Upper Levels and Memorizing Pieces
Found in: Practicing & Playlists, Reading
Cheryl G.
How important is it to play the upper level songs by memory? I have found the songs beginning in Level 8 to be more difficult to remember. Even with Canon in D (Level 7) many students have a hard time remembering, even though it’s very pattern-based. Is it okay to learn and to play these from the music and not from memory? Or let me put it this way – if after many weeks of working on a piece, if it is not able to be played well by memory, can it be played solely from the music?
Because many of the upper level songs are more complicated, the older songs are being ignored and forgotten. There is only so much practice time to learn the new material, especially when students begin to do supplemental reading assignments. And only so much lesson time to review older songs at home and during the lesson. I feel bad when we’re in Level 6 or 7 and a students can’t remember Shoo-fly or Sit by My Side, but there’s so little time to review, and a reluctance to go back and watch the video. There’s just so much to do!
Joanne J., Australia
1st question: Playing the upper level songs by memory or not and the difficulties?
The whole reason for me pursuing Simply Music was to be free and confident on the piano without the music so to let that skill become secondary in the higher levels would be negating the whole exercise. For me the visual connection to the actual keyboard is everything and anything I can do to keep that alive and well for myself and my students
is pure gold.
It certainly takes more effort than it has done to date because the pieces are longer and more complicated but it is the next ‘neck of the bottle’ stage that allows us to enter yet a more satisfying time in our musical experience. These upper levels really enable us to put into practice all the skills we have been introduced to to date, consolidate them and take ownership of them. This doesn’t mean each and every piece needs to be kept alive via the playlist – the enormous value is in the exercise of bringing it to that stage of choice. Reading music is a fantastic skill but it is not the end goal – PLAYING is. Reading music simply allows us access to huge amounts of material to choose from that, as Simply Music teachers/students we can then map onto the keyboard and take with us wherever we go.
You mentioned ‘Canon in ‘D’, this is a prime example of how easy it is to have our focus on the written music and move through the piece too quickly rather than being patient and taking the time to ‘map out’ the journey and absorb it (the changes in fingering can also be a factor if the chord positions are left behind too soon). I fell into that trap at first – focusing on the music and not the tools – and was frustrated that I couldn’t remember it easily. I then unfolded it step by step in the SM way and found it dead easy to actually know its journey after all and a joy to have any time anywhere and not trapped on the page. It was a very valuable exercise in experiencing the difference in results between traditional (focus on music) as opposed to Simply Music (focus on using the ‘tools and strategies’).
This brings me to another pivotal point I have discovered: we bring our students to this stage and then start talking to them about ‘mapping’ tools etc and they look at us as though we are talking a foreign language. We have had our focus on the tools we are using to teach them while their focus has been on the result of applying it and they haven’t
a clue what we are talking about. Having realised that the tools and strategies used to learn all their songs had become ‘invisible’, and having tried several approaches to address this without much success, I have started using jumbo pop sticks to identify them all – they pick 2 or 3 and tell me what songs they were used in.
To bridge the gap for students already at that stage I have given each of them a list of these to use at home to become thoroughly familiar with them and to make their own pop sticks – the parents have been extremely grateful for this to enable them to continue to support their more advanced children. My students in the lower levels are now adding the tool/strategy used for
each song on the other side of the playlist pop sticks so when they pick them out at home they can continue to be as conscious of them as the piece itself. For those that don’t use pop sticks for their playlist I am getting them to at least use them for the tools and strategies. It is early days yet but so far I am finding it to be a great asset and anticipate that those doing it in the earlier levels will have a more conscious awareness of the ‘way of learning’ we are teaching them that will enable a smoother transition to self generating from the page in the higher levels.
2nd question: Keeping up with the heavier load!
There is definitely more effort required for students in the higher levels to maintain their playlist along with all the other aspects of the program, (“but isn’t it exciting that they have graduated from ‘primary school’ to ‘high school’ in their musical journey and with the extra effort they will gain so much more satisfaction and have so many more choices in what they can play”!!!) At least once they have completed the Level 1 Reading programs they can choose which pieces to retain on their playlist to keep their 40 or so pieces alive so this lessens the load and keeps their interest. There is also no need to be rushing to cover all the different streams at the same time. Take a little breather, perhaps put some things on hold. Speaking from personal experience we can get so excited about all the possibilities that we can push ourselves too fast as well as our students and the pressure spoils the journey and has a profound impact on the result.