Some ideas on how to start teaching a beginner student

[ranjit]

I do not suggest reading if someone doesn't know how to play. That is an important tip I find. People don't read before they can speak, so too with piano you don't really learn to read before you can play. There are ways to avoid reading sheet music at the early stages, we discussed this with a couple members in this thread earlier this month:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=67509

This made me want to share one strategy which I've always suggested to people who want to start learning the piano.

Whenever absolute beginners have asked me how to play the piano, I have always told them to start from a synthesia tutorial on Youtube -- some simple arrangement, such as the Godfather theme -- a piece of roughly this difficulty level, for example:

This is intentionally not a toy beginner piece in a five-finger position -- it's actual music, and uses a considerable range of the piano in an idiomatic way. I tell them to think of some piece of music which they love (and it tends to be pop music such as Fur Elise or movie music) and find an arrangement like this one.

It's something which I would expect a beginner to 70% succeed at -- by which I mean that they will be able to get a hang of the notes in maybe a couple of weeks, but they won't get it nearly perfect, the rhythm will be off, the dynamics will be off, and there will be some momentary lapses in memory.

What that means is that several things have been achieved in one shot! Firstly, they have experienced playing a piece, and realize that it's possible for them to just pick up a piece of music which isn't too hard and play it, no training required. The actual difficulty is to be able to play it well. Secondly, they have now encountered a range of techniques -- scales, arpeggios, melody+accompaniment, coordinating both hands. They love the piece, which keeps engagement high, and gives an immediate reward once they can play it. That allows the fact to 'click' that playing the piano isn't all that inapproachable. They may also feel the need for a more efficient way to read the notes, and would have got some idea of the structures which go behind the music -- the melody, which can repeat later on, the chords which are played in various patterns for the accompaniment, etc. And they would have had to figure out some sort of basic strategy for memorization, which would probably involve keyboard topography and sound memory.

Now, if you introduce scales, arpeggios, sight reading, basic music theory, voicing, etc., they can use this piece as a reference, and will have a much better idea of what learning those tools can achieve.

Thoughts? Have you ever done something similar with your students?

[thirtytwo2020]

Interesting. You're certainly making a convincing case for it, and I think it could absolutely be worth a try. A worry would be that if left too much on their own they will pick something too difficult or poorly demonstrated, that will give them a bad experience, or make them unnecesarily pick up some bad habits.

When you write about people "asking you how to play the piano", do these usually go on to become students of yours or do they just casually ask? What I'm after is how much and what experiences do you have of the actual results of this strategy? 

[lostinidlewonder]

Whenever absolute beginners have asked me how to play the piano, I have always told them to start from a synthesia tutorial on Youtube

I guess this could be considered "learning by rote". Of course meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning are more desired though these are difficult to produce if you have zero experience base. Still everyone can learn finger numbers and hold single positions although I still come across people who struggle with that!

-- some simple arrangement, such as the Godfather theme -- a piece of roughly this difficulty level, for example:

Honestly a whole lot of beginners would struggle a great deal to learn this piece.

This is intentionally not a toy beginner piece in a five-finger position -- it's actual music, and uses a considerable range of the piano in an idiomatic way. I tell them to think of some piece of music which they love (and it tends to be pop music such as Fur Elise or movie music) and find an arrangement like this one.

Why do you think the majority of early beginners would be able to achieve such a standard? If you are basing it from your experience you should realize that there are people really do struggle just to coordinate the use two hands at the same time or maintain a single position at the keyboard. You need to get them doing predominantly successful and safe movements at the keyboard first rather than throw them into experimental waters.

It's something which I would expect a beginner to 70% succeed at -- by which I mean that they will be able to get a hang of the notes in maybe a couple of weeks, but they won't get it nearly perfect, the rhythm will be off, the dynamics will be off, and there will be some momentary lapses in memory.

If you go ahead and seek the actual statistics you will see it is much lower and it may take months or simply be not possible for a lot of early beginners. It would be akin to studying a piece far too difficult and thus waste a lot of time when they could be building skills with much easier works.

What that means is that several things have been achieved in one shot! Firstly, they have experienced playing a piece, and realize that it's possible for them to just pick up a piece of music which isn't too hard and play it, no training required.

No training requied? There are a lot of movements which require a good set of coordination and position control, this is easy to underestimate the difficult for an early beginner.

[j_tour]

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If you go ahead and seek the actual statistics you will see it is much lower and it may take months or simply be not possible for a lot of early beginners. It would be akin to studying a piece far too difficult and thus waste a lot of time when they could be building skills with much easier works.

Well, out of curiosity, where is this data?

No, I'm not challenging you at all, but playing the "Godfather" theme with a rudimentary accompaniment in the LH (maybe just bass notes, or maybe nothing) is a challenge to a beginner?

This is not a humblebrag but I think I could do it on a brass instrument with no valves in a few minutes, never having played those before.

Or, you know, on on upright bass or something.

Or me trying something on a regular trap drum set, which is always foolish.

Perhaps neuroplasticity is underrated.

//////////////

I'll grant you this much:  I really don't know what small children pedagogy is like.  I vaguely remember being a small child, but that's about it.

[lostinidlewonder]

Well, out of curiosity, where is this data?

If I took a random person without any instrumental playing experience I would infer around a low single digit % of people could accomplish it a time which wouldn't take months of effort. The data needs to be infered by the number of students you have taught. I think about the hundreds I've taught in the past and come to a conclusion. I also take any student from anywhere, I don't only want high levels players so my data would come from simply the general public in Western Australia. I feel more could be built towards that level in a matter of a few months which would be a wiser approach. When I was a child I learned such easy pieces, you don't just go ahead and jump in the deep end at the start, it's almost always a foolish venture and even more so does not do as well as someone who builds their skills up comfortably. 

No, I'm not challenging you at all, but playing the "Godfather" theme with a rudimentary accompaniment in the LH (maybe just bass notes, or maybe nothing) is a challenge to a beginner?

You have people who are learning the piano who struggle to say play a held chord in the LH vs a melodic RH, that might be the maximum they can manage. Some even find playing a triad too difficult and must play only the outer notes. To then play a broken chord in the LH vs melodic line, this is several steps above learning how to play simply held chord vs melody, the difficulty level has raised because of that broken LH figure. Also not many small or inexperienced hands can maintain octave distances comfortably so this would again add to the challenge.

So when we are talking about early beginners of all ages we also need to realize there are plenty of struggling beginners out there. This is why often I say teaching beginners are the most difficult student to teach because the intense levels of incompetancy at playing, coordinating and learning can be very great. I actually enjoy teaching struggling beginners a great deal because it's a great challenge but you can break through.

[j_tour]

So when we are talking about early beginners of all ages we also need to realize there are plenty of struggling beginners out there. This is why often I say teaching beginners are the most difficult student to teach because the intense levels of incompetancy at playing, coordinating and learning can be very great.

I'm glad for the detailed reply:  obviously, it's not something I know about, but as I get a bit older it becomes more interesting to think about how learning occurs, at various "stages."

So, these are valuable pieces of information to me.

Just wait 'til you see my app!

No, I'm kidding, but it's good information, so I thank you for that.

[ranjit]

When you write about people "asking you how to play the piano", do these usually go on to become students of yours or do they just casually ask? What I'm after is how much and what experiences do you have of the actual results of this strategy?

They were random college students -- so, I guess they were smart and young on average. They hadn't really become students of mine, because they were just curious and their interest usually waned after a few weeks. My experience has been that they were able to learn 20-30 seconds of a piece like this (the actual duration doesn't really matter since the same ideas repeat) to an extent in 1-2 weeks, and then I would follow up and correct their hand position etc., tweak a few things around, and they would be playing much better after a few minutes. And then, I would play the same piece (which I could usually play on the spot by ear or by rote), and try to convey how emotion is brought about at the piano and why technique is necessary for that. For example, that they couldn't really produce a crescendo with a collapsed hand position they had come upon. And so on and so forth -- I would try to use that piece as a microcosm of piano playing in general.

I did this with around 5 people -- not a great sample size, but that's a lot for someone who isn't a teacher. I came up with the idea because I realized that, even if I explained what decent positioning was at the piano, there's no way they could appreciate it before they had tried and failed a couple of times. Otherwise, I just ended up with people who would argue with me because they couldn't comprehend why my suggestions would be effective, while they wanted to be free of such boring practical considerations.

Thinking from the perspective (at least I had) as a beginner, when it comes to this piece, there is basically no syncopation rhythm-wise -- whenever the left hand and right hand are playing notes, they occur during the same time. This is only marginally harder than playing a melody with the right hand, and a chord with the left hand.

[ranjit]

I guess this could be considered "learning by rote". Of course meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning are more desired though these are difficult to produce if you have zero experience base. Still everyone can learn finger numbers and hold single positions although I still come across people who struggle with that!

Yes, the idea was to try and get them to learn something by rote. Usually, they are very familiar with the piece and may even be able to sing it. This helps because they already have decent auditory memory of the song, which speeds up the learning process.

The hands are shown in the video. Would beginners actually struggle to copy that? -- given that the video can even be slowed down or played frame by frame. Also, they wouldn't necessarily have to learn the whole thing, just the first section or so -- 20-30 seconds of music.

Why do you think the majority of early beginners would be able to achieve such a standard?

They wouldn't be able to truly achieve it, but I think they would typically make some progress. And from the progress they do make, it becomes both apparent to the teacher as well as the student what needs to be improved upon. I wouldn't expect a beginner to learn this properly -- there will be haphazard movements, pausing to recollect the left hand, etc. I would kind of instruct them beforehand that they could add in the left hand one note at a time if they are struggling etc., but I would leave them to use their baseline problem-solving skills to try and learn the piece.

You need to get them doing predominantly successful and safe movements at the keyboard first rather than throw them into experimental waters.

I'm talking about the very first weeks -- I find that they understand why the movements are safe and successful much better if they can immediately hear the difference they make on a piece they already recognize.

No training requied? There are a lot of movements which require a good set of coordination and position control, this is easy to underestimate the difficult for an early beginner.

It's not easy to play well or play through it without pausing. However, I think just getting a handle over the notes and playing it without any real technique is possible. It's not that fast, and you just have to keep a few hand positions in mind, which I'd think should be rather apparent given that there is a video of a performance as well.

 

[lostinidlewonder]

The process of learning the piano can inherently be a chaotic process but we strive to make solid progress and measurable changes in some sort of controlled environment. I think overstepping the mark early on simply is not a good idea, just do stuff which is very easy, even if it is too easy that doesn't matter you will get through it faster and then be able to take more wise leaps of faith. Of course this is the response when dealing with large numbers, when you are looking at an individual it may bring lots of variation.

[dogperson]

They were random college students -- so, I guess they were smart and young on average. They hadn't really become students of mine, because they were just curious and their interest usually waned after a few weeks. My experience has been that they were able to learn 20-30 seconds of a piece like this (the actual duration doesn't really matter since the same ideas repeat) to an extent in 1-2 weeks, and then I would follow up and correct their hand position etc., tweak a few things around, and they would be playing much better after a few minutes. And then, I would play the same piece (which I could usually play on the spot by ear or by rote), and try to convey how emotion is brought about at the piano and why technique is necessary for that. For example, that they couldn't really produce a crescendo with a collapsed hand position they had come upon. And so on and so forth -- I would try to use that piece as a microcosm of piano playing in general.

I did this with around 5 people -- not a great sample size, but that's a lot for someone who isn't a teacher. I came up with the idea because I realized that, even if I explained what decent positioning was at the piano, there's no way they could appreciate it before they had tried and failed a couple of times. Otherwise, I just ended up with people who would argue with me because they couldn't comprehend why my suggestions would be effective, while they wanted to be free of such boring practical considerations.

Thinking from the perspective (at least I had) as a beginner, when it comes to this piece, there is basically no syncopation rhythm-wise -- whenever the left hand and right hand are playing notes, they occur during the same time. This is only marginally harder than playing a melody with the right hand, and a chord with the left hand.

If, after a couple of weeks, they could only play 20-30 seconds, did not continue with the piece, or continue learning the piano, I would not consider this experiment a success.  It would have been better to have chosen a piece where there was an expectation of completion in a short period of time.  If I were part of this group, my takeaway message would be that pisno was too difficult to pursue.

[dogperson]

Duplicate

[ranjit]

If, after a couple of weeks, they could only play 20-30 seconds, did not continue with the piece, or continue learning the piano, I would not consider this experiment a success.  It would have been better to have chosen a piece where there was an expectation of completion in a short period of time.  If I were part of this group, my takeaway message would be that pisno was too difficult to pursue.

I see your point. However, this was an informal setting and these people were not serious about the piano. Retention when it comes to playing a musical instrument is pretty low in general because it's 'boring' to learn. I asked a friend to teach me the basics of playing the guitar. I played for a couple of weeks, learned the intro to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, and kept it aside. It just meant that I had other things on my mind and didn't practice, not that I thought guitar was too difficult.

[dogperson]

I see your point. However, this was an informal setting and these people were not serious about the piano. Retention when it comes to playing a musical instrument is pretty low in general because it's 'boring' to learn. I asked a friend to teach me the basics of playing the guitar. I played for a couple of weeks, learned the intro to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, and kept it aside. It just meant that I had other things on my mind and didn't practice, not that I thought guitar was too difficult.

Yes, retention in learning the piano is not high but it can’t get any lower than this group of 0/5. You never know how a spark might be generated where someone will decide to continue learning nor should a ‘student’ be pre-defined as ‘not serious’.  They were serious enough to start, work on this for two weeks and fail. 

[ranjit]

Yes, retention in learning the piano is not high but it can’t get any lower than this group of 0/5. You never know how a spark might be generated where someone will decide to continue learning nor should a ‘student’ be pre-defined as ‘not serious’.  They were serious enough to start, work on this for two weeks and fail.

I actually don't know what the real numbers are, because I didn't follow up after that or have regular lessons. Several people had self-taught to varying degrees and had asked me for advice, which I was pretty successful with. People tend to learn in bursts if they aren't learning from a teacher anyway. It's unfair to compare my experience with that of an actual teacher, because I wasn't offering lessons. People occasionally asked me how to play because they had heard my playing and liked it. To come up with actual conclusions, I would need a real control group, not busy college students asking a one-time favor.

I posted an idea here which makes logical sense to me, which is to ask people to learn something real first, and then use your observation ability as a teacher to suggest improvements on that (and as I said, the effect of what I suggested was easily understood and visible within a few minutes). The student's natural musicality will aid them in hearing whether what they are doing is working or not.