No Child Left Behind

I'm not thinking about public school, I'm thinking of Suzuki Piano and music literacy.  Suzuki piano teachers have a responsibility to ensure that their students become excellent music readers.  The danger with starting piano students at a young age, teaching them by ear, is that by the time they are old enough to start note reading, they are already so comfortable at the instrument that learning to read music is of no interest to them.   If we start reading too soon, however, we fragment the lesson time and they might lose quality and momentum going through Book One.  I try to start students reading around the time that they are learning to read in school or after their Book One graduation  This is different for every child.  

Suzuki calls his method the Mother Tongue approach.  This means that we learn music in the same fashion that we learn our language.  This applies to the study of learning to read notes.  Children  are exposed to the alphabet from birth.  They see ABCs everywhere.  Little by little they learn that symbols have meaning and represent sounds.  After they begin to read they read book after book at each level.  Board books.  Picture Books.  Early readers. Chapter Books.  Not just one book at every level, but many many, even hundreds.  They read books in different formats with different fonts and layouts by different publishers.

This is the same way that children should learn to read music.  We start exposing them to music symbols from the start in group lessons. Next, starting at the primer level, they should read many many music books.  I used to require five reading method books at each level, but I am starting to suggest even more.  There are many pedagogically appropriate reading method books by Alfred, Faber and Faber and others.  Using books from more than one publisher is also important.  Learners get used to seeing the same format and positions.  When similar music is presented in a different way, sometimes children seem like they don't get it.

I try to make sure that we don't go too fast too soon.  A rule of thumb is that a reading piece should be comfortable in five or less repetitions.  By the time she has played the song five times, usually the student almost has the song memorized and she is no longer reading.  If it is still too hard after five times through, it might be too advanced.  Reading should be at a level that is fun and comfortable.

I ask my students to do note reading at every lesson until they pass Level Four of Faber and Faber or an equivalent method.  Some choose to do even more.  At this time the student is sight reading at his performance level.

It is tempting to work hard on Suzuki repertoire to the detriment of long term literacy, even for the teacher.  That is why most weeks I start the lesson with reading, so that I don't get lured into spending the whole lesson on the performance practice.  Sight-reading might not seem urgent, but it is as critical to the long term joy of music making as book reading at a high level is important for school children.

Future blog topics. . .. count aloud or else. . . . and. . . what if I'm doing everything right and the reading is still too hard. . .