, my newest piano student, I’m collecting insights about the nature of music learning from the perspective of a child. And by this most recent experience, I’ve come to realize that the choice of teaching materials is wedded to a mentor’s own philosophy about expressive music-making.

“The samples below represent Liz’s second lesson exposure to the piano. Her initial introduction to the instrument was memorialized separately in my first posting.

Thoughts on Teaching

“Over decades of mentoring beginning students (in the 7 to 9 year old range) I’ve concluded that nearly all so-called “method” books have their set of strengths and weaknesses and each can be somewhat adapted to meet the needs of a diverse student population. But if pre-reading offerings that include staff-less, floating black key pieces, are quickly disposed of in favor of quick fix, Five-Finger position romps that over-generalize keyboard geographies, (and become addictive), then then I must draw the line about what I can in good conscience work with in my role as a front line, first responder to the musical needs of a fledgling.

“Have I found a magic path in a published set of materials on the market?–not necessarily, but I’ll admit that Frances Clark, the original Mother of The Music Tree series never intended to woo students to the piano with “shortcuts” and Kool-Aid dispensing note-reading routines that pin the thumb on Middle C, and follow with a parade of invented “positions” that march laboriously through Red, Green, and Yellow “A,” “B” and “C” levels.”

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I tend toward being a repertoire-based teacher, though in the formative introductory period to the piano, I want to synthesize singing tone production, with cognitive and affective dimensions of learning within a balanced, educational framework.

So rather than nit pick this or that “METHOD” that could ostensibly work, or to the contrary, not be feasible for a particular student and teacher, I’ve made the decision to embark upon a collective journey with Liz, having an open mind.

In this vein, the student’s piano lessons will continue to be recorded and posted weekly on You Tube as my point of departure for review and evaluation. In this way, I’ll allow myself the unswerving freedom to modify any teaching material to meet the pupil’s individual needs.

What I currently favor, however, about Time To Begin, is its renunciation of the “position” route that forces too many pupils into a five-finger dependency rut.

Yet, I’m not unconditionally pleased with method book packaged pre-recorded accompaniments that are associated with the Music Tree Primer.

The companion Time to Begin CD provides the beginning student with a cushion of harmonic support and rhythmic framing in duo form, while it can be constraining for a pupil who has to fit into a “robotic” Midi generated Secondo.(Accompaniment) Between lessons he/she is unable to bend a phrase, contour or it, or “express” creative spontaneity while the disk is streaming. Nevertheless, I can still live with what I consider to be a CD generated- compensatory boon for early learners because of the disk’s repository of adventurous harmonies and basic framing “beats.” Eventually, these measured “ticks” should become internalized as a “singing pulse.”

I’ve already worked around the pitfalls of MIDI secondo parts, by revisiting Time to Begin duets at the LIVE lesson, with my creative prompts. More specifically, I’ve “slowed” up the fundamental beat, while suggesting an array of “dynamics” that include “making a “crescendo” and varying “colors.” We have “floated the Canoe on gentle waters”–(“In The Canoe”) and made an “echo” on the repeat of “Inchworm.”

Liz, a bright and responsive child is flexible and malleable when taken off the CD track and placed in an imagination-rich zone beside her teacher at the piano.

So for the present, Time to Begin is working harmoniously for Liz and its pages have unearthed my own unique approach to mentoring the child with necessary, self-applied Add-ons. These expand the learning environment as I perceive it, without strictures imposed by Clark, Goss and Holland.

In the creative cosmos, I’ve even added a “composer” opportunity to Liz’s lessons, hoping that she can trust her own unique expression at this early developmental stage.

In time, as Liz progresses to the Grand Staff, not having been exposed to the same old fixed notes attached to specific fingers, (thanks to Music Tree) she’ll ultimately become a repertoire-based learner (with supportive technic-based regimens).

In the offing, hand-picked compositions of merit will draw upon the the works of Turk, Hook, Kabalevsky, Tchaikovsky, et al serving to emancipate beginners from the drudgery of pre-designed, one-size-fits-all, LEVELED books.

LINK:

http://mtac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CMT2012FallTalesMusicalJourney_preview-article1.pdf

Attached above is an article of mine that was published in the California Music Teacher about teaching young children. It’s a review of a colleague’s teaching material of which I favored but chose not to use with Liz. Clearly, it demonstrates with you tube links to my colleague’s lessons, and those of mine inserted, that early piano learning can accommodate notational symbols from the very start in gradual exposure, avoiding long delays that will often discourage children from adapting to reading notes on the grand staff. One can teach “quarter notes” and “half notes,” up and down movements of floating notes, eventually introducing parts of the staff, in order to prepare children for eventual line and space movement.