2023 MTNA Ohio Conference: Notes for Parents and Students
If you have time and interest, below is a synopsis from some of the workshops that I attended at the MTNA conference. I thought these particular notes might interesting and beneficial to parents and students. I am trying to summarize some information that parents and students who don’t have a lot of experience in music might find interesting and readable (not requiring a high degree of expertise and experience).
Successful Piano Teaching Tips for Young Children – With Amy Immerman, co-owner of Cincinnati Music Academy. I loved this workshop! I felt like Amy is a kindred spirit in how she approaches the piano with children. About 90% of what she talked about, I already am doing in my teaching and the other 10% I hope to incorporate soon! Hearing Amy talk about working with children and the piano encouraged me about the direction that I've gone after years of teaching. It was exciting to me to hear from another teacher who is approaching music thoughtfully with child development in mind. My educational philosophy has a lot of parallels to Amy's approach. While not every student is going to end up on stage as a career-musician, “Every student IS EXTRAORDINARY! I truly believe that and I believe that for every student there can be a truly valuable and enjoyable connection with music as they participate in it. Music lessons can be a valuable part of childhood and music might prove to be a gift that carries on throughout one’s entire life. There are even people over 100 years old still playing the piano! The workshop presenter, Amy, once saw a quote on a t-shirt that she shared: “Childhood is a journey not a race.” I agree. I aim to teach my students real musical skills - the same ones that artists in many genres have developed. However, exactly when those skills become mastered for any given student will be different. Not all students will ultimately reach the same level and achievement either - but level and achievement are not the ultimate goal or aim - healthy and enjoyable music involvement is. Amy also mentioned how the physical skills are partly developmental and that can vary greatly with children too – I agree! That is something to keep in mind and sometimes what we adults might interpret as a lack of interest isn't that at all. it might actually indicate a developmental area that needs to develop first - and the piano can assist in a student's growth in that area!
Kodaly – Dameon D. Jones, music teacher at Hopewell Elementary School in Dublin. Daemon discussed the benefits of the Kodaly approach to musical development. I use the rhythmic side of Kodaly in my teaching and it is widely used in schools (if you hear us clapping/patting and saying “ta” and “ti-ti” - that’s Kodaly). I have not incorporated solfege (singing Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do) into lessons largely due to time constraints. If that is something you are interested in, I would recommend working through the online piano lessons (in order) on Youtube that are under the Hoffman Academy. They are pedagogically sound and include solfege. I might also be able to recommend some online ear training courses to you. (I am currently researching the RCM online ear training course.) College music students do learn solfege as part of their aural training classes.
Forum – Teachers from private studios as well as college faculty discussed all sides of teaching the piano. Here are some take-aways about finding practice time for busy students that may be helpful to you:
Students who are in lots of extracurricular activities may need parent help with finding time to practice.
Ideas for Parents:
a) Treat it as schoolwork, tell your student to practice first, then they can play.
b) Interleave practice with schoolwork. Work on homework for a bit then take a break from it by practicing.
c) One now-grown pianist said her mom would ask every night after dinner: “Do you want to wash the dishes or go practice?” She said she got out of a lot of doing dishes!
d) Many teachers advocated for incentivizing practice.
Masterclass with Spencer Meyer – Keynote Artist Spencer Meyer, Professor at Indiana University, gave three high-school students feedback on their playing. One topic that came up several times was hand position. In general, he kept encouraging students not to play with flattened fingers or with wrists that are too low. He emphasized that the wrist should never drop below the key bed. Parents, your child will almost certainly take at least a few months to develop the ability to play with rounded fingers and firm fingertips. During that time, however, they most certainly can keep their wrists above the key bed! Children (and adults) should not be playing with their wrists below the keys. Parents, that may mean that you need to raise your child's bench/chair at home so that their hands can be comfortably above the key bed (Ask me about Linda Ladybug! )It is relatively common that children try to rest their palms/wrists on the board/plastic area in front and just below the keys. Do not let them do this! Children absolutely will not develop the muscles that are needed even to move beyond the most beginner level of playing if they don’t keep their wrists up. Faster progress will ultimately come about if they keep their wrist up and the hand can grow accustomed to the position and work involved in playing.
Muscle Memory – Friend or Foe – Spencer Meyer, Keynote Artist for the Conference, Professor at Indiana University. This high-level concert artist believes that for him to perform the difficult music he does on stage from memory, 80% of his memory is ‘muscle memory’ (meaning, your body has learned the sequence of movements), but 20% of his memory is what he called ‘mental solidity’. He said he does have memory slips on stage and that everyone does. When he has a memory slip on stage, he tries to let the muscle memory take over. That means that he is not 'first' relying on muscle memory, but that he has learned his piece in other ways to commit it to memory solidly and then muscle memory takes over the rest of the performance. In order to develop the 20% side of his memorization he says it is important to find ways to practice that really engage the brain. Mr. Meyer went through a list of ways to practice that really get the brain engaged - which I will bullet point below. In my own training to play flute in a professional orchestra, I have experience with applying the majority of these in my own practice, and I know that they are effective. These are good practice techniques, even if you are not memorizing your music. When it is the right time for a student to use these techniques for practice, I will teach and incorporate them! For beginners though, these aren’t always as applicable. Also, to really understand how to do these practice techniques listed below, you would definitely benefit from working with an expert musician/teacher to apply these correctly. Be careful of how you interpret these bullet points solely from this list and on your own without expert advice!
1) Slow practice
2) Inconsistent tempos
3) Alternating rhythms
4) Skipping around
5) Different dynamics and interpretation
6) Changing voicing
7) Ultimate unnerving practice! Remove your hands partway through playing and continue the piece in your mind – then jump back in
8) Harmonic analysis
9) Visual
10) Aural
11) Physical
12) Practicing performing – he included recording in this. (It is one of the reasons that I do record students in the studio!)
During the Q and A time, a few things were said that I very much agree with as well, and one in particular is very applicable for some students I work with, (especially children) – you MUST learn all of the notes of the song first, then memorize afterward. Some young students try to memorize too early by playing by ear and relying on their ear – but that is not reliable or accurate memorization. Make sure you watch the Piano Safari videos and read your music!
Barriers to entry for composing (composing is writing your own music) – Matthew Kennedy Assistant Professor of Composition at Heidelberg University. Before students learn to read and write music, they could try graphic notation. Parents, get out a blank sheet of paper and sit down at the piano with your child. Be creative together and make some sounds. Then, starting at the left side of the paper and working right, add visuals to represent the sounds that you made. You can continue adding to this. For an example of how you might do this see Piano Safari Repertoire Book One p. 82
Piano Physics 101 – Richard Van Dyke – Keyboard Area Coordinator at Northern Kentucky University. He talked about sound waves and the overtone series. Parents and students, if you remember last year, I spent about three weeks demonstrating and talking about the ‘science of sound’ with my students. We opened up the piano to see more clearly how the sound is produced and to begin to learn and think about what sound is. It is useful to understand some of the physics of sound in order to play an instrument well!
I hope you have found some food for thought from learning about part of what was shared at the 2023 MTNA Ohio Music Conference.
Best wishes for your musical flourishing!
Christine, FFMS Owner/Teacher
