Note Reading

[Chopins_Fantaisie]

I need some fresh ideas on how to help a student who just does not see the difference between one note and the next. Flashcards and note drilling just don't cut it for this student. Any takers to help me out in my predicament??   Thank you!

[Scarborough]

I saw something once that really blew my mind away, was easy and made a lot of sense.  Some kids have trouble translating the notes on the staff getting higher and lower (up and down the page) with keys getting higher and lower (right and left).  This is REALLY hard to explain and if this isn't clear I can make one of these, take a photo and email it to you if you ask me to.

Get a strip of tagboard that covers the keys both bass and treble clefs would use, and is about 8 inches wide.  Cut out notches for the black keys so it can stand up over the keys, leaning against the cover.

Draw lines on the tagboard coming up from the keys that are the line notes in the normal clefs (treble: EGBDF, etc).  If you follow what I've said so far, you now have your bass clef and treble clef drawn SIDEWAYS on this piece of tagboard.  Add the clef symbols and draw a scale up through both staffs so they can see how the lines and spaces literally line up with a key on the keyboard.  

The idea is, if you turn the staff on its side, kids can see the up and down easier.  We can give them mixed signals as to what up and down is.....it IS up and down on the page, but it's left and right on the keyboard.  The student who first showed me this idea told me they learned to read their music by placing it sideways.

After making this tagboard visual you could also turn their music sideways (clef symbols at the "top" of the page now) to reinforce..if it helps in the first place.  Again, if you'd rather have a visual, just email me and I'll make one, take a photo and send it out.  Does this board have an uploading feature for pictures?

Scarborough
handerson1@sbcglobal.net

[Greg_Fodrea]

Scarborough's right: Turning the staff sideways works wonders for students.  You might also consider assigning names and images to the notes on the staff (mnemonics).  Students are much more likely to remember the notes by sight if they can associate a mental image with its placement on the staff.

[Scarborough]

I don't know if this will work or not, but if anyone else wants to see what I was talking about (the paper device I attempted to explain making), look at this.  If the picture didn't pop up then check the link listed below.

Scarborough/Heather



https://www.angelfire.com/wi3/handerson/notereading.htm

[george]

hi this looks great..neat idea,but how do you transfer this to regular note reading?  thanks, paula..."george"

[piano_teacher]

have you tried teaching through the landmark approach...i.e..  using middle C, Treble G and Bass F and learning to read notes off of those 3 notes using intervals.. i have found that it works wonders... if you are unsure of the method that i'm talking about, its used in the music tree books by francis clark....  hope this helps!

[Chopins_Fantaisie]

Well, it's been a week since I sent my student home with the staff Scarborough recommended using. I don't know if it's helped her, though. I will find out on Monday... At last week's lesson she said it did, or, was helping. But right after introducing that staff notation aid, I drilled her on her flashcards (which were all in order), mixed them around, and she couldn't tell me what the notes were. I'm hoping that the staff helped her this past week, though....

Piano_Teacher,
the books I'm using (Piano Adventures by the Fabers) do use the 3 guidenotes you mentioned. However, it does not seem to be so succesful with my particular student in question. I really want to help her out, just haven't any grandiose ideas of where to go.   She's a real sweet student that can play by ear well enough, but I want to establish note reading with her - give her that much more room to explore her piano study. I've discussed with this student's mother that *Marie struggles with note reading and the mother said she would work more with her daughter on the flashcards... but this mother is expecting a baby, along with the extra (but joyful) duties of caring for her other 6 children. I've seen that Marie's help from her mother has not been attained very much during the week and I can understand why... but with piano study, you really do need some cooperation from the parent in order for progress to continue.

*sigh* I just needed to unload some thoughts... as I said above, I will be seeing Marie for her lesson come Monday, hoping she benefited from the staff aid. *crossed fingers* She tries hard to please and do whatever she's asked, but the poor thing can't figure out the difference between notes... and it's up to me, the teacher, to break down that barrier so she can see the light!

[Scarborough]

Oh! Oh! Oh!!  I *just* remembered where else I've seen this sideways method discussed before!  You need to go to the library and find the book "A Soprano on Her Head" by Eloise Ristad.  Look at some of chapter 6, but mostly chapter 7.  It discusses this sideways approach to teaching note reaching.  It works for people who have perception problems and the book explains more about why it works.  Apparently there is even a method book by Ms. Ristad called _Bold Beginnings_ that exists or did at one time for starting reading sideways, to help the lightbulb turn on.  She says teachers have had luck using this method with 7 year olds.  

It's a book that's well worth reading for other concepts too.  Ms. Ristad is someone who approaches problems that come up in music -- mental blocks, phrasing, conceptual learning problems, and more -- and goes at them from new angles . It's very refreshing, inspiring, and written in an entertaining, often humorous way.

Scarborough/Heather