Julie's
Tip Top
Journal
Piano Student Consultation Mon 23rd Dec 2019
I had a lovely consultation with a very keen young pianist this morning, really enjoyed hearing her play the piano AND sing!
Super talented! Great potential!
This student has a beautiful Kawai upright piano (and a three cat home always brightens a Tip Top day.) It's brilliant that Mum is musical and keen to support musical learning in her daughter and we had a really good chat about the way forward.
Posture:
We made just a couple of tweaks to posture, as youngsters forget that they grow and, as they do, they need to sit further away from the piano keyboard as the forearms need freedom from the body to reach the full range of the keyboard. We also tried a book to support the right foot so that the student could keep her heel grounded.
Fingers should also be curved and check that the end finger joint doesn't collapse.
Notation Ruler:
We had fun making a notation ruler, a marvellous tool for working out any measurement of pitch, starting with tones and semitones, then the major tetrachord, scales, chords, intervals.... it makes theory a breeze and equips learners to work things out for themselves! My new student readily used the ruler to work out tones, semitones and tetrachords and played them beginning on C,G,D,E & B using 2 finger patterns. Easy and simple but soon.... she will be playing lots of major scales and she will begin to understand the characteristics of each key........ this not only makes scales easier to learn, it helps sight-reading, theory and harmony.
This is great way to learn about the key system - I'd recommend learning how to construct and use this for all young musicians.
I look forward to meeting more new students in the New Year.
Have a blessed Christmas (and Hanukkah in the Csorba house).
Julie x
