Simpedia

Samali D., Western Australia

Just wanted to share an experience I had with my daughter. She was going through her Playlist and had trouble recalling a small section of Dog?. She tried to figure it out but no luck. Later on that day (whilst I was driving and she was in the front passenger seat), we reviewed the patterns together. This took at the most, 2 mins. The following day she played Dog? Perfectly.

For my daughter I think making the correction at the pattern level rather then at the piano was very valuable. After playing pieces for such a long time it is common for students to be unable to recall the pattern they were shown initially when first grasping the piece.

After my recent experience with my daughter I will make more effort to make corrections (where appropriate) away from the sound of the piece and ask them to reproduce the pattern for me.

After my recent shift of focus in shared lessons to using more of the practice pads, and processing patterns away from the piano, I have had a number of students mount their own pads at home onto wood and process patterns away from their instruments.

I have not asked them to do this. It is a result of their own volition after experiencing the effectiveness of this in the lesson environment. I am now encouraging students to deliberately practice more like this at home, in the car, on their mother’s back, at a table, on their laps etc.