Should I be teaching musical notation to very young students? This article is about how my teaching has changed due to online lessons.
One of the first things I learned in early days of teaching was “learning styles”. How does a student learn best? Is it aurally 👂, visually 👁, or *kinesthetically 🦾? (*kinesthetically essentially means by actually doing the physical actions.)
This would depend on the individual student but also on the student’s age. With younger students I’ve tended to focus more on the aural and kinesthetic learning a bit more than the visual kind. This meant that in the very early stages, I would teach beginners by singing the tune first, or by rote, clapping, moving, essentially not really putting notation in front of them for a while. And since it is most of the time very effective, I was beginning to forget a little bit that it “depends on the individual student” part.
Recently I had a break-through with my very young student. Well, it was more like she had a break-through with me. This student up to now had learned all the tunes by ear and practised at home by listening to the recordings. She is doing brilliantly! But since the Zoom lessons started, we were having a slightly difficult time copying each other, singing to each other, and playing together, last being just not really possible over Zoom. And it was hard for me to keep her engaged on the screen for too long… She would be fine playing the tunes that she already knew, but working on new tunes was proving a bit tricky!
Then in one lesson, I suggested we take a dive into learning how to read notes. Wow, she was really excited! She did all the exercises I asked her to do in the week, but on a single day, immediately after the lesson. And by going over the notation for rhythm, her counting and timing settled into place. After that, playing by rote also went more smoothly. Notation served as a conduit between me and her music-making.
She reminded me that it’s so important to keep an open mind, always look out for different approaches and not stick to what I think works. And as we continue with online lessons, I need to be even more aware of this.
Here are some notes about what have been effective during my online beginner (and beyond) lessons:
Books
I Can Read Music, Vol 1: Violin (For Violin)
I use this book with my young beginners
This uses a very simple and methodical approach. What I like about it is that once I introduce the material, student can progress through the page on their own, and it is easy for parents to help out. There are 2 sections, pitch and rhythm, and the progression is very gradual. It fits in well with Suzuki violin books but can be adapted in a number of ways, for example, introducing a well-known tune using just the notes that the student has learned. It is definitely an exercise book and maybe a bit dry with black and white writing, but there’s room for making it interesting by adding colours, stickers, and student can be involved with that.
Hey Presto Violin Theory Books
While there’s not much room to go through these books during the lesson times, I like the fact that young students can go through these books at home, with a little help from the parents sometimes. The pages are small and the materials are covered in manageable small portions. I could say do a page a day, and lots of my students do often more. Sometimes we spend time during the lesson discussing the contents and important concepts.
App
Violin Notes Flash Cards
Since I discovered this app, I haven’t used paper version of flash cards. On Zoom lessons I sometimes screen-share this app to break up the lesson. I input a scale / notes that student knows and run a short pop quiz.
I think this is a great App for use at home, too!
And…
A good old white board to write notes, rhythmic notation etc. I use a A4 size white board with music stave.
I haven’t quite got to using the online white board yet…
Need for Non-Visual Learning Time
Listening
Children are using their eyes so much, with remote-schooling and in their downtimes, and even during their music lessons. It can’t be helped. When children learn a new piece, they go on Youtube and “watch” someone play it, too.
So it’s nice, I believe, just to have a few minutes during the online lesson for listening, if they are up for it. They could be lying down on the floor and not watching the screen for it. (Well, sometimes they do run off and disappear altogether but often they’re up for something different).
At home, I encourage parents to find a beautiful audio recording of the pieces they are learning (and others) and create a playlist. Exam pieces downloads are a good place to start. Kids can listen to that while they study perhaps?
Making Up
Also quite nice is to play something “together” while we both go on mutes, or have the student make up something. We can’t hear each other but this gets eyes off the screen…
