What we do:
- Develop our audiation
- Listening, singing and movement time away from the keyboard
- Play with proper technique
- Play using the entire range of the keyboard
- Immerse ourselves in songs and chants in a variety of tonalities and meters
- Play duets
- Use art and storytelling to create and tell musical stories
- Creativity and improvisation
- Group classes of 2-3 students per class
- Introduce music notation later on when the student is ready
Our students are constantly listening, moving, creating and understanding music deeply.
We use the innovative ideas of Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT) to teach our students to audiate so that we can play more naturally with understanding and expression. And we use creativity and improvisation in every class to solidify our learning. Our classes are fun, engaging, creative, and time flies by quickly. My students often say to me, “Is class over already?”
What we don’t do:
- Push keys without any understanding of what we’re doing
- A traditional 5 finger approach
- Use music notation right from the beginning
- Sit at the keyboard the entire class
- Learn a piece and then move on to a slightly harder one
- Play with tension or stiffness
- Play only in the middle register of the keyboard
- Play and sing only in major tonality and duple meter
All students start with informal guidance as we work our way through the stages of preparatory audiation. This serves as the foundation of all music learning afterwards, on the piano or any other instrument.
Once a student is audiating, we can move on to formal instruction at the piano. We use the Music Moves for Piano books and repertoire pieces outside of the books is added gradually according to the student’s level and interests. Eventually when the student is ready, music notation is introduced.