Children between the ages of 6 and 10 have a very limited capacity to visually understand a regular notation system
Children readily understand the simple symbols, and it is easy to implement them
The method is based around a concept that if you simplify the notation to its very core
Tell that to Mozart!
It looks complicated.
I don't apologise for saying this, but if you have students who can't read simple notation, then either you're not teaching them properly or there is something seriously wrong.
In "excellent" results - what are the results, of what goals, and how do you define excellent, and measured or assessed how?
it's not useless to try to develope new methods.
If you take a page from a Rachmaninoff concerto and show to a 7 year old, he will also think it looks complicated.
Please bare in mind for what reason the method exists. Of course there are pupils who naturally understand "regular" notation quickly. But for the majority of teachers who work in schools with anything from 20-50 pupils a week, one knows there are many who struggle, and would clearly benefit from a child friendly notation system, where the distractions and confusions are reduced.
...it's not useless to try to develop new methods.
I wonder why that is?!?
Maybe because it is much easier to just let the students with special problems stop trying? Either quit lessons or just manage without proper reading skills. After all playing music is not compulsory. If you really have not had a student who struggle with learning notation you have been quite lucky with your students. If you go on as a teacher I am sure you will meet one sooner or later. Hope you can deal with it then.BTW. There are other mosern methods developed for the purpose of teaching notation and at least the pre staff notation is commonly used by teachers today.
the most idiotic
pointless argument.
For Students with notational reading problems she doesn't create a new stave but works with the student to change the orientation of the stave from vertical to horizontal so that they can see the relationship of the notes on the paper to the keys.
Very cool! And, interestingly, is exactly what this method does. It starts off as a vertical read, from up and downwards, and changes after a few pieces to show the relationship between up/down and left/right on the piano!
Have you read the book? If you've read the book I would appreciate your feedback replying why a new method is needed.
This is one of many typical obstacles. A lack of an open mind, curiousness towards new ways other then your own, quickly judging something based on the first impression without trying to understand it, etc.
You don't know me at all, so you don't know whether or not I have an open mind etc.
Maybe because it is much easier to just let the students with special problems stop trying? Either quit lessons or just manage without proper reading skills. After all playing music is not compulsory. If you really have not had a student who struggle with learning notation you have been quite lucky with your students.
Well... I do teach in a school of high-achievers, so I guess I wouldn't have had that problem. Do some kids find it hard to learn the traditional way? They usually love shapes, and symbols... and usually soak up most things like a sponge...
Well, hard to tell how common it is, but there is a thing called "note dyslexia" (my translation). I also encountered an adult (a friend) who despite of lessons cannot really "get" notation. Hard to tell if another approach in the beginning would have made a difference or not.
For what it's worth, here's a post that I wrote on reddit for someone who struggled with sight-reading because of his or her dyslexia:https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/661oa3/has_anyone_successfully_taught_themselves_how_to/dgflwn5/
Why implement a new notation system that is going to be redundant after some lessons, when you reach regular notation?
Before this new method, when music reading beginning on the black keys was introduced, it was mostly realized with note symbols off the staff in conjunction with the respective fingerings. This can not really be considered as music reading because in this way the pupils were unintentionally conditioned to focus on the fingering and look away from the notes
@keypegThe method is not meant for you personally. Its designed for teaching children aged 6-10 who are starting to read music for the first time.. If you already can read music then this is of course not for you.
I have now had a closer second look at the videos and read the explanation with more care. In the text:I very often see this, where an idea is introduced - new or old - where the writer has been reacting to something he has encountered and is fixing it. Since this is his experience, it's his reality and so seems universal. In this case it is a teaching method that relies on finger numbers as its starting point and creates a dependence on finger numbers, and orientation to the fingers rather than the notes, and other problems. There are, imho, poor "teaching" practices which lead to unfortunate results which your team is trying to circumvent.You need to be aware that the method of starting teaching via finger numbers is unpopular with most people on PS, it's not done, so the problem being circumvented doesn't happen. This is a key point for communicating with folks here, because it's a very key point. If what you folks saw was in a classroom situation in a school system, maybe that school system used fingering-oriented approaches while giving mass education in music. Since that is a poor system creating problems in the learner, your new approach does not end up with those problems which were the results of poor methodology. Folks in the forum may be teaching in a way different way, which does not result in those problems, and may not want to fix what ain't broken. This may be at the core of some of the poor communication here. Would this make sense?
Not sure exactly how it works … I probably would not recommend using this method.
… it reminds me a little of lute tablature. The disadvantages of lute tablature out way the advantages as judged by history.
I see what you mean. However, I would say that this method not is created based on a merely a few observations. It is developed after reviewing Russian schools of methodic, French schools, American schools, aural methods, improvisational methods, C-centred methods, etc etc.
. Its merely a concept that has develop into a well working method, where the children who have been exposed to it (In modern times, mind you) have shown excellent development in terms of reading music, orientation at the keyboard, aural perception, etc. And in our experience, better then the methods we were trying earlier.
Nicco, You post another video about this method, but I am still not seeing a reply about why it is needed. As per the reference book that I asked you to look at, can't you accomplish the same thing in teaching by changing the orientation of the music so that the student gets the concept of The score relates to the notes on the keyboard ? Have you taking the trouble to look at 'a soprano on her head' ?
One more video example to show more precisely how it works!
I know this is a separate topic but one thing that really bothers me as a teacher is the absolutely bland and banal music that seems to comprise virtually every piano method out there. This video is a perfect example of what's really wrong with piano methods. Forget trying to come up with some fancy new technique to teach reading, or whatever. How about just writing some decent music for beginners?
When I was a child, motivation was exploration. It was discovery, taking things apart, putting them together again. This doesn't let me do any of those things.