Piano Teaching Methods
There is lots of piano teaching method and each
one has its strengths and
weaknesses. Now, I am going to inform you about the
most common three methods
for children – Alfred, Suzuki, Amadeus. First of
all, the Alfred method uses
visual things such as colored pictures and
graphics – using software, compact
discs, and /or cassettes is the newest
updated one in this method ("Piano
Teaching Method" 1). As you know, a
picture is the greatest friend to children
and it helps them, even adults
like us, to understand something a lot easier.
Additionally, it could
grab children’s attention more easily and quickly than
a verbal explanation.
For example, you can make a little card to show the scale
or the relationship
between notes. It is going to be helpful because students
can look at it over
and over. If you add colors or some pictures to that, it
also would be
helpful to get students’ interest. This method gives students
strength in
reading intervals and seeing "the intervalic relationship between
notes"
("Piano Teaching Method" 1). However, it might cause students to
play by
totally "relying on position playing" instead learning how to read
the notes
because it uses "the concept of position playing" ("Piano
Teaching
Method" 1). In other words, students memorize the hand position –
fingering –
but not read the notes. And some people point out that "the
major composers
should be presented to the students at a much earlier stage than
is typical
in this method" ("Piano Teaching Method" 2). This method is
recommended for
very beginning teachers who need a certain prepared lesson plan
to follow and
once the teachers become more comfortable and get to know about
different
methods, they are urged to "expand from this method" ("Piano
Teaching
Method" 2). The Suzuki method – you probably heard this concept a
lot. This
method was applied to teaching violin originally by Dr. Shinichi
Suzuki
but it now is applied to piano teaching also (Mills et al ed. 1).
The
Suzuki method approaches playing piano with "listening and
development of ear
and the memory" rather than reading music (Mills 114).
This method relies on
playing by ear so that students become more sensitive
about the tone they
produce and it makes student concentrate more on their
playing, and become more
expressive with the music (Mills 114; "Piano
Teaching Method" 4). In The
Suzuki Concept, the author indicates that
"after the good playing habits have
been established, reading comes a little
later" (114). However, the students
trained by this method could lack reading
music skill because they depend too
much on playing by ear ("Piano Teaching
Method" 4). For me, the most
interesting teaching method is the Amadeus
method. The concept of this method is
that the teacher should give a lesson
to children by playing with music as
children play with toys (Back and Lee
25). The author remarks that teaching how
to read the notes is not a first
step (Back and Lee 25). In The Piano Teaching
Method To Make The Best
Student, the author describes that in this method, the
teacher should guide
children to be familiar with music by their sense of
playing, and help
children to feel and express music through their bodies (25).
In this
method, the easiest and the most recommended thing for teachers is to
have
children sing (Back and Lee 24). By doing that children could learn
musical
factors such as phrasing. Through this method, children can enjoy
learning piano
more and become familiar with music gradually and
unconsciously (Back and Lee
26). I believe that unconscious learning
process is the strongest advantage the
students can get from this method. But
as a teacher, you have to be always aware
of the lesson plan, otherwise this
method might end up just as playing instead
of teaching (Back and Lee 26).
Therefore, teachers should always prepare the
curriculum carefully. As I
mentioned above, there are strengths and weaknesses
in each method. As a
piano teacher, you should be knowledgeable about many
different methods and
use them according to the student’s needs. You can’t
just insist on one
particular method because each of your students’ learning
style will be
different. I believe that the role of a teacher is to find out the
best
methodology for his or her students. Teachers should be flexible
with
different methods of teaching.
Bibliography
Back, Ki-Pung,
and Bong-Ki Lee. The Piano Teaching Method to Make the Best
Student.
Seoul: Jak Eun Woo Li, 1993. Mills, Elizabeth, et al ed. The
Suzuki
Concept. Berkeley: Diablo Press, 1973. Piano Teaching Methods. The
Piano
Education Page.