Learning to read music is hard and it can be frustrating. Many children find the multi tasking required to be a challenge and we work very hard to make the challenge feel attainable. There is a school of thought, that worries about putting children off, that an emphasis on the notes and an unwillingness to bend from what is written will stunt musicality and squash creativity. However, I have a larger goal. I want to create musicians, who can think, work and create without their teacher, and for this end a sense of ease with reading music is essential.
My end point as a music teacher is to create independent learners who can open a music book or download their chosen music and work it out for themselves. I am merely a facilitator. By sharing my knowledge and skills I want to enable them to be the best that they can be, and if I am really lucky they will surpass my abilities!
Learning to read music is the biggest musical tool we can give our children. A well known teacher and music education blogger, George Bevan, wrote very eloquently about the lack of commitment to this value by many. Many people are worried about overwhelming their students and putting them off with ‘too much’ theory, but at the end of the day, what is a good musician without this skill?
What frustrates me immensely is the teachers who seem to navigate around the theory issue, like they also are afraid that it is too difficult for their pupils to understand. We run the risk of raising a generation of musicians who can ‘get their grade 8’ and yet at the same time giving them permission to remain in the dark about the most basic of musical concepts. What kind of teaching is that?
As a teacher, I feel I would be doing my students a disservice to teach them to play the piano without reading the music. Where does this leave them when the lesson is over and they go home? If they can’t read the music how can they problem solve without me by their side? How can they learn anything knew without me to kick-start the process?
Recently I taught one of my regular pupils with whom I have been learning for 3 years, and in the last 10 minutes of our 45 minute lesson she sheepishly asked if we could have a look at a piece she had found online. She brings out Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca, and proceeds to play the first page and half note perfect! I couldn’t get the smile of my face and didn’t quite know where to start! In fact, I started by telling her off for not starting the lesson of with this development. This is exactly what she should be doing, developing her own musical tastes and style and pushing herself to try newer and harder music. I was even more excited that she had chosen this Mozart classic, because I would never had chosen this for her. Not because it is too hard, although it is a testing piece, but because I didn’t know she liked this style of music. I am now filled with excitement for our next lesson and for all of the other undiscovered gems that she might lead us to.
I believe that if I only teach my pupils to play ‘this’ piece, I have failed them. I want to give them the gift of musical discovery so that they can go out and make their own music and reading music is a key part of that journey.
***Read more from George Bevan here https://musicatmonkton.com/2017/04/02/dont-talk-bananas/comment-page-1/#comment-5890
