Advice from teachers, please?

[dss62467]

I have a 9 year old daughter who is in her 2nd year of lessons and doing very well.   The trouble is she says she can't read music.  When I ask her how she plays it then, she says she remembers it from hearing it.  She can get through the assignements in her Alfred books, but eventually she's going to be playing something a bit more challenging.   

I suspect she can read the music better than she thinks she can, but I am not sure how to help her here.   Do I tutor her on the reading music?  I already spend a lot of time getting her to learn her long division - and I'm no teacher.  And you know how the attitude comes out when a parent tries to teach their child something.  So I obviously want to make it pleasant and unstressful.

[go12_3]

What I would recommend is send your daughter to a piano teacher, because parents teaching their child to play an instrument doesn't go very well, and the child may rebel and not want to listen to what the parent wishes for him/her to do.  Talk to your daughter and see if she would like to take piano lessons.  If she has the desire to learn to read the notes and play piano, then she will progress just fine. 

[stephberg2]

Sight reading exercises! I'm not sure what level she is at or what method book she is in, but there are sight reading books starting from about grade 1 RCM (if she's only been playing for two years she might not be in these books yet)

I am also a huge fan of note naming worksheets. You can purchase note speller books from most music stores, which are just pages of grandstaffs that have whole notes written on them, and the child just writes the name of each note.

You can also print some off at a WONDERFUL website: https://www.practicespot.com/theorycenter.phtml

Also, it would be helpful to go back through old songs and plays one or two while saying the note name outloud. Maybe take one easy song everytime she sits down to practice, and just spend five minutes playing the song while saying the note name outloud.

[dss62467]

go12_3, I'm sorry if I was unclear, she IS taking from a teacher.  She and I go to the same instructor and he's very good.   But she doesn't speak a word to him, so I don't know if he realizes she's not reading the music.  I'll talk to him at my lesson tonight and see if we can form a dual strategy.  I would never try to teach her on my own.  She wouldn't get anywhere because I'm horribly impatient.

Stephberg - thanks for that site!   Perhaps I'll find it useful in my own studies too.

[CC]

I'm willing to bet that you have made one of the most common mistakes that parents (who can play piano) make. In order to help with the learning and speed things up, you probably helped with the lessons and played out the pieces for your daughter which is the basic cause of why she can't read -- she never had to!  Reading is an "unnatural skill" in the sense that as humans evolved, youngsters evolved natural skills such as talking and walking, but never needed the skill to read until recently. So reading skills must be taught while playing by ear is more natural because it is similar to learning language, a natural skill. The immediate solution to your problem is simple:  STOP PLAYING IT OUT FOR HER -- ABSOLUTELY -- NO EXCUSES. In some instances, you have to let your kids go and leave them to flounder on their own -- though that is tough for the parents, it is often easier in the long run for the kids.

If your daughter knows that her reading is weak AND wants to improve it, there are many things you can do to help her practice. 
(1) get several books of easy, but fun pieces such as easy sonatinas (it depends on what is "fun" for her, it could be pop or jazz, etc.), or the Magdalena series of Bach compositions and tell her to practice sight reading by playing each once each time -- ON HER OWN.  Don't let her practice them, and don't even THINK of helping her out -- the more she struggles, the better.  If you get several such books, each piece of music can be practiced quite a few times before it is completely memorized. Then you can get a few more difficult ones, such as Mozart sonatas, etc., so there are plenty of materials to choose from.  Even HANON, which I despise, is useful for this purpose, if she had never seen it before.
(2) get duet books or church hymns and start with letting her play the accompaniment while you play the main parts.  If she gets good enough, you can switch parts. Again, don't practice them, but use them just once and move on to the next piece. 

More details in my Home page below -- see the chapter on advanced sight reading and the sight reading references.

I am against flash cards and rote memory that are too boring for the brighter students. They are suitable for the learning handicapped that must spend months to learn something simple. Most students are bright and love a challenge, as long as it is rewarding.

[m19834]

Reading is an "unnatural skill" in the sense that as humans evolved, youngsters evolved natural skills such as talking and walking, but never needed the skill to read until recently.

Interpreting hieroglyphs is actually a form of reading.  Tracking animals is actually a form of reading.  Knowing when it's going to snow by looking at the sky is actually a form of reading ...

[CC]

Interpreting hieroglyphs is actually a form of reading.  Tracking animals is actually a form of reading.  Knowing when it's going to snow by looking at the sky is actually a form of reading ...

Exactly! that's why 3 yr olds who can walk and talk can't do any of those things. Thanks!

[peterjmathis]

I second the sight reading exercises. There are also a few sight-reading practice software programs out there you might want to look into.

[jbmorel78]

I find flashcards very helpful with my beginning students - I believe there is a set of them published by Bastien?  This of course must be combined with reading from the literature, so that there is not a disconnect between the "theoretical" and practical...

Best wishes,
Jean-Baptiste Morel

[avguste]

I am also big on flash cards.
And make it a game. Like if she gets 10 correct, she gets 10 extra minutes of TV or something

[jenny62]

Developing good sight playing skills from the beginning is fundamentally essential to progress!  I also use note flashcards and make a game out of it.  Quick note recognition is important.  Another tool is for students to be able to read intervallically, and to quickly recognize patterns like scales, chords, chord progressions, arpeggios - hopefully all skills that they are doing regularly.  Students need to be confident with keyboard topography.  If the hands are in an F Major 5-fnger pattern, know that RH 4th finger and LH 2nd finger lays on Bb.  Know what an interval of a 3rd feels like without looking down at your hands.  Know what an octave feels like, etc.  Finally, I think the single most important factor in being a good sight reader is to be abe to keep your eyes on the music and not constantly checking to see if you are playing the right notes.  This ties in with the previous mentioned skills.  Sight reading skills are not learned without regular practice.  If your current teacher does not assign and check sight reading skills regularly at each lesson, ask him to start.  The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be.  A fabulous series of sight playing books that I use with every student in my studio is Sight Reading & Rhythm Every Day, written by Helen Marlais and Kevin Olson, publishedby FJH.  Currently, there are only 6 books, which stops at about early intermediate/intermediate level, but I understad that they will eventually go up to book 10...  The books are very carefully leveled with sound pedagogical sequence and they are FABULOUS!