teaching basic legato

[lallasvensson]

Hello!

i am a new piano teacher and new to this forum. I am teaching a cutie, 5 year old, who is quite bright but her motricity is not developed at all. She just CANT play 2 notes legato. She plays all notes 1 by 1. Of course she cant play with round fingers at all and it is very difficult to make any progress. Do you have students who have that kind of difficulties and how do you help them?

[eddie92099]

Legato is simply overlapping the notes - just make this clear to her and she should follow. I'm sure she wants to be able to play legato, but probably does not know exactly how,
Ed

[robert_henry]

Legato is sound.  Have you taught her how to hear legato or just how to play it physically?

I might have her read a sentence from a book and read it choppily, then try to connect as if reading normally.  Read it together, at the same time until she hears the difference.  Then put those same words to her same piece.  You two sing it staccato, then legato.  Then have her play it in the sdame way.

Have you sat down and played for her?

Teach her to conduct legato by using sweeping motions rather than stilted ones.

Have her take breath and blow out through an Oooh shape.  THen have her breath out like that as she plays a phrase.    

Just some thoughts...

Robert Henry

[lallasvensson]

yes I have played for her and i am sure she can here the difference between her playing one by one and my playing when i show her. She is really quite bright and hears well. We make a lot of games, i play her piece with voluntary mistakes and she finds them, and she has to blunder and guess where the tone i just played is and she is really quite good. but all around motricity, playing 2 notes legato, playing with round fingers, seems impossible... i put her hand above mine and so on. when she sees she cant imitate, i can see she is really frustrated and feels stupid althu i tell her it s so good to use the lesson time to make mistakes... i think she just does not have the muscles to articulate her tiny fingers on the keys. it was already very difficult to have her just PRESS a key, took 3-4 lessons...

[lc3606]

Tlry playing legato on her arm.  Sometimes they can feel it better.

[ilovebach]

Does she have to play legato at age 5? If her fingers are very weak you may just have to wait for her to grow a bit!

[pianoannie]

I've had a lot of young students who took a few months before they could play legato.  Sometimes I have them walk around the room, telling them to notice how they always have one foot on the floor.  I compare this walking to legato, and running or hopping to staccato.  Then we use the child's fingers to "walk" legato fashion on the closed keyboard lid, then to "run" staccato fashion.  Next I'll have them place their hand directly on mine, and I will play 2 or 3 notes legato, then staccato, and back and forth so they can truly feel the difference.  

[Scarborough]

I also have a cute little 6 year old who is a beginner and has difficulty doing legato playing.  She's starting to get the hang of it but it's been several months.  I use funny words to describe it to her like "mushy music".  I think what helped her most was when I told her to put her fingers on the keys but not play.  I placed my hand right on top of hers and her fingers, and I played legato pushing her fingers down.  As I played to asked her to feel what it's like...how one key is coming up at the same exact time another one is coming down, and they sound "mushy".  She's getting it.  

Round hand -- I tell her to imagine a bubble in her hand and she's curving her hand and fingers around it.  If she flattens her hand out she'll pop the bubble.  Kids have great imaginations and if you paint them mental images and fun little make-believe things they catch on fast.  Technical explanations don't go over really well with a 5 year old *chuckles*

Scarborough/Heather

[guven]

Umm I have no idea how to explain but I know something which helps on playing legato very fast .
I've also tried it on my students and it worked .

For example: s/he is gonna play C,D,E,F,G legato with the left hand .

- put your hand on the keys and make sure they are  all relax .
- play C with 5th finger .
- play D with 4th finger - without lifting 5th finger .
- pull 5th finger - but still on the key, just not pushed.
- play E with 3rd finger - without lifting 4th finger .

   etc ...

It should have been done very slow . Like quarter=40

Hope it helps ...