‘Zebra on a Pogo Stick’ is a student favourite from Piano Safari Book 1. I haven’t met a student yet who doesn’t love this piece.
Over time, I have picked up which style of rote piece introduction suits which piece. ‘Zebra on a Pogo Stick’ is very suited to this tactic of hands separate work.
As you’ll see in the quick clip, I’m playing the hand that the student is not playing. This helps to get the tune into her head while she works on the other hand. Then she can approach the other hand with some familiarity already.
If you’re new to rote teaching, don’t worry if you don’t have as clear a plan as I do for this piece. The more I teach each of these pieces, the more I identify pitfalls and how I can avoid them.
The first thing to do if you’re just getting started is to just make sure you repeat, repeat, repeat. Revisit the piece several times during the lesson and break it up with other activities and repertoire.
If you want more tips for rote teaching, read the article Rote Teaching 101.
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 got some inspiration from 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.
