Polyphony.

Q. How do you help students learn to play "into the keys," particularly in passages with soft dynamics? I find that this problem affects students' ability to play legato when soft, and I would like some strategies or images to use when working on this.

A. For piano students to be able to play "into the keys" with some finesse, they should have developed some skill controlling nuance. I often suggest teaching this to beginning and elementary students within the five-finger patterns, with a goal to play each five-finger pattern beautifully as a phrase, with a slight crescendo going up and decrescendo coming down. Found here is the beginning of isolation of the fingers and differentiation of the sound in the playing from an aural image. At this stage, one assumes the student plays with a hand position that supports the finger joints (avoiding caving in of the joint nearest the tip of the finger) and plays fingers from the bridge of the hand (I often have students wave the hand to demonstrate to them an example of fingers working simultaneously from the bridge of the hand).

Once I am sure the student does not, as a rule, "hold weight in the key"--that is, continue to depress a key with more weight needed than simply to hold the weight of the key down once it is played--more advanced techniques can work for the student. Again, some control of tone is a pre-requisite. The most effective way for many of my students to play softly is to set a slightly firm hand. For the soft passages, a firm fingertip is firm not tense. I have heard of teachers who say, "p (in a music score) stands for 'project.'" I sometimes ask a student to, "play to [or feel] the bottom of the key." And, I have heard it said to a student to "get down into the key" or "dig in the sand" to help a student play more in the keys. Still important is that the wrist remain loose. Slight motion of the wrist toward the outside of the hand as the finger plays helps achieve a richer more controlled tone.

While the original question did not address beginning students, it can be helpful with beginners to remember that the fingers, hand and wrist work in tandem while playing five-finger patterns and learning to control the sound.

Q. How can I tell if I am asking too many questions while teaching? I have been told that the answers lie in the student, and we need to let them discover answers for themselves through our questioning techniques in the lesson.

A. How true your statement is with respect that we want students to discover points for themselves. The issue of discovery learning is an essential aspect of teaching. This technique must be used at the right time in a teaching sequence, however. Effective teaching involves giving instructions to a student at a certain point and also leading the student to discover and verbalize what has been gained or experienced when the student has been successful.

If, after asking a student several questions he still plays a passage incorrectly or does not arrive at the desired sound, the questions probably were not effective. And then if after several more questions from the teacher, the student still does not achieve success, this would be even more of an indication that the questioning is not working. The techniques may not be right at this point for the student, or the series of questions used was not helpful.

For a student to learn something, instruction first needs to be given. Then through questioning, teacher and student can derive what happened that was successful. By asking questions without initial instruction, the student may wander aimlessly to the desired result or may never achieve it.

First, a concept needs to be experienced through teaching. Then from the successful sound or playing, principles are derived. Those principles can be discovered through carefully sequenced questions for the student. In this way, the student knows what to do to apply the skills learned to similar passages or pieces. Referring back to the discussion about "playing into the keys" earlier in this column, sometimes a student may benefit most by being instructed to "make the fingertips firm" as a skill to play softly into the keys. A long sequence of questions of the student to get her to discover this the first time in her playing may not be a successful tactic.

Q. What are some constructive ways to deal with frustrating parents?

A. From time to time, most teachers could see things from the teacher's viewpoint, and yet the parental view sometimes can provide illuminating information that can ultimately help the child with music study. I would like to share with you a technique that Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish offer for working out a student problem via conversation between teacher and parent. This technique can be found in the chapter "The Parent-Teacher Relationship" from their engaging book How to Talk so Kids Can Learn and the sequence below is based on their work. (1) They propose the following when talking with a parent about a problem: instead of starting with something that is wrong, start by describing something right about the child. For example, the child may not be practicing consistently during the week: the teacher might start the conference by stating something positive about the student, such as, "I enjoy Susie's expressive playing." The parent is then more likely to respond with information that can be helpful such as, "Susie liked the new pieces that you assigned her."

Now, the teacher follows by describing what the child needs to do rather than point out what the child has not done. For example, the teacher could then say, "Susie needs to practice more consistently rather than only practice a lot before the lesson." At this point in the conversation, the parent and teacher share information about the child. The teacher can benefit from learning about the child's likes and dislikes from the parent's viewpoint. The parent could perhaps say, "She used to play the piano everyday, but now she is frustrated because the pieces have become so much more difficult." In response, the teacher would also give information, such as: "I see her making simple mistakes quite often."

At the fourth stage in this conversation, the two parties describe what has worked at home or in school. Following the example we use here, the parent might reveal, "She is working in structured steps at home to master her gymnastics routine and has been making steady process." The teacher may then follow with, "I notice that she talks about the progress she has made recently in gymnastics."

At this point, the teacher and parent develop a plan together. From the parent's perspective, instead of giving up on the child, the parent wants to develop a plan with the teacher. The teacher thus might discover, from what has come out before, information she can use to help the student in future lessons. The teacher might say, "I'll talk to Susie about different ways to practice, and point out the importance of daily practice and building steps in the practice the way she is doing in gymnastics." The parent: "And I'll be sure that she dedicates daily time to practicing the piano."

The conference should then end with a positive statement that can be repeated to the child. "Tell Susie that I have confidence in her abilities and know she'll feel rewarded with a feeling of quick progress through these new practice ideas." At this point both parties follow through with the plan.

While the skill of working with the parent to develop a solution collaboratively can seem difficult, the sequence of events proposed by Mazlish and Faber for such a conversation can help ensure a plan where neither party becomes intimidated or feels criticized by the other. The parent-teacher partnership needs to be a strong one for the benefit of the child involved.

Q. How is the best (easiest) way to teach the rhythm three against four?

A. For a student to play cross rhythms, such as three against four between the hands, with the three in the right hand and four in the left hand, for example, the student first needs to play with a solid pulse in the individual passages hands separately. For the student to be able to play with the sense of the pulse in a measure is essential at this stage. Slight metric accents or stresses depicting strong and weak beats of the meter need to play separately many times, at several tempi, successfully demonstrating the strong/weak beat inflections in the measure(s).

Ultimately, one part, probably the accompaniment left hand part, needs to be played with an easy flow and close to optimal tempo, and then the right hand placed with it, so that strong beats synchronize and other notes fall into place. If the passage is an extended one of three against four, it can be practiced first in shorter groupings, with the later groups chained onto the successful performance of the first measure(s).

NOTE

(1.) Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, "The Parent-Teacher Partnership," How to Talk So Kids Can Learn (New York: Scribner, 2003), 229-262.

By Jane Magrath, NCTM 

Jane Magrath, NCTM, is internationally known as a pianist, author, clinician and teacher. She is professor and director of piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.