Helping Struggling Students in Group Settings

Teaching piano in a group setting is becoming more and more common. There are advantages to the set-up. We can teach more students with less time since much of the early instruction can be introduced in the same way for most students. For many teachers, however, the situation can be challenging and intimidating. Few of us were taught in a group, so transferring concepts from an individual delivery to one appropriate for a lecture hall can be tough. What's more troublesome is how to offer help to students that are struggling with a concept. Do we hold the rest of the class back or begin teaching a bunch of private lessons in a large room? Here are some of the ways that I have found to offer help to a struggling student while maintaining the structure and integrity of group instruction.


Repetition! Repetition! Repetition! Once a new concept has been introduced and the task has been successfully completed by the majority of the students, it is time to begin working on something new. However, mastery of the recently achieved skill also needs to occur. When you have students that are struggling with a skill, try to find a piece that refines the newly acquired skill while also introducing a new concept. This allows the struggling student to continue focusing on the problem area while offering practice for the rest of the class without making them feel as though they are stalling out. If you can't find an appropriate piece, consider composing one yourself or assigning composition projects to your students.

Move from the known to the unknown. Whenever possible, connect new skills to those that have already been mastered for easier understanding. For example, before introducing scales that involve the crossing of the thumb, I have students play a melody that requires the index finger to reach over the thumb. By experiencing the movement of the finger out of the 5-finger pattern, students are ready to begin exploring how the hand naturally moves with a finger cross.


Include instruction on how to practice. Students generally want to succeed. They understand that personal practice is necessary to succeed. What they are often missing is a full understanding of HOW to practice. Demonstrate how to pull out sections of the piece to focus on. Help students develop practice techniques that lead to mastery of that section. Encourage students to use similar approaches in their private rehearsal. As you introduce new practice techniques, students will become more capable of determining what technique is most helpful for each passage.


Offer mini-lessons. Before asking students to play for a grade, I try to offer a brief mini-lesson a few weeks in advance. These short 5 or 10 minute sessions pull students out of the group setting and allow them to get personalized attention. After a student plays the piece (or assigned segment) for me, we begin with an evaluation of the performance before identifying the next step needed to arrive at the desired outcome. If several steps are needed or the student seems overwhelmed, this is an opportunity to develop a road map or practice path that breaks the final goal into smaller, achievable goals. If a practice path is developed, it is advisable to include deadlines for each small goal in pursuit of the final outcome. With support and reassurance, the student will gradually become confident in creating their own road map to practice success.


What additional suggestions do you have for ensuring that all of your students succeed? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

Difficulty with Cadences

Last week, I administered the last section of the piano proficiency exam at WBU. Traditionally, this section has proven to be the most troublesome for students because of its content -- the dreaded scale routines, or what we refer to as SATCs. SATC stands for Scales (two octaves, hands separate), Arpeggios (two octaves, hands separate), Triad Scale (hands together) and Cadences (hands together). Students must complete SATCs in all major keys as well as the minor keys that begin on a white note of the piano. As I began teaching SATCs to second year students, I quickly realized that the I-IV-I-V-V7-I progression was proving to be most problematic. How in the world was I going to teach this concept? The solution I ultimately arrived at is what I'm going to outline in this week's post.


Playing the cadences in root position was not a problem for most of my students. Once I realized that the assumption that they were thinking harmonically while playing them was false -- they had actually memorized hand movements and figured things out by ear -- I began to see that I had to step back to the beginning of the teaching process.  Together we backed up to spell each chord of the progression in root position. Once we were able to correctly spell the triads, I made sure that the concept of inverting chords was clear theoretically as well as at the keyboard.


I had the students play the C major cadence in root position, but this time I asked them to notice what inversion of each chord was being used. I wrote the progression on the board and we discovered together that a "rule" seemed to be at play in this progression. Common tones shared by parallel chords (i.e. I and IV as well as the I and V that would follow) had to remain in the same location of the following chord. For example, the common tone between I and IV is do (or C if we continue to work in the key of C major). Since the C is located on the bottom of the root position I chord, the rule demands that the same pitch (C) remain on the bottom of the IV chord. The result is a IV chord in second inversion (in C major, that chord is spelled C - F - A). We continued to discover that the common tone in the I and V chords is sol. Now we had a pattern to follow!


Before progressing, we needed to find a way to define the 7th of the V chord. The easiest way we discovered to identify the 7th is to add the pitch located a whole step below the root of the V chord. This eliminated the need to remember if we had to think in the key signature of I or V when adding the 7th to the V chord.


Now that we had a rule to follow, we needed to make sure it worked for inverted chords. As a class we built a first inversion chord in C major. To begin the cadence, do is the common tone and remains in the same voice while the other voices move. Return to the inversion of I that was just played and identify sol. Sol remains the same and the other voices move down. Add the 7th (whole step below the root of the V chord) before returning home to the inversion of I. Guess what? It worked! At this point, students also realized that the direction of the non-stationary voices moved in the same direction -- up to the IV and down to the V -- and wondered if that would be true in second inversion.


Second inversion caused a slight problem because the 7th of the V7 chord appears at the top of the chord to allow for stronger voice leading. At this point, students began to see that the 7th was resolving down to the third of the tonic chord in all inversions -- and understood the exception to the rule.


Many of my students were vocalists, so I decided to have them examine the movement of each voice of the cadence independently. What we discovered together is that the melodic movement of each voice remains the same regardless of the inversion and that the most active voice is the one that contains the third of the tonic chord.


Suddenly, I realized that I had a good method for teaching cadences that seemed to work with the majority of my students. This semester, all of my students passed the cadence portion of the proficiency exam and my freshmen students are well on their way to mastering the first 10 keys that I have taught them using this method.

Peer Evaluation in Group Instruction - My Experience

Teaching piano has traditionally involved a single student with a teacher. For teachers venturing into the realm of group instruction, the class can evolve into a series of private lessons taught in spurts as they move about the room. These situations are missing the dynamic opportunities that come with the group setting.

Recently, I have been thinking about ways to actively engage students in learning in the group setting. I decided to experiment with peer evaluations and have been pleased with the results. I immediately realized that students were more aware of their own errors after evaluating others and began to listen to their own performances much more closely.

Students in Class Piano IV are currently preparing one of the following pieces -- L'Arabesque, Op. 100, No. 2 (Johann Friedrich Burgmuller) or Pleasant Morning (Jean Louis Streabbog) -- for performance in their upcoming proficiency exam. Since everyone is now familiar with the pieces, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity for peer evaluation. What I wasn't certain about was the best method to collect student responses. My goal was to gather helpful information for each student performer while assuring the evaluator felt comfortable speaking honestly about the performance.

My solution was to use an online survey created in Survey Monkey. Students listened to each performance and rated the performer in the areas of preparation, note accuracy, rhythmic accuracy, and phrasing. Space for additional comments was also provided for each area of review. Since each station of the piano lab is equipped with a desktop computer, students were easily able to rank their peers immediately after the performance. The online survey assured that each reviewer could offer commentary anonymously and without fear of offending their friend.

The results were insightful and clearly indicated that the students were listening thoughtfully and offered needed feedback. I repeated the process the following week in a master class setting. Students performed before the group once again (because they can never get too many opportunities to play the piece in front of others). This time, their peers were asked to provide oral feedback about each performance; comments were to include praise as well as suggestions of aspects of the performance that needed further attention. Students pointed out errors in pitch and rhythm, of course. I was very pleased to hear them mention phrase shape and articulation as well. After the master class, I asked students to share with me how they felt about offering oral feedback. They admitted that they would have been very hesitant to offer constructive criticism if they had not participated in the online survey first. Since the survey offered various areas to critique, the students realized how carefully they needed to listen to a performance in order to offer helpful commentary.

Now that I have seen the benefits of peer evaluation, I plan to incorporate it into all levels of group instruction that I teach. Its value is immense and the rewards are evident in the evaluator's own performance quickly.

Bach Chorales in Piano Instruction

I have found that many young pianists struggle to play four-voice harmonizations. Because of the many benefits that come from studying them, I require college students enrolled in class piano to play both traditional hymns and Bach chorales. Here are a few of the benefits that comes from this area of study:

• Awareness of voice leading. Few composers understood counterpoint and voice leading better than Bach. By playing the chorales, pianists take the principles they have learned in theory and apply them at the keyboard.
• Re-enforcement of harmonic progressions. Chorales clearly establish traditional dominant-tonic relationships as well as others that will aid the student as they develop their own skills to harmonize melody lines.
• Develops aural skills. Chorale playing requires the pianist to be aware of multiple lines at the same time, ensuring that each voice is shaped independently. This attention to various voices increases the student's aural skills.
• Emphasizes the importance of thoughtful fingering patterns. Bach's compositions require careful planning in order to musically navigate the multi-voiced passages. Students find themselves exploring alternate fingerings, finger substitutions, as well as dividing inner voices between the hands as they play these technically demanding works.
• Prepare students for choral accompanying assignments. It seems that one of the most demanding duties of any musician working in an educational setting is providing piano support for voices during choral rehearsals. Many times, the vocal parts can be more technically challenging for the pianist than the actual accompaniment. Bach chorales and their emphasis on voice leading allow the student pianist to develop skills that will be beneficial in similar scenarios.

The Importance of Duets

Last week I joined a dear friend and colleague, Ellen Patrick, to perform at the annual Christmas concert presented by her church. The event was a lot of fun and very relaxed. Ellen and I played Sleigh Ride Duet Fantasy arranged by Zach Heyde and Frank Tedesco. The arrangement was quite nice and rewarding to performers and audience alike. After playing, I began to think back on the role that duets have played in my own life and why I think they are so important.

From the very beginning, my teachers have always had me playing works for piano four-hands as well as works for two pianos. My first public performance was a two piano work -- a concerto that I played on the public school's Christmas recital in 1978. The situation was less than desirable, but the love of playing in ensemble was developed early on and has shaped me ever since.

Why are duets so important?  Here are just a few reasons that I have come up with this week.

• Duets serve as an introduction to other forms of collaboration. Duets present challenges of ensemble that are unique to themselves while also introducing students to universal issues of balance, communication, and blend. Playing with another piano student is not so intimidating since we are all familiar with the instrument's challenges. As pianists become confident in playing in piano ensembles, they are much more willing to venture into chamber ensembles with other instruments.
• Duets are a great way to introduce students to the style and literature of unfamiliar composers. My personal introduction to the works of Rachmaninoff, Poulenc, and Schubert began with the study of their works for four-hands. When I fell in love with Poulenc's music, it wasn't a stretch to look to the four-hand works of Milhaud and Tailleferre. Mozart's duet sonatas were an excellent way to learn about the necessary attention to phrase markings.
• Playing with friends is fun! As a teen, I found myself at a crucial point in my development. I was struggling with some technical issues and my frustration level with the instrument was on the rise. I was ready to walk away from private study for good. Wisely, my teacher recognized my frustration and added duets to my repertoire. Duets traded the grueling work of solitary practice for a social experience. I enjoyed getting to spend time at the piano with a friend while still growing as a musician. Quite simply, I learned to have fun with my instrument again! This fact is still true for me. When I find myself getting tired of working alone in a practice room, I begin to seek chamber opportunities. Sometimes there is nothing better than sight-reading some Schubert duets to fill your soul with laughter and great music!
• Duets expose strengths and weaknesses. While playing with a colleague, I immediately hear things from my partner's playing that I want to improve in my own. Can I play that phrase as lyrically as he does? What do I need to do physically to match the warmth of her tone? I really have to work on those scale passages to match the crispness of his sound! Because my playing will be directly compared to that of my duet partner, many students find themselves practicing more to make sure they are not seen as the weak player in the ensemble.

I love chamber work and have made a career out of it. Even though I love working with singers and instrumentalists, I still find myself longing for a regular diet of piano duets. I miss the joy of making wonderful sounds with a partner at a single piano.

Lessons Learned in the Piano Lab

It's hard to believe that my first semester of teaching class piano has reached the halfway point. I've learned some valuable lessons that I want to make sure I don't forget. Hopefully they will also be beneficial to you as well.

• Just because a student passed the previous section of the course does not mean they are prepared for the material in your course. This lesson has taken me a few weeks to fully understand. Some students advance to the next level by the skin of their teeth. While they have learned how to play pieces for a test, they have not necessarily developed the skills necessary to proceed. These situations raise a complex issue of teaching philosophy:  are assignments tailored to the individual's abilities or is a course-wide standard maintained? If we are tailoring the course to meet students where they are, we are essentially conducting multiple private lessons in a single room. That defeats the purpose of having class piano!
• Class lectures take longer than you think! When I began teaching correct fingering patterns for the C Major scale (two octaves, hands together), I expected it would take no more than 10 minutes. Twenty minutes into class I found myself discussing why fingering matters...and we still had not started the scale. At the opposite extreme, a discussion of functional keyboard harmony that I thought would be more difficult to explain was understood by the students after 5 minutes. 
• Always have supplemental work on hand. It never fails that someone is going to complete an assignment days before the rest of the class. Rather than simply having the student move to the next assignment, it's sometimes good to provide some entertaining music to develop sight reading skills or let students explore improvisation on a given theme. As long as it's not presented as "busy work" the student often appreciates the break from the routine and continues to make valuable progress at the piano.
• Group playing is valuable! Occasionally, it's beneficial to have the students unplug their headphones and play as an ensemble. Whether the class performs a piece in unison or simply runs scales and arpeggios, these group plays allow the students to compare themselves with their colleagues in a non-threatening manner. It also provides an opportunity to experience the joy and challenges of playing in an ensemble.
• Creative assignments can push students beyond their comfort zone. I wanted my students to work on playing a four part chorale setting. Many of them were horrified at the thought of playing from a hymnal. By adding another dimension -- allowing them the freedom to re-harmonize the hymn's melody -- my students launched into learning to play the hymn with excitement and less fear. Technically, some of them weren't entirely prepared to play the four voice hymn; without a doubt, those who completed the assignment reaped tremendous benefits as beginning arrangers as well as pianists.
• Faulty technology can undermine the entire process. Not every teacher utilizes the monitor/communication system commonly found in piano labs. I do and my students have responded positively to the privacy the headphones provide and the extra monitoring they receive from me throughout the hour.  However, when headphones and microphones don't work, students get frustrated. The best way to avoid the frustration is to have clear knowledge of what works in the room and what equipment needs to be repaired or replaced.

When I was first assigned to teach the course, I really didn't think I would enjoy it at all. I viewed it as a resume builder. Now that I have experienced the class first hand and have been given the liberty to experiment, I have really come to enjoy the format and look forward to each class session. I don't have the teaching of class piano down to a science yet, but I definitely plan to continue teaching the course as long as I can.

If you have taught class piano, I would love to hear from you.  What is the one piece of advice you would share with any professional new to the format? What new discoveries have you made recently? 

Why Teach Harmonization at the Keyboard?

I am in my third week of teaching class piano. In many ways, it has proven to be very easy so far. I'm teaching the third semester of a four-term sequence. The students know basic technique and read fairly well on their own. Much of my role right now is providing feedback and direction to help them achieve the course requirements.

When I was first asked to teach the course, I knew that much of the focus would be on building technique and learning repertoire. Still, I knew that I wanted to devote a significant portion of the class to practical harmonization at the keyboard. While I knew that I felt it was important, I had not yet taken the time to express WHY. That's what this post is all about. I think it will be interesting to revisit my thoughts as the semester comes to a close and re-evaluate my decision.

Harmonization involves providing chordal accompaniments to single note melody lines. In the early stages, the chord progressions are provided using both Roman numeral analysis and chord symbols; as the student's skills develop, the focus shifts to generating their own progressions. Is the development of the skill beneficial for the student? My answer is a resounding "YES!"

The process of harmonization reinforces the theory that they are learning. It's one thing to talk about secondary dominants, another to hear them while observing their appearance in scores, and still another to actively apply them in "real world" settings. Additionally, the skill aids the student's awareness of harmonic structure -- an awareness that will prove helpful as they begin to transpose, conduct, or compose.

Since many of my students plan to teach in an elementary setting, the ability to quickly create a plausible accompaniment will be useful. Many music texts for the early grades provide accompaniments that are simplistic to say the least. While they are valid arrangements, it is nice for the modern teacher to have the ability to re-harmonize songs in a way that is more pleasing to their contemporary audience.  The trend of re-harmonizing traditional pieces is also seen in the church -- another area in which my students may find themselves serving. This fact is the inspiration for the major harmony project my classes will explore this semester. Students will select a hymn to play; the first verse will incorporate traditional harmonies while the final stanza will feature their newly imagined harmonic structures. One thing is certain.....it should be interesting!