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music mapping
note value counting
wite out
magic
miracle
blue dot
Picasso

I remember using these words when posting about music mapping.

There is a book on it, too.

If you care to spend the time on search it will increase your information base. There is already lots on it that I've posted, it just is not in one location with one title.

I will look at my computer files and see what I can do to help you if I can find the time soon.

It is worthwhile reading about it. THe kids love it and catch on easily. Then they want to be the ones to mark the music and they do a good job. At some point in time, they no longer need all the color coding, it becomes automatic in their thinking. Isn't that a good thing!

To old-fashioned teachers defacing the music would be a sin. I think writing on the music is the beginning of really learning to read music and what action the symbols stand for.

Class coming up? Who would be interested?

Betty

Tim R:

I did a search for what you asked for. I forgot to put "Picasso" in the search, so you might try that, too. And, some of the founds are repeated because more than one keyword appeared in the same document and came up again. If you find the topic, just read through to see if I posted more than once per topic. That should make your work a little easier, and I apologize if topics came up that do not refer to your area of interest, but the keyword appeared.
I searched for keywords:

MAPPING MUSIC - 5 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 16, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

What is good about standard music notation - October 23, 2008 Pianist Corner

Time to start over... October 13, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Question about reading music - December 12, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

How many times do I have to relearn this stuff..July 19, 2007 Pianist Corner

'MUSIC MAPPING' - 5 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 16, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

What is good about standard music notation? - October 23, 2008 Pianist Corner

Time to start over...October 13, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Question about reading music - December 12, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

How many times do I have to relearn this stuff..July 19, 2007 Pianist Corner

'REBECCA SHOCKLEY'- 2 matches found

Time to start over...October 14, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Teachers - how much instruction do you write down? - November 10, 2007 Piano Teacher's Forum

'BLUE DOT - 10 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 17, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

lining up the notes? - December 11, 2008 Adult Beginner's Forum

way of reading music - October 05, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Should all students be forced to memorize? - September 23, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Two Line Reading Techniques - June 18, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Do you stop counting 1& 2& 3& 4& etc - December 18, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Question for Gyro...November 16, 2007 Pianist Corner

How to pratice hands coordination for a starter - October 02, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Counting - allways a necessity? - August 24, 2007 Pianist Corner

Who has the secret for fixing - August 03, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

'WITE OUT' - 3 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 17, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

What kinds of problems have the most frequent existance in your studio? - August 15, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Nature of this piece? (Purcell) - August 08, 2008 Pianist Corner

'WHITE OUT' - 14 matches found New

Who else doesn't know their left from their right? - February 09, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

What's white, black and green? - October 30, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

What is the value of an imagination in music? - October 26, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Flat finger playing.. October 24, 2008 Pianist Corner

For a little fun... Enter most unusual piano picture or video - April 18, 2008 Piano Forum

Rushing kid!! - November 16, 2007 Piano Teacher's Forum

Lifting the Fingers - August 19, 2007 Pianist Corner

A five finger exercise -what do you think? - August 18, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

How do you know when........ August 14, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Book #1 - August 02, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Fingering scales - July 28, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Key Signatures - July 17, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Question About Major Scales - July 12, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

YASQ (Yet another scales question) - July 07, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

'MAGIC' - 15 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 17, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

Mistaking Lazy for Confused - November 21, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Czerny School of Velocity - October 26, 2008 Adult Beginner's Forum

When playing a piece by memory do you visual the music or patterns on the keyboard? - August 21, 2008 Pianist Corner

Practice triangle: student-family-teacher - July 03, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Watch for the Magic Number! - June 16, 2008 Piano Forum

student can't count -- Help - April 22, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Counting vs. metronome - March 30, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

A different kind of method? - March 20, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Any comments about this video of Michel LeGrand? - January 06, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Michel the Grand! - January 06, 2008 Adult Beginner's Forum

Internet piano lesson self help websites - December 12, 2007 Pianist Corner

Technique Fun! - October 21, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

A Quiet State of Mind (when playing) - October 16, 2007 Pianist Corner

PLS HELP - Difficult, tedious, frustrating old problem - SIGHT READING TECHNIQUE - June 28, 2007 Piano Teacher's Forum

'MIRACLE' - 12 matches found

A Method of Counting Music - February 17, 2009 Piano Teacher's Forum

Do you believe in your ability to make a difference in people's musical lives? - December 03, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Mistaking Lazy for Confused - November 21, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Musical Motivational Messages on Positive Attitudes - October 27, 2008 Adult Beginner's Forum

Student wants to quit - September 05, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

The Piano Learning Curve - May 31, 2008 Adult Beginner's Forum

The Perfectionist - April 25, 2008 Piano Teacher's Forum

Children With Mental Challenge - December 28, 2007 Piano Teacher's Forum

Best wishes to our friend Lisztener - December 24, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

musical talent vs hard work..November 26, 2007 Pianist Corner

Did you ever feel like packing it in? - November 10, 2007 Adult Beginner's Forum

Alternatives to dismissing students who don't want piano lessons -October 04, 2007 Piano Teacher's Forum

Happy finding.

Betty

Wow that was long

Yes, long is a turn off!

I didn't have time to edit out the repetitive listing of posts that had more than one key word in it, therefore they appeared more than one.

I'll go back and edit the big list to try to reduce it. Just make sure to look at the whole thread to see if I posted more than once which is normal for me.

Overwhelmed? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Or, you can opt to ignore the whole thing, and I'll never know. That's OK!

Betty

Betty, I like your syllabic method of counting. Lilylady, the pie method is great too. Might make some people hungry though.

I'm curious as to when and how you teach time signatures? Are there certain pieces with strong repetitive rhythms or uniform phrase lengths that like you use to introduce the different time feels? Do you ever have students defaulting to 4/4 even when the piece is in a different time signature i.e. adding an extra beat to the last note of each bar in a 3/4 piece?

Thanks,

Marc

Mark, You asked some good questions!

I felt I had to support your questions with quite a bit of information to show the strategies and choices we have as music teachers working with our students. I hope you are up for some intensive reading!

Q: "I'm curious as to when and how you teach TIME SIGNATURES?"
A: I teach them METER when hands are first coordinating together in harmony which is Elementary Level. Preparatory and Easy Elementary have come first, usually with only melody or one note additional in harmony, usually in a fixed position. The more voices being added, makes the rhythm more complex and the hand shaping and positioning a bigger game. One can not falter in THINKING SKILLS.

I teach the fraction of upper number is how many beats in each measure. Lower number is what kind of note gets one beat. This is informational only there is no action required.

MEASURES NUMBERED:
At this time would be a good idea to count the number of measures in the piece/section we are working on and to mark the measure number on the beginning of each line. Even a young beginner can and should get in the habit of doing this.

STEADY TEMPO:
Next we do steady hand clapping to designate what we are expecting to hear in our sight reading or practice tempo. We adjust to the tempo marking as we’re made progress to bring it to “polished”.

EYE MOVEMENT:
I teach eye movement so they use their eyes efficiently and don't get lost on the music page.
With no playing, a pencil touches the note head and moves to the next note head with the student following the movement with his eyes. You are setting up a pace that the eyes will follow, and you should move the pencil forward while counting the note value of what is seen (eye movement in time).

NOTE VALUE “MAGIC” COUNTING:
For those just starting lessons (1st 6 months) we would use the Note Value “Magic” Counting as it stands alone.

BLUE DOTS:
If the student was having trouble with coordination of hands in a steady beat, we would draw blue dots between the staffs in the "Middle BCD area to represent a steady TA (quarter note).

We would move from the first beat to a place where we can complete a phrase/practice area/section/or the complete piece. Once a “model” of blue dots is in the picture, usually kids follow through without having to mark each and every measure of the piece. You have given them a clue of what to do if they experience a problem. The blue dot can be used mentally as well as visually appearing on the page.

The 0 0 0 0 (blue dots) can have + signs inserted between them if you have 1/8 notes to play. I would NOT ask them to say 1+2+3+4+ (which is metric counting) they would use either the blue dots. Adding metric counting adds “Math” to the picture – ye gads! Wait for metric until the student is an established learner and past his basic fundamentals in music – early classics or sonatina level. I would want the student to be able to sight read hands together with all the basics in place before considering metric counting, or no counting at all.

At some point, the student counts well and all the “tools and tricks” here are no longer needed except for difficult measures/sections. By intermediate level, you would use supplement what is needed, but not have to go through every system we’ve been learning in piano lessons. It’s “glued” into our brains and reactions by now.

Q: “Are there certain pieces with strong repetitive rhythms or uniform phrase lengths that like you use to introduce the different time feels?”
A: Yes, definitely. I select appropriate music for whatever is the next step in lessons for each student. I teach by concepts – from simple to complex. You need to know the student’s capacity at any given time.

If you teach ANALYSIS AND FORM AND PATTERNS while previewing and learning the piece, there is no need to repeat markings or talking about the reoccurring event, the student should be on the lookout for recognizing. It is either exactly the same, similar, or not at all alike.

Form teaches us to look for when it (the “freebie”) returns in the music. 1st and 2nd endings and practice areas identified so they can be prepared alone before playing through the complete piece. I sometimes use COLOR CODING to point these out – be systematic that each color or mark clearly means something has been seen before, or (such as orange) this is “tricky”!

Don’t forget to TEACH RESTS and mark them in yellow on the page – silence is as important as sound. So many don’t even see the rests until trained to see them!

And teach INCOMPLETE MEASURES and PICKUP BEATS!

Q: “Do you ever have students defaulting to 4/4 even when the piece is in a different time signature i.e. adding an extra beat to the last note of each bar in a 3/4 piece?
A: I love this question…..because……by counting steady TA’s or 1/8 note “ti”s you have no reason to adjust to the new time signature.”

If you are wondering what happens to the heavier first beat, it would follow the “rule” that first beats in any measure are somewhat pulsed heavier. (However you would say this to the student would be from working in this situation of changing meters.) If it’s really viciously aggressive and continuously changing in contemporary music you might need to count the meter, as there are usually additional accents percussively added in…..I’ve done lots of accompaniments for instruments with this demand.

It is important that what you think and do is what works best for you!

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Challenging and channeling the brain is what piano teaching is all about.

Hope these ideas help someone to "think out of the box!"

Betty

Wow, thanks for that in depth response, Betty. It's encouraging to hear that I'm following a similar progression of skills and using similar methods to teach those skills, although you've definitely got things worked out into a more comprehensive and organized system. I've seen some people come down pretty hard on teaching note value counting over metric counting but it seems pretty intuitive to me and most of the newer method books seem to use this approach. You still need to know how long notes last before you can fit them into a metric structure and beginning students have enough on their hands already without adding math to the (bad pun alert) equation.

The 3/4, 4/4 question comes from a couple of times that I've observed this in beginning students. I think it stems more from bar line regrouping and the prioritization of correct notes over correct rhythms in the student's mind since they've always been able to correct it when it has been brought to their attention. Guess I should find that bottle of white out.

Marc

Say, Mark,

I just read through most of your website - good job with it! I want to go back and visit and listen more to the music you posted.

I like the way you set up the count and the tempo!

I can agree with you, I see innovation in your teaching and philosophy, too. It emerges when you trip across it and you find yourself using it as a thinking tool with your students. I'm so enthusiastic to think were all emerging and merging in new thoughts and contemporary possibilites.

Blue dots, picasso music mapping, note value counting, white out! And lots of other new things, too!

What's the piano teaching world coming to? Good things, I hope!

And, they think were traditionalists, classicists, and stagnant. :rolleyes:

Betty