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Thumbs Up!

1/29/2013

My students are starting out strong this year with some extra note-worthy accomplishments. Ritik Goyal earned a superior plus in the Austin District Music Teacher Association Original Composition Contest for his piece, The Dance of the Wind for violin and viola. He now advances to the Texas Music Teacher Association State Level Contest. Another student, Bela, earned a superior on her article, "George Frederic Handel: An Influential Baroque Composer" in the ADMTA local Publication Contest and will also advance to state. Meanwhile, former student Justine Maeurer's composition, Elements, was selected by the Austin Symphony Orchestra for this year's ASO Young Composer's Concert in April--quite an honor for any composer and she's still in high school! Congratulations to all of you for a job well done. Meanwhile it pays to remember what writer Samuel Johnson once said, "Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance." Any creative act requires that perseverance as well as discipline which is nothing but the re-ordering of one's life to make room for something--turning off the video games and sitting down at the piano or desk and putting in time. It also means opening oneself to possibility including the possibility of failure, then charging ahead anyway! I'm proud of all of my students for putting themselves out there and giving it a good try. That takes courage! Bravo, good luck and a big thumbs up!

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How to Learn a New Piece--or Any Complex Task

11/21/2012

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As a piano teacher I know not all of my students will go on to play, teach or compose professionally. But they will encounter tasks that are just as challenging as learning a new piece of music. Over time I have developed my own method of teaching students which, I hope, helps them understand how to learn effectively and quickly. Here are the six main points I teach all students.

1) Brain research has shown that we can only hold about 7 bits of new information in short term memory. (This is why telephone numbers are 7-10 digits long and not 20!) So the best way to learn a piece of music is to break it down into short segments--just one or two measures at a time.

2) New neural pathways depend on repetition to reinforce new information and shift it from short-term to long-term memory. I tell my students that this process is similar to someone taking a short-cut across an un-mown field of grass. If you walk through just once or twice, the grass is not affected. But if you walk back and forth over the same pathway eventually the grass is worn down and a dirt path created. To create a neural pathway in the brain (to learn a new piece of music) you must play many repetitions--correctly. If you repeat mistakes they will become part of the new memory and hard to eradicate.

3) There are many ways 'into' the brain: aural, visual, tactile, etc. The best way to learn something is to use all the senses. So I have students sing note names (A, B, etc), finger numbers, and note types (quarter, half note etc.) as they play the melody, or clap the rhythm of the melody without playing it. To put hands together we 'tap on your lap'--students tap their lap or a table top with both hands 'performing' the rhythm each hand will play in that measure. This allows students to isolate the task of learning to coordinate treble and bass clef parts without being concerned with notes and finger numbers. (Back to point
number 1—limiting how much information you are absorbing at a time.)

4) With every piece I introduce to students, I have them sight-read each hand alone while I play the other hand. This way they practice sight-reading AND learn how the piece should sound before they are able to put hands together. Then we break
the music down into logical small segments. We play the “five times game”.* The student must play that short segment correctly five times in a row. If they make a mistake, they must start over at number one until they play it 5 times correctly. Then we move on to the next segment.

5) Another useful learning tool that students like is what I call the ‘scramble game’. After students know each two measure segment separately, I ‘scramble them’. I point to a two-measure segment and the student must play it. I jump from one two measure group to another out of sequence until the student can play all of them in any order. This teaches students to start in the middle of a piece (something that’s often hard to do!) It reinforces what they’ve learned and starts the process of memorization from the get-go.

6) When the student can play each segment correctly we start to ‘sew’ them together in the correct order. We go back over the piece and create overlapping segments and play the 5 times game until they can play entire phrases with correct fingering, articulation and dynamics. We do this hands alone, then repeat the process when they are ready to put hands together.

Giving students a process for learning and practicing it in the lesson shows them how to practice correctly at home. It also gives students a process for learning not only a particular piece of music but also any complicated task by breaking it
into smaller steps—a skill that’s invaluable throughout their lives. Creating ‘games’ makes it more fun and working together makes it less boring!

*I am indebted to Scott McBride Smith, President and CEO of the International Institute for Young Musicians who described this game along with many interesting facts about memorization in a lecture for the Austin District Music Teacher Association on December 1, 2008. For more information visit their website: http://www.iiym.com/IIYM/Home.html

**Photo from http://www.ehow.com/how_2098380_select-piano-teacher.html

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Theory and Composition: Crucial to the Understanding of Music

10/10/2012

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My students are hard at work this month preparing for the Texas Music Teacher Association Original Composition Contest and Music Theory Exam. For the Composition Contest they compose a piece for soloist or ensemble including a score and CD recording. The local contest deadline is October 15th. Student's who earn a Superior rating are eligible to submit their pieces to the state level contest in January.

The TMTA Music Theory Exam is held at the University of Texas at Austin in early November. Students usually take the exam at grade level. Topics range from basic note-reading and key signature recognition in the early grades to 4-part harmony and composition of simple melodic lines for upper grades. All students must pass rhythmic and melodic dication from the simplest interval recognition to four measure melodies. It's a great way for them to understand not only how to read music fluently but how music is put together.

As a rule I include lots of theory and composition exercises in my lesson plans. It seems strange to me that other teachers don't. We expect students to learn not only how to read but how to write in language arts classes. Why not teach music students not only how to read and analyze music but how to write it as well? Writing music is very much like writing an essay or poem or letter. You take it one note at a time, scribble a draft and refine. Understanding that process is vital to really get inside music. A student who has learned to compose even a simple 8 measure melody will have a much keener understanding of her piano pieces, how music is divided into phrases that relate to each other and create a sense of progress through time. Theory isn't busy work, it's vital to an appreciation of the very nature and structure of music without which it is, to quote Shakespeare, just "sound and fury signifying nothing."

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Lisa Shirah-Hiers

As a composer, pianist, teacher and writer, I believe that each art informs all others and students benefit from a wider and balanced perspective.

Thumbs Up!

How to Learn a New Piece--or Any Complex Task

Theory and Composition: Crucial to the Understanding of Music

Lisa Shirah-Hiers

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