We had our first group piano party yesterday, and I had a blast singing and playing and dancing with the four students that were able to make it! I hope they had fun too, and we managed to sneak in a lot of learning in the midst of it all: We explored loud and soft sounds through multiple learning modalities and discussed how they can express feeling and tell a story. We started class with a story about Peer Gynt and then danced to Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King. Evie had a great grin on her face as the music got louder and more dramatic! We played a game to practice identifying loud and soft on the piano- this is harder than you might think for very young students who often confuse loud/soft with low/high.
We moved on to mini-performances for each other and tried playing each piece with loud or soft sounds- I was so impressed that each student got up and played confidently right away! Katie gave a lovely performance of an old piece she'd reviewed on her own. Then we made up a musical story about Charlie Chipmunk going trick-or-treating: slow, quiet playing for sad Charlie, big slow dramatic playing when he saw a house with cool decorations, etc. I loved Lilly's version of sad Charlie going very slowly.
We ended class with some group improvisation to explore spooky piano sounds and play together, and Zoe came up with some great "ghost jingle bell" sounds. Great imagination and creativity happening from everyone!
We'll reinforce loud/soft playing in private lessons over the next few weeks, and then add in the musical terms piano and forte. In keeping with Edward Gordan's Music Learning Theory, I believe students should always have experiences with hearing and making musical sounds and language before applying labels to them, just a child learns to babble and then speak before learning to read.
If you'd like to continue the musical learning at home, pop on a piece from this Halloween YouTube playlist and dance or move along with the music. How can you vary your movements to match the louder and softer parts?
We moved on to mini-performances for each other and tried playing each piece with loud or soft sounds- I was so impressed that each student got up and played confidently right away! Katie gave a lovely performance of an old piece she'd reviewed on her own. Then we made up a musical story about Charlie Chipmunk going trick-or-treating: slow, quiet playing for sad Charlie, big slow dramatic playing when he saw a house with cool decorations, etc. I loved Lilly's version of sad Charlie going very slowly.
We ended class with some group improvisation to explore spooky piano sounds and play together, and Zoe came up with some great "ghost jingle bell" sounds. Great imagination and creativity happening from everyone!
We'll reinforce loud/soft playing in private lessons over the next few weeks, and then add in the musical terms piano and forte. In keeping with Edward Gordan's Music Learning Theory, I believe students should always have experiences with hearing and making musical sounds and language before applying labels to them, just a child learns to babble and then speak before learning to read.
If you'd like to continue the musical learning at home, pop on a piece from this Halloween YouTube playlist and dance or move along with the music. How can you vary your movements to match the louder and softer parts?
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