Background information
With hundreds of years of evolution in the study of elementary piano, nowadays materials of this sort have been widely available, perhaps even gone rampant. This article argues the effectiveness of solely relying on certain elementary piano methods to teach, without the incorporation of a more holistic approach to piano playing. The beneficiaries of the renowned Taubman approach to piano technique are mostly injured concert pianists, conservatory students, and piano teachers, people who already have more or less a certain degree of piano proficiency. Since Taubman approach is so effective in helping intermediate and advance pianists, I would like to experiment the application of it to young beginning children’s piano lesson. Seeing that systematic materials for young beginner based on Taubman’s approach are extremely limited, my goal is not only to incorporate part of Taubman’s ideas to the standard beginning teaching, but to suggest a way to make it an essential part of teaching, using existing beginning materials. This article will discuss how the Taubman Technique can be systematically taught, learned in young beginner’s lessons with traditional materials, using the Alfred’s Basic Piano Library lesson series as a model.
The need to incorporate a more holistic approach to beginning piano teaching
"Piano methods and teaching materials have never been standarized" (Akins, 1982, p.1-2) there is always something different out there. Hal Leonard, the Music Tree, Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Piano Adventure and so on. The Hal Leonard Piano Student Piano Library starts with off- staff notation while the Music Tree starts with groups of two and three black notes. Although all the beginning books contain sim...
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...ual to being rigid. It’s a natural state, not an activity to be achieved.
Conclusion
Very few existing beginning materials have shed light on Taubman’s concept, and therefore this article encourages the exploration of incorporating the renowned Taubman approach into other existing pedagogy materials in a step by step manner.
Reference
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Objectives for Elementary level Piano Instruction: A Survey and comparison of the Objectives of Piano/ piano Pedagogy Teachers. EdD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Akins, M. L. 1982 An analysis and Evaluation of selected methods for the beginning Private Piano student. PhD, Peabody College for Teachers, Vanderbilt University, USA.
Private lesson with Sheila Paige
The Golandsky Institute website
Piano wellness seminar: teaching beginning skills DVD
Virtuosity in a box DVD volume 1-4
Body map
Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (2009). A handbook for the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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Sylva, M., Kyriacou, M., Wild, M. and Glenny, G. (2009). (2009). Learning, Playing and Interacting Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage. [online], available: http://www.keap.org.uk/documents/LearningPlayingInteracting.pdf [accessed 5 March, 2014].
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Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.