A Snail’s Gotta Do What a Snail’s Gotta Do

Snail, Snail

Recently I sang this with a preschool student to help him find his singing voice. After numerous questions that only a 4-year-old can ask, such as, “Why did the snail want to go around the water pail?” and “What is a water pail?” he started giggling and told me he “liked this song.” Trying hard not to get distracted, I told him that was just what snails like to do. Then he asked me to teach him how to play it on the piano.

So, always ready to please my students (preschool children are so more easier to please than high school students!), I wrote it out for the piano. I have to admit I get a little thrilled when a student asks to play something. This time his questions were about my drawings. (“Why is the snail smiling? Why is he green and orange? Why is the water blue? What does a snail eat? What if he falls in the water pail?”). I hope you have a sense of humor because you need it with children.

Getting back to piano, notice that Snail, Snail is played with the third finger of each hand. This is my sneaky way to help little students learn to brace their third finger and drop into the keys. If you have a beginner who is having trouble developing a rounded hand shape, maybe this piece will help. If you are a parent helping your child, be sure to drop into the keys, not lift individual fingers. Try to help them keep all their fingers rounded and not poking out this way and that. Suggest that their hand is holding a cute green snail and we don’t want to crush it!

You can learn about the braced finger from Nancy and Randall Faber’s Piano Adventures and My First Piano Adventures. If you’re not sure how to teach the concept, check out their videos. [On their homepage click Teacher Guides, > My First PA Tour and Videos, > Video Lesson Guide, and watch Hangin' on a Fence Post.]

School Is Starting Back – a pre-reading piece with duet

School is Starting Back

I composed this little solo for a beginning student who has taken long enough to play on the white keys. In order to avoid skipping fingers I tried to make all the notes seconds. Sometimes that leaves a little to be desired when it comes to melody. Although Beethoven was able to produce the greatest 5-finger melody ever written using only seconds and a couple of skips,  I don’t have that ability by any means! However, I added a teacher duet you can play along to spice this up.

The most difficult spot may be the fourth finger in the right hand of the last phrase. That is not a strong finger so I plan to do a little spot practicing there.

As usual, my teaching suggestion is to teach the song first without piano (transpose, because it is in a register too low for children), tap out the rhythm like a drum on the fall board, repeat using the correct hands,  practice playing in the air with the correct fingers, play using fingers on the fall board, and finally try it on the piano. Usually if I do all that, the student is successful and very proud of himself! Of course, older students won’t need all those steps, usually.

A pre-reading version of Bingo

Bingo

I often receive email from teachers who are not used to young beginners or  parents who want to try out my pre-reading music,  so I am posting a suggested teaching plan for this fun folk song. Experienced teachers do not need to read on!

1. Before you begin, teach the song if you discover your student doesn’t know it. Have fun, and maybe play some instruments or march around the room.  

2. With both hands, drum out the rhythm on the fall board, singing along. At this point, chanting or singing the song in rhythm takes the place of counting.

3. Using the correct right and left hand, tap the rhythm on the fall board. Each hand has a different colored highlight to help students who get mixed up. 

4. I am going to assume your student knows piano finger numbers. But if he does not have experience with skipping fingers, you will need to work on that before you proceed. A good piano method book for young children is invaluable. Also, I have posted some pre-reading solos  easier than Bingo that I use as supplemental music.

5. If this is the first time he has used skipping fingers, practice 3 to 1 and 4 to 2 on the fall board. Circle the places on the music where these are found.

6. Play the song in the air, using correct fingers. Try it on the fall board. If he ”gets it”, he’s ready to play. Let him find his position.

7. Always count off. Like most folk songs, this one has a pick up beat, which you don’t need to explain at this point. It helps the rhythm if you count off 7 beats at the beginning:  “1 2 3 4, now let’s play….”.  Point to the notes as he plays so he will learn to read and not look at his hands. This is where all that preparation helps.

8. Make sure he drops into the keys using fingertips and keeps his wrist fairly level. Drop with the forearm. Avoid excessive lifting of each finger up and down in isolation to the rest of the hand. That will lead to some hard to fix problems. 

If you are not sure what I mean, watch the following videos.

Dennis Alexander This video shows the student tapping the rhythm on the fall board and playing with a relaxed hand.

Nancy Faber This video shows how to drop into the keys. Watch her other videos of beginning lessons for more information.

It’s October

It’s October

I wrote this  piece  for a new student because  I wanted something special to play at her second lesson. She was delighted with it.  

If you’ve never seen piano material like this before, this is a pre-reading piece that can be used at the first or second lesson. The student plays on the group of three black keys, moving down toward the bass.  If you need more help, check out some of the newer piano methods at your local music store. I use My First Piano Adventures for pre-school and first grade children,  and Book A of that series contains a lot of pre-reading material.

No wonder students get confused when learning to play the piano. The numbers and words go one way (right), while the left  hand moves down the keys the other way.  In a few weeks it is normal for most students, but others have get confused.  It is something to think about when we try to understand why some children have so much trouble learning to read music. Reading music presents so many challenges for young children! 

If you want some more music for the first lesson when students have not yet learned quarter notes, I have posted a few.  From my website you can download:

What the Robin Said to the Worm,

What the Worm Said to the Robin, 

 Fourth of July, and 

 Canada Day.

In addition, there is a lot of pre-reading music on my website using quarter, half, and whole notes. The ones above use only finger numbers.

The Bulldozer

The Bulldozer

If you have been following this blog for while, you know that I have a special, cute, red headed beginning student who loves for me to compose songs for him. He parades into the room, looks for his footstool, and gets right to work.

Starting on the black keys we progressed slowly, learning the names of the keys, how to hold the hands, how to drop into the keys, left hand and right hand, finger numbers, and all the other things we teach beginning students.  I  wrote one song a week for him for many weeks, mirroring what he liked and his favorite activities. My student was very young and could not sit to practice for too long , so we took our time and leisurely went through his first book,  My First Piano Adventures.  Now he is learning to read notes on the staff, and thanks to a great background, he is doing very well. But I have a nostalgic, bittersweet feeling, because I know that period of his life is gone and he is growing up. It is the same feeling we have when we drop off our children for the first day of kindergarten. We’re happy and sad at the same time!

This was the last pre-reading piece I wrote for him.  He was thrilled to play hands together and he loved the sound of the open fifths and the minor key. A lot of practice drumming this out on the piano cover helped to get hands together, as well as all the rhythm activities we have been doing for the past 9 months. He sailed through the skipping notes because we did a lot of preparation. This is a great song to memorize and play for others because it sound impressive. My student repeated it an octave lower for a longer piece.

If your student has trouble with the skipping notes, play them in the air and on the piano cover before playing on the keys. Unless your student is older, this should not be one of his first pieces. Wait until he is ready.  

Some teachers do not think it is good to spend so much time on pre-reading. But I would like to point out that it took weeks for this student to develop the coordination to play with the correct fingers consistently.  Other teachers wonder why start piano so early if it take so long to get anywhere.  Why not wait until they can learn it faster? But he enjoys his lessons so much, and loves to play. This alone is a great motivator for him and a good ego boost. Plus, there is no doubt in my mind that the earlier children are exposed to rhythm and musicality, the easier they catch on, just like learning a foreign language. I can guarantee that this student will have no rhythm problems when he is older, unlike many of our students who start at a later age. If boys are playing impressive sounding pieces by the time they are in the later elementary grades, they are much more likely to stick with piano.

The words and art from this song is recycled from my book Sunny Solos. In that book this piece is on the staff with a different melody.  My daughter was able to draw and color the bulldozer in about 5 minutes. I wish she could do all my art!

To print this song, go to my website, click *music*,  scroll down to SP013 and click *download*.

Lizzy’s Cat — a pre-reading piece

Lizzy’s Cat

Young students often get the 4th and 2nd fingers mixed up. This is because the  child under 6 or 7 does not understands mirror image fingers like an older child. Even some older children get this mixed up when they first start lessons. And then there is me. I still get mixed up and will often write the opposite finger when I am putting finger numbers in my music.

With that in mind, I tried to come up with a way for students to see which finger to start with in each phrase. This is what I finally designed. Let me know if it helps one of your students.

If you have ever tried to write a song using only 3 fingers, you know that it is not as easy as it might seem, especially if you want all steps and no skipping fingers. My little student hasn’t learned to use the thumb yet.

For this piece, I was inspired by folk songs in the mixolydian mode,  with the flatted 7th tone in the melody.  According to my poll, most of you want me to write a teacher duet,  so I added one here. I couldn’t decide if I wanted the  8th notes to be swung jazz style or not, so I’ll leave that to you.

Continue to have the child drop into the keys. Don’t worry about legato playing at this point. Be sure and learn the rhythm well before trying to play the piece.

T-Ball

T-Ball

When I found out one of my beginning students has signed up for T-Ball, I wrote this. If you don’t live in the US and are not familiar with T-Ball, tell your students it is a beginning baseball game for 4-6 year old children where the ball is placed on a stand rather than using a pitcher.

You will notice I only used 3 notes in this piece. At this point these are the only fingers he is using. This will help him learn a good hand position because as soon as they use the thumb their hand may fall down and there goes their beautiful knuckle arch. Also, try to have your student drop into the keys rather than try to play legato. Even worse is lifting each finger individually.  If they drop into the keys with strong finger tips, it will really help strengthen the fingers and avoid the dreaded spaghetti (straight) fingers, the last finger joint caving out,  a puny little sound, and even hand injuries in the future.  A lot of future hand problems start right at this level.

I have started adding teacher duets to my pieces. I usually improvise a teacher duet to easy pieces. Sometimes I play one that I really like and then promptly forget it the next time. I have decided  that if I write one down I can use it over and over.

Well,  writing a teacher duet is more difficult than I expected. I’m not a professional composer, just a teacher who composes on the side. I want something easy that a teacher can sight read while she watches her student play, and yet still sounds half way decent. Then there is the problem of writing it in Finale and importing it into the student part. If you use these my pre-reading pieces, is it worth it for you? Please let me know what you think.