Boyd Holmes, the Writer

Stacking Skills for Success: Piano – Part Two

10/12/2022

Playing piano requires a positive mindset.

Sure, the notes are important but feeling good about playing them is even more important.

These are the top thirteen ideas I emphasized with kids, the stuff I wanted them to take away from their experience with piano.

13. If you can play xylophone, you can play piano!

12. Respect the piano and it will respect you.

11. You don't need a partner or a team to play piano, just you and a piano!

10. You can travel the world, walk into a strange room with strange people, and if there's a piano there, you can sit down, play a song or two, and within a minute, you'll find you have a lot of new friends.

9. Sure, you have ten fingers but most of the time, you’ll only be using only three or four at the same time. Only four fingers? You can do it!

8. Don't worry if some of it seems tricky right now. Give it some time, give it a rest, come back to it when you feel fresh, and you'll probably be able to figure it out.

7. You don't need a real fancy, expensive piano to make music, but if you want one someday, maybe you'll get one!

6. Don't worry if you want to take some time off, that's okay. Just come back to it later when you feel ready for it!

5. If you can read and follow directions, you can learn how to play piano!

4. There are lots of YouTube videos to help you figure out how to play piano.

3. The reason we play piano is to play songs we like, not songs someone else likes.

2. You can do this!

And the number one thing I wanted kids to remember . . .

Piano is fun!

And if that’s not enough . . .

You can make up your own music on piano!

Look for more piano stuff in “Stacking Skills for Success: Piano – Part Three”.

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Stacking Skills for Success: Piano – Part One

10/11/2022

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By now, you have figured out that the instruments that most adults play are at the top of my success pyramid: piano, band and orchestra instruments, and guitar.

There's a reason for that.

My idea is to always be building towards music that can continue after students leave my classroom and school.

I'm teaching music for life, not for the week or for the year.

Piano plays such a crucial role.

How does piano fit into your program?

I learned early on if there was one instrument I needed multiples of in my classroom, it was piano.

The first piano lab I had used in my classroom had mini key pianos which was better than no pianos at all.

The next piano lab I put together had six upright piano that were donated by families as well as seven-teen 61-key electric keyboards with full size keys for each keyboard.

For the last third of my career, I did some informal data collection concerning kids and pianos.

I was teaching in Title 1 schools.

I found that in several of these schools, only 26% of the kids had ever touched a piano before, which is sort of a bizarre fact given that they were taught music in public school music rooms that all contain a piano.

When many kids first approached a piano in my room, they attempted to play it with only their thumbs, as if they were texting.

I had a hard time believing what I was seeing.

Then again, consider this exchange I had with a music educator who was vacating their music room because they had been assigned to a new school.

I was coming into the room as they were carting out their last box of personal materials.

It was a standard elementary music room in our district: lots of hand percussion, old chromatic xylophones in need of repair, five badly out-of-tune auto-harps, over two dozen Orff tone-plate instruments, one upright piano, and no guitars.

As we were making small talk about the program, the teacher suddenly got agitated.

“Whatever you do, don't let these kids touch that piano, because all they do is bang on it!”

It seems such an odd statement for a teacher to make.

I did a lot of piano playing that first month to model what playing a piano looks like. I knew I had to model before attempting to change the piano culture in the school.

I took time – but things changed.

We “played” on paper pianos before ever using the real pianos. That was ostensibly so the kids could prove to me that they understood proper technique and hand positioning.

In reality, they were demonstrating to me that they had learned to respect the instruments.

This is what I ended up telling those students:

“When you do respectful things, you will be respected.
Treat the piano with respect and, in turn, the piano will show you respect.

Hit it, bang it, treat it with disrespect, it will shame you in front of all who hear you try to play.

It will make you sound like a 10-cent whistle and, even worse, make you look like a spoiled toddler.

Respect it, learn how it wants to be touched, give it time, treat it like a friend, don't ever give up on it, and the piano will make you sound like a million bucks, look like a winner, and be your friend for life.”

More on piano in “Stacking Skills for Success: Piano – Part Two”.

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Limitations

10/11/2022

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Dead or Alive

10/10/2022

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Stacking Skills for Success: Band and Orchestra Instruments

10/10/2022

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As we’ve been ascending the pyramid of success, each of the skills has been built on the previous skill and, in turn, used as a foundation for the next skill.

Last up was recorder.

Makes sense.

Check the box for all that fine motor skill development required for recorder as a prelude to band and orchestra instruments.

But before we get into it, let's just start with a few questions.
Why do 99% of all band and orchestra players quit by the end of their high school or college years?

It seems like a hell of a lot of effort, time, money, and sacrifice for something that evaporates at the end of senior year.

If playing a band/orchestra instrument is so critical to the musical development of children, why do public schools not provide instruments to all children?

Why do the children of families who can't afford an instrument not participate in the band or orchestra programs?

When we teach anything in a school, are we teaching for the moment, for the week, for the year? Is the idea to teach for an arc of twelve years so that when students leave a school district, they have achieved a proficiency in a number of disciplines?

Are we just filling time?

Or is it that at the end of twelve years, we have prepared students to take the knowledge they've gained and richly apply it for the rest of their lives?

Why do so many performing groups seem focused on being an arm of the school PR (public relations) machine?

And how did music change from child-centered elementary education into competitive organizations, All-state _____________, battling for trophies awarded on clean spats, straight lines on a football field, or adjudicated vowel sounds?

It would be convenient to say that society has changed and morphed our view of the Arts.

As far as participation with band or orchestra instruments post graduation, an argument can be made that the internet has cut into the aspirations, proclivities, and inclinations of young adults specific to their after-work-hour activities, but it's always been this way.

There is a long history of few opportunities in the community for adults to continue playing band instruments or orchestra instruments.

Once school was over, the instrument goes in the closet or attic, waiting for the next generation of fourth graders.

The mature solo musician had few ways to recreate the band/orchestra experience until the technology of the 1950s started to wake up.

There was an interesting development in the 50s called “Music Minus One” after they leave school.

These were LP records that were designed for the aspiring amateur home singer or instrumentalist.

The LPs had ensembles providing the song accompaniments while the purchaser sang/played the melody.

Think of it as archaic karaoke minus the bar, video screen, and inebriated singers.

These records came with lead sheets forall the songs on the record in all the functional keys, namely C, Eb, or Bb. The repertoire was as divers as Show tune to classics, Rodgers and Hart to Mozart.

My dad a few of these.

You could rent some time in local recording studio, cue up your record, and make a recording of you singing along with Nelson Riddle arrangements.

In many ways, this was a precursor to the Jamey Aebersold series.

These days, we have the ability of digital recording at home.

There is the internet, as well as a You Tube karaoke version of almost every song known to man on You Tube, and with today’s technology, the ability to create 44.1hZ MP3 files of a dizzying level of audio clarity that was undreamt of several decades ago.

People are using this technology but sadly, not with band or orchestra instruments.

The prima facia evidence says that band and orchestra instruments are introduced to elementary students primarily for the moment, for the 12-year program, and once that arc is completed, the instrument experience is over, too.

As an elementary general music teacher, I incorporated starting band instruments in as many activities as I could within my classroom.

Trumpets with xylophones.

Flutes with recorders.

I didn't observe that kind of multi-angled approach with most middle or high school music teachers.

With the exception of pit bands, school band or orchestra instruments were specifically designed to be played in band and orchestra, not in any other musical class.

One of the effects of this mindset is that high school band programs tend to generate potential music educators who’s “be al/end all” all is band, be it marching band or concert band.

The individual serves the organization.

The organization serves the school.

Who serves the individual?

This creates a self-perpetuating franchise of band-centric music educators.

It is a food chain that only sustains musical life past high school or college if you go into the profession of music education.

And even then, it doesn't mean that that music educator is a practicing musician anymore outside of school hours.

They often ditch the instrument for the power and glory of the baton.

The goal becomes to create music for the twelve year arc of music education.

I have a problem with that paradigm.

I taught at the elementary level with a focus on an arc spanning the student’s life - not a finite period of a few years within a school district.

Luckily, though, there has always been a group of underground matriculating instrumentalists and vocalists who defy that system and buck the norm.

Interestingly, these musical rebels originally thrived while still in school, often fling under the music teacher’s radar.

I'll be addressing that in the upcoming posts.

For now, though, I think the precipitous drop off in band and orchestra instruments post-graduation is worth of discussion and a solution.

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hard Work

10/7/2022

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Home, Sweet, Home

10/6/2022

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Better

10/6/2022

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At Their core, You Know Who They Are

10/6/2022

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Stacking Skills for Success: Recorder – Part Two

10/6/2022

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If you haven’t checked out “Stacking Skills for Success: Recorder – Part One”, read that before reading Part Two.

By now, you know that the only thing I enjoy more than teaching recorder is observing kids learn how to practice, problem solve, and succeed on their own with a little help from me.

These are life skills that, when generalized, will enhance and improve the way they approach interests and goals for the rest of their lives.

Here are a few ideas you might want to try with your recorder groups.

First Notes
The order in which I teach notes is:

B5, A5, G5, F5, E5, D5, C5, C6, D6, F#5, Bb5, C#6

(By the way, I introduced same sequential fingering pattern with flute, clarinet, oboe, and sax.)

We spent a HUGE amount of time on BAG.

When I introduce F, I simply add the right index finger. There is time down the road to fix the intonation by adding the ring and little finger.

First things first with the F: cement the idea of adding single fingers to descend.

Piano
I accompanied the kids on piano as much as possible.

The foundational harmony that piano provided was the perfect safety net.

Who is Practicing?
Every year, I would order several dozen cheap, colorful, and glittery recorders from the Oriental Trading Company and have them on hand at the beginning of recorder season.

By the time the kids knew how to finger the first seven diatonic descending notes, B5 to C5, it was clear who could play this little snippet of music without squeaking or missing a note.

Speed was not required, accuracy was.

At this early stage, reading those seven notes wasn’t the primary goal; making those seven musical sounds was.

It was a lot like playing a musical version of the basketball game named “Horse”.

Kids saw it as a challenge and always wanted a shot at playing those seven notes. Everyone got a turn at the end of our music classes to play that seven-note phrase.

Typically, the first day I did this, no one would be able to play it.

The second time I did it, there would always be at least one or two in each class that could.

They were the autodidacts.

They were the self-starters.

Maybe they were the kids with few toys at home and their recorder was their new favorite.

They were the ones that were probably going to be musicians throughout their life to some degree or another.

Once a child played those seven notes without squeaking, I would ask, “What’s your favorite color?”

“Red!”

I would then go into my closet, and come out with a sparkly new red recorder and hand it to them without saying anything.

They would typically ask, “Can I play this?”

My answer was always, “Not only can you play it, you can keep it, you've earned it. What you just did was very hard and I'm proud of what you achieved. Keep up the great work.”

Inevitably the class would spontaneously break into a round of applause. Now everyone wanted to be able to play those seven notes, and I was more than happy to give each of those successful students a sparkly new recorder.

Sometimes I would say to our star recorder player, “I have over a dozen guitars at home. You're doing pretty well with that recorder. You might as well start a collection of your own.”

Fourth Grade Band
If third or fourth grade students had any thought of playing a band instrument the following year, they better show some proclivity to recorder or I wasn't going to recommend to their parents to purchase or rent an instrument for their child.

The specter of not playing in band always got the kids attention.

“Why would Itell your parents to buy a $300 or $400 instrument if you're not going to be bothered to learn how to play a $3 recorder? I can't in good conscience do that. If you want to play next year in fourth grade, it would be wise to show me that you want to play this year in third grade.”

Fourth and fifth grade kids in band loved that I called them a “doubler” – they played two instruments. Their reading and playing skills always reinforced each other on both instruments.

Second Grade
I was always picking up my recorder to play little songs in all my classes but it was more important for kids to see other kids play.

Kids teach kids best.

I often arranged time for my recorder players to visit second grade music classes to perform for the younger students.

All the instruments we've talked about so far were introduced at the kindergarten level and supported through fifth grade to visiting recorder plyers were always a hit.

Recorder was started in third and continued in fourth and fifth grade. I spent a lot of second grade talking up recorder in third grade and how my students had to be ready for the challenge of recorder. That meant they had to be the best musicians they could be with the instruments they had in second grade.

Management
I made sure that every school I taught in had enough recorders for the grades that were going to be taking lessons.

I also built up the idea of purchasing a recorder for $3.

I would typically buy them in bulk out of my own pocket at Musician's Friend when they were on sale.

I typically bought ivory Lyons recorders for their superior intonation and durability. Don't buy clear or transparent instruments - they easily shatter.

Purchase slips went home with kids with a tear off at the bottom.

I told kids they should earn the money for their recorders if it all possible. Sometimes I would actually have a checkbox on the return slip notating “My child earned the money for this instrument by doing extra chores”.

The collecting of money and getting recorders in the hands of hundreds of students was a major troop movement and felt like something like on the scale of Normandy to me.

But it was that “one-to-one” connection, when I looked that kid eye-to-eye, the child handing over twelve hard-earned quarters and me handing them a new recorder, that bonded us on a deeper level.

Before we started recorders, I took all of the school-owned recorders home and washed them in my dishwasher.

As far as the school-provided recorders, every class had an old copy paper box in my room with the classroom's name prominently on it containing recorders in cases with the kids’ names on it.

The box stayed in the music room and were used during music class and recorder lessons.

Kids were allowed to bring their personal recorder from home to use in music class.

After the opening song, we would always take a short break and that's when I would assign recorder helpers to hand out the recorders to their classmates.

Once we went to stop time, everyone was seated and ready to go in front of the Smart Board.

Quiet Communication
A roomful of recorder is loud.

Don’t try to be louder.

The best classroom management is quiet management.

Use sign language whenever possible.

Most of my directions as far as when to play and when not to play were given with hand signals.

By now, they knew of “you touch, you take” so they were pretty adept at keeping their recorders flat in their laps.

If I put my two hands out, palms down, and gestured downward, that signaled recorders were to be in laps.

If I did the opposite, palms up, moving up, that meant recorders were to be in playing position.

Making a circle with my left thumb and index finger and putting my right index and middle fingers in the circle meant that recorders needed to be put in their cases. The opposite signal meant take their recorders out.

The Foundation: the Bottom of the Pyramid
The first three stackable skills are so crucial for student and teacher success on the recorder. This is really where the rubber meets the road as a musician.

If kids needed a bit of firm encouragement for practicing at home, I would remind children to be proactive, that while they might be in third grade learning recorder, fourth grade band was right around the corner.

Self-discipline allowed them to do the right thing at the right time at home without me looking over their shoulder.

I would tell the kids to not just play at home but to listen: listen to their tone because it didn’t matter if they had the correct fingers covering the holes if the tone was ugly.

When children came to school with something they learned at home on their own, it was an opportunity when I could look them directly in the eye and tell them this:

“You know what? You can put that same effort and thinking into piano or guitar and do just as well. The sky's the limit as far as you’re concerned. You've shown the world that you are a musician when you play recorder as well as you do.”

Recorder was the initiation to the idea that we are all responsible for our gains or losses. That’s a heady lesson, one that was painfully reminded to the kids with every squeak they made.

I couldn’t fix their problem.

All I could do was provide guidance and encouragement.

While some kids walked away from the challenge of recorder, some kids learned that solving a problem on their own was a sweeter victory than depending on someone else fixing it for them.

It is these life lessons that can make the difference in our music room.

For more recorder content, check out my “Recorder Hero” posts from the first ten days of August, 2022.