FREE ESSAY ON PIANO TEACHING METHOD

PIANO TEACHING METHOD

PIANO TEACHING METHOD
There is lots of piano teaching method and each one has its strengths and weaknesses.
Now, I am going to inform you about the most common three methods for children - Alfred,
Suzuki, Amadeus. 
First of all, the Alfred method uses visual things such as colored pictures and graphics
- using software, compact discs, and /or cassettes is the newest updated one in this
method ("Piano Teaching Method" 1). As you know, a picture is the greatest friend to
children and it helps them, even adults like us, to understand something a lot easier.
Additionally, it could grab children's attention more easily and quickly than a verbal
explanation. For example, you can make a little card to show the scale or the
relationship between notes. It is going to be helpful because students can look at it
over and over. If you add colors or some pictures to that, it also would be helpful to
get students' interest. This method gives students strength in reading intervals and
seeing "the intervalic relationship between notes" ("Piano Teaching Method" 1). However,
it might cause students to play by totally "relying on position playing" instead learning
how to read the notes because it uses "the concept of position playing" ("Piano Teaching
Method" 1). In other words, students memorize the hand position - fingering - but not
read the notes. And some people point out that "the major composers should be presented
to the students at a much earlier stage than is typical in this method" ("Piano Teaching
Method" 2). This method is recommended for very beginning teachers who need a certain
prepared lesson plan to follow and once the teachers become more comfortable and get to
know about different methods, they are urged to "expand from this method" ("Piano
Teaching Method" 2).
The Suzuki method - you probably heard this concept a lot. This method was applied to
teaching violin originally by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki but it now is applied to piano teaching
also (Mills et al ed. 1). The Suzuki method approaches playing piano with "listening and
development of ear and the memory" rather than reading music (Mills 114). This method
relies on playing by ear so that students become more sensitive about the tone they
produce and it makes student concentrate more on their playing, and become more
expressive with the music (Mills 114; "Piano Teaching Method" 4). In The Suzuki Concept,
the author indicates that "after the good playing habits have been established, reading
comes a little later" (114). However, the students trained by this method could lack
reading music skill because they depend too much on playing by ear ("Piano Teaching
Method" 4). 
For me, the most interesting teaching method is the Amadeus method. The concept of this
method is that the teacher should give a lesson to children by playing with music as
children play with toys (Back and Lee 25). The author remarks that teaching how to read
the notes is not a first step (Back and Lee 25). In The Piano Teaching Method To Make The
Best Student, the author describes that in this method, the teacher should guide children
to be familiar with music by their sense of playing, and help children to feel and
express music through their bodies (25). In this method, the easiest and the most
recommended thing for teachers is to have children sing (Back and Lee 24). By doing that
children could learn musical factors such as phrasing. Through this method, children can
enjoy learning piano more and become familiar with music gradually and unconsciously
(Back and Lee 26). I believe that unconscious learning process is the strongest advantage
the students can get from this method. But as a teacher, you have to be always aware of
the lesson plan, otherwise this method might end up just as playing instead of teaching
(Back and Lee 26). Therefore, teachers should always prepare the curriculum carefully.
As I mentioned above, there are strengths and weaknesses in each method. As a piano
teacher, you should be knowledgeable about many different methods and use them according
to the student's needs. You can't just insist on one particular method because each of
your students' learning style will be different. I believe that the role of a teacher is
to find out the best methodology for his or her students. Teachers should be flexible
with different methods of teaching.
Bibliography
Back, Ki-Pung, and Bong-Ki Lee. The Piano Teaching Method to Make the Best
Student. Seoul: Jak Eun Woo Li, 1993.
Mills, Elizabeth, et al ed. The Suzuki Concept. Berkeley: Diablo Press, 1973.
Piano Teaching Methods. The Piano Education Page. 
.