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Mark M., New York

Do you know about the Happy Birthday Supplement? It’s part of four Programs, including FL1. Though you’d typically teach the initial FL1 version around Amazing Grace as it uses the same chords/ratio, it can easily be taught earlier, and I’ve done so in cases when a student had a birthday of their own or in their family prior to getting to FL1 Amazing Grace. If it will be done earlier, I feel like it’s possibly best to teach it after Honey Dew, because then they’ve had a chance to get the intro exposure to what accompaniment is, etc. But if you really want to do it earlier, yes, you could teach it after Jackson Blues because of that piece having introduced C/F/G chords, or you could teach it earlier than that if you really wanted, just knowing that you’d have to introduce all the appropriate elements from scratch without relying on the ways in which Jackson, Honey Dew and/or Amazing Grace have Foundation materials to support the needed concepts.

Leeanne I., Australia

Yes, I have the Happy Birthday supplement. Sorry, I should have specified in my question that I was talking about the simple Accompaniment version. Thanks for your answer, Mark.

Mark M., New York

Leeanne I did figure one way or other you were referring to the basic Accompaniment version, and that’s definitely what I was referring to in my first comment 👍

I think you’ll be the best judge of how effective you think you could be if you tried to teach it without precursor knowledge from one or more of those other FL1 projects.

The situation potentially — only potentially — raises the question about the extent to which you’re willing to compromise the Curriculum for the sake of a student’s preferences, and potentially — only potentially — the extent to which this student/family may claim territory in asking/expecting you to cater to the student’s preferences. And these questions may be relevant independent of the special needs situation — or they may be relevant only in conjunction with that situation.

I haven’t taught many special needs students, and those I have taught were mostly very high functioning with little if any need for me to alter the way the Curriculum is delivered. You’re the one to assess how much that comes into play here. If the special needs situation warrants going slower than more typical students, I suppose that could be an argument for *not* compromising the Curriculum, since you may have extra reason to want to ensure proper foundational/scaffolded unfolding of content to build the student’s skills. You’re the judge here.

That said, given the nature of the basic FL1 Happy Birthday accompaniment, I think one could at the very least say that teaching it as early as immediately after Honey Dew is *not* a compromise of the Curriculum in any meaningful way. When I’ve done that (and I have), I’ve taught it in Honey Dew position, meaning LH finger 1 on Bass C. This way it’s the simplest and most direct way to learn it based on Honey Dew, where all that’s new are the 1:3 ratio (very very easy after having done Honey Dew’s 1:2) and the different order of the C/F/G chords. Then, later, when we get to Amazing Grace, I make an extra point of noting the new LH position with finger 5 on Low C, and I explicitly reassign Happy Birthday to be reworked in the new “Amazing Grace” position. I don’t personally see any of this as any real kind of compromise. Anything prior to Honey Dew is arguably more of a genuine compromise, which could still be reasonably surmounted as described earlier with the proper support/explanations. You judge what’s right for a given student.

Leeanne I., Australia

Yes, she is high functioning and attends a “normal” school. Her mother plays the piano but thinks a playing-based method will suit her daughter more than traditional styles. I was thinking of teaching Happy Birthday after Jackson Blues and before Honey Dew.

Mark M., New York

Leeanne I think you could clearly do that, as I’ve been saying. I would note, though, that that would be harder to do than Honey Dew going first. Yes, we could say it’s only 3 chords instead of 4, so isn’t that easier? I argue no: Honey Dew by design is easy for finding all the chords — down 2, down 2, up 1. Dealing with only C/F/G before Honey Dew it would be harder to find the F&G from the C. Obviously doable with the right explanations, Controlling the Events, etc. But this is the specific reason why I believe that teaching it any earlier than *after* Honey Dew cnn be argued to, in fact, compromise the logic of the Curriculum.

At the very least, if I were going to try to teach it before Honey Dew, I would:

1) Use the Honey Dew position LH finger 1 on Bass C, so that the transition is as effortless as possible to Honey Dew. Save the LH 5 on Low C position for Amazing Grace’s proper Foundation support materials and rework the piece at that time in the new position as I mentioned.

2) Set up the project in the exact same way you’d set up Honey Dew, using that project’s non-numbered “Discussion Topic – About Accompaniment” video chapter and having the associated conversation during lesson time, all prior to actually getting into the teaching of the piece, exactly as we would do these things prior to getting into the actual teaching of Honey Dew.

Kerry V., Australia

Depends on the special needs and to what level. So, depending on that, if the child is ‘fully functioning’ then having them learn the basics will be great as you will learn their concentration levels, their ability to catch on or not, and their willingness or ability to follow your instructions.

When i’ve had students like this, and the song was out of their league i would play the song for them some time during the lesson. At the beginning if they were out of sorts. In times of lower concentration or at the end to simply have fun.

Sometimes i would start showing them how to play it, but that, again, was when necessary during the lesson

The main thing is to find out their level of willingness and ability to follow instructions etc to determine how far you go with it.

I also had them improvise over the backing of the song. This brought huge smiles to their faces as they could still hear the song but felt they were also participating in creating it.

Have fun with it and remember, you are still the teacher and learn from them where they are at to guide them where you know they will benefit more from. Once you give SN’s an opening they can be in control, it takes a lot to bring them back in to being the student again.