Hi all,
I noticed that my student has difficulties reading the left hand notes fast enough to sight read a piece to play. Her right hand notes sight reading seem to be fine. She also struggles finding the notes on the keyboard ( for left hand)

What kind of theory exercises can I give her to improve her left hand sight reading? I intend to give her random notes on a manuscript book to read the letters. What else can I do besides this to improve her skills?

I realised when I give her the middle C she is able to quickly name the random notes (counting up / down by herself) but when she needs to play the notes she struggles a bit (takes time) to figure out where the note is on keyboard.

Please help. and thanks for all your suggestions in advance.
*Background info: 9 year old kid*

I use flashcards with a landmark approach. I also have a few rules - hands stay in the lap between cards, and they have to play and say the note. In lessons, we do a warm-up and then time it.

The whole thing takes maybe 3-4 minutes.

Something I'm curious about (student talking) - D is D regardless of the clef: it's the white key between the two black keys. What does that say if she is struggling to find the notes on the keyboard for the LH? Is she relating to the keyboard? (We can relate to the thumb being C if we stayed in the C to G position, rather than C being the key that sits to the left of the two black keys).

Great idea! How many cards are there though?

Sorry that I did not made myself clear. What I meant was writing for her the middle C on theory books she is able to figure the rest of the notes herself.

When she is given sight reading though, she doesn't know where the written score note is on keyboard.

Still clarifying: We have the written notes on paper, and the notes on the keyboard. We have the treble clef and the bass clef.

When you write middle C in her theory book, she "figures out" the other notes ... by counting up (CDEFG etc.)? On paper? On the keyboard? Both?

Does she only need to do this for the bass clef (she knows the notes on paper in the treble clef?)

scmay,

I wonder if KS and I are puzzled for the same reason, viz., your student can identify a bass clef note on paper but has trouble locating it on the keyboard. But, to use keystring's example, D looks like D whether it's in the octave above middle C or below it.

Since the key for any given pitch looks the same no matter what octave it's in (or in which clef it's written), could the issue be one of handedness, hand position or fingering?

Steven

When I write middle C in her theory book, she figures out the other notes by counting up (CDEFG etc) on paper. On the keyboard she does the same. (sometimes she goes like 3 notes away, 4 notes away)

She only has difficulties for bass clef, treble clef is fine.

She can't on both. Thats why she will ask me like 'Where is this note on the keyboard'?

I don't know if this will help in your student's situation, but it's a little game I have the students do until they know the keyboard cold.

I have a chart, with the left side marked A RH, A LH, B RH, B LH, C RH, C LH, etc. to G, and across the top is M, T, W, T, F, S, S and the object is for them to time themselves finding and playing all of the marked notes with each hand. I suggest that they have mom do the timing, after they've practiced going up, or down, the keyboard 3 or 4 times.

Do this for a couple of weeks, and they will know every key on the keyboard cold.

By the way, for more advanced students, you can add #'s and b's.

I start with 6:

Bass C, Bass F, LH Middle C, RH Middle C, Treble G, Treble C

Then, as they feel comfortable, I fill in the octave between the Middle Cs and the third space Cs. They relate the notes to the landmarks they already know.

Then I add the two Cs that are two ledger lines above/below the staff, the bottom bass line and top treble line (G and F), and fill in that octave the same way.

I start this with new beginners during the 2nd or 3rd lesson, and by the time the school year's over, they have a total of 32 notes from Low C to High C. That pretty much covers everything in the standard teaching literature.

This works best with students who are eight years old (or a mature 7.) Under that, I usually stick to the positional or middle-C approach and do the flash cards in the 2nd year. (It just seems to work better that way developmentally.)

Are all of you sure you're getting the point?

This has nothing to do with the keys on the piano, and it has nothing to do with being left or right-handed.

It's a bass clef problem, and it has to do with how we teach people to read.

Any of you who sightread really well will not find any difference in speed between the way you read the treble and bass clef. You will find out that there are many patterns that you can play more quickly with the RH, in either clef, and there are patterns peculiar to the LH that your RH will not play as fast, either clef. Those who play a lot of music that demands equality between the hands (such as Bach) will find that both hands are closer in ability when it comes to passage work. (Etude players may find the same thing.)

The bass clef problem is a focus problem, in the beginning. If it is not stressed, students will lag behind in reading it. If music that is taught from the very start demands that students master the bass clef just as well as the treble clef, and you as teachers focus on that, there will be no problem.

I don't recall one student ever playing bass clef well but having treble clef problems except for instrumentalists who play only in bass clef and later attempt to learn piano. And I don't recall the problem lasting.

Bass clef problems come from the music taught. All sorts of melodic movement is stressed with the RH, which is usually in the treble clef, while the LH so often is just left to play droning bass notes and set chords.

I'm not saying that it's easy or automatic to get people to be as comfortable in the bass clef as in the treble clef, but if it is stressed from the very beginning, especially with kids, it's seldom a problem (barring learning disablities or any special problems).

Darn, duplicate post, clicked on quote instead of edit