My Teaching Philosophy
Thursday, April 7, 2022 by Maffrine LaConte | Pedagogy
I teach students to:
- Produce beautiful tone and sound colors by using the different touches on the piano keys
- Play piano with using their bigger muscle (arms) to produce tone without finger isolation
- Play without tension by having a natural posture and hand shape at the piano and proper transfer of weight
- Play with firm fingertips, flexible wrists, and aligned hand-arm position to help them develop speed and clarity
- Read notation, not note by note, but intervallic, so that they recognize intervals quickly and read music fast
- Play by rote so that they can play and experience impressive sounding music before they can read it
- Chant and move to rhythm so that they play music with flow and understanding of strong and weak pulse
- Sing the music before playing so that they are able to think musical phrases in their mind first
- Sing solfege so that they can think music in their mind with understanding and therefore able to transpose music to any keys
- Improvise at the piano to develop freedom, creativity, and confidence at the instrument
- Play expressively by helping them to think imaginatively about the music they communicate
- Know theory of music in its context so that they may develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of the music they play
- See the beauty and logic of a composition by analyzing its harmony, progression, form and structure
- Practice efficiently and intentionally by giving them an outline of daily practice goals
Benefits of Group Piano
Thursday, April 7, 2022 by Maffrine LaConte | Pedagogy
- Students learn from both their peers and their teacher
- Provides limitless performance opportunities
- Develops performance confidence and poise
- Exposes students to a wide variety of repertoire
- Encourages the development of critical listening skills as students listen to other students perform and then provide comments following the performance
- Challenges students to develop communication and social skills
- Aids in the development of problem-solving skills
- Encourages students to make transfers of concepts and principles
- Provides a dynamic and motivational learning environment
- Facilitates productive, positive competition
- Provides a prime environment in which to teach functional musicianship skills such as harmonization, transposition, sight-reading, improvisation, etc
- Provides a motivational environment in which creative games and exercises may be used to teach and drill concepts
- Has the potential to sustain student attention through captivating group activities, in turn permitting a longer lesson length
- Encourages the development of a strong rhythmic sense through group eurhythmic (rhythmic movement) activities
- Provides a natural environment for the study and performance of piano ensembles (duets, trios, quartets, accompaniments)
- Is a prime location in which to study technique
- Encourages the development of musical interpretation
- An efficient and effective means for the presentation of materials for the teacher
- Facilitates supervised practice opportunities
Excerpt from Teaching Piano in Groups
by Dr. Christopher Fisher,
Director, Ohio University School of Music