reading music
Hymns Arranged for SATB Singing
I have several students who are reading music and want to learn to play hymns from their church’s hymnal that is arranged for SATB singing (see photo for example). I’ve been reading a few related conversations in Simpedia about the process of teaching hymns (most…
Looking at Hands While Playing
A new adult student with a small amount of previous experience told me that it’s hard for her to watch her hands because she took a beginning piano class in college with a teacher who insisted that students never look at their hands and would…
Students Describe Reading
Wanted to share something that’s been working well for me. I have one group of boys in level 7 that moves very quickly. To help them keep at their pace, I gave them an assignment to make a video of them describing the patterns, time…
Reading from a Hymn Book
I have a very motivated adult student who has nearly finished Time for More Music. She is able to figure out what most any piece of music says given enough time. She has a good grasp of intervals and knows what many of the notes…
Compound Time
Advanced Teachers: Talk to me about how to approach teaching compound time is this in relation to any particular piece? For example Greensleeves is in 6/8 and High Five is in 12/8. I would keep the explanation simple to students, but it’s basically dividing the…
Portions of Outside Pieces
Just curious if anyone ever hands your students a portion of a song as a reading project (rather than a whole piece). I’m wondering if it would be a good way to expose them to a song (and be able to hit different genres and…
Music Book to Understand Dotted Notes
Quite relieved after todays lesson with my 7 year old. It is my first time ever to take someone that young through RR. She was previously doing well till we started dotted notes last week and she found them really confusing though the RR material…
Jazz Clues Melody
When you teach Jazz Clues, and students have read the melody… do you give them time to “know” the RH melody so they can play without the page before adding LH? Basically, how do you determine student readiness for the LH clue? I have them…
High School Jazz Bands
I am wondering if anyone here has experience with high school jazz bands. One of my student’s parents emailed me telling me her daughter wanted to try out. She is a very talented student, quick learner, hard worker, etc. But she has only just finished…
Questions from Parents – Trust the Process
I received a few questions today from a mum of a 11-12 year old girl. Because I’m reasonably new to SM, I’d truly appreciate some advice from those of you who are further down the track than me – particularly in regard to reading. Here…