The Importance of the Method



		Introduction Foreword from the Teachers Manual Methods in Perspective The purpose of Music lessons How a Method can go wrong Comparison of Methods Description of the Curriculum The Importance of the Metronome				How a Method Can Go Wrong Modified Musical Ideas: Over the years, modern methods have grossly diluted classical methods in one or more of these ways: • An emphasis on a creative presentation. • One aspect of music stressed to become a method of its own.\| • Theoretical concepts modified or omitted. • Limited explanation of technical development. In addition, musical ideas are broken apart into isolated musical facts, which are spread out over several books in a disjointed fashion, thus making concepts impossible to understand. Consequently, any one method is unable to supply what teachers need for giving thorough instruction. An Eclectic Approach: Many teachers use a variety of methods, taking the best ideas from each. Others add supplements that are age appropriate or of personal interest to the student. Some teachers use whatever the student brings. However, these solutions do not result in a coherent teaching strategy that is proven to work. Organizing a lesson plan for piano study from many resources by one’s self is an enormous amount of work and a great responsibility. It takes years of experience to know how to coordinate technical development, or to learn all the ways that information can be misunderstood. Familiar Songs for Learning: The Method itself can cause a conflict to learning if it uses familiar songs to introduce new ideas. When pieces are familiar, students are drawn spontaneously to play them; when learning new or unfamiliar pieces, students must draw on critical thinking. Familiar music used for the purpose of teaching creates an internal battle between the sensation of listening for the melody and the discipline of reading the symbols. To protect students from this conflict and to achieve better results, familiar tunes should be supplementary and practiced at first at a slower speed than the melody can be imagined. Thus eliminating the temptation to play superficially by ear or by memory. "One should not give [the student] minuets or other melodious pieces which remain easily in his memory, but should give him at first pieces in which he has to observe all that is necessary for him to know and to read at sight...[the student] is obliged therefore to show whether or not he has understood the rules which have been taught him. He will otherwise accustom himself to play by ear and at random." Leopold Mozart Delayed Reading: Once lessons begin, students must learn to read music as a means to acquire musical knowledge. Music is read with music symbols that represent keys on the keyboard, their time value, and how they are played. These music characters are the only means by which students can learn facts and skills in a timely way, and avoid the transitions and remedial work experienced by students who play before starting to read. Anyone old enough to read is old enough to read music. If students play by methods that delay staff reading (sometimes a whole book or series will do this) they become fixed on that way and will be jarred when it is necessary for them to transition from the alternative associations they have made. Teachers should not impose this delay on students. Students must begin reading notes right from the start. For no reason should they waste this valuable learning time playing by rote, imitation, substitute notation, or hand positions and premature application of chordal harmony.