Reading [again]

[a-sharp]

Sorry to bring this topic up again ...

But just how do *you* deal with transfer students who play essentially by ear and can't really read very well?

What is your approach?

I guess it just seems like something they have to want to learn ... if it takes flashcards or whatever. Do you give them an entire book beneath their level just for sight reading? And do more of that during the lesson?

I've got this one student - at the school where I teach [hence, passed to me at her current level, essentially], she is in a group class, following the Alfred books - and so has those pieces - and then, she's got a weekly private with  me. Bad thing - in class, the parents sit in with them - and basically help them too much [IMO]. She ends up not practicing what I give her, essentially, because she can't read it on her own ...

I just almost feel like these kids need an intesive few weeks, just to get over this hurdle, with extra lesson time, just devoted to sightreading ... Otherwise, what? It would be so easy to eat up a 30-minute lesson with just this stuff and never feel like you're actually getting to play music.

I hope I'm making sense...

this is such a common problem - so how do you all get past it so you can move on?

[thinking that, if it was so easy, why is it so common??]

I *really* like just to start kids from scratch, lol!

...you know - it's almost like I've got the parent somewhat working against me & my process ... I have heard stuff from this girl like, "my mom says not to use the metronome" ... and "my mom says not to learn the notes that way" [when showing her the FACE and Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips thing] aargh - I'm like - well, I don't care *how* youl learn it - just learn it. [!] I did get a chance to discuss it briefly with her mom - and I was saying, it's just a tool - once you learn it, you don't think about it that way - i.e., I don't ... so she says "I still do" ... [UM - yeah - and you only had about 4 yrs of lessons - from age 8 to 13 ... perhaps she didn't play long enough to get that out of her brain ... ya think?]. I actually told my student to do it secretly in her head. I mean really - who has to know? is that crazy or ??

aargh. sorry - just had to vent a little. 

[penguinlover]

I have a student who struggles with note reading after playing for over two years!  I have her sight read real easy stuff during the lesson.  She doesn't seem to mind, she just thinks it is sight reading, not note learning.  The verdict is still out as to whether it is doing any good.

[quasimodo]

Pressure...
If they are not too young, give them 2 or 3 scores to be played for the next lesson.
"Don't show up until you have them learned..."
 

[hyrst]

As said before, by penguinlover, there are pieces below playing level from method books - I call sight reading, but it is an assignment to learn a new piece from scratch every week.  It has worked for every student I have tried it with.

Also, I do not teach using the mneumonics.  If a student is at that level, I would take the sight reading back to primer level and teach some basic sequences, steps, skips and other land-mark notes.  I have only taught a few students to read by identifying notes in isolation, and every one of them are tedious or resistant readers.  Perhaps I resorted to using mneumonics because they had issues with reading first, but I am inclined to think it's the other weay around.  They still read notes one at a time, and often very slowly - I just don't think it works.  IMO

[pianowolfi]

To me more and more it turns out to be a question of getting them interested in reading. I have several pretty "gifted" students that consistently avoid reading notes. They play something two or three times, then they have learned it by heart. What they don't learn in the lesson together with me, forcing them to read, they won't learn at home, from the score. They just don't seem to get why they should learn it. And, most of the students don't like notes anyway. I am currently trying to figure out how I could motivate them to learn more note reading by themselves. Whoever I ask, this seems one of the everlasting problems of music teachers and there is no simple solution in sight, as it seems.

[quasimodo]

To me more and more it turns out to be a question of getting them interested in reading. I have several pretty "gifted" students that consistently avoid reading notes. They play something two or three times, then they have learned it by heart. What they don't learn in the lesson together with me, forcing them to read, they won't learn at home, from the score. They just don't seem to get why they should learn it. And, most of the students don't like notes anyway. I am currently trying to figure out how I could motivate them to learn more note reading by themselves. Whoever I ask, this seems one of the everlasting problems of music teachers and there is no simple solution in sight, as it seems.

I'm the typical case of what you describe  .
Making them interested in accompaniment might be a possible solution?

[sue81]

I don't think it hurts to use flashcards too. One of my teachers used them and all of her students were in competition to get through all the cards in under 60 seconds. There was a challenge other than "learn the note". Best of luck!

[a-sharp]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I keep mentally comparing music reading with basic language reading ... one can get by without the reading part, but it's so limiting. I can't imagine having to learn something by ear because I couldn't read the music... Just to totally separate skills - each essential in their own way.

So - essentially - it's all that stuff - the desire, plus flascards, plus just lots of new sightreading stuff every week until they get it I guess.

I feel like making a big sign for my studio - no one past this point who doesn't want to learn how to read! lol [or a t-shirt for when I'm teaching elsewhere...]

[amanfang]

The difference with language reading vs. music reading is the physical response.  I have student who can whip off the note names with flash cards, do rhythm drills fine, but when the two are combined, he is SO SLOW!!  And if we don't learn things in the lesson, he will not sit at home and figure it out (read it) on his own.  At the moment, we have a long summertime goal list.  If he finishes it, he gets a special prize.  One of those things is a sight-reading goal.  At this point, I have no intentions of having him reach a specified reading level, only to read through a certain amount of literature each week.  It is 2 levels easier than his current "performance" level.  I would spend a LOT more time with reading, but Dad just bought him a piano, and there's a lot of pressure coming from him to have "pieces to play."  So this seems like a good compromise for the moment.