Why all cows do not eat grass, or, in other words, why using mnemonics to learn to read music does not work!

When you learned piano as a child, you may have learned to identify note names using mnemonics.  There are four you may have had to learn.  Examples include:

For the treble clef spaces: FACE
For the treble clef lines: Every Good Boy Does Fine

For the bass clef spaces: All Cows Eat Grass
For the bass clef lines: Good Boys Do Fine Always

Here we have four sentences to remember, the ones for the notes on the lines are confusingly similar!  So not only does the student have to remember four sentences, he or she also has to remember to which clef they refer and whether they refer to line or space notes. The student also has to remember that the mnemonics all start from the bottom of the stave and go up.   Are you confused yet? I am!

Now imagine you're under 10 years old - can you imagine the confusion and struggle a younger person (possibly your child) will face?

I hear many adults still using mnemonics to identify note names.  If mnemonics worked, they would not have to keep referring to them.  They would simply be able to name the note instantly (like we piano teachers can!).  So what is it that musicians do to be able to name notes they may not come across much, for example on 3 or 4 ledger lines?  We name them with reference to another note that we do know.  This is called a landmark note.

Enter the realm of landmark notes and reading by interval! This is the strategy that I and many of my colleagues in The Curious Piano Teachers use to teach note reading.  It's also used by the tutor book Piano Safari. 

When reading is introduced we start with reading intervals of a second (steps) up or down from only two landmark notes; treble G and bass C.  The advantage of doing things this way is that once a student can recognise and play a second, he or she can recognise and play a second written anywhere on the stave, including notes he or she can't actually name.  This leads to far more fluent reading and playing as students do not need to spend time processing note names, just intervals. It also allows for a wider variety of music to be played.  As students progress they learn to recognise intervals of 3rds, 5ths, 4ths and so on. 

Learning this way also has a profound benefit for the aural element of music exams where students have to name intervals.  Did you have to do that as a child?  Was it difficult?  I relied on my perfect pitch in this area of the exam, not my instant recognition of the sound of an interval.  In the intervallic approach, students are introduced to intervals from very early on in their learning and do not have it suddenly sprung on them a few weeks before an exam. 

Teaching this way is a gift to our piano students.  It reminds me of the Chinese proverb 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'.  We could just as easily change this to 'teach a student a note name and he can play one note.  Teach him a landmark note and reading by interval and he can play any notes'!

Reading this way benefits students' sight reading because again, they are not having to process note names, just recognise and play intervals.  I did not learn this way but I do teach it!  I have seen for myself the benefits for students' reading and playing fluency.  I know it works, not only because I see it in my students but because when I come across one of those pesky ledger line notes, if I just read the interval, I can instantly play the note!

Are you curious about landmark notes yet?  Have a look at this video from Music Mind Games which shows all the landmark notes.  All other notes that students up to about grade 6 will come across are less than an interval of a 4th or 5th away.  So provided a student knows his or her landmark notes he or she will be able to read the music with much less of a struggle than one that reads by note name.

Of course there is a place for knowing absolute note names but that is a post for another day and in the intervallic approach comes a bit later (it also doesn't use mnemonics!). 

This month's Curiosity Box from The Curious Piano Teachers has been filled with Christmas activities to do with our students.  I must admit to being a little lax with preparing these as my printer had run out of ink, however on my last day of teaching this week I opened up one of the challenges on my iPad and to my delight found that each of the students I tried it with really enjoyed it.  Two children in Year 7 studying for Grades 1 and 2 wanted to continue way past when I thought they might have had enough and an adult was equally engaged.

So, what was the challenge I hear you ask!  The Curious Piano Teachers have compiled a list of Christmas songs and carols and written them down, but not so that they are easily recognisable: rhythm and pitch have been separated and you're only allowed to hear it in your head.  I've put three examples below in case you'd like to try it yourself!

The skills needed for these are those of musicianship.  The students needed to be able to:

1. Clap the rhythm or hear it internally
2. Sing the pitches or hear those internally
3. Put the two together to work out the song

The results were that sometimes students could work out the song from just doing those three steps, and other times they needed to then play the song on the piano to try to identify it.  Jingle Bells was easily identified by one student before she'd completed the three steps.  The activity is designed for those around grades 3-4 so my students did pretty well!

I tried this with a friend who studied guitar to about grade 3 many years ago.  He was able to clap the rhythms brilliantly but was at once stuck on the pitch - he had never been taught to sing as he played so it was almost impossible for him to sing the pitches.  I am yet to find out if he has identified any of the songs!

With the New Year around the corner you may be looking for piano lessons for yourself or your child.  The sort of teacher you want is one who will prepare you for a challenge such as this, without even knowing it is coming.  So don't be afraid to dig into their teaching qualifications, experience and professional development activities before committing to lessons.  Look for a teacher who'll make this challenge a walk in the park for you!

Last week's blog discussed the benefits of music teaching but raised the fact that the benefits do not occur when the teaching is unstructured and poor quality.  Read on to find out what bad music teaching looks like and discover what makes good music teaching.  

In the meantime if you're interested in reading more about the damage that traditional piano teaching causes why not check out this excellent article 'How Traditional Piano Lessons Cripple Our Children'.