Difficulty in teaching schedule.

[archneko]

I am planning to teach my classmate to be able to read notes, but we barely meet at lunchtime, and the school won't let us use their piano unless it is for special occasions. Any other brilliant solutions that may let me teach my classmate?


>>Also, the student is used to playing by ear. Is it easier to start as a person playing by ear or as a "newbie"?

[pianistimo]

people that play by ear are smart yet lazy.  make them spend a certain portion of time sightreading (a small portion).  make it unpainful and actually fun by just a few measures.  add to it every day.  the same measures - adding one more.  teach them to look ahead more each time (move an index card for one or two chords ahead - after they read the first chord).  tell them to scan what is ahead - RIGHT AFTER they play the first chord.  then, when they have fully scanned the next chord and have the fingers on the notes to play it - tell them to scan the next one BEFORE they play the chord.  sometimes this is confusing to first time players - but ultimately the goal is to scan an entire page before playing, so one is not surprised by what is on the page.  then, as you go - at least a measure or two is taken in by the eyes at at time. 

have him play at a steady VERY SLOW beat.  this is what does most sight readers in.  they don't want to play slowly and evenly.  and, they don't practice what they need to to sight read.

maybe if you brought an electronic keyboard to practice on?  a paper keyboard is sort of pointless.

[pianistimo]

another thing i happened to think was that oftentimes sightreaders want to sightread difficult music.  instead of starting with that - give them lots of basic chords in the left hand with variations.  learning how a chord feels and how to vary it (without looking at the hands so much after a while) frees up the mind/eyes to focus on the rh melody. 

before even getting to chords - do tetrachords to learn the basic notes.  that is lh 5432 rh 2345.  this covers an entire scale.  have them play various melodies in each key.  familiarizing yourself with the circle of fifths and adding on sharp or flat to each week's scale.  when students start seeing patterns everywhere - it becomes easier and easier.