Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[Dreamaurora]

chamonix:

sunflower2005:

Dreamaurora


Regarding theory exam is it advisable to go Grade 5 straight w/o taking any of other grade ?

My children's previous piano teacher suggested to go for Grade 5 theory exam whenever they are ready. No need to take any of the lower grade theory exams.

But I understand that is not the standard practice. Some teachers have different preferences. Am I right, piano teachers and all?

Yes, it depends on each teacher's preference. I personally do not ask my students to take grade 1-4 theory as I feel grade 5 theory encompasses whatever is taught in the lower grade. But if your children finds that the material taught is overwhelming, can consider a lower theory grade first like grade 3.

[peanut_butter]

Hi Dreamaurora,

That reminds me.... A little feedback about your vitual scale book....My lower grade students are so preoccupied with staring at their fingers, they are not looking at the book. :slapshead: It didn't occur to me till that they are not fluent at relating to numbers.

[phankao]

peanut_butter:

Hi Dreamaurora,

That reminds me.... A little feedback about your vitual scale book....My lower grade students are so preoccupied with staring at their fingers, they are not looking at the book. :slapshead: It didn't occur to me till that they are not fluent at relating to numbers.

Numbers?

Oh, by the way, I'm very happy that my 3yo's piano teacher has never referred to his fingers by \"numbers\" but by their names, altho' I'd never specifically asked her to. She just naturally doesn't. I was afraid he'd be confused with the \"finger numbering\" they often use for playing the violin. *whew*.

[Dreamaurora]

peanut_butter:

Hi Dreamaurora,

That reminds me.... A little feedback about your vitual scale book....My lower grade students are so preoccupied with staring at their fingers, they are not looking at the book. :slapshead: It didn't occur to me till that they are not fluent at relating to numbers.

phankao:

Numbers?

Oh, by the way, I'm very happy that my 3yo's piano teacher has never referred to his fingers by \"numbers\" but by their names, altho' I'd never specifically asked her to. She just naturally doesn't. I was afraid he'd be confused with the \"finger numbering\" they often use for playing the violin. *whew*.

You need to go through with them the numbers first and the corresponding fingers. You can then ask them to tap out the corresponding fingers on the keyboard without them looking at their hands. If you group the notes in the scales accordingly, it is possible to play them with minimum eye guidance.

I emphasized a lot on good fingering when playing scales and pieces. One of the most common things teachers neglect often is good fingering and often students themselves neglect the fingering numbers in their scores because they just didn't bother; they will say things like use another finger still sound the same.

For the younger ones, phankao is correct, need to refer to the fingers by the names instead of numbers first. Need to learn to talk in their language or using illustrations. Like for example I actually taught my 4 year old student to play staccato by imagining her fingers like bunny hopping.

[sunshine4]

Dreamaurora:

sunshine4:

Hi Dreamaurora,


May I consult you on the following:
My son just started learning piano at age 5 and it has been 8 months. However, I noticed that he has a tendency to memorise fingerings and still have some difficulty reading notes. When I asked him, he told me that he needs to look at his fingerings as he does not know how to look at the notes and fingerings at the same time. May I know if you have any suggestions to this? I am not a pianist myself and I feel that his difficulty is valid. Thanks.

Piano students, regardless of age, will acquire digital (finger) memory of the piece once they practice the piece enough times. So it is natural that students afterwhile prefer not to look at the score so they can free up their eyes to coordinate the more tricky bits on the keyboard e.g. big leaps. Digital memory combined with other memories such as aural memory, theoretical memory, visual memory etc is quite essential to a sucessful performance. I normally encourage for my students is that they memorize their core pieces they are going to play for exams or performance. They can still use the score but the score is only used to remember important reference points.

So anyway, your son is still quite young and his pattern recognition is not that strong yet, that is why he needs to see his hands and the keyboards when he plays. This is because his mind had not linked the patterns on the score to the actual hand shapes requires to play the pattern. It's fine, let your son take more time to improve his keyboard geography. Typically, a student is only expected to be able to sight read pieces 4 grades below i.e. grade 5 students must be able to sight read grade 1 pieces.

Thank you so much for the enlightening advice. Its great to know so we know how to guide him along, instead of insisting that he has to look at the score at the same time. :thankyou:

[peanut_butter]

Dreamaurora:

For the younger ones, phankao is correct, need to refer to the fingers by the names instead of numbers first.

err.... are you still referring to your visual scale book?

Phankao, by numbers, I am referring to the scale book la. There is no notes inside.

[Dreamaurora]

peanut_butter:

Dreamaurora:

For the younger ones, phankao is correct, need to refer to the fingers by the names instead of numbers first.

err.... are you still referring to your visual scale book?

Phankao, by numbers, I am referring to the scale book la. There is no notes inside.

Yup. Anyway, the visual scales book is meant more as a reference so students know how to practice them at home. So actually, you just need to go through once in lesson how to read the diagrams and then ask your students to learn and memorise at home. Then when they come back for lessons, you can ask them to play from memory. If the notes and fingerings are wrong then you just open the book and do the necessary correction.

If they have difficulty processing the diagrams, you can try to block the notes together first. Take example C Major, CDEFGAB. For the right hand, you can split to CDE and then FGAB. Then you ask your students to depress the notes in each group together first. You can also use colored pencil to circle the groups in the books for better clarity. Younger kids process information slower and even sometimes they can misintepret simple instructions. Sometimes when I asked my young students to play left hand only, they will still use the right hand and play. :slapshead: I find that young kids respond to visual cues more easily. So let's say that you ask them to use the thumb and they still use other fingers, you can lift your hand and visually point the thumb at them.

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

sunshine4:

Hi Dreamaurora,


May I consult you on the following:
My son just started learning piano at age 5 and it has been 8 months. However, I noticed that he has a tendency to memorise fingerings and still have some difficulty reading notes. When I asked him, he told me that he needs to look at his fingerings as he does not know how to look at the notes and fingerings at the same time. May I know if you have any suggestions to this? I am not a pianist myself and I feel that his difficulty is valid. Thanks.

Piano students, regardless of age, will acquire digital (finger) memory of the piece once they practice the piece enough times. So it is natural that students afterwhile prefer not to look at the score so they can free up their eyes to coordinate the more tricky bits on the keyboard e.g. big leaps. Digital memory combined with other memories such as aural memory, theoretical memory, visual memory etc is quite essential to a sucessful performance. I normally encourage for my students is that they memorize their core pieces they are going to play for exams or performance. They can still use the score but the score is only used to remember important reference points. :

I think being able to memorise the tune and all the fingerings is already admirable for preschoolers. It's not easy to remember a whole tune made up of several patterns. One reason I like the suzuki method is that it is not averse to using lyrics to help along with memory.

When I find my son having problems remembering a song I would search for lyrics online - often I would adapt it to something he can relate to. And I would need to edit a bit too, so that similar words are used where the pattern for that phrase is similar. Sort of an identification. And I change the words when it becomes different. A bit difficult to explain. HAHA. But it's great that it helps him remember. Afterall he's only 3.

[metz]

Dreamaurora:

Haha, okay lar, the book is only slightly more expensive than one grade 5 theory lesson by a good teacher.

Very true, very true. Next time must think twice before asking you for advice. Tends to burn big holes in my pocket

Dreamaurora:

Anyway, even if you are not taking lessons, still recommend that at least you know someone knowledgeable to clarify things, maybe your kids' teacher?. One of my adult beginner students prepared his grade 5 theory by himself (he's a uni grad) because of budget concerns and he just asked me in his practical lessons his queries.

I'm counting on you people here whenever I run into problems. My children's teacher is a French who is not proficient in English.

Dreamaurora:

When the prototype is ready, I let you try FOC lar.

:thankyou:

[Dreamaurora]

Dreamaurora:

sacredmusicals:

I concur with dreamaurora about young pianists' capabilities nowadays. But I do find the instance of the YouTube recording provided above suspicious. It sounds too clean like it was recorded in a recording studio and not at home studio. Normally can hear things like background noise but there is none totally there as far as I can tell. But this is just a hunch and for all we know he could be a sound engineer too. And oh by the way dreamaurora, are you going to perform anytime soon? Would love to see you play.

Possible to get that kind of quality at home, need very good condenser mic and the piano should be in a soundproof room. Anyway, passing off artists' recordings as their own are quite rampant even among students applying to conservatories. So much so that many established conservatories only accept video recordings now. And in the professional classical world, there was this very embarassing scandal that made a lot of professionals see red; google Joyce Hatto.

Oh yes, this year is quite exciting. I actually have at least 2 small concerts scheduled this year, one of them is a solo (details to be confirmed). The last time I played full solo was during my graduation recital in NAFA 2 years ago. So, keeping fingers crossed it will turn out good. Can always meet you for a chat and will be happy to play for you in a piano showroom.