Teaching in the Present

Teaching in the Present

Ever imagined having a whole new studio created out of what you have learned? The key is connecting your previous studio to your present work, and with the help of technology it is possible to span space and time.

I left Atlanta to move to Silicon Valley in 2006. I packed up all of my musical belongings including 2 grand pianos, a huge file of music scores, books, a 600+ CD collection, stereo system, computer with all the files from my studio and the Atlanta Area Suzuki Piano Association newsletter/website, and boxes upon boxes of video and 8mm tapes. So, I had to ask, Does what I do only exist in one location and how can I evolve my teaching? It was logical being in the Silicon Valley environment to look around and see social networking was going to take off, and with it the possibility of some way to communicate and learn that previously did not exist. After many years of teaching I was not feeling like the new kid on the block, but rather hoping to see things in a time-less fashion. Thus began my quest to mash up that which I had captured on my video camera with some new way of learning that was non-local, and non-time dependent.

I began doing lessons online by exchanging You-tube videos that were uploaded as “private” between myself and the student(s). This helped me continue to mentor previous students and teachers. At that time it was only possible to upload about 3 minutes at a time. This turned out to be useful to me as I had to stick to the point in my teaching. I figured out it was important to practice exactly what I was going to say/play before the video went on in order to get the most on the tape. I would then upload several three minute segments for each lesson referring to the tape they had sent me and giving examples of how/what to practice. Organizing the lesson ahead and practicing it helped me understand how to teach and say less. This learning was very useful.

I also traveled back to Atlanta to teach my former students and others as well. The teachers in Atlanta have been so gracious in having me in their homes, as it would not have been financially doable otherwise. I attempted to get good videos of these lessons, but still was not proficient enough to really pull it all together. The idea was there though and I decided to upgrade my equipment, learn how to use it better, and keep trying.

Meanwhile I had taken a few students at my new home through referrals from other Suzuki teachers. It still wasn’t a “studio” though.

My next big step was to do a website. I took all of my previous writings in newsletters and studio notes and uploaded them onto a blog. I made a video blog and began the arduous process of getting recordings off VHS and getting them onto the blog. This was somewhat random as I did not save the recital programs that went along with the videos so was going on my memory of who played in what recital when. It was however a very interesting process to look back at performances I remembered and to experience them fresh.

My web designer– a former Suzuki piano student – ask me for the current photos for the homepage. This was a new idea to choose photos and make decisions about what I wanted to personally communicate in an online format. I thought that parents might not want their children’s pictures on the homepage, but no one objected. In fact as it turns out they liked it, and love having the performances uploaded so they can share them with family and friends.

I began posting blogs for my parents as a way of doing parent education, and provided links to the Piano Basics Site and other useful resources as well. I put a Google calendar on the website which I can easily update with the schedule, and this also enabled me to let out of town people see when I was available.

The website helped me to enroll a class of Twinkle students ages 3-6. I was thinking about Dr. Suzuki using recordings and decided to see what he had said about recording lessons. “Developing Children’s Ability Using the Suzuki Teaching Method-How we are doing now “ is an article taken from 1977 International Suzuki Conference talk given by Dr. Suzuki on the “latest report on the teaching methods in Japan since the last meeting “

In that article Dr. Suzuki said:

“I consider the invention of the cassette tape recorder as a revolutionary tool for music education and Japanese members are making the most use of them… Our children are supposed to attend their lesson with their own tape recorders so that they can tape the lesson and take the tape home for their practice. Thus I can say that the utilization of cassette tapes in the way stated above has proved to be very effective.”

I decided to upload the lessons to a private blog site. I decided to put them online rather than sending them home with the students for several reasons. First of all putting the videos on the blog made watching them appealing and fairly easy. Next, the parents could gain insight from watching other students’ lessons. Also, I wanted to track progress over time so that it would be possible to see lessons from the beginning of the year to the end. Last, I had the idea that these lessons would be useful for teacher training and teacher research.

At this point technology had changed so that I could upload somewhere around 10 minutes for each clip. So, I still had to cut lessons into parts before I could directly post. I finished the year with all of the lessons, assignments and recitals posted on a private access site. The parents benefitted from the video blog, but to my surprise didn’t really see this as something radical or new.

This year I have a new class of Twinklers and another Twinkle class blog. The video makes the lessons feel important. The students accept the video as a normal part of the studio. The parents use it as a resource- of course some more than others. I found a video upload site (vimeo.com) that enables me to upload videos of any length, so that I can upload the lessons without cutting them into parts.

Overall recording the lessons has been an important part of making the lessons present and focused. Why would this be? The video is like an outside awareness watching and makes everyone just a little more “self-aware.” It is possible that this recording of the event could make people “self-conscious”, but I have not found this to occur. It is a good point to continue to research the effects of recording going forward.

Meanwhile I have continued with online lessons. It is now possible to upload any length lesson on www.vimeo.com and keep the videos private.

I have been able to do Graduation Evaluations this way as well. This has been useful for training students and teachers. I am amazed at the impact the online environment has had on the studio environment. In reading back over Dr. Suzuki’s writing about the use of cassettes in order to find the quotes for this article I noticed that Dr. Suzuki also discusses his “Practice with me” tapes he recorded for students to listen to spots and play with him at home. I am thinking there is a way to use this idea with the online lessons.

Perhaps one of the most important parts of playing music is that it only happens in the present moment. We can practice and prepare, and we can remember. But the experience itself happens in real time. The present moment experience of music making combined with the time-less perspective of playing masterpieces of Bach and Mozart teaches us about time-fullness.

The online access provides a means of experiencing the teaching-learning–performing cycle in a condensed aural/visual format that can span lengths of time and provides a time-fullness experience. The online lessons and performances are now a vital part of the music environment for the students as well as providing a means for reflection and perspective as a teacher. When I watch myself teach I can evaluate its effectiveness by the result of how the child responded. This is so useful as a present moment reflection, and provides a history, a connection to the work that goes on over many years of learning and teaching and learning. The significance of this change in the way teachers and students learn will be evident over time. First, we have to experience it,

Craig Timmerman writes this about Dr. Suzuki in his book Journey Down the Kreisler Highway:

“The answer to ‘When is Suzuki’ is, of course, “Now’ Suzuki is always now. That is why he is always here. I think that this may be one of the reasons that it is so very special to be in the presence of Suzuki. When he gives you his attention he gives 100%, and the results are incredible.”

I have been able to make lots of changes in my new studio that were difficult to enact in my previous studio. For example students come in groups for their individual lessons so that observation is a natural part of each weeks time in the studio. I have developed the habit of performing for my students because without advanced students to model it was necessary. I have learned how natural and invaluable my performing is to the students and parents. So, all of these little changes are part of the bonus one gets from making a big change. Craig Timmerman writes about his move to another town and how it affected him:

“It is such a wonderful aid in looking at things with fresh interest, It helps keep me in awe and wonder; discovering new things every day. Looking at normal and mundane things with fresh eyes makes life itself inspiring. Whether in the land of blue earth or blue grass, a tree never stops changing; it is always growing.

“The only constant is change”, and yet the only change is the deeper awareness of the constant, the basics.

Nurturing the Whole Child through piano study

When parents think about how their child can learn to play the piano, the first questions that usually come to mind are things like ‘how to learn and memorize the notes?’  and then a little later: 'how do I get my child to practice?'...


 Learning how to play piano involves many different abilities - specific mental skills, the ability to physically coordinate one’s use of the body, the integration of emotional feelings and the senses, and a strong motivation as the fuel. Integral learning is a holistic approach to education which creates ability by giving attention to all of these aspects of the child's development. By using this holistic approach we can focus on the aspects in each individual child which need nurturing, and thereby enable the growth of the whole child. 
Below, the Integral Learning diagram divides the process of learning into four quadrants - mental, physical, senses, and inspiration. Naturally, the quadrants overlap, but this conceptualization of learning can be very useful in assessing children's development.
                                 
                            Integral Learning Diagram

The Mental Quadrant of integral learning is what we may traditionally think of as learning -- or the process of acquiring knowledge about specific things. By listening repeatedly to a music recording, the child comes to "know" how the music sounds. This enables the child to play (or, ‘speak’) the pieces naturally the way babies extract the sounds of their native language and become able to speak. (1) This process of pattern recognition (also know as statistical learning) is an implicit process (e.g., not necessarily effortful) that is important for acquiring different kinds skills. As infants become toddlers, many scholars believe that they use ‘pattern recognition’ to learn how words piece together to form grammar; this involves knowing which parts in the phrases are the same, and which parts are different. Similarly, the recognition of patterns in musical sound is actually an important part of both teaching and learning music. Learning to read music can be thought of as the next step in pattern recognition which involves pairing melodies and rhythms with visual symbols.


The Physical Quadrant of integral learning includes the process that the child goes through to develop a sense of their body through through attention to their own posture and the coordination of their physical movements. Understanding exactly how their physical movements produce certain sounds is a critical link. Through repetition of specific spots the physical ability to play patterns is linked with the sound. These patterns are then the building blocks that are used in all of the pieces they are playing.  
As Dr. Suzuki says: 
"Knowledge plus 10,000 times equals ability."

The Inspiration Quadrant: Inspiration literally means "to breath in", or to fill someone with the desire to do something. First, we nurture children's motivation and provide true inspiration for them by holding the vision of them playing piano beautifully. We also foster motivation by creating an environment where the child can hear and see wonderful performances, observe other children playing and learning piano, and perform regularly in recitals so they experience the inspiration and excitement of sharing their music. 


The Senses Quadrant involves direct learning through the senses. Researchers define various types of senses. Even rhythm can be considered a sensibility. (2) In the Integral learning concept, senses can be defined as including both ‘physical’ senses (tactile (e.g., touch), auditory, visual) as well as emotional sensations.  


The auditory sense is primary in music learning as it is in speech. By immersing the young child in music during their sensitive period of language acquisition, they are able to learn music as a language directly through the auditory sense. The tactile or touch sense is important in learning to use the hands to receive information and develop sensitivity. For more information on the tactile sense read the previous blog "The Touch Sense") The visual sense is then useful to link the music with the visual symbols (written score).


Emotional development is also in the senses quadrant as it involves an inner response/sensation to the stimulus of the environment that does not necessarily involve thinking. It includes feelings such as respect, appreciation, a sense of well-being, belonging, confidence, perseverance. By focusing attention on these positive feelings as soon as  they are observed in the child, parents and teachers can greatly influence the development and deepening of these attributes. Dr. Suzuki says:
"Character first, then Ability."
(For more reading on this subject read the blog "Affirm, Motivate, and Inspire")


 So this quadrant is broad in scope and critical in children's learning. Dr. Kataoka writes about the relationship of the senses with piano study and the development of the child in her book Sensibility and Education.(3)


As parents and teachers we can use the integral learning concept to analyze how to help each child by focusing our effort on the quadrant which needs most attention. For example, a student may be able to understand what to play (mental quadrant)but not be able to physically do it. By focusing specifically on physical skill this student can progress. Another child that may be able to play easily with physical coordination, but may need help with understanding patterns in music and how to learn new pieces by understanding patterns. Emotional and motivational needs can be addressed through a similar type of focus and often involve giving appropriate feedback to the child and adjusting the environment to support learning.


At different ages and stages these needs change, and we can adjust the focus to optimize learning by creating balance in the quadrants.

In the center of the four quadrants of the Integral
learning diagram; inspiration, feeling, thought, and doing come together. This is a state of integration, total concentration and ability. I like to call this "playing by heart" because the child can play piano freely with "heart tone". Another way of saying this is to be in the state of "flow".(4)



Playing piano is an ideal learning medium to nurture the whole child.


1 Hay, J.F., Pelucchi, B., Graf Estes, K., & Saffran, J.R. (2011). Linking sounds to meaning: Infant statistical learning in a natural language. Cognitive Psychology, 63, 93-106.
2) Wikipedia link about various senses 
3) Sensibility and Education by Dr. Haruko Kataoka
(Highly recommended- available on Amazon through the link) 5) Dr. Suzuki's term for beautiful tone 
4) TED Talk on the "Flow" State

The Touch Sense

Sensory education is a wonderful research topic for Suzuki Piano teachers.  I would like to focus on the importance of the touch sense in teaching long sounds and it’s application to teaching Twinkle B where a long sound is first introduced.

When you touch something, it activates the neural receptors in the fingerpads. These neural receptors provide detailed information to the brain about the environment they are touching.  Educational thought leader Dr  Maria Montessori said:

“The hands are the instrument of human intelligence.”

The Montessori educational materials are manipulative and many involve the sense of touch such as the sandpaper alphabet letters that the children trace with their fingers.

In learning to play the piano it is useful to use this same kind of tactile learning to feel the length of the sounds and connect this with the aural sense. 

Doris Koppelman talked about the correlation of physical movement and feeling the long sounds in her book Introducing Suzuki Piano.

She said:

“Since pianist need do nothing active to make a tone continue after first making it sound they frequently have an inferior sense of the duration of notes as compared with string players, who must measure in advance and plan for the amount of bow needed, or wind and brass players and singers, who must do the same for the amount of breadth needed. “

The connection of the long sound with the touch sense allows pianists to have the same kind of experience as other musicians. You could call this ear-hand coordination.

There are three points I would like to discuss about teaching this connection between aural and tactile in playing long sounds:

The first is developing the aural awareness of the length of the sound

One way to do this is to play a sound and ask the child to listen and raise their hand when the sound stops. You can let the sound completely dye out.  The children enjoy this and it develops concentration on the sound.

The second teaching point is to develop the awareness of touch sensitivity in the ready position. This includes a tactile awareness of the keyboard with the black and white note positions, and feeling the smoothness of the key.  Also the touch awareness includes recognizing finger numbers by touch (not only sight).  This way the student can feel the ready position, and not need to see the finger on the note in order to feel secure.  The most sensitive part of the finger is on the pad, not at the tip, so that the hand is in a relaxed and balanced position in ready. 

The third step is then to associate the touch sense with the sound. The way that I teach is to integrate the sound and touch senses so that the movement of the fingers corresponds directly to the length of the note.  So, as the notes become faster, the movement becomes smaller.  Doris Koppelman demonstrated this concept of progressively smaller movements in her video by clapping quarter notes, then eighth notes, and then sixteenths. Naturally the size of the movements for the clapping become smaller as the notes become faster.  This is same with finger movement.  At this point we are working on one note and one pattern at a time. As the groupings and phrases become larger, we are involving the whole arm and use of the whole body which is not in the focus of this presentation.

Here is a recording of 2 students working on Twinkle B.
For both students I am directing their attention to feeling the long note.
For the first student I also play an accompaniment to Twinkle B and direct his attention to hearing the long note even after the accompaniment chord. This is a good way to further develop keeping attention on the long sound:

The touch sensitivity enables students to directly feel the sound, and essentially feel the music they are playing.

“Learn to feel it”  is  one of the three rules for Deep practice that Daniel Coyle defines in his book  The Talent Code.  He correlates “feeling it” with concentration.  

He tells about how he observed students in a class called “How to Practice” at the well known Meadowmount music camp. They are asked to listen to a violin playing first in tune, and then out of tune and connect with how it feels.  He quotes the teacher saying:

 “If you hear a string out of tune, it should bother you, it should bother you a lot. That’s what you need to feel. What you’re really practicing is concentration.  It’s a feeling. “(1) 

In playing piano we want students to connect this feeling of

Concentration with producing long sounds, and ultimately also in producing different attributes of tone such ringing tone, clear sound, what Dr. Suzuki calls heart tone.

By bringing the awareness of touch into learning from the very beginning, we engage the student, enable them to focus, and to express music with feeling.

Dr. Suzuki said:

“The ability to feel music means understanding the human heart.”

Effective and Efficient Lessons

Dear Parents,
Following are suggestions to optimize learning in the lessons:
1. Set-Up
Please make a habit to set up your child promptly with their bench/footstool and books, and put the assignment sheet on my piano. Even older children need some help to make this step go quickly. This is best to do as soon as the previous student is finished. Next, you can organize you notes and score, and work the video.  This will be a non-verbal signal to your child about the importance of the lesson time. Therefore in this time it is best if the adults do not talk too much.
It is better to talk casually after the lesson.
2.  Assignment Sheet
Please provide an assignment sheet that is filled out with the main point of the lesson, and the main points on each piece that were covered at the last lesson.
It is also important to have the review pieces listed. This is also a signal to your child about the importance of the assignment and your role in helping them. Also, with a clear assignment sheet I can follow through with the assignment and provide continuity.
3.  Distractions
Please turn off all electronic devices so that the children are the total focus of attention.  Electronic games can be engaging.  When siblings are playing with very interesting toys like this it makes the concentration at the piano a little harder. Texting by the parent can be especially distracting, and can make a child feel that they are  actually being neglected by their parent, even though the parent is "present".   Many teachers and researchers are coming to this same conclusion. Dr. Karen Hagberg wrote about this in her recent article in Piano Basics.  She references Dr. Sherry Turkel, the Director of Technology and Self at MIT, author of the book "Alone Together:Why we Expect More from Technology and Less from each other. Dr. Turkel says that "mobile connectivity allows us to  bail out of the physical realm at any time."  You can watch her TED talk video which is very interesting:
Sherry Turkle - TED Talk
When the adults are totally focused on the lesson the children will best be able to concentrate.
4.  Observe without interference
Please observe the lessons without instructing your child to pay attention, or giving other directions. It is the teachers responsibility during the lesson to nurture the child's attention and behavior.  You can observe the process of learning this way. It may be that I allow the child more time to get ready, or learn through doing without giving the answer.  I may be allowing the child to learn through experience that if too much time goes by without focused attention there is not enough time for the new piece, or the make-up song, etc. In the long run this will develop concentration and motivation much more than verbal directions about concentrating or hurrying up. So, please observe what is ignored as well as what is affirmed. Please take notes and also use the musical score to refer to.  It works well to put some notes such as the spots directly onto the score.  Other notes may be better in a notebook.  Keep a main point for each lesson.  It is good to keep a notebook that you can look back on months later and reflect on the progress, and the points to stay focused on.
The child will feel your concentration and attention, and without the judgement will be able to turn all of their attention to the learning.

5.  End of Lesson
 At the end of the lesson I will summarize the main points.  This is a good time to ask any questions about the assignment.  Next, please help your child clean up the environment (stuffed animals back in place, etc.)  Often this is also a casual time to talk and that is important too.  Most of the time logistical questions can be saved for e-mail. Please be mindful of the next students lesson time and leave quietly.

After the lesson on the way home, please affirm what your child did well, and talk about what you will work on for the next week.
Thanks so much for your part in making the lessons an environment for optimum learning experiences.
Leah Brammer

On the Rhythm Part 2: Feel it - Read it

In the post  "On the Rhythm- Part 1", the beginning steps of listening and feeling rhythm were discussed.

Next, when students begin learning a piece, they usually find the correct notes (pitch) first.  The feeling of the rhythm may already be there so that the piece is recognizable by ear, however the exact rhythm needs to be reinforced by the parent and teacher as the next step.  It is difficult for students to feel longer notes for example, so there is a tendency that these note values are played shorter when the piece is being learned. The dotted half note in "French Children’s Song" is a good example of this.  Another familiar example is the dotted quarter notes, and also the half notes in "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

There are several ways to help the student with feeling and playing the correct rhythm.  The student can play with the teacher who is keeping a steady beat.  At home the parent can sing the melody in correct rhythm as the child plays. At the lesson, the student can clap the steady beat while the teacher plays.  Sometimes it helps to show the child a metronome, which they are very interested in, and then the teacher can play the piece with metronome at various tempos keeping a steady beat. This help the students differentiate rhythm and tempo.  At a later stage, the parent can clap the beat (softly) for the child at home practice. This can be done in the lesson first to make sure it is helpful to the child.

Specifically, on a spot such as a dotted half note, the teacher can clap the beat on that note when the child plays so that they feel the pulse on the long note. By clapping the pulse without counting “1, 2, 3” the child will be able to play without too much thinking.  Of course understanding counting is important too, and is good to do after the child can feel the beat without the use of numbers.

Recognizing the rhythm of pieces without hearing the melody is another good tool for internalizing the rhythm.  The teacher or another student can clap the rhythm of a piece, and then the student(s) can guess what song it is. The students enjoy this activity. Mary Had a Little Lamb and London Bridge have the same rhythm until the last two measures, so students have to listen until the last two measures to know which piece is being played.  This internalization of the rhythm helps students perform the pieces better, and is also a step towards reading rhythm.

Introducing the visual picture of the rhythm to students is easy to do on the Book 1 pieces they already know.  Twinkle D has only quarter and half notes and is great because every phrase has the same rhythm every 2 measures with the half note at the end. Teachers may want to use the Orff or other syllables to represent the sound in addition to clapping, and/or use a hand gesture to indicate the pulse on the notes longer than one beat. . You can clap the rhythm separately, and also while singing the melody.  Counting can be introduced after the rhythms are understood through direct association of the feeling with the visual representation.

This can be done with all of the Book 1 pieces when the students are ready.  Older students may still be in Book 1 and doing this activity, while younger students studying in Book 2 will benefit from this relationship between what they have already learned by ear, and the visual representation of the rhythm. There are various useful materials that can be used to teach these concepts. I like using a white board for the rhythm, and 8"X11" paper each with one measure on it for the full score representation.

Dr. Suzuki says: Raise your ability on a piece you can play.”

Therefore, using the sound of the pieces the children have already internalized and learned to play, help students to feel the rhythm. Next present the visual representation of the rhythms they already know.  This is integral learning as the students are connecting what they can hear, feel, and do with the mental learning of the reading concepts.

Recital Preparation-Key Points

1. Listen to the recording as much as possible.
Notice when the volume is right so that you are able to  hear the music clearly without it being to loud or soft.   This way you can make the best environment for listening to many repetitions. If you have more than one child performing, you can make a playlist with the two- four songs so that it is easy to repeat.

2. Be well rested and early to the recital, with appropriate concert dress. 
Balance practice with other activities, free time and rest.

3.In practicing, affirm each step, each part that is done correctly, and especially notice when the tone is really clear and ringing.

• Practice the beginning and the ending many times.

• Practice hands separate in a slow tempo, and also in performance tempo.

• Spot and part/phrase practice focusing on the most important points.

Focus on the tone as much as possible without too many instructions so that the child can internalize what they have learned. 

It is good to have a performance practice time (in concert dress) one and/or two days ahead.  On the day of the recital, please practice with good concentration for a short period.  There is no need to play the piece hands together many times.  This can make the piece get worse! If the child makes a mistake with this kind of in tempo hands together playing on the day of the recital it may inadvertently get into their performance too.  So, it is a good time for lots of listening, rest, and hands separate spot/part practice. So, it is like putting the repetitions (skill development) into a savings account to "spend"  at the recital. 

all the best,
Leah Brammer

Re-solutions

It's interesting in the "New Year" that most people decide to really do what they meant to do before.  So, it is not really something "new", but rather a renewed effort to do what one already "knows" is the best thing to do.

Dr. Suzuki often talks about knowledge and action in his writings.  He says: 
           "Knowledge plus 10,000 times equals ability."

In this way, the action is the resolution:
         "The habit of action - this, I think is the most important thing we must acquire.  Life's     success or failure actually depends on this one thing.  So what should we do?  We should get so that it is second nature to put our thoughts into action."


In Nurtured by Love he states his own resolution from around the end of World War II:
          "I shall acquire the habit of doing the things I have in mind to do."

All the best for the New Year!
Leah Brammer