My student Amelia was having a little trouble following the rhythm in this piece which is at the beginning of the Piano Safari book.
She was doing something many students have a tendency to in the beginning: playing repeated notes more quickly than other notes. I believe they do this because these parts are “easy”, and so they rush through them.
I started by making sure that she could identify which notes were actually longer (ta-2) and then we played the piece in unison.
This is just one simple way to improve rhythm for beginners, and I have many other tricks up my sleeve, but this playing side by side is surprisingly effective. Plus it means the teacher spends less time talking and allows the student to feel the music.
What are quick clips?
Colourful Keys Quick Clips are all about giving you a taste of what my lessons are actually like – in action.
I certainly don’t claim to be an expert, and I don’t have all the answers. I just know how much seeing real teaching with real students has helped me to grow and improve as a teacher.
Let me know what you think!
I hope you had fun watching this Colourful Keys Quick Clip. If you have any thoughts or questions, be sure to ask them in the Vibrant Music Studio Teachers group on Facebook or in the comments here, and do make sure to subscribe to my emails and YouTube channel to get notified when a new quick clip is published.
If you want more and extended clips of my teaching, be sure to check out the Vibrant Music Teaching library. There’s tons more like this as well as a whole library of teaching games to boot.
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