Pick the music that you want to play

I remember taking one of my brother's 'jazz' piano books to my high school piano teacher and asking her to teach me the pieces. She was not impressed. (It wasn't like they were even jazz standards). She put the book away and told me that I need to focus on my exam pieces. But I hated practicing the piano with a passion and I had figured that it was because I need some more inspiring pieces. Needless to say it wasn't long before I switched piano teachers, but it was still my high school subject, and I still needed to learn those exam pieces. 

Over the later years of learning to play music, I just accepted whatever pieces my teachers gave me and decided that it was the only way it needed to be done. I convinced myself that if you want to be a good musician, you have to play all the pieces you are given.

But the reality of this, is that those pieces (or scales) that didn't motivate me to practice, also lead me to recent the piano. 

Somehow, learning all the pieces on my woodwind instruments wasn't so terrifying, but it certainly didn't always make me excited about picking up my instruments and practicing.

Now as a musician, I have found that the best way to motivate myself to practice, is to pick music to play that I actually like. This is not necessarily music that I always listen to, or that is popular. But music that is interesting and fairly challenging to play. Yet it mustn't be so difficult that I can't sight-read some of it. 

If this is my motivation, then it needs to be how I approach my teaching. Yes, you still need to eat your vegetables, learn those scales and play those pieces, but a dessert of a fun piece, is a definite incentive.

So I hope that you too can find some fun, catchy music to learn this holidays.

Happy one week holiday everyone

Robyn

The beat vs rhythm

One of the most difficult things to teach an absolute beginner student (of any age) is the difference between the beat and the rhythm of music. I find that initially they mostly think that the two are the same thing. This is probably because many people mistakenly use the word 'beat' instead of rhythm.

While a metronome is ultimately the best way to keep a steady beat, it can be very daunting (and annoying) for a beginner to use. I usually explain that a beat is the constant pulse in music, such as a ticking clock or your heartbeat. It is usually constant throughout the piece (as a ticking clock) but can be changed by a tempo indication (as your heart can speed up when exercising or slow down when at rest). As a clock cannot function without a second of movement, and you can't sustain life without your heartbeat, so too music must have a constant beat that the rhythms can relate. 

Rhythms are the alternation of different lengths of sound. These have to relate to some sort of constant beat in order to be classified as a rhythm and in order for our brains to interpret it as such (I am aware that John Cage has his philosophy on the heartbeat of life etc. but this is not very applicable for this teaching concept).

I find that clapping can be a very useful tool when teaching someone who is struggling with this concept. I will get the student to clap the beat with me. Then I will ask the student to keep the constant beat, while I will clap a rhythm. We will then swap and I will keep the beat as the student creates their own rhythm. With the little ones we also use various percussion instruments

I find it fascinating how some people pick up on this concept so quickly, (usually younger students). They are able to play rhythms on the instrument in perfect time and with relative ease, while others really struggle with the concept (usually beginner adults). We sing, we clap to the metronome, we walk around the room to a beat and yet when it comes to counting a steady beat and playing a different rhythm the co-ordination goes out the window and the student feels they don't completely understand what a 'beat' is and how long a beat should be.

So it has been quite a fun exercise for me to come up with new creative ideas about teaching the beat vs rhythm.

I would live to know if other people struggle with this. Please let me know if you do or if you have managed to overcome this?

Robyn