Sonata by Mozart, lyrics by Ima desperate teacher.

One characteristic of a great teacher is the ability to be flexible in the approach used with students--finding 100 ways, as needed, to present the same concepts to different students. Many teachers use lyrics and words to help students solve musical problems. For example, a teacher might sing a student's name, "Ma-ry," to help the student produce a decrescendo in a two-note slur or sing "Go to here" at the point of climax in a phrase. According to Katherine Petree, author of "Tapping Students' Creativity," published in the January 1994 issue of Clavier, Leon Fleisher used the words, "I am the reluctant dragon," to help a student capture the character and articulation in the fugue theme of J.S. Bach's Toccata in C Minor. Additional resources for problem solving may be found in the writings on topics such as learning styles and imagery. Yet even techniques such as lyrics, learning styles and imagery, when used in isolation, can, at times, fall slightly short of the goal. For example, the image for a musical composition can become so second nature that students' minds, again, wander; or students might have clear ideas of what their music needs to communicate and still produce a rhythm incorrectly. Creating lyrics that grow out of imagery can force minds to focus and can assist with solving special problems. I have used imagery-inspired lyrics with both my precollege and college students to:

* Encourage rhythmic accuracy

* Voice the melody

* Assist phrasing and achieve climaxes in phrases

* Produce stronger dynamic contrasts

* Enhance or encourage accuracy in articulation

* Encourage steady tempo (and prevent rushing)

* Strengthen understanding of form and encourage changes in character, mood or color

* Identify, voice and articulate motives in contrapuntal music

* Strengthen mental focus, especially in passages difficult to memorize

Rhythmic Accuracy

A precollege student was preparing the first movement of Sonatina in F, Opus 36, by Muzio Clementi for local MTNA auditions. She had learned and memorized the work, and she created a story of the antics of a bear and a porcupine to solidify her memory and enhance her performance. Nevertheless, one rhythm pattern, which she sight read incorrectly the first week the movement was assigned, remained inconsistent. Using her story as a guide, I created the words, "I will prick you in the nose, now!" for the rhythm pattern, and the problem was solved instantly. (Figure 1)

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Voicing the Melody

I assigned Rhythm Machine by Lynn Freeman Olson to a precollege late-beginning student. He liked the work immediately and played the notes and rhythms accurately at a steady, moderate tempo by the next lesson. His difficulty with the work was that the left-hand ostinato accompaniment overpowered the right-hand melody in measures 9-16 and 27-38. I worked on the voicing technique with the student, and he was, at best, moderately successful, so I tried lyrics. The title and the student's personality inspired, "I have this machine, yeah! I think it's real keen, yeah!" The student and I sang the words as he played the section. He achieved immediate success with the voicing and produced well-shaped musical phrases. (Figure 2)

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Phrasing

One of the nocturne style's most difficult aspects is shaping long, often irregular phrases. I assigned Frederic Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat, Opus 9, No. 2 to one of my freshman piano majors as an introduction to the nocturne style. She conquered the balance issues rather quickly but struggled with phrasing, so I used the work's title and created the following words: "There's calm in the night time, a calm that I do not feel in day time. I dream in the night time, that you will love me just as I love you." The words helped the student produce beautiful phrases. In addition, they also encouraged her to produce a better tone quality and play the work with much more expression and sensitivity. (Figure 3)

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Dynamics

College faculty members frequently use their summers for personal projects, and a few years ago my project was a solo recital program that included Sonata No. 2 in D Minor by Sergei Prokofiev. I spent the majority of each day at the piano and worked in my vegetable garden for exercise and diversion. I was dissatisfied with my execution of the crescendos and decrescendos in the "A Section" of the work's scherzo movement. In an inspirational moment, I decided the work reminded me of the bumblebees bothering me when I was gardening. I quickly penciled in these words:

"Bumblebees, the bumblebees are busy pollinating all the veggies in the garden, oh the bumblebees, the bumblebees are buzzing `round my head, they drive me crazy so I stand and tell them, `Go away, please go away, oh go away, please go away. Oh won't you go, go away and let me pull my weeds, oh won't you go, go away and let me pull my weeds.' Annoying bumblebees, the bumblebees are busy pollinating all the veggies in the garden, oh the bumblebees, the bumblebees are buzzing `round my head, they drive me crazy so I stand and walk away!"

The dynamics ceased to be a problem, the work's character improved dramatically, and I smile every time I play it.

Articulation

A single, specific problem usually inspires my creation of lyrics. Frequently, the lyrics help more than one aspect of the music. Articulation and rhythm improved when I created words for a passage in the first movement of Muzio Clementi's Sonatina in F, Opus 36, No. 4. (Figure 4)

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Tempo

I assigned Edward MacDowell's To A Wild Rose to one of my older adult independent piano students. The student is, by nature, a very nervous person and a perfectionist who tries to play everything up to tempo much too early in the learning process. I created the following words to keep him from rushing the tempo and to make a suggestion regarding larger life issues: "Take your time, take your time, see the roses blooming. Take your time, my friend, don't pass life by." The lyrics worked when I sang the words as he played or when I reminded him to think of them as he played. (Figure 5)

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Form

Igor Stravinsky's Tango reminds me of the Hernando's Hideaway scene in The Pajama Game. To capture the contrast in character and color at the beginning of the "B section," I ceated these words: "We are dancing, to a tango. It's so romantic when you--dip. We are dancing, to a tango. It's elegant unless you slip! Oh, no don't slip now! (Figure 6)

Counterpoint

One of my college piano majors performed J.S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A-flat from WTC I on her junior recital. In the initial learning stages, she played the prelude all legato, too slowly, and was not bringing out motives that occurred in the left hand. Discussing the prelude's character and using the words, "I'm so glad it's Friday!" for the opening motive quickly solved the character, articulation and tempo problems. The words also helped the student voice the motives, even the left-hand ones, successfully and consistently. (Figure 7)

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Memorization and Mental Focus

Occasionally, student and professional performers encounter difficulty as they attempt to memorize repertoire. All students studying applied piano in my studio are required to do some by-memory performance on their end-of-semester juries. Nonpiano majors are required to perform one piece by memory, regardless of their ability level. Memorization at the piano was new to a voice major from New Orleans who studied piano with me. I selected "A Little Blues" by Gayle Kowalchyk and E. L. Lancaster from Alfred's Group Piano For Adults, Book Two. We analyzed the music, discussed and practiced memorization techniques, and she still seemed unable to play the piece without stopping or forgetting some part of it. After yet another problem performance, I used the remainder of the studio class session to enlist the group in creating words for "A Little Blues." These are the results of the group effort:

   "Charlie's gone, Charlie's gone, gone away.
   He's my man, he's my man, now he's gone.
   Why, oh why ... did he go?
   Charlie's gone, Charlie's gone, gone away he won't come back
   no more!" (Figure 8)

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We sang the words as the student played the music by memory, and she performed it without stopping or hesitating. From that moment forward, I asked the student to sing the words in her head every time she attempted to play the piece by memory. She continued to play the piece successfully for her jury at the end of the semester.

I am certain most teachers who genuinely care about their students' progress and want them to be successful have, at one time, used nontraditional or even off-the-wall techniques. This desperate teacher has achieved success with imagery and lyrics when no other traditional technique seemed to work. Ironically, I have benefited as much as my students from using imagery and creating lyrics. It seems I have awakened an aspect of creativity that has been "asleep" since childhood. Furthermore, my own musicianship has grown from applying the same techniques to my personal practice and performance, and my practice sessions are a lot more fun. Perhaps the real lesson to be learned is that when we, as human beings, are willing to put ego or adult sophistication aside to help another person, everyone wins!

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Jackie Edwards-Henry is associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy at Mississippi State University. She holds a B.S. degree in performance from William Jewell College, an M.M. degree in piano pedagogy from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. degree in piano pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma.