How to Be More Successful with Piano Students

May 24, 2021 Leslie Young

Off

Most everyone would like to become more successful with anything they do, and teachers are no exception. I imagine most piano teachers at more than one point have wondered how to be more successful with piano students.

There’s an “order” to teaching and student learning that gives educators a way to think about their teaching practices and how students can demonstrate their learning. An Illinois educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, developed a ranked organization of educational and learning objectives in order to improve the learning process and outcome. In 1956 this concept became published as Bloom’s Taxonomy and was applied to many various subject areas.

The piano course, The Revolutionary Piano Method, was written with the principles of Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind in order to provide a most successful way to actually read written music and transfer this “language” into piano performance. In general, this has not been the approach of most or all other methods using rote copying, either of teacher illustrative playing, hand positioning with fingering, or from book illustrations (basically, here’s a picture a “C” key, now go play it). It’s named Revolutionary because it is – this is a refreshed and effective way of learning to read and play piano. Using the course has proven how to be more successful with piano students!

Using Bloom’s in these piano method books, it is easy to see the order of cognitive (thinking) behaviors – the order of progression. The student uses a “thinking process” to read/identify/locate the four spaces on the staff and then on the keyboard. Spaces are used to read/identify/locate the five lines on the staff and then on the keyboard. The treble alone is learned first, then the bass (with supplemental treble pieces to play), and then hands play together. After this level, timing is introduced.

The student is practiced with each step in order to produce the most successful learning result. In addition at the very first lesson, the student tells the teacher the letter name of the note read/played so there is no mis-learning! No faking or rote playing. This is how to be more successful – having no “non-learning”.

THE 6 LEVELS OF BLOOM’S TAXONOMY as used
in The Revolutionary Piano Method

Level 1: Remember
The student begins by remembering to locate the brand name as reference point for locating piano keys. Student demonstrates by pointing to the brand, saying the name.

Level 2: Understand
The student uses the group of three black keys under the brand name to position the right hand thumb on the white key F. Student has remembered the brand name from Level 1.

Level 3: Apply
The student applies the knowledge of the white F key location in hopping over (the neighbor key) to play the A key, then from A hopping over to the C key, and then hopping over to the E key. Playing the four space keys demonstrates Understanding by Applying the knowledge in the playing of F-A-C-E. This is correlated to the four spaces of the treble staff, so that the student reads aloud each letter as each key is located and played. This is the thinking process: using F to identify and locate/play the A space/key, then F-A to identify/locate/play the C space/key, then F-A-C to identify/locate/play the E space/kay. The F has been learned and is used for A-C-E, which are learned/remembered through practice (the application level).

Level 4: Analyze
The student continues the thinking process of using spaces to identify and locate lines and their keys by applying knowledge of spaces in considering/analyzing their position relationship to lines/keys which are unknown. The fourth level of Analyze is reinforced when the student completes the corresponding theory pages.

Level 5: Evaluate
The student continually evaluates the position relationship between spaces/lines and their keys during the performance playing and in deciding that a correction needs to be made.

Level 6: Create
The student demonstrates this highest level of the cognitive and physical skills required in the playing of piano from the reading of written music by using all past learning experiences in the creation of new music in written and performance forms.

You can read more about Bloom’s Taxonomy here.

Using an overarching plan, a structured method for teaching and student learning produces more successful results. The key is making sure students have a way to demonstrate to the teacher that the instruction has actually been internalized/learned and can be applied by correct performance of the written notation. That proves that the educator has provided a successful teaching experience. Using this course has proven how to be more successful with piano students!

What Would the First Lesson for a Young Student Look Like?

What Would the First Lesson for a 6 to Teen Look Like (video)?