Making a Mental Map - The Grand Staff

[halfstone]

Probably someone has thought of this before, but lately I have used this approach when teaching the Grand Staff. Works well.

Regards
Hallstein

[abell88]

I like that...there is (or at least used to be) a beginner book called "Jibbidy F and A-C-E".

Alice

[whynot]

Cool!

[torchygirl]

I really like this!

Karen

[will]

This is very similar to what I use. I used to use FACE and GBD, but the groups ACE and GBDF have much better symmetry on the staff. Nice use of colour as well.

[halfstone]

This is very similar to what I use. I used to use FACE and GBD, but the groups ACE and GBDF have much better symmetry on the staff. Nice use of colour as well.

I've used this system for the last two weeks, and what I do is to work through the sheet while we identify the groupings of GBDF and ACE. Most kids grasp this quickly, and a few of non-readers where so amazed when they realised they had memorised 35 note-posisjons in less than 10 minutes. When first introduced I use the coulors to mark the positions in their music which they are currently working on. I'm amazed how efficient this is...

Regards
Hallstein

[Torp]

Halfstone,

Could you talk a little more about how you actually use this to teach.  I'm talking along the lines of a 5.5 year old student that seems to "memorize" songs rapidly thus negating the need to learn the notes.  I'm trying to develop the note recognition and learning, but she's not getting it.  This leads me to believe that I'm not being very effective at teaching it.

How long do you find it takes before a child this age "gets it?"

Jef

[halfstone]

Halfstone,

Could you talk a little more about how you actually use this to teach.  I'm talking along the lines of a 5.5 year old student that seems to "memorize" songs rapidly thus negating the need to learn the notes.  I'm trying to develop the note recognition and learning, but she's not getting it.  This leads me to believe that I'm not being very effective at teaching it.

How long do you find it takes before a child this age "gets it?"

Jef

I think I was making myself a bit unclear. I ment non-music-reader, not small children. I really don't know how good they are at the symbol-decoding business.   

I know that the system above works well for children at ages 7 and 8. I think that presenting very small bits of information e.g. 'learn c, then go on and learn d' which is often the case in piano-methods, is slow and cumbersome. And the learners don't get something to refer to.

In teaching situations I seldom answer directly to questions like ' what note is that'. Instead I say something like 'Remember, the four upper lines are ...'

Hallstein