Music Theory – Page 2

Piano Star Theory

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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ABRSM’s Piano Star series of books for children (reviewed here) have been warmly received since their introduction a couple of years ago, their pieces regularly appearing in student concerts, festivals, the Prep Test and Grade 1 exams.

Last year the original series of three progressive books of fresh new repertoire grew to include a book of “Five Finger Tunes” at the entry level, and a “Piano Star Grade 1” book at the upper end. And now there’s another addition: the Piano Star Theory primer is published this week.

Let’s take a look…

Should we still teach students to hand-write music?

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

An article on the BBC News website last weekend highlighted an interesting controversy from the world of education: Do we need to teach children joined-up handwriting? The issue is back in the news because the US state of Illinois has passed a law requiring school students to learn “cursive” (joined-up handwriting), overriding the governor’s veto.

Elsewhere in the US and in some other countries schools have dropped the skill from the curriculum, or made it optional.

Certainly some teachers and parents are concerned that the introduction of joined-up handwriting can prove to be a significant roadblock in childrens’ education.

And the BBC article points out that few adults ever use joined-up handwriting; most of us rarely write by hand at all, except for the occasional shopping list or post-it note. The block hand-writing of a young child is sufficient for this, given that most of us use electronic devices, apps and software for any serious written communication.

The same arguments about educational roadblocks and 21st-century relevance might be made with regard to teaching music pupils to write fluent, accurate and detailed music notation by hand:

Should we be teaching students to write music by hand at all?

Improve your Music Theory!

Educational Resources

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

ABRSM’s former CEO Michael Elliott reportedly once said:

“Separating theory from practice can’t be a good thing.”

While this is a great soundbite for those promoting theory courses, the obvious irony here is that ABRSM have themselves, for generations, separated music theory from practice in their own examination syllabus and published materials.

Paul Harris’s new series Improve your Theory!, written for students preparing for ABRSM Theory Grades 1-5, aims to change this situation for the better. Introducing the series, publishers Faber Music explain that:

“Firmly rooted in Paul Harris’s Simultaneous Learning approach, it will transform how music theory is taught and learnt, improving every aspect of musicianship along the way. Never before has theory been so fun or seemed so natural!”

The books have already been awarded ‘Best Print Resource 2016’ at the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence, so let’s see if they live up to the hype…

Sound before symbol: lessons from history

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

Educators often debate the relative merits of aural-based learning versus a notation-driven approach. Seeing the topic wheeled out for discussion again recently, I was reminded of a brilliant quote by legendary concert pianist Andor Földes, from his book Keys to the Keyboard written in 1950 :

“There is no such thing as a proper age for a child to start playing the piano. I avoid saying ‘to start his musical education’ because I believe that an education in music should start very early, perhaps years before the child ever actually learns how to read notes, or can find his way among the black and white keys.”

Földes’ basic point, made some four decades before George Odam’s seminal book The Sounding Symbol (1995) re-popularised the phrase “sound before symbol”, is that music is essentially an aural language, and that playing and reading must build on that foundation.