Technical Exercises
Technical exercises doesn’t always simply mean practicing scales and chords in the “Technical” book. In fact, I like to incorporate technical exercises within the pieces the student is learning because it is more musical (so more fun to play and listen to), but also it’s in context of the actual skill I want my student to achieve.
As an example, I’ve produced a list of technical exercises I would work with a student if he or she were to learn a piece from the RCM repertoire. What are some other techniques and strategies from your teaching point of view?
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Musical Narrative with Sonatina in G Major (Clementi)
In my course with the RCM Elementary Specialist program, I learned to teach pieces with a clear musical narrative. I feel as a music teacher, we often take this as granted and assume our students know what we mean by “feeling” the tone and the pitch of the notes to elaborate and express our intentions. Understandably, that’s not often the case. For one of my assignments, I learned to articulate myself in a piece of instruction on how I can explain what musical narrative is, and how to apply it to a piece - namely, Sonatina in G Major by Muzio Clementi.
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Exploring Music Literacy
When I was a student going through my RCM theory exams, my favourite subject was the history component because I was able to learn more about the composers and what types of influences during that period in their lives that lead them to create a particularly beautiful piece of music. Unfortunately, back then utilizing online resources and other materials were not popular, and the notion of incorporating history lessons within the practical piano sessions was limited.
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Teaching Philosophy
I specialize in teaching young children and my belief is that I need to speak their “language of learning” in order to help them attain the utmost success. I also think the key to success is setting specific, measurable, attainable and relevant goals to each student’s personal needs.
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Teaching Inspiration
My most inspiring teacher encouraged to play challenging pieces that I never thought I’d be capable of doing so. She pushed me to do the best I can, and listened to me when I felt pieces were too challenging or didn’t fit my style. At the beginning of each year, we’d sit down and map out what I want to accomplish in the next 12 months, and that gave me a great sense of direction and what I need to do to be successful. I recall for two consecutive summers, I was taking piano, flute and two theory exams because I felt I was capable of doing so. Every few months we’d prepare a piece that I would play at a recital, which gave me a great sense of pride and motivated me to try even more challenging pieces for the next recital.
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The Benefits Of Being Classically Trained As A Musician
When I receive inquiries from potential new students for piano, I'm often asked if I'm "classically trained". However, it's difficult to answer this question because there are many genres and techniques that can define a classically trained musician.
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Why Follow the RCM Curriculum?
As you may know, I'm a private piano teacher for many years. I started teaching initially because I enjoyed working with little kids and watch them understand and pick up things!
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