The Grade 3 Approach

I can remember learning how to read, but I can't remember learning how to read music.  Although this is great in some respects, it does put me at a slight disadvantage when it comes to teaching students how to read music.  The Colour Strings method is fabulous for this, but I have limited opportunities to teach this - many of my students also learn violin in a class situation.  When this is the case, I have assumed their class teacher is teaching them how to read music.

However, one of my current grade 4 girls is really resistant to the whole reading music thing.  Which surprises me and frustrates me as she is quite a bright child, and plays beautifully, but will work out all the notes before playing.  Imagine the problems we are having now that we have full page pieces instead of 2-phrase pieces.  I started teaching her at the start of term 4 last year, and it was honestly only at the end of the most recent holidays that I realised why she doesn't read music.  And not just her, but many of the grade 4 children in my ensemble.  The strings teacher teaches them how to play strings.  And with a whole class of about 25 kids all at once and 4 different instruments and 3 different clefs, I don't blame her! 

This term, then, with the start of private lessons for the current grade 3s, I am taking a different approach from before.  I'm focusing less on bowholds and more on note reading (not neglecting the bowholds though!).  They get to write more music - both writing the songs they already know how to play as well as making up a song for me.  And I'm using the Colour Strings/Kodaly method as much as I can.  The school at which I teach is a Kodaly school (this is such a blessing, my work-load is halved) so the students already know so many good songs, and the music teachers have the same approach that I would use with the strings method.  One of the principles of the Kodaly method is spiral teaching, revisiting known material to learn knew elements.  For my grade 3 students, then, I have them write out the songs they know from strings class, and we are learning to play songs they already know from music classes. 

The drawback of this, though, is that once they know which song they're playing, and which finger to play first, they stop reading the notes and just go from memory.  Phase 2 begins tomorrow.  I'm printing a sheet of short songs for them, some that they know (or should know) and some that I'm just making up.  This week they get to read the notes without me spoon-feeding them which song is which.

As an aside... One of my semi-colour strings girls at home is also in grade 3 and learning through school in group classes as well.  Last week I tried her on singing a song we already know (like Mister Sun) and then playing it on the violin, starting on different fingers and strings.  Not a problem.  This week we tried a slightly more complicated song (Look, Lamb, Look) - still not a problem.  Then we did the G major scale in 2 octaves - still not a problem.  If you're not a string player, this involves 2 different finger patterns and (when I teach scales anyway) keeping on thinking for much longer than normal.  Her dad doubted she'd earned a sticker but I think it was justified!

Today's photo:

I had lunch at Jeannie's today (yummy buckwheat pancakes) and sitting on the deck, the sun came through the clouds and back again enough to make this photo exciting in the taking.