Spiderman and Pedagogy
|
Master Class with Mr. James Agnoson
|
What do Spiderman and a master class with Mr. James Anagnoson have
in common? Inspiration to help my students become better listeners to
their music.
I hope your teaching year is going well. Sometimes
when you start new classes you wonder about the dynamics between
students, parents and myself. This year has turned out to be a
delight. Smart kids, excited parents, (they come on time) and for the
most part students come ready to play and learn. But hand position and
tone is always an issue I repeat week after week.
I was shopping at
Hallmark and saw this cute little Spiderman stuffy, his head is just the
right size to have a young student place their hand over his head to
show how their hand should be in "spider finger position" when they play
piano. Spidey is a great success, the boys love him, but by the time
they move from Spidey to the piano and start playing all hope of a good
hand position is gone.
Then I sat in on a master class with
Dr. James Anagnoson,
Dean of the Glen Gould School of Music in Toronto. Not only did I come
home to the studio inspired but ready to approach my teaching a little
differently. Slow Practice, Slow Practice; I knew that but sometimes
you just need to hear it again. He stressed body position while sitting
on the bench some of my students seem to grow 2 inches every week, I
need to help them be aware of how they sit by moving the bench back.
Their feet can now be flat on the floor instead of swinging or cross
legged (horrors). Helping the student to listen to the tone and quality
of a note or passage when played in a hand position that produces it,
hence Spiderman's job is sitting at the piano to remind them. Fixing
fingering to get a better tone and quality sound out of the piano and
playing a passage for them then placing their hand on mine while I play
the same passage, helping them to hear and feel their piece. I like to
choose a varied group of pieces from easy to hard that will help them
accomplish all these things.
And then a little practice incentive to encourage all these things.
In comes
Wendy of Compose Create to create the incentive that was perfect for this season.
She posted a free resource that has four thermometers on it, each
thermometer represents a different goal for the students to accomplish.
I'm using it this Christmas season to help students with their
Christmas song. Under each thermometer a different aspect of the song
that is to be accomplished: articulation, technique, dynamics, artistry,
memory etc. You can write whatever is appropriate for a particular
child. My advanced students received all four thermometers and the
younger ones got one or two. We colour the thermometer each week to
show their progress as we prepare for Christmas recital.
I
love it when I'm encouraged by attending a seminar and great ideas from
other teachers come together to help me be a better teacher.
Have a wonderful teaching season leading up to Christmas and I hope you are inspired by these few ideas.
Have a wonderful weekend
Lois Dicknoether
Solo Time Music Games
