ABA Style Piano Lessons

Transcription

1 The Young Method Innovative Piano, Inc. By Jeffrey Young Book 4 ABA Style Piano Lessons Innovative Piano Inc.

2 Produced and Distributed by: Innovative Piano, Inc West Circle Avenue. Salisbury, MD Copyright 2010 All rights reserved. Excluding data sheets, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

3 Book 4 Mary Had a Little Lamb *2 mpl, 2lpp.. 25 All Together Random Letters..27 Rain, Rain 2 mpl, 2 lpp..28 Exercise 6 (RH) 2mpp.30 Riding 3mpl, 2lpp...32 Ode to Joy 2mpl, 4lpp Playtime Random Letters 34 Exercise 1A (LH)...35 Aura Lee 3 mpl, 3 lpp Exercise 1B (note reading) 1mpp 39 Exercise 2A (LH)...42 The Elephant Random Letters 45 Up and Down 2 mpl, 2lpp...46 Yankee Doodle 2mpl, 3lpp..47 Exercise 3A (LH) 2mpp...49 Row Your Boat 2mpl, 2lpp.51 Salt and Pepper Random Letters 52 Tisket Song 2mpl, 2lpp...53 Alouette 2mpl, 2lpp.54 *npp: notes per page *mpl: measures per line *lpp: lines per page *mpp: measures per page

4 Teacher s Syllabus *This section is intended to be removed by the teacher for assistance in lesson planning with Book 4 1) The first song, Mary had a Little Lamb (pg 25) is a continuation from Book 3 and should be treated as a review. In songs such as, All Together (pg 27) the note letters will begin to be randomly faded from the page. As in typical style piano instruction material, the first note of each song continues to be listed as a guide in these early songs. Similar songs are found on pages 34, 45 and 52. 2) Exercise 6 (pg 30) introduces playing two notes at once (Middle C and E) with the right hand. Standard shaping techniques mentioned in previous books should be used here. 3) As in earlier books of The Young Method, songs in Book 4 such as Riding (pg 32) and Ode to Joy (pg 33) which do contain note letters, are also included to allow the student to be successful. The first page of Ode to Joy indicates the addition of only the high C piano key letter (which it doesn t make use of). Keep in mind that the key letter indicators are only a guide. Each student may require an individualized system of fading and/or the reintroduction of previously faded key letters. 4) Exercise 1A (pg 35) introduces playing Bass Clef notes (Bass Clef note letters are included in the exercise since we are still teaching the student how to read Bass Clef notes with the Bass Clef Board). As with all new skills, teachers should take data (i.e. not help the student verbally or by adding the supplied Bass Clef piano key letters) before teaching to the skill. We do this to allow for the generalization of all your work with the Treble Clef notes; in other words, will the student understand the repeating A, B, C pattern of the piano keys? If they do not immediately generalize this skill, that s O.K. Simply follow the same pattern of introducing and fading the Bass Clef piano key letters in the same manner as Book 1. 5) In Aura Lee (pg 38) there is a change in hand position from C to D position. Because this tends to be challenging for most students, you will find C and D position clearly marked as well as fingering numbers indicating the switch. 6) To further challenge our students note reading skills, Exercise 1B (pg 39) completely fades the note letter prompts. If this is challenging for your student, treat these exercises as ways to work through each note, reading them and finding them on the piano one at a time. The use of the flashcards here can be beneficial as well. 7) Since there is no key letter indicator used for The Elephant (pg 45) this tells us that the Treble Clef piano key letters should now be completely faded. The circle Velcro pieces originally placed on each key should remain at this point and will also act as a prompt. This will most likely increase the difficulty of the proceeding pieces, so keep your level of reinforcement high and feel free to temporarily add back a random letter or two while teaching if you feel this is required. The Young Method Innovative Piano, Inc. 2009

5 otes *This book represents a step in a series of piano instruction material which is individualized to the student s performance based on several factors. Using this or any other book in The Young Method series without properly addressing these factors through Innovative Piano, Inc. can be counterproductive to the student s progress and is not recommended. Any behavioral modification suggested in this manual should be reviewed by the student s behavioral professional before inclusion.

6 Introduction Welcome to Book 4 of The Young Method piano instruction system. Your student is well on their way to beginning typical sheet music and will soon be playing without any prompts! Typical sheet music is filled with various directions on how to play, such as the word piano: meaning to play softly. Many of these directions are given once and the learner is expected to continue with that technique. For example, when playing songs with numbers indicating fingering, typically, only the first number is given. It is the student s responsibility to play the subsequent notes with correct fingering based on that first indicator. While all songs in this book include fingering numbers, each note will have a number indicating the correct finger to use. This will help your student be successful with fingering at first. Later, these numbers will be faded, leaving only the first number to get them started. Another part of playing early piano pieces is the wonderfully eye-catching illustrations included in most instruction books. You will notice some of these illustrations have been added to the songs in this book, so address them at first and if they become too distracting for your student do your best to redirect them back to the notes. We will also continue to fade the letters on the piano keys. By the end of this book your student will only have keys G, A, B, and high C labeled on the piano. If your student has difficulty remembering the previous keys, spend some more time on the Note Reading Board supplied with Book 2. To further challenge your student, we will begin to fade the letters in the notes of the songs as well. These songs, such as Playtime and The Elephant, are songs your student has had a history with and should be successful at, with regards to reading the unlabeled notes. You will notice that the letters have been

7 added sporadically to some songs, so that the student will be reminded just where they are from time to time. If a challenge arises when playing these songs, try taking out the Treble Clef Board and have your student work out which note it is. As with all new skills, positive reinforcement and differential reinforcement will be necessary here. Since your student has done so well at reading notes on the Treble Clef Board we will now be shaping that exercise by introducing more flashcards. These should be viewed only as mini Treble Clef Boards and nothing else. Your goal is to help your student generalize the skills learned with the Treble Clef Board to the new Bass Clef Board pictured above. Exercises have also been provided in the songs section to help introduce playing Bass Clef notes. While most Bass Clef notes are typically found below the Middle C key, don t forget that these lower notes follow the same A, B, C pattern as the Treble Clef notes. Fingering for the left hand is also the same (your thumbs are still number 1), but now we are descending from the thumb (1) down the keyboard to the pinky (5). Here is a typical hand position in the Bass Clef. Bass Clef C D E F G A B Middle C All of your hard work has given your student the chance to play such familiar pieces as, Ode to Joy, Yankee Doodle, and Alouette, which are found in this book. So have fun!

8 Set-up At the piano Songs: Most of the pieces in this book will not require any set-up. When your student is ready to play songs like Playtime and The Elephant, this is when you should prepare the Treble Clef Board to help them with reading the notes without letters. Take note that since we are now introducing the Bass Clef, there may be some additional prompts on the keys that are needed. Whether or not you use these supplied letters for the Bass Clef notes will depend on your student s ability to generalize the key letter sequence we started with learning the Treble Clef keys. The pattern we are teaching is A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then back to A. Therefore, I would suggest the following starting point when your student first interacts with Bass Clef notes: G A B Middle C Supplying only these key prompts at first will challenge your student to generalize the sequence they learned with the Treble Clef. Encourage them to guess which note will come before the Bass G (which is F) and so on. Try this method at first, and if your student has difficulty with this simply add all the key prompts to the Bass Clef keys of the piano. Reading Music: When preparing your student s reading music lesson, you can now use the Treble Clef Flashcards included with Book 4 of The Young Method instruction manual. As stated above, these are simply smaller versions of the Treble Clef Board and should be treated as such. When using the flashcards be sure to have the Treble Clef Board ready in case your student has difficulty at first. If they do have difficulty, try your best to present the board and let them work out which note is on the flashcard. Since we learned in the last section that the keys of the piano repeat in a standard sequence, there will be some repeating letters when reading the flashcards. To help your student distinguish these repeating letters, have them read and find the note on the keyboard. Here s an example of a set of repeating notes:

9 Treble Clef high F Treble Clef F Although these notes represent the same letter, they are found on the piano a full 8 notes away (i.e. an octave away). Once your student is comfortable reading these notes using the flashcards, you can now play a fun game with them! Try laying out all the flashcards supplied, note side up, in random order. Now, have your student find two cards with the same letter. Whoever has the most matches at the end wins! Your new Bass Clef Board should be used in the same way we taught reading music on the Treble Clef Board. Focus on the lines of the Bass Clef at first. Once they have mastered these, continue on to the spaces. It is not suggested that you have your student read and find these notes at this point. Simply have them become comfortable with reading them for now. Dogs Big Great B D G At the piano Prompting Songs: With regards to songs which include the letter indicating the note, you should prompt your student very rarely at this point. They should feel comfortable with reading the letter and then locating the correct key whether or not the key letter is supplied. When prompting or helping students with songs that only have sporadic letters included, be ready with the Treble Clef Board or flash cards to remind them what note it is. You will also notice that the key letters are being faded slightly quicker in this book. Your student has become familiar with this pattern, so pretty soon all the key letters will be gone! If they have challenges here, spend a little more time on the Key Letter Board.

10 Exercises: Congratulations! You have reached some of the most challenging exercises for the right hand in this series. Now, we will be focusing on playing two notes at once with the right hand. This can be challenging at first, but as with all new skills, present the material and see how they do without any prompts. Notice that when playing multiple notes, fingering numbers are stacked to indicate how to play. If your student has challenges with these notes, try modeling the hand position. If this is not sufficient, proceed to a hand-overhand prompt to help them acclimate to the new position. Continue with this prompt until it is time to take data, then, based on those data, determine how much or little you should fade your prompt. The new Bass Clef exercises in this manual offer a wonderful opportunity for your student to generalize all of their successes with the Treble Clef to the Bass Clef. There are many similarities in respect to the Bass and Treble Clefs. We are still using the same A, B, C pattern, the process of using the Bass Clef Board is very similar to the Treble Clef Board and the fingering patterns are the same. You should expect to prompt your student a little when first introducing playing the Bass Clef but you will most likely find that you can fade these prompts much more rapidly than with previous lessons. This is definitely an area to use differential reinforcement and be much more excited when your student plays Bass Clef notes as opposed to the mastered Treble Clef section. Reading Music: Starting with the song Playtime and also The Elephant and Salt and Pepper, you should treat these songs as chances to help your student practice sight reading music. These songs will help them read and find notes while at the piano. This is a great opportunity to transition into the reading music section of the lesson. Take note that although the letter has been faded from the note, the fingering numbers are still included. This should provide enough of a prompt to help your student navigate the keyboard and find those faded notes.

11 Since you now have Treble Clef flashcards, the new Bass Clef Board and these new pieces to help with reading music, you can definitely consider increasing the total amount of practice time for your student. The flashcards are part of a shaping process that will ultimately lead to reading typical size sheet music. Therefore, try spending more and more time with these as opposed to the larger Treble Clef Board. By all means have your student be successful with the board if they need to, but differentially reinforce their successes at reading the flashcards. Spend an equal amount of time on the new Bass Clef Board as well. Feel free to challenge your student by removing the word (or letter) prompts at a quicker pace here. If they forget the correct response you can always replace the letter or word. Although most early songs focus on the high A, B, and middle C of the Bass Clef, I find that introducing the whole Clef gives students a better understanding of why notes are read the way they are. Reinforcement Your student has come a long way, and you should consider the structure of your reinforcement systems at this point. If you are reinforcing for the absence of an inappropriate behavior, by all means continue with that. In respect to previously learned skills they have mastered at the piano though, you should reduce your level of reinforcement. Typically, as we reduce the level of reinforcement for these learned skills we will constantly be introducing new and more challenging skills that we can be very reinforcing with. The Bass Clef Board and flashcards are two examples where we can still reinforce heavily. Another possibility is a more delayed reinforcement system such as a weekly check system for practicing the piano appropriately. Remember though, since we are consistently challenging your student with new skills there is always an area for you to use positive reinforcement in. While satiation is sometimes a difficult scenario to detect when you are teaching, I always look for the student to tell me when to switch or adjust reinforcers. If you re seeing a good deal of off-task behavior on a certain day, pay close attention to those behaviors. Many times students are telling us what they want and when they want to be reinforced but we are too focused on getting that song just right. Your goal should be to get them back on task, and then deliver the reinforcer (if it s appropriate of course). For example, if they were constantly reaching for that picture on the piano during the lesson, help them focus on the material, finish the song and then allow them to play with it. After all, it s not the distracter that is causing the off-task behavior by your student; it s your lack of reinforcement. That can be a tough pill to swallow at first for a teacher, but keep in mind that any off-task behavior is directly linked to your level reinforcement and ability to keep the student engaged. The trick is to 1) keep calm, 2) note the inappropriate behavior, 3) get them back on track and 4) then deliver a higher rate of reinforcement (in that order). Now that your student has learned so much at the piano, the songs they play will most likely be more reinforcing in themselves. Also, and possibly more importantly, they will be more reinforcing to others. Having a small audience listen, clap and appreciate your student s playing at this point can be a wonderfully reinforcing practice for them. The attention given for this very appropriate activity is a powerful tool to help your student across the board!

12 Data Since your student has consistently scored well on finding and playing Treble Clef notes we can now put these lessons into maintenance. Maintenance data points are a way for us to check up your students progress. I suggest taking one point a month for all previous Treble Clef exercises (not including Data Sheet A for song playing data scores). We do want to record data on the new skills introduced in this manual such as The Bass Clef Board, so look for these data sheets and record data as usual. Date : 5/6/09 Phase: All words on the lines Measurement: Number of notes identified correctly +/- G B D F A Total Correct: 5 Out of Total Notes: 5 % 100 After your student meets the criterion of 2 days at 100% for this skill, you would then increase the difficulty by removing one of the letters from the lines of the Bass Clef Board. This is a new phase and would be recorded as follows: Date : 5/15/08 Phase: Great has been faded Measurement: Number of notes identified correctly +/- G B D F A Total Correct: 4 Out of Total Notes: 5 % 80