 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Vivian
Date: 2003-01-10 22:51
This is my second year teaching beginning clarinet to fourth graders. This year, one of my students was very eager to start band, but was late signing up for lessons. I had to rush her along a bit in the beginning so she could join band as soon as possible.
Because of this, she has become dependant on having the letters written above each note, so much so that she can barely read without them!
Here's what I've been doing: I made a guide of every note she's expected to know and it's letter name. I had her put that next to whatever song she's playing, but not write the letters right on the song, so she can look at it only if she needs to. I'm starting to slowly narrow the guide down to only the notes she has the most trouble remembering.
This is sort of working, but it slows down her playing significantly and I think it's making her learn more slowly.
Does anyone have any ideas?ˇ
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Author: William
Date: 2003-01-10 23:17
Stop writting in the letter names. They are an obstical to reading the notes. The position of the note on the printed staff should signify a fingering (pitch) and duration (rhythum) and nothing more. It is only important to know note names to be able to converse intelligently with other musicians for labels needed in understanding music theory. But for reading the music--playing the correct pitch with the correct rhythum, forget note names--they just add an unnecessary third step in the analysation process. The order of importance should be: 1) pitch (fingering relative to position on the staff) 2) duration (rythmic interpretation 3) name of note (so you can talk about it later)
Simply start having your student memorize: this is how you finger this note (position on staff) and how long you hold it (rythum). Forget the letter names for now. (example--this note on the bottom line is fingered T 1 00/000 and, since it is a whole note, hold it four beats. Don't even call it an E)
Having students count and clap rhythums before playing is also a valuable tool for differenciating between fingerings and durations.
Beginners often confuse those two components of music reading.
Bottom line--it's takes perserverence and a lot of patience. Don't expect them to understand after one lesson--it may take weeks, months even years. Don't give up--except for the note names (for now). Good luck.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2003-01-11 03:04
When I used to teach little guitarists, I used flash cards and created some games and other activities to teach note names.
When teaching groups I made several games that were a bit like go fish or some simple board game, using flash cards of notes and there location on the guitar. Can you find any Gs? They hand you the G card... etc (name not on the card.) I also had a giant staff and would get the kids to jump on the note I named or sang with its name really. This worked for single kids (the groups I taught were a little younger than fourth grade though) and was fine for smallish groups. Crowd control could be a problem with larger groups.
Ginn
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Author: Lori
Date: 2003-01-11 03:14
OK.
I agree that it is important that students learn to play without writing the letters in, but I do have a problem with teaching students to recognize the notes on the staff as particular fingerings instead of the letters.
The reason this method terrifies me is because of the situation I came into when I took over the middle school band program I've been with for four years.
The guy who was there before me didn't teach note names, only fingerings and numbers.
Seriously, when I asked my clarinet section the 1st week to sing their notes in their C scale, they said, "3, 2, 1, thumb, open, high, long, 6 with pinky." This is not an exaggeration.
While these students had a good grasp of fingerings, imagine what it was like trying to teach them key signatures. How do you explain what one flat means when to these students there is no correlation whatsoever between the B below the staff and the one on the 3rd line? Every time they came upon one of these notes, they had to ask if it was 3 with middle or 4 (or long or pinch, depending on which octave B it was). I still cringe when I think about the shock of finding out that none of my students knew note names.
I would definitely teach her note names. When I have my students sight read in band, particularly in beginning band, we first sing only the rhythm. Then, we sing the rhythm with the note names. Then, we sing and finger. Then we play. I encourage them to do this at home, too. It takes awhile for some of them to be able to do it at tempo but ultimately most are successful.
The good news is, I now have a generation of students that can sight read, and read key signatures...
Good luck, Vivian!
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Author: Nicolas
Date: 2003-01-11 03:51
what did it for me, was saying the note on a beat(reading outloud the notes that are on the score), slow first and then faster and faster. like everything it takes sometimes to get it right.
cheers,
nick
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Author: Willie
Date: 2003-01-11 04:54
I had this same problem a couple years ago when I noticed even 8th and 9th graders writing in the letters. I had then put their books away and used the flash cards. "Play that note"! The first 15-20 minutes were horrible but then they started getting the hang of it. It would help if the band director would test them now and them to see where they need help.
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Author: Meri
Date: 2003-01-11 19:19
If a student has not had piano lessons, I usually start musical reading skills by the second lesson, by teaching the lines on the treble staff as: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, and the spaces as D FACE Gorillas, which I have them do a theory assignment of note naming for that lesson, and/or the middle C method. (using the keyboard) For the first 6 weeks or so, I will have them name each note. Also teaching rhythm away from the instrument.
Meri
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Author: melissa
Date: 2003-01-12 02:58
Well, have her write, any notes that she has troble with, on the staff, on some of the stuff she plays for fun, get some blank staff lines, for a peice that is mostly quater notes, have her place the letters themselves on the staff rather than real notes... Than she will get used to looking into the bar lines for the notes. When she gets used to that, have her write in whatever notes she needs, but only let her write the letter above that note one time.. For instance if there are 6 "high C" notes on a line, only let her write it in one time... Eventually, she will learn to recognise this, and will only have like a few of the higher, and lower notes that she can not tell which is which (lol, this may be confusing, but that is basically what happened to me, and this is what worked)
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Author: lyn
Date: 2003-01-12 23:52
I taught in Philadelphia for several years. Walked into a position where 99% of my students wrote the note names over/under their music. This went for students in high school as well! Of course, not knowing the names slowed them down even more, they were taking the time to read the letters and not the rhythms.
Making them stop immediately forced them to figure that out. That and forcing them to sight read. The only ones I allowed to keep doing it for a short time were those kids that I knew were dyslexic (I had a bunch of those). No sense in freaking them out for life, LOL. But they were weaned as well. That took a couple of months.
They went from reading Grade 2 music at the beginning of the year, to Grade 4 music.
Now any student who writes their note names in their music is shot on sight.
Lyn
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Author: Vivian
Date: 2003-01-13 20:16
Thanks for all your help. The flash card idea sounds like it might work.
I'm not sure about the "cold turkey" method, though. I think this student is a sensitive person who I don't think would react well to that.
I think continuing to write notes at all would be like what I'm already doing (and from which I'm getting very little progress.)
I'll try some of these ideas. I think I have a tendancy to want to rush my students along too quickly, and that might not be the right way to go for some of them.
A lot of kids would rise to the occasion if I offered a more advanced song, but I should probably make sure this student can read before going ahead much more.?
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