Key Notes, Creative Steps to Piano Success.* Key Notes, Creative Steps to Piano Success, by Barbara Wing. American Literary Press (8019 Belair Rd., Ste. 10, Baltimore, MD 21236), 2006. 92 pp. $12.95. The collected thoughts and wisdom of an experienced, creative and insightful teacher have been gathered in this charming short book for teachers new and experienced. The first chapter advocates building students' listening skills by having them learn by ear from the beginning of piano study, developing skills in rhythmic rhyth·mic also rhyth·mi·cal adj. Of, relating to, or having rhythm; recurring with measured regularity. rhyth  mi·cal·ly adv. and intervallic reading independently. (The author invites the reader to examine her self-published collections of by-ear pieces and of rhythm and reading exercises, published separately.) Another chapter poses a useful and rich list of questions for students to use for evaluating and directing their own practice. The chapter "Developmental Barriers to Learning" offers advice for dealing with common student difficulties, including short attention span, over-dependence on the teacher, impatience, fear of failure and so forth. This advice is especially helpful for developing lesson plans that involve students in many different ways and that accommodate varying learning styles and personality types. Another chapter suggests productive lesson activities for times when a student has not practiced; yet another gives ideas for creating a "story recital Recital - dBASE-like language and DBMS from Recital Corporation. Versions include Vax VMS. ," exploring musical meaning and building students' creativity and imagination. Most teachers will find something of interest and use in each chapter. By its nature, such a book is more diverse than focused, leaving some areas rich with useful ideas and others more spare. Sections on improvisation improvisation Creation of music in real time. Improvisation usually involves some preparation beforehand, particularly when there is more than one performer. Despite the central place of notated music in the Western tradition, improvisation has often played a role, from the and creating student group games give some ideas for starting but leave the reader wanting more. Chapters on Brahms waltzes and Chopin preludes are interesting for being examples of contrasting approach, presenting technical, harmonic harmonic. 1 Physical term describing the vibration in segments of a sound-producing body (see sound). A string vibrates simultaneously in its whole length and in segments of halves, thirds, fourths, etc. and textural features of the Brahms, while taking a more subjective, descriptive view of the Chopin. In the chapter "Keeping the Love Alive," I sense the author's skill and creativity as a teacher from her ideas about building love, motivation, confidence and ability rather than just teaching repertoire. The suggestions are good and I would love to have more. The author stresses the importance of lesson beginnings and endings; after suggesting ways to start lessons on a positive note, I wish for more ideas about endings, too. In general, the book is better as a reminder for experienced teachers than as a detailed guide for new teachers or pedagogy students. All teachers, though, will find helpful suggestions, insightful perspectives and a pleasant and readable read·a·ble adj. 1. Easily read; legible: a readable typeface. 2. Pleasurable or interesting to read: a readable story. tone.--Reviewed by T.J. Lymenstull, Interlochen, Michigan Interlochen is an unincorporated community within Green Lake Township, Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is noted for the internationally renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts. * The items marked with this symbol can be ordered via the MTNA MTNA Music Teachers National Association MTNA Middle Tennessee Nursery Association (McMinnville, Tennessee) website through our affiliation with Amazon.com. Go to www.mtna.org, click on "Resources and Services" and scroll To continuously move forward, backward or sideways through the text and images on screen or within a window. Scrolling implies continuous and smooth movement, a line, character or pixel at a time, as if the data were on a paper scroll being rolled behind the screen. See auto scroll. down to the Amazon.com section. |
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