28_Twinkle Lessons: Learn by Heart, Play by heart

At this time it is important to review, absorb, and finish. It is the end of the school year physically, mentally, and emotionally. The goal to the end is to be doing the most important learning in the present moment.

In the last blog I discussed the importance of Transfer in Learning. The students are in the process of transferring the ability they have developed in their Twinkles to the Right Hand pieces. Additionally, they are acquiring the left hand skills with very little instruction because they are transferring the learning from the Right Hand.

Also important in the development of ability is the contextual variety or differences in the pieces. For example, Clair de Lune and Long Ago both start with the first note repeated and then go up from the Do to the Re. Another example which is coming up for the students is Little Playmates and Allegretto II which begin with the same notes and same basic rhythm.
This challenges the student to differentiate between the two songs. Through repeated listening and practice they will be able to do this easily without confusion. This is the natural outcome of pattern recognition development that is discussed in the blog Ability Development and Pattern Recognition. This is done first aurally, then physically, and they also may be using some mental discriminators such as Clair de Lune has 3 repeated notes and Long Long ago has 2 repeated notes. By memorizing the aural patterns and connecting them physically and mentally they are internalizing patterns in a very different way from students who learn to read symbols and depend on the visual cue to "know" which notes to play. So, in addition to developing the ability to recognize patterns, we are developing the ability to understand the relationships between those patterns much like putting together words and sentences. They are able to "speak" and thus have a fluency and security in their playing. This is a much deeper knowledge/ability than having a piece "memorized."

Through playing the disc many hours each day we provide the most important part of the process for the child to be able to learn all of these skills.
It's amazing really how complex it is what they have to learn, contrasted with how simple it is to provide the right environment for natural learning.

After the student can play the correct notes with accuracy and tone it is important to help them keep the steady beat. The easiest way to do this is to continue to sing the solfege - not to help them find the notes or fingering -but to help them keep from slowing down or speeding up. At lessons I do this by playing with the student. Also we are working on deep and light sounds. This is the same as natural inflection in speech. It is good to mark the places where I am demonstrating deep and light sounds in your score and then you can sing in that same way at the home practice. This will help them to feel the beat and rhythm, and thus will help their music have "feeling". This is discussed in more detail in the blog "On the rhythm"

At the beginning of year I wrote "Fertilizing the roots" which refers to the idea of reinforcing the most basic concepts upon which the framework of learning is developed.
The roots have been fertilized well. The students have good posture, and good ready position.The students can produce a good tone and move their fingers. They understand how to listen to singing/playing and copying the sound. They can play many pieces, and are learning the left hand. They have their unique preferences and abilities too. This is also natural and part of individual sensibility that teachers and parents must always be aware of. Dr. Kataoka's book Sensibility and Education is a wonderful book to have and to read.

Now is a good time to affirm everything that they can do when they play piano. The concept of affirmation is presented in the blog "Affirm, Motivate, and Inspire" and is one of the Seven Principles of Core Education. This affirmation will help them understand on the emotional level (without the need for external rewards) how much they have really learned this year. As they practice, point out all of the skills they can do. It is not necessary to say that they are "good" or even "did a good job", but only to affirm what they can do. Also, please affirm the process such as "you are able to do that spot 10x now" . That is the most important point to bring to their awareness now. Intrinsically, they will grow from this understanding. Emotional growth is part of Integral Learning which is written about in this blog: Twinkle Lessons: Integral Learning.

In January 2009 I wrote an article on integral learning to the teachers in Philadelphia before traveling there to teach. Here is an excerpt from that blog which is relevant to the point we are at now:

Dr. Suzuki's famous quote "Character then ability" points to the recognition of developing the emotional and spiritual quadrants. In fact, the whole true way of "Talent Education" is to enable the student to develop physically, emotionally and spiritually as well as mentally.

"Playing by heart" is not just memorization. It is not just physically being able to play the notes without looking at the music. It has to do with what is going on inside when a person is playing. This is mysterious isn't it? For example, if we teach physical with mostly verbal/mental directions, students are probably thinking "move your fingers, drop your shoulder, don't drop your head, etc. etc." If we teach how to "interpret" the musical score with directions instead of teaching through sound, students are possibly thinking "Get louder here, slow down here, ...etc"
If we do not help the students achieve enough ability before a performance, we can feel/hear them get nervous when the hard part comes.

When you see a great performer, do you think they are thinking/feeling this way? Can we teach "playing by heart" through teaching students many things to think?
Dr. Suzuki called this way "playing with heart tone", which is in essence the place where the sound and the awareness are one without interfering thought.

With our best intentions and effort the children can play by heart at every practice, every lesson, and every performance. This is optimum learning.
Piano Ability is Life Ability

*Please enjoy the performances on the right side of this blog. The two performances are an excellent example of ability development, the concept of transfer, and playing by heart. Katie performed the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement for her level 9 Graduation performance, and the Beethoven Concerto #3, 1st mvt. for her level 10 Graduation performance.
**All the best to the Atlanta teachers and students on the upcoming Graduation Concerts. A Special Congratulations to Marjorie Saviano and her wonderful teacher Robin Blankenship. Marjorie will be performing the Beethoven Concerto #3 for her level 10 graduation. performance.

27_Twinkle Lessons: Ability Development and the Concept of Transfer

Recitals and concerts are very important points in the learning process. They solidify and accelerate the learning because their importance makes them memorable, and the connection between the preparation and the performance becomes internalized.

What is important after a recital is to utilize the learning from the recital by transferring the ability into the new pieces. In the Book Intelligent Music Teaching Robert Duke explains the concept of transfer:

"The Application of acquired knowledge and skills in situations other than those in which the knowledge and skills were originally learned is called transfer of learning."

He discusses the importance of educators always asking themselves the question "Why is it important for students to learn this now?" By teaching and emphasizing only the most important point at a given point in time in the learning process, students are able to learn the fundamental skill that will transfer into the new pieces. This of course involves repetition of the specific skill.

Just now the students can play Twinkles with good ready, good posture, good technique, and good tone. As you can see from the lessons this week I will continue to ask them to improve their Twinkle technique. It is also time to transfer their ability to the pieces in Book 1. The repertoire is uniquely suited to developing ability because the pieces contain multiple opportunities to transfer the knowledge and gain fluency through this process. You may notice when your child is learning a new piece that their sound is now legato even when they are just learning the notes, and that their hand position is naturally above the keyboard. We can facilitate this transfer by helping them discover similarities and pointing out times when you observe them using skills from a previous piece on the newer pieces.

The transfer of ability into the next piece, the next book, the next level of complexity, is through the process of fostering, nurturing, natural learning, and critical to ability development.

This last week I worked on keeping the "thumb up" with some of the students. This is only one small point but allows the whole hand to stay over the keys and the fingers to be able to move. The new pieces coming up -Clair de Lune, Long Ago and Little Playmates all start on the thumb so this is the appropriate time to solidify this ability and spot the beginnings of the pieces.

How the students are learning the left hand is another good example of the use of transfer. They "know" how they are supposed to hold the arm and move their fingers, but the physical skill has to be developed. So, in this case the contextual similarity of the right hand and left hand will enable them to acquire the ability much more quickly than when they learned the right hand. That said, since the students are right handed the left hand may require more development to become fluid. Repetition is the important key here.
Dr. Duke says about repetition:

"Through consistent, productive repetition over time, the physical and intellectual habits of musicianship become learned to the point that they are somewhat automatic and require less and less conscious though on the part of the learner. All competent musicians have skills in their repertoire that have been rehearsed to a level of automaticity that requires little effort or thought. For example, when it's time to play, the body and the instrument "go to playing position" without a great deal of thought on the part of the performer."

Contextural variety or differences are important too. Pieces that have the same rhythmic feeling at the beginning such as Go Tell Aunt Rody and French Children's Song, but have different pitches develop learning off similarities and differences. Long Long Ago and Clair de Lune together teach this same concept of similarities and differences because they both start on the same note and both go up at the beginning of the melody, but have different rhythms.
The optimum environment for human beings to learn and to transfer that learning into ability arises out these abilities which have become internalized. Eckart Tolle,author of A new Earth and The Power of Now says:

"Do you think that when Rembrandt was painting, he stood there with a brush in his hand thinking, "Okay, I wonder what my next brushstroke is going to be. If I put it there then it may clash with that. I'm not quite sure, but maybe two more centimeters to the right, let's measure it. It might look better over . . ." Creativity arises out of the state of thoughtless presence in which you are much more awake than when you are engrossed in thinking."

This kind of awareness/ability is taught through helping students transfer knowledge/ability from one situation or piece to the next. Again Dr. Duke says:

"If the goal of education is that students learn to use knowlege and skills effectively in the future, even in unfamiliar circumstances, then transfer must be defined as the goal of instruction."

As we continue to learn piece by piece we are focusing on core ability development that is transferable immediately in the new piece. accessible as a habit/ability that we use spontaneously.

Links:
Google Scholar search on Transfer in Learning Transfer in Learning The first article listed from International Encyclopedia of Education is a good general description.

Intelligent Music Teaching by Dr. Robert Duke, director of the Center for Music Learning at The University of Texas at Austin:



Other articles I have written on Ability Development:

Ability Development and Pattern Recognition
Ability Development and the Growth Mindset

Link to the final Twinkle Lessons Blog in this 2009-2010 Series