Notes on the Piano: A Series of Essays on the Playing and Teaching of the Piano by Russell Christopher

Author:Russell, Christopher [Russell, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michael Terence Publishing
Published: 2020-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

mentioned. Apart from the pupil learning the relationships, mathematically speaking, between different notes (rhythm is mainly just like simple mathematics, but can be like more complicated mathematics), it helps if the pupil becomes used to the sounds of different rhythms, imitating the teacher where necessary. If we think of theory as being the nuts and bolts of music we see it as a vital, living force, in effect, and relations between different keys, for instance, are seen to be very exciting, as the teacher points out the effect, for instance, of the composer going into the dominant key.

The mathematical aspects of music that so fascinated the Ancient Greeks, and those in medieval times, for instance, never lose their appeal, and we could choose to even think of music as a practical branch of mathematics, in a sense, although such a view would have been far more common in those days. It might well interest the reader to know that chess can be similarly described, and that musicians, whether amateur, or professional, tend to be good at mathematics, and quite often like to play chess! By the way, it is significant that music is one of the most important “mental accelerators”, as is chess, in that both disciplines increase brain speed. One can say, from an educational point of view, therefore, that both activities are good for the brain and I wish they were both encouraged very much in all schools.

The earliest stage of sight-reading relates to the first time the pupil tries to play a new piece in the lesson (hands separately only and involving only one hand). It can be seen, therefore, that at this stage of sight-reading, reading of music and sight-reading are even more closely related than further down the line, although they are always interconnected. The fact that it is a lesson means the pupil is trying hard to notice details which is always a necessary skill in reading music.

If, from the beginning, the importance of rhythm is stressed, the pupil will naturally try really hard to play not only the correct notes but at the right time - the huge effort to arrive at a note at the correct moment actually stimulates development of technique enormously (provided that the speed used is manageable). In fact, at any stage of learning the piano, playing rhythmically stimulates the technique.

The most valuable way the teacher can help a beginner with early sight-reading, apart from helping the person to understand the basics of theory from a practical perspective, is to try to point out pitches of notes and rhythms that the pupil needs to be careful of just before arriving at them, thereby helping the pupil to become used to the kinds of things to notice in that kind of sight-reading situation. Often the teacher can see from the shape of the hand that a wrong note is about to be played and can point out the correct one in time to prevent a mistake. Not surprisingly, details within

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.