Reading Archives | San Antonio Piano Lessons

May 18 2018

One Minute Club

What is “One Minute Club”?

If you want to be a super note-reader, one minute club is for you!

In one minute club, student is challenged to identify note flash cards and “say and play” the notes on the grand staff in one minute or less. Well-known teachers, Jane Bastien, Susan Paradis and Amy Chaplin, have inspired the piano world with great one-minute club ideas!

Why “One Minute Club”?

Super Speed note naming skills

10 levels of achievements

Prep Activities

Level 1 Activities

Level Chart

10 Levels

Level 1 – (5) 3 Landmarks (Middle C, Treble G, Bass F) + E above Middle C + A below Middle C
Level 2 – (7 ) 4 Landmarks (Middle C(LH/RH), Treble G, Bass F), DEF above Middle C
Level 3- (10) 4 Landmarks (Middle C(LH/RH), Treble G, Bass F), DEF above Middle C, BAG below Middle C
Level 4 – (8) All 8 Landmarks: Low C, Bass C, Bass F, Middle C (LH/RH), Treble G, Treble C, High C
Level 5- (20) Level 3+4 + Bass D, E, AB above Treble G, DE above Treble C
Level 6 – (12) Grand staff space notes
Level 7 – (12) Grand staff line notes
Level 8 – (24) All grand staff notes (levels 6 and 7 combined)
Level 9 – (12) Ledger line notes (Two ledgers: Low CDE, Middle GAB and DEF, High ABC) P.S. Choice of ledgers is those that are available in the flashcards set I use. Low C is the lowest and High C is the highest.
Level 10 – (36) Grand staff + All Level 9 ledger lines

April 5 2017

Better Read Ahead before the notes go away – Sightreading with Read Ahead

Favorite Teaching Tools, Reading Reading, Technology 0

Read Ahead App for Sightreading

I have had Read Ahead app on my iPad for a while, however, I didn’t get a chance to explore how amazing it is until seeing it in action in MTNA conference a week ago. My student tried the app this week and after completing the first day sightreading project, she was so eager to try her hands on day 2 and kept asking for more.

What I like best about Read Ahead app

It’s so well-sequenced and pedagogically sound.
The music will disappear right in front of your eyes to help you “Read Ahead.”

Yes, you read it right. The music literally disappear right in front of your eyes. Students get a sense of excitement knowing that the music and notes will vanish out of thin air. I find it to be a surreal experience when I first tried it and it’s so addicting. What a brilliant idea – you’d better “read ahead” before the notes go away.

See the app in action

Visit Read Ahead website and watch the 2 videos and experience the disappearing beats. Other than disappearing notes, Read-Ahead has warm up and fixed scores that help student succeed in sightreading. This app is developed by Peabody Institute music theory professors Travis Hardaway and Ken Johansen and this is the story of how they started the read-ahead project

“The ability to play an unfamiliar piece of music from start to finish without stopping is an important skill for any pianist. Yet many piano students find it a difficult skill to master – even students at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, one of the world’s preeminent music schools. Recognizing this need, Peabody Institute music theory professors Travis Hardaway and Ken Johansen developed an app to help students learn to sight read.”

The entire curriculum is based on extensive research in the cognition of reading music and years of experience teaching sight-reading classes at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Conservatory.

Sound Shape Valentine

Reading, Sound Shape Reading 0

Inspired by my student’s adorable Valentine card, I decided to make a “sound shape” Valentine for her.

As I mentioned in my previous blog discussion about Sound Shape, learning to see the shape of sound helps the student to

Recognize different patterns
Read in larger chuck instead of individual note
Foster the ability to analyze and process more information
Build sightreading skill

Some Fun Sound Shape Activities:

1. Name the Shape

Encourage the student to imagine what the shape looks like and give the sound shape a name.

Connecting the dot: Draw line between each note. Does this look like the roof of the house?

The big picture: My student thinks this looks like a doggie

2. Trip around the hand

Randomly choose a sound shape by rolling dice and take the sound shape on a trip around the hand.

Let’s use the “Roof Sound Shape” as an example, here is the trip summary

start on right hand finger 1
step up to finger 2
step down to finger 1

This is another trip summary for the “Tall Roof”

start on right hand finger 1
skip up to finger 3
skip down to finger 1

3. Finger Number Bingo

Identify the sound shape just by the finger numbers.

RH 121 – Roof Sound Shape

RH 343 – Roof Sound Shape

LH 434 – Roof Sound Shape

Once the student becomes familiar with the numbers, play a Finger Number Bingo game.

4. Do-Re-Mi Sing and Sign

Sing and hand-sign the solfege of each sound shape.

5. Music Alphabet Bingo

Identify the sound shape by matching the music alphabet.

CDC – Roof Sound Shape

GAG – Roof Sound Shape

BCB – Roof Sound Shape

Play a Bingo game.

October 7 2014

Sound Shape

Reading, Sound Shape Reading 0

In the previous blog, I wrote about how “Directional Reading” revolutionized the way I read music and the importance of the landmark (guideposts) notes. Today I would like to explore the building blocks of the music- the “Sound Shape.”

After learning the guideposts, the next step is to identify patterns (for example: steps and skips) and how the patterns relate to the guideposts. Good sight-readers possess the ability to quickly recognize shape and pattern, and simultaneously translate those shapes into hand movements on the piano. To help my students read music fluently, they need to be able to “see” the shape of the sound.

Step 1: Sound Shape Flashcard

Download the pre-reading step and skip card from Susan Paradis’ website http://www.susanparadis.com/catalog/SP702/preview.pdf

Step 2: “Hear” the Sound Shape

Teacher picks two cards and plays the sound shape for the student. Ask student to identify the right card.

Step 3: “See” the Sound Shape

Look at the sound shape and see if it’s going up, down or stay the same, also see if there are steps or skips. Can you think of interesting names for the shape? For example, this shape is an eye-brow

This shape looks like letter V (smushed). Imagine how the letter V looks differently with skips.

This is zigzag

Let your imagination soar….What do you think Christmas Tree shape looks like on music?

Step 4: “Feel” the Sound Shape

Play the sound shape by moving the fingers in the air, then play on the piano.

Another great resource is the iPad flashcard by Jennifer Fink

Take a look at this youtube clip –

Beethoven 5th Symphony, 1st mvt. (“fisheye”), Do you see Sound Shape?

September 30 2014

Reading Music using Guideposts – Directional Reading

Reading Reading 0

I grew up learning piano following the traditional Middle C reading approach – both LH and RH thumb sharing Middle C and my teacher would add a new neighbor note from Middle C each week and I gradually learned the notes expanding from Middle C.

Then…I came across two other reading methods: multi-key approach and landmark (Guideposts) approach. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the landmark approach – reading intervallically through the use of guideposts. This way students learn to utilize the entire keyboard from the very beginning. I would like to share two videos that are great for reinforcing the guideposts concept.

Resources from Flashnote Derby

http://flashnotederbyapp.com/learning-music-notes-on-the/learning-the-treble-clef.html

http://flashnotederbyapp.com/learning-music-notes-on-the/learning-the-bass-clef.html

*Guideposts shown in Flashnote Derby’s videos

Flashnote Derby has a fun app that my students absolutely adore. They always have a blast when playing the reading app.

Other resource:

All About That Bass (Clef)

Reading