VMT 010 – How to teach keyboard geography to newbie piano students.mp3

Vibrant vibrant vibrant music teaching proven and practical tips strategies and ideas for music teachers.

Welcome to episode 10 of the vibrant music teaching podcast. I’m Nicola Cantan and today I want to help you teach your newbies how to navigate the keyboard quickly and easily.

In this episode of the podcast I want to talk to you about the subject of keyboard or piano geography. In other words how to find your way around the piano. Now you may have noticed that this episode is pretty much just applicable to piano teachers for the most part. I tried to keep this podcast fairly relevant for all music teachers because I think we can all learn a lot from each other and that’s actually why I have the vibrant music studio teachers Facebook group. It’s because I believe that we can learn from each other’s experiences no matter which instrument we’re teaching or where in the world we’re teaching and that most things are actually relevant to all instrumental and vocal teachers. This one however is a specific topic that is only relevant to piano teachers because as I say we’re talking about piano geography. Now the reason I wanted to record this podcast episode is because this is something that I used to neglect in my teaching a lot and I’ve mentioned that previously and it’s something that I see other teachers neglecting too. You see it can be tempting not to really teach this at all. And I get that it seems like it’s just logical. OK it’s the first seven letters of the alphabet and that’s fairly straightforward. And for an adult student yes they will find their own way around the piano using just that information. You just have to tell them and they’re off on their way.

It’s not a big deal for them but the more I started teaching preschoolers the more I had to realize that this needed to be taught to them. Even the groups of black keys weren’t immediately apparent to them and I needed to put some effort into genuinely teaching this stuff. And as I started to teach this to preschoolers I realized that it was really beneficial for everyone to be taught this stuff a little bit more explicitly and especially everyone under the age of say 10 where before I was just giving me information or they were absorbing it as we went through. Then I started teaching this to all of my students in a much more in-depth way and I found a huge benefit in this and that when I get transfer students and I notice a massive difference in how quickly they can find the correct key and navigate the piano. Obviously super important. If you’re going to be playing things like reading things and just generally getting through lessons so I’ve come to view this as a core concept that I want to teach all my students but I have special strategies that I use to slow it down. In those beginning years with preschoolers and younger students especially now I’ll just go through my approach and how I sequence things because everyone’s a little bit different here. I start obviously with the preschoolers I start with the groups of black keys the 2 and 3 black key groups and this really needs different levels of teaching depending on the student.

Some get it straight away even at 3 years old and some six year old years old totally don’t get it. I need a lot of going over this and that’s completely fine. If they need that extra reinforcement to see those patterns it’s better to do that now than a long way down the track. When you realize actually the only note they can find is middle C and it’s because they’re relating it to the writing on the piano instead of actually navigating using the Black Keys. So we start with the groups of black keys and I introduce the d key. The the first white key introduce is the key D because it’s the easiest to find. There’s no way to confuse left and right and there’s no way to confuse which one it is in the middle because it is exactly in the middle of the two black keys. If all this sounds obvious to you then I’m sorry for talking you through each step but I didn’t. This wasn’t immediately apparent to me and I didn’t pick this out as something I should teach. First and foremost and ignore all the other white keys for quite a time. But that’s what I do now. So D comes first and until I am absolutely positive that they know where he is and could find it with their eyes closed.

Then I don’t move on to anything else. The next stage for me is to introduce C and E either side of D so that they have a group C D E and they practice finding them in a pattern going up and going down. Then we move to 3 black keys and I introduce at first and again until I’m absolutely positive that they know if I can’t find it no matter what I won’t introduce the group. But when I do I’ll introduce a full group together. F G A B so they’re starting an F and then we’ll start doing it backwards as well. B a g f this seems like a lot of stages and I get that but you could under one had this could happen with the teenage student all in the first lesson. Right. You’re just checking that they can find d they understand what you’re saying they can find then the groups and do them backwards and it’s a little bit of a game and you’re over with it. But if they need more reinforcement you get to see which stage you need to put that reinforcement in as you go through. So when they do need more reinforcement I’ll start with doing their technique exercises and songs from that particular key. So this could be for example at the beginning of Piano Safari where they have the lion.

paws those old go from the Ds. So that’s a great way to practice that key when I’m working on that one. When we’ve moved on to F we’ll practice my impulse into the f or into the E or into the sea. So we’re moving through them and it’s just that extra reinforcement provides an extra layer where we can work on that particular key that we’re working on that day or that group. Likewise with their songs if they’re just working on a finger number pattern and we’re going to transpose it then I’ll challenge them to find a certain key with a certain finger. So let’s put finger 2 on G and we’ll give this song a go there. If you’re working on something like Mary Had a Little Lamb or something like that where you go to transpose it with them this is a great activity to do and just add that extra little step that gives them some more practice. Finding keys and navigating the keyboard correctly after Dee has been introduced and I’ve been working on groups of keys that’s where my games come in. Now I’ll start off before they even working with games. When we’re talking about the groups of black keys and for those especially with preschoolers under sixes let’s say I’ll be using the keyboard builder which is on my blog and dogs and gates which I also find there. So those are activities to work on the groups of black keys and like I say if a student gets out straight away I’m not going to labour the point I’m not going to go over and over it.

But if they don’t get it it is so valuable to go over it. Lots of times and they aren’t bothered by it. If it’s framed as a game like this. So that’s the way I work on the groups of 2 and 3 Black Keys then I’ll start to introduce games. The first one I do is very simple like gold. This little hedgehog now called this a hedgehog because I use my little wacko hedgehog erasers that I have which are those little Japanese puzzle razors doesn’t have to be hedgehog’s. Okay. It could be anything it could be any animal you have in tiny 4 or just Rubber’s. And you know this little red rubber want to sit here. Or this little post it doesn’t really matter but it is fun to have an animal and it makes it that much more interactive and playful for your students. I’ll ask them to put the hedgehog somewhere. This is just a test of knowledge though so if they’re working just on C D and E I would ask them. Okay. This little hedgehog wants to go on the low C. This little hedgehog wants to go on a high E.. Etc etc.. Right and they’re just demonstrating to you in that way that they can find.

First of all high and low key. That’s another thing that they need to navigate at the piano but also that they can find a particular note and through that you’ll see whether they have to go through the pattern whether they have to figure it out in some way or reference some other point or look at a poster that’s up in your studio or whether they just jump straight to it. Over time they should be able to immediately identify the keys but it does take time for some students. So if there were you on C D E would do it with that FGB with that. Or I would have them do it with the whole group once they are ready for that as well. After this it will hedgehog’s one of the other games I’d like to do is key clamber. This is a printable dice which you can find in VMT if you’re a member but if you aren’t a member you could use decide now app or make your own dice. I like to have them separate so for Keith Lambert there two separate dice and one is just CDs and ease and one is F G A B and I prefer to put two A’s or to be sorry two A’s or 2 gs because those are the ones most easily confused. That’s just a little trick for you. If you’re making your own obviously those six sides on a die do you have to double up on two of those and I’ll double up a and G because the middle ones and you may have noticed that students get them confused because they’re in the middle of three black keys.

It’s not as easy to instantly find those. So I have two sets of dice and will either use C D or B or will do the full version which I do C D E the way up and FGB on the way down. So we’re sitting little hedgehog’s again or something else on the piano or on the paper keyboard that I have and working our way up. So we just roll the dice. One by one and move to the next nearest one of that. So you would move up to the first three or up to the next D X cetera as you roll. And the winner is the first to reach the C at the top or the first to reach the A at the bottom depending on which version you’re doing. Another game I love to do is musical meander. And in fact musical meander and musical alphabet memory I’ll put in the same camp here because with those ones you’re looking at the keys in a picture right. It’s a symbol of the piano key so it’s just the group of two or a group of three and you need to identify this helps again for students to split up the two groups so that they have that as a reference point because otherwise they’ll tend to go back to working from C all the way up or the worst case scenario is that they decide to only go from a at the bottom of the piano and remember that as a reference point and that’s just not a quick way to find your way around.

So making sure that they understand those two groups and think about them in that way has been very useful for me. And those games like I say show pictures of the keys in the group of two or group of three and then they need to identify the key name in order to match up pairs or musical meander they’re moving forward on a gameboard. I also have songs that I use that they sing along while they play now songs as maybe a strong word for what these are all I’m getting them to do is play CD on the way up and then e see on the way down. And likewise F.J. be on the way up and be a g f on the way down. So they have to play those groups one by one just one finger two or something and also say them and I emphasize that because it doesn’t have. If they don’t say them as they go and I always make them restart if they don’t say them.

So that’s just to reinforce the part and get in them saying it and practicing jumping between the groups and finding them really quickly as well. Now as you might imagine this takes quite a few weeks with some students to get through all these activities and each stage working from D to C D E F F G A B but it doesn’t and when we get through all of those levels the most important part and the lesson I’ve learned the hard way over and over again especially with young students is that you need to revisit these things time and time again going forward even if it seems like they get it right now so don’t leave it two years until you ever play these games again is what I’m saying. Have a little check in every month or so even after they seem to get all the keys because it won’t always be coming up and they can find their own little tricks and ways of navigating where it’s disguised when they’re reading music but suddenly it comes back to bite you. So have these little games they can really only take a minute or two some of them to play with your student going forward. Just every so often have a reminder for yourself to check in with these things at least for the first year once a month or so.

Having said that it may take the full year for them to get through this whole process and that’s okay too. It’ll totally depend on the student and their age how long it takes them to get through this as an average guideline with a preschooler normally they’d have all their keys they’d have gotten through G B and B working with the full set and identifying them pretty quickly after the first semester with me. But it does take up to the first semester for young students to get this so be patient keep reviewing stuff and make sure you notice when it’s just your expectations that are getting in the way. Because often preschooler’s young students older students even have no idea that they’re going slowly and as you pointed out to them or seem frustrated or give up on it so just make sure to check your own expectations of progress as you work through this stuff. And when it comes to transfer students and adults you’re probably not going to want to start at the beginning although you might and you might still want to do some of these games.

I’ve actually talked to teachers who have done things like dogs and Gates and the keyboard builder with adult students and if you introduce it in the right way and acknowledge that maybe it feels a little bit silly but that you know it’s useful you might be surprised how well they react to it and how they get into the swing of it and have some fun with it too. I’d love to hear how you get on with these tips for teaching keyboard geography if you already do something similar to this if maybe you picked up something new this time. Let me know about it. I’d love to hear your experiences in the vibrant music studio teachers group on Facebook if you’re interested in how I teach the circle of fifths and chords and scales and all that kind of stuff to my students. Then you should definitely register for my upcoming webinars. It’s on Friday the 5th of October so it’s coming up soon. And it’s you can register at vibrant music teaching dot com slash C O F for circle of fifths so vibrant music teaching dot com slash C O F and I’ll catch you on the next episode of the vibrant music teaching podcast. Bye for now

Vibrant music teaching members can now find the transfer student transitions special video inside the library as well as all the other courses and the full library of games and activities for their students. If you’re not a member yet you might want to check it out. Go to VMT. Dot ninja to join us today.

Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix