TEACHING PIANO SCALES: NOTATION, ROTE OR WRITING?

 Learning music is all about learning patterns, sound patterns, harmonies, rhythm alignment, black and white keys on the keyboard, and visual patterns for musical notation. Well-structured live piano lessons encourage students to develop the ability to understand all of these. However, the method you use to teach scales to one student may not work well for every student. As teachers, we need a variety of tools in our belts.


Let us consider three of the most common ways to teach piano scales in which we can apply this scenario.


# 1: Teaching Piano Scales By Rote


Rote teaching is the simplest way to teach piano scales. Learning by rote has many benefits, including ear training, pattern recognition, and memorization.


Teaching scales by rote also provides an additional opportunity to explore the theory, technique and creative playing as we do not focus on reading notation simultaneously.


  • Teaching Scales by Rote with Piano Key Shapes


When teaching by rote, try to explore the shape of the scale with your students.


  • Teaching Scales with Rote by Note Clumping


Dividing scales into clumps of notes can be very helpful for students who find the fingering spiky. You can also tell them to try playing these notes as "clusters" with all the notes in the same position played as a clashing chord. Your more students will love this. 


  • Teaching Scales By Ear


To start a new scale with your students, work on the notes by ear. Tell them to use one finger to select notes and find the black/white keys they need to change to make it sound right. After receiving the notes, the teacher can help them find the most efficient fingering.


  • Scale Reminder Videos


One beneficial thing for many students who memorize scales is scale reminder videos. Create playlists with major scale reminder videos and harmonic minor scale reminder videos on your YouTube channel if you want to send them to your students.

 

 

# 2: Teaching Piano Scales with Written Exercises


Writing scales is a good follow-up activity for students to consolidate their memory. Ask learners to fill in the new scales on a blank scales worksheet where they write the scale and finger numbers on the staff and a blank keyboard picture. This also gives them a reference point at home when they need it.


# 3: Teaching Piano Scales From Notation


Of course, the old piano teaching method can only focus on this method of learning the pieces, but in online music lessons, it may not work well. However, for many students, the only way to learn to read is to block the flow of music, resulting in putting off the piano all together. Do not start teaching notation to beginners for at least a few weeks - depending on their age and skills. Often won't introduce notation for a few months, especially for very young students. It's just our opinion, we are not against learning scales from notation, but this has become just one of the different ways we teach music now. 


Combining these teaching methods with the individual is essential. Work with each student on which method works best for them or what they may need to work on.


Ref URL:

https://elearningx.org/blog/index.php?entryid=13430

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