The initial results from the trial of the product introduced on 8th September have been very encouraging. I have now used it to help four of my students practise a piece with their two hands together over the course of last term. In 3 out of 4 cases, the students had learned to perform their pieces with technical accuracy, rhythmically correct and with a good basis to develop improved musicality. In each case it gave them a significant leap forward in their progress. The other student is still working on it and has been affected by motivational issues just recently.
The school teacher I mentioned in my last post finished learning her piece and was very pleased with her success in the final stages. After playing for just over a year she had developed the confidence to perform James Hook's English Dance. Her controlled fluency and accurate rhythm on this piece were a major step forward. Like many students she finds it difficult to focus on developing more than one aspect of playing in one go and became ready to focus on practising the dynamics and phrasing more freely for the first time.
Another student who is a child of about 8 or 9 used the product presented in a very similar way to practise putting together the same piece with the right rhythm. His specific gripe this year has been the difficultly encountered when playing rhythmically with the hands together. His success in learning this piece, with perseverance and much less repeated input from me during the lessons about his timing, has confirmed the successful trial described above was a not an isolated case or just helpful in the case of teaching an intelligent adult.
One younger student of about 6 or 7 used the product to help practise co-ordination on a different piece called "Entertainment!" from a book entitled "Fun Book 2". The boy in question shows out to be quite a perfectionist and could become frustrated at times at his inability to play rhythms independently with each hand at the faster tempo right away. Using the product throughout the whole process did not prove essential for him. What it did allow him to grasp in the early stages was the importance of breaking the piece down into isolated sections to do the hard work of coordinating both hands and to slow it down considerably to make the process far more achievable. Once he had taken these points to heart, he began to practise effectively without assistance and made slow but steady progress between his lessons. Well before the end of term he had achieved the ability to perform the piece during his lesson with flawless timing and accuracy, clearly demonstrating the attainment of a goal reached at his own high reaching standard. Although it seemed to take a long time to get there, especially to him, I am confident the approaches to practising the piece early on using the product as guidance ensured the success of the exercise in the end and taught him an important lesson about how to practise in a general way. He has since learned another piece which is new challenging for him in just the last few weeks since showing a more structured and effective mode of practise to this completely new project already!
The fourth student who had not learnt the piece to a satisfactory standard yet has helped to encourage some new ideas in me which emerged during this term alongside these trials to develop the product further. The strongest of these seem so far to be related to making the experience more visual. There are two ways I will be looking at doing this. Firstly the addition of extracts from the musical score will progressively illustrate the exercises as they develop. Secondly the presentation of a video with each exercise will show the music being played. I will also be considering the format into which the product is presented to include the options of mp3, iPad, YouTube and video files to find a format which works ideally, perhaps for each individual student.
Including a visual focus and allowing the format to be adaptable aims to make the experience more enjoyable and aims to draw the attention further into the task at hand. I hope by making the product more engaging it will also be a great tool in sustaining good motivation for a wider group of potential users.
The school teacher I mentioned in my last post finished learning her piece and was very pleased with her success in the final stages. After playing for just over a year she had developed the confidence to perform James Hook's English Dance. Her controlled fluency and accurate rhythm on this piece were a major step forward. Like many students she finds it difficult to focus on developing more than one aspect of playing in one go and became ready to focus on practising the dynamics and phrasing more freely for the first time.
Another student who is a child of about 8 or 9 used the product presented in a very similar way to practise putting together the same piece with the right rhythm. His specific gripe this year has been the difficultly encountered when playing rhythmically with the hands together. His success in learning this piece, with perseverance and much less repeated input from me during the lessons about his timing, has confirmed the successful trial described above was a not an isolated case or just helpful in the case of teaching an intelligent adult.
One younger student of about 6 or 7 used the product to help practise co-ordination on a different piece called "Entertainment!" from a book entitled "Fun Book 2". The boy in question shows out to be quite a perfectionist and could become frustrated at times at his inability to play rhythms independently with each hand at the faster tempo right away. Using the product throughout the whole process did not prove essential for him. What it did allow him to grasp in the early stages was the importance of breaking the piece down into isolated sections to do the hard work of coordinating both hands and to slow it down considerably to make the process far more achievable. Once he had taken these points to heart, he began to practise effectively without assistance and made slow but steady progress between his lessons. Well before the end of term he had achieved the ability to perform the piece during his lesson with flawless timing and accuracy, clearly demonstrating the attainment of a goal reached at his own high reaching standard. Although it seemed to take a long time to get there, especially to him, I am confident the approaches to practising the piece early on using the product as guidance ensured the success of the exercise in the end and taught him an important lesson about how to practise in a general way. He has since learned another piece which is new challenging for him in just the last few weeks since showing a more structured and effective mode of practise to this completely new project already!
The fourth student who had not learnt the piece to a satisfactory standard yet has helped to encourage some new ideas in me which emerged during this term alongside these trials to develop the product further. The strongest of these seem so far to be related to making the experience more visual. There are two ways I will be looking at doing this. Firstly the addition of extracts from the musical score will progressively illustrate the exercises as they develop. Secondly the presentation of a video with each exercise will show the music being played. I will also be considering the format into which the product is presented to include the options of mp3, iPad, YouTube and video files to find a format which works ideally, perhaps for each individual student.
Including a visual focus and allowing the format to be adaptable aims to make the experience more enjoyable and aims to draw the attention further into the task at hand. I hope by making the product more engaging it will also be a great tool in sustaining good motivation for a wider group of potential users.
