Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Help with student - upset over reading music

I agree with AZN here. It is really difficult to find out what a transfer student knows, even after a month of lessons. You'll still be discovering new loopholes in their knowledge base - things that you would have taught them long ago. Transfer students really are a challenge for the most part. It's rare that you get one where the student was taught sufficiently so you can just move forward. Usually the reason the student is a transfer is due to the poor teaching they received, but not always. Sometimes it's just a stroke of luck that got them out.

I would say it takes up to 6 months to really get the student into a good routine of practicing and forward progress.

You'll know you're there when the student cries because he has to miss a lesson, rather than crying when he has to attend one.

We treat this case of a sight-reading block as though it were a rare condition calling for the most deeply considered quantification ... what a load of codswallops ... we are shackled the bug of sight-reading mystification and suffer the agony of uphill groping-in-the-dark with every fresh piece of music studied. (True, it gets a bit easier with the passing years ... but perhaps only because of a thicker hide).

Newcomers to the keyboard face the bleakest of horizons ... and the watchword constantly voiced from the sidelines is never comforting ... just that endless road of dedication and perseverance.
(enough to drive a chappie to drink!)

Any wonder then, that there is a cry from the crib ...
get real, people ... and try to put over an atmosphere of fun in playing the piano ... failure to do so inevitably ends in the discombobulated student
packing in piano lessons and taking up sky-diving.

If the Piano Teacher can’t make lessons fun ...
then they should be instantly shipped to Timbuktu.

The "sight-reading block" problem that persists may come from many different factors, and it is the teacher's job to diagnose the problems and offer solutions. I'm not sure if anybody here is calling such block a "rare condition," but some people are more interested in solving problems than naming problems.

If I may add some of my experience at dealing with students and sight-reading...

Most elementary piano students avoid actually reading the music and instead try to memorize instantly. This is very common. In fact, it is the norm. What we fear - we avoid, and in the process a problem becomes enlarged beyond reasonable proportion in our imagination, so much so that our fear itself becomes the huge obstacle more the actual task in question.

The fingers may be far quicker and agile than the eyes. And agile fingers can play faster than the ear can sometimes follow. We humans have been very clever at using our fingers to make tools for thousands of years, but on a wide-spread level, humans have been reading abstract written language only very recently in history. The eyes, not just the fingers, need training. And let us acknowledge that playing the keyboard is a direct and tangible process with immediate results, while reading is inherently abstract and requires translation within the brain before being transferred into physical action.

When I encounter a fearful reader, I take them several notches below their finger-technic level. In fact, I always begin at the very beginning with children or adults, and I tell them why: not only must the eyes be cultivated to coordinate with the fingers, confidence must be built up as well, and that also takes practice. We do not become confident by repeatedly failing. So we practice success and confidence from the start.

Too many sight-reading books sabotage the reader with print that is far too small. The print should be larger than usual. The music should not be an obstacle course of disconnected pitches, but flowing easily in lineal movements not requiring any turning under or over of the hand. I am exceedingly picky about what sight-reading material I use. For beginners I have had success with the new Faber beginner sight-reading material because it meets these requirements (yes, those books with the cartoons in stick figures - but children take to it like eating popcorn).

The single biggest mistake students at all levels make is they throw their hands into the keyboard before reading anything at all, not even the key signature and meter. I don't allow that, not ever! First, with hands OFF of the keyboard, we slowly read through the music with our eyes before playing a note (this was Liszt's method, and as he was probably the greatest sight-reader in history I don't mind following his example). With the student we sing and count through the music. Now we know what to expect, so now we play. Naturally, it always goes much more smoothly. Page follows page and we are on our way. It is just that simple.

I take a space of time within each lesson to walk through the process with the student. When sight-reading becomes more advanced I still require the same process: read through the score first to make note of figurations of scales, chords, patterns, etc., not to mention key and meter changes. Once again, we know what to expect, and only then do we play. It always goes much more smoothly. At the intermediate level I still prefer easily readable texts with the music logically laid out. The Clementi sonatinas are a good example.

In traditional classical music repertoire, perfection is always at the top of the priority list, but that ingrained disposition is poison to sight-reading. So I alert students to the fact that we are, well, sight-reading, which means that flawless perfection is not our goal, only the flowing process of reading through the music. Stopping to correct wrong notes may signal admirably moral penance, but sight-reading is a different process and we simply will not do that here. We leave any stray notes behind as we move through the score. This liberates students from that overwhelming fear factor of hitting wrong notes. Afterwards one can look back to clean up details and then sweep through the music again with even greater confidence.

This drives me nuts. The other thing is busy artwork on the page that distracts the eye.

Jonathon, thank you for this extremely informative post. It has helped answer a number of questions I've had lately about the process of learning a piece. The timing for me is perfect as I'm about to take up.a new piece, and this has helped me to better understand not only the importance of reading a piece, but to understand how this builds the foundation for eventually performing the piece.

Might be coming late to the conversation - but this is a student who is relying on his ear to play. I have had three of these types of students. Teachers would play the songs for them and then were amazed that the student could play it almost perfectly at the next lesson. All three had parents who caught on to the problem with music reading. It was a struggle all of them to teach them to read music and not rely on their "music imagination," but it has turned out well. One even thanked me for going back and teaching them to read it.

One thing I also do with every student is analyize the piece. Break it down by going over fingering, notes, etc even the form. Many of the Faber pieces are in ABA or similar form. Some of my students that slightly panic at seeing a piece on the 2B-4 level relax quite a bit when we go over it this way and see the repetition.

sorry to get back to you all so late, there's some really great advice in there so thank you all. I spent the make up reviewing a march he'd learned that week, he played it almost perfectly but his eyes weren't following the music. We spent most of the lesson looking at improvising on the 12-bar blues and then writing out his ideas which he seemed to enjoy, we then looked at a sight reading piece which he played rhythmically fine but the left hand was a whole tone down the whole time. I gently confronted him about reading bass clef and he admitted he found it hard, I pulled out a worksheet showing guide notes and how easy it is to work up or down from them, went over the bass clef ones several times and looked at another sight reading piece, he got every note right.

I'm going to keep looking at the sight reading and reiterating the fact that he doesn't have to work out every single note as long as he recognizes the intervals.

Thank you everyone for your input - it's nice to hear from people who've gone through similar situations with other students and how they've tackled it.

Congratulations! Its sounds as though this lesson was the exact opposite of the melt down one. It's always good to be able to pull a student out of the mire when they have a bad lessons like that, and remind them that making music is work, but it is fun, too. Often, we make it harder for ourselves than it has to be.

What a classic understatement by Jonathan Baker ...

“Most elementary piano students avoid actually reading the music and instead try to memorize instantly.”

The truth is WE ALL try to memorize ...
so as to avoid the agonizing slow sight-reading process.

This is no criticism ... just an observation of reality ... however, it is the snake-oil logic which makes me want to ..........

“The fingers may be far quicker and agile than the eyes.
And agile fingers can play faster than the ear can sometimes follow.”

Balderdash ... we are hamstrung by an antiquated notation system ... which fails to present the accurate graphic pitch and duration of notes ... and has bedevilled our sight-reading since the Middle Ages.Kind regards, btb

I don't. Reading is much easier than memorizing for me.

The chappie from Maine is obviously in a class of his own ...
how the heck can we believe you?

PS We've had this barney before ... however, the presumption in saying you can sight-read like a lord includes being able to
play a fresh piece of Chopin at the keyboard.

Well?

Which chappie from Maine? (I'm not a guy.)

I'm not saying I sight-read like a lord (or lady). Reading is not the same as sight-reading. But I prefer to play with a score rather than without, and the score provides valuable information to me. For pieces within my level, I don't find even sight-reading to be agonizingly slow.

I've seen an example of your proposed alternate notation, and it requires making micro-judgments about differences in lengths and heights of lines with very few landmarks to help the process. That's not an improvement on the current system.

Yes, we have had this barney before, many times, from you. You'd probably do your cause more good if you didn't keep questioning the truthfulness of other posters when they talk of their reading ability.

The truth will out Aussie Bird,

The Chappess from Maine has come clean ... and likes to have the score on her lap while listening to the music ... and why not?

My apologies for for wanting to clobber Milady from Maine ... but whenever anybody tries to brag about their
sight-reading prowess, I go into Sherlock Holmes mode to
investigate the crime of exaggeration.

Originally Posted By: btb
The truth is WE ALL try to memorize ...
so as to avoid the agonizing slow sight-reading process.

The following looks a bit fishy.

"I don't. Reading is much easier than memorizing for me."

Sorry chaps ... I prefer a juicy steak to a piscine relish.

My aplogies if I bruised some tender soles.
Kind regards, btb

I am sure no one is bruised, but you generate more heat than light.

Best regards,

JB

I disagree, the Springbok chappie is always a delight to read.

We agree to disagree.

After reading SO MANY experience SO CLOSE to mine...

Is there a well-polished and tested method (book or at least set of procedures for teachers) for students Better-at-Ear whose natural inclination interferes with reading, generating frustration often up to quitting ?

I don't think the Better-at-Ear prospective students are that rare.