Music Reading
Craig Sale, Editor
Adult beginners seem to challenge everything we think we know about teaching. From the books used to the rate of skill development, adult learners are different from children. One thing we can do to understand our adult learners is to put ourselves in their position by becoming students ourselves in some subject other than music.
A few years ago I enrolled in a photography class at a local community college. It was exciting to be back in school learning about a subject in which I had great interest but little knowledge. However, I had no idea how hard it would be to "own" and execute the new information and techniques in my weekly assignments. I seemed forever bound to my notes on f-stops, exposures, depth of field and aperture. I completed my assignments with success but it took so much conscious effort! The depth of my learning (or lack of it) is apparent in the fact that now, a few years later, I simply set my camera on the automatic functions rather than operate it manually.
Missing from this experience and often missing in our teaching of adult piano students is lots of time and experience with the skills. We mistakenly assume that adults can learn skills in the same amount of time as a child. Adults need lots of experience at the same level for a much longer period of time in order for the skills to become automatic. Fortunately there is much music in print that can be used to sustain the adult learner at one level for a long period of time.
The musical language is like any other. When languages are learned in childhood, there is a more holistic comprehension of the language. When language is learned as an adult, no matter how fluent, there is always conscious translation on some level. Likewise, adult piano students will not have the same fluency as young students but they can learn to communicate successfully and confidently with the musical language. Simply understanding this fact can give us the patience required by these students.
Rebecca Johnson,
Lillian Livingston and Matthew Harre are all experienced and passionate
teachers of adult students. Their insights are invaluable to us
as we try to shift our understanding of teaching away from what
we know of children and explore the very different world of adult
learners.
from Rebecca Johnson's article
A comparison of the child and adult learner
Motor skill development
"Music reading" can mean many things. Viewed as an entire process rather than simple note recognition, it encompasses eye movement, cognitive and neurological processing, and motor skill responses. An adult's experience with learning these skills can differ from a child's in several ways. For average children, the cognitive/motor skill response development (i.e., learning the key names, their placement on the piano and staff, and the ability to find and play the notes) generally develops at a concurrent pace - they can do it as they learn it. For the adult, however, the names and concepts (the cognitive aspects) can be grasped much more quickly than the motor skill responses can be physically produced. This is often due to the adult's quicker understanding of reading and problem-solving concepts, coupled with the more extensive time needed for motor skill development; it can also be complicated by the older adult's increasingly slower reflexes and response times.
As teachers of adults, we must be sensitive to this non-parallel development and only take the student as quickly as motor skill development permits, rather than pacing the lessons according to the cognitive understanding of the staff and note-reading. Often, supplementary literature can give the feeling of forward motion while the lessons are actually going "sideways," giving time for the motor skills to develop.
Keyboard awareness
Along with this dichotomy in cognitive and motor skill development is the issue of intuitively knowing where one is at on the keyboard. Again, children's slower learning pace permits the development of this ability. They can keep their eyes on the score and know what the topography of the keyboard will be under their fingers. With the adult's more rapid pace of learning, this skill often does not develop quickly enough to permit good music-reading habits.
It is helpful to include short drills in each lesson where the student finds the first note, and then closes his or her eyes. . .
Rebecca Grooms Johnson, Ph.D., NCTM, has taught
as an independent piano teacher and a university faculty member.
She serves on the Conservatory faculty at Capital University (Columbus,
OH) as the Director of Keyboard Pedagogy, and also as the Director
of the Community Music School. Dr. Johnson recently completed
a term as the National Chair of the MTNA's Pedagogy Committee,
and she publishes a tri-annual feature in The American Music Teacher
magazine titled "What's New in Pedagogy Research?"
from Lillian Livingston's article
I view my adult students as both friends and partners
As part of a special demonstration for piano teachers sponsored by Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, I taught an adult student using techniques specific to adult learners. After the session ended and the student had left the room, teachers expressed their surprise at how much fun I seemed to be having with the lesson. These teachers were very perceptive, as I have always looked forward to working with my adult students. At every level, I view these students as friends and partners who have come into my studio to share our love of music.
Addressing special needs of the adult student
Teaching adult students requires a special empathy from the teacher. Adults are typically highly motivated. However, their level of insecurity is as high as their level of motivation. Younger students will more readily accept making mistakes as part of their learning process. Adults are tremendously conscious of their mistakes and feel especially bad if they keep repeating the error. Therefore, the teacher has to be highly conscious of creating a non-threatening learning environment in the studio because of the overly sensitive reactions of adult students. The key to insuring a meaningful and successful experience is with the interpersonal skills of the teacher.
Adults, unlike children, will come to lessons with specific likes and dislikes as well as fixed opinions. It is important that we discuss with our adult students their goals and their expectations. Then, we should make an effort to accommodate those musical interests.
Choosing appropriate materials for adult students
We are fortunate to have a wealth of method books geared for the adult market. However, we need to be sure that the material and pace of information in the method books we choose is geared for the adult mind, and that they recognize the learning styles of adults. . .
Lillian Livingston is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Professional Development Certificate Program for Piano Teachers at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ. Mrs. Livingston has given lecture-recitals, master classes and pedagogy workshops in the United States, Canada and Germany. She is widely respected as one of the foremost authorities in teaching the adult student
from Matthew Harre's article
Adults have difficulty converting notation into musical flow
As beginners, children and adult piano students bring different mental abilities to the task of understanding music notation. As a result, I expect different paths for each group. Adults understand the concepts of note and rhythm faster than children do. They should, for adults' minds, unlike children's, are conceptual in nature. On the other hand, it's hard for adults to grasp that notation is ultimately about sound and physical action. Conceptual understanding is the mere tip of the iceberg and few adult beginners understand this.
The adult student's perception of notation
Adults tend to perceive notation as discreet, with each note representing one element, similar to perceiving each letter of a word as one element. While this is true, the meaning only becomes apparent when elements are combined. As letters form syllables, then words, and then sentences, so it is with notes. Single notes combine to form chords, then phrases, and then periods.
It is in this combination of elements that problems emerge.
Beginning adult students have difficulty converting the notation
into the flow of music. They feel each note or chord is a task
unto itself and this is apparent in the way they move their hands
and arms. At the completion of each, there is a pause in their
movement. There is no physical flow from one to the next. It's
as if they stop and say, "Ah, got that one. What's next?"
This is the unconscious understanding adults bring to their work
with notation. . .
Matthew Harre, NCTM, is a private music teacher in Washington,
DC. Fourteen years ago he founded the Adult Music Student Forum
(www.amsfperform.org)
which is an organization devoted to educational and performance
opportunities for adult students of all levels. He has spoken
before numerous groups of adult students and teachers and is currently
writing about the teaching of adults online (www.musicalfossils.com).
For the other Samplers from this issue
