The piece she's currently learning is Elissa Milne's 'Tango for Starters' in the AMEB P Plate Piano Book 3. She loves it - she's capable (with work) - but she has trouble understanding it in the traditional way that we expect as piano teachers. Thanks to some earlier gains with her big brother, I tried to match the rhythm with a related phrase that means something to her. We wrote the phrase on the music (as if it's a lyric) to connect with each of the notes. For example, in the first phrase our 'lyrics' were 'Please don't yell out loud Thomas!'.
We clapped this rhythm, played it on percussion instruments, I played it while she played the rhythm on percussion instruments & we also practised saying the phrase out loud with the right inflections. Not surprisingly with this little girl with a strong aural sense, it's working (the actual notes were a cinch).
This week at home Tinkerbell recognised that 'Tango for Starters' has an ending like the beginning. So she returned to me able to play both the beginning & the ending (GREAT! 2/3 learnt :))
So this morning we start to attack the middle!
So the first phrase lyrics were 'My head is so sore!' with 'Please don't yell out loud!' overlapping so that 'sore' & 'please' are played together. When I watch her playing it I can see that she has a clear sense of how to play it.
Traditionalists may wonder whether I'm simply reinforcing her reluctance/inability to understand written music. From my point of view, the learning curve for Tinkerbell will be long (as it is with all of us). She learns violin using the Suzuki method. Her aural sense is finely tuned. Unfortunately note-reading is her weak point. I can't hope to fill this gap in the short term in a highly active 6-7year old. However I CAN use her strong aural sense to ASSIST in the music reading. Reading music (& navigating the keyboard) has improved & remains a work under construction. In the meantime, she's having fun learning new music & progressing at the same time.
