Keys to Music Learning
Keys to Music Learning
Community Chat with Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie (Part 3)
In our final episode with early childhood and piano instructor, Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie, we talk about teaching Music Moves for Piano, including the challenges and joys of learning the method. Sarah also gives great advice to those just getting started with teaching piano with an audiation-based approach.
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Introduction to Audiation-based Piano Instruction and Music Moves for Piano
Ready to learn more about audiation-based piano instruction and Music Moves for Piano? Visit Music Learning Academy for online courses, webinars, and resources.
Want to dive into audiation-based piano instruction? Check out Music Moves for Piano by Marilyn Lowe.
Welcome to Keys to Music Learning. I'm Krista Jadro of Music Learning Academy.
Hannah:And I'm Hannah Mayo of Mayo Piano.
Krista:Join us as we discuss common goals and challenges in the piano studio and offer research-based ideas and solutions to guide every one of your students to reach their full musical potential with audiation.
Hannah:We'd like to welcome back Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie. She's been talking to us about early childhood and running a music school, and lots of other wonderful things. So welcome back, Sarah, we have a few more questions for you.
Sarah:Awesome. Glad to be here.
Hannah:Let's start with Music Moves for Piano. So you got into Music Moves, Marilyn convinced you, thank goodness. And we'd like to know, what were some of the challenges in the early Music Moves days?
Krista:Yeah, it's funny, because a lot of the challenges I didn't realize until I had moved on to the next book. And then I was like, oh, that's why we were supposed to do that thing that I kept skipping. I mean, for me, to go from Music Play with the zero to four year olds into Music Moves for four, five and six year olds was like such an easy transition. I definitely did not know to do as much review as I was doing. And at the time, I didn't realize how creative the kids could be on the piano. I think that took learning and being around other Music Moves for Piano teachers to start to kind of widen my grasp on how great Keyboard Games was. For me at first, I was like, cool, they're moving, we're still singing in lots of modes, we're still moving in lots of different meters. And they get to play these cute little pieces as well, like this is awesome. And looking back on that now my Keyboard Games classes are so so very different. And constantly going back and reviewing and playing things again and playing things backwards and playing things upside down. And, you know, like lots of, you know, circus tricks that go into playing. No, we don't do any, any crazy things like that. But it's been really cool to see how much my students can do. And even the recital that we had in June of this past year, it just so many like seven Keyboard Games, pieces that kids had mashed together and created something wonderful with.
Unknown:So I honestly my biggest challenge was when I thought I can just teach Book One. And I did I had the teachers edition. I did follow Marylin's plans. I didn't understand them to their full potential, because Book One has a lot of stuff that is preparing you for it. Well, units one through nine are really preparing you for units 10 through 20. And I if I had known that I would have approached those early units in a different way. And then even when I got to Book Two, I taught a lot of the Music Moves series before having really good training and really good support. And, you know, looking back on it, at least was giving my students something, but I definitely have been able to give them so much more since being a part of a community. And Marilyn had a lot to do with helping me learn how to teach Music Moves for Piano and also you guys, everybody in the Music Moves community and the GIML community. I learned how to ask more questions like what does this mean in book one unit 10, as opposed to the first time I taught it, which was like, I don't know what this means. So I'm gonna skip it. And not like the best way of approaching it. However, like I said, I look back on that. And like at least I was giving them movement and piano and we were learning things by rote. But I feel like a completely different teacher since really diving in with my community and leaning on others, and asking for help.
Hannah:We were just having a conversation about kind of fast tracking older beginners through Book One. And we were talking about how it's important not to skip anything, because there's always something in there that is acting as a readiness for something down the line. So I'm really glad that you brought that up. It's a very validating thing to work your way through the series and go oh, that's why we did that random thing in Book One that seemed random but it's actually meticulously placed at that moment. And those kinds of discoveries are so awesome.
Sarah:Yeah it;s all very sequential. And and I think as music teachers and Music Learning Theory teachers, we, whenever we get to a point where we teach something to a student, and they give you that face where they're like, "What?" and they have no idea what you're talking about, like 99% of the time, I double back in my mind, and I'm like, Oh, I did not explain that to you well enough, or I did not move with you well enough to that, or I did not do enough patterns along with that. And that's why we're here. And you're giving me that face that I really want to erase and make the clarity come through for you. And so I love that Music Learning Theory across the board has this great, you know, as you know, like sequential approach. And when you do skip something, or you didn't spend enough time on something, that light bulb goes off in your head as a teacher and you're like, Okay, I am going to double back to before that, review that and then keep going. And it's great, because then you see where things went haywire. And you can help. And I like that. And I used to be like, I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. Like I already taught this to them. It's like, no, no, go back. Go back, go back. Go back. Even when they get it go back. Why not redo it?
Hannah:Yeah, go back and do something new with it. As you're reviewing it.
Sarah:Definitely. Yeah.
Krista:So I think you've started to touch on this a little bit, Sarah, but how did you know that Music Moves was really working with your students?
Sarah:Ah, I there's a couple of answers to that question. To me, the fact that they would be excited to come back and play something for me and seemed happy to be there. And the whole"Wait, this lessons over?" questions would come through, I'm like, this is working. And it's working because I look back on my own experience, which I know I talked about in one of the previous episodes of like, literally looking at the clock and be like, "Oh, my gosh, how is there 15 minutes left to this lesson? And oh my gosh, there's 14 minutes left in this lesson" and like counting down the seconds. So that's a big one for me is just the indication of the children creating together and having a good time doing it, and not feeling overwhelmed and upset by it. But for me, I think watching them be creative in a way that, when you have a really young child, you're like, be creative on the piano, that can really go in a lot of different directions. It's when you start to see them putting together things that make musical sense. Like go create a song about an otter, on the piano, and I want to hear Du-des, and that means I'm in duple. And I think you should play at low on the piano and having them create something that is for macrobeats. Or they do or they do eight macrobeats. Or they do a familiar rhythm pattern that you know, you've worked on with them a lot. And they put that into their improvisation. That's my second big one is when they start improvising in ways that I know come from the books and come from what I've taught them. And then as you keep going, I noticed a lot in Book Two, I will sing or play a song and they're just like, "Oh, I feel like I've heard this song before." I'm like yeah I've been singing it to you since you were like five years old. And that happens as you keep going through the series. I have taught a few before students. I do have a Book Four student now. They will not leave me and the student has gone through a lot emotionally and COVID was really really difficult and they are 11 years old. And this is my oldest student for sure. And I won't give them up because I know when I do it's done. But so this the student is in Book Four and there's just so many moments where I'm like, "Oh my God, how do you know this?" I and I can't remember the name of it right now. It's escaping me. It's the(Sarah sings)
Krista:Festive Dance
Hannah:Festive Dance
Unknown:Festive dance! Yeah, I like opened up the book, like oh, so we're learning Festive Dance. Like we just have such a different relationship. And they heard it and they sat down and played it in every major key and(Sarah sings a pattern) they've been playing that in their cadences (Sarah sings"So-Fa-Re-Ti") and then created with it and twisted it around and changed meter and changed it to minor and change it to mixolydian and I was just like this is insane. You are 11 which is quite old for me. I'm like you're on the older side of my students. But um, I couldn't do that in college. I was in again, I will say I was in the lowest theory class option at Eastman. And if you had been like cool now let's create with that I would have been thrilled but terrified. And so when you see your student progress through the series like that, and all of the like Aha moments that come. It's incredible. And it feels so good to see that.
Hannah:I've also just been kind of looking for places to talk about this. I have a musician-parent, who I went to music school with. And I'm now teaching her five year old daughter. And she texted me one day saying that her daughter is speaking like a musician at home, she's talking about phrases. And she's talking about how she wants to put the phrase in the high register or the low register. And she's like, "I'm convinced," you know, "my five year old is talking like a musician." So I think that between the two of us, things are going well. So that is some really great success stories. My personal favorite is when they walk out the door, and they're not telling you this, they're telling their parents, and they have no idea that you can hear them and like, oh my gosh, that was so fun.
Sarah:Right? I love that.
Hannah:It was. What advice would you give to new teachers who are just getting started with all of this audiation-based piano teaching?
Sarah:I would say to not necessarily do what I did, which was like, I'm all by myself, and I'm gonna work through this on my own. Find a community. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, you've you found a community already, and you should lean on this community and ask questions. There are no dumb questions. So I have four, including myself, we have four Music Moves for Piano teachers here at the school. And I have set time aside, and I always tell my teachers, do not suffer through something that you're not sure about. Lean on me and lean on each other to and I've really enjoyed seeing Jessica and Callie, who are my teachers that have been with me for a few years. And now Vanessa, who is just trained in it was the with the GIML PDLC Level One with me, to watch them help each other. And that's where I'm like, Oh, mama bear like watching my sweet teachers. Sometimes someone will ask me a question. And my 25 year old teacher will be like, Oh, my gosh, here's what I do. I'm like, oh, okay, this is this is awesome when we start leaning on each other like that. And obviously, like, what a privilege for me to have that here, right in the same building where I can do that. But it happens with with the Facebook groups, and here in podcasts like this, you can just get so much support. And I think that is the most important thing is to lean on other teachers. And then keep challenging your ear. I would say I say get Marylin's Keyalities and Tonalities book. And even though you're like,"Oh, I played major and minor scales my whole life," flip to the back where she has all of the Lydian and Mixolydian chord progressions written out for you and play them and create with them and write songs in different modes, because it's going to get you closer...it's going to have you feeling closer to the whole experience because you've actually done it yourself and you don't have to use them. If they don't sound good, you then don't use them. But at least you wrote a nice chord progression and Dorian and you can feel really proud of yourself because there are a lot of music teachers that don't want to do that. Or can't Or can't. Yeah.
Krista:So that brings us to our final question, which I think is our favorite. What is your favorite part of teaching piano using an audiation-based approach?
Sarah:For me, it's everything I didn't get. I love moving with the children and singing. I mean, I think that is my earlier, early childhood music side with Music Play coming through. I love improvising with them. And I think that word was scary to me at one point in my life, if you had been like you're going to improvise on your instrument, I would have been like, no thank you. And now I love it. And I love creating with young children on the piano and coming up with ways that they can enjoy. They'll love it like you know, showing them a picture of a bug and saying how would this bug sound if you played it on the piano and having them go to the piano and create that sound exploration with you. That is 100% my favorite reason or my favorite thing with with teaching piano. Yeah.
Hannah:That's beautiful. That's one of my favorite things to I'll just say is the focus on the sound. And not just pretty sounds or you know, think classical sounds. But all sounds like the piano is capable of making so many sounds our voices are capable of making so many sounds and music is really all about organizing those sounds in whatever way we want. So I'm so glad you said that.
Sarah:Yeah, it's very cool. And I, I have some students who play things that are so unexpectedly beautiful. You know, if you say play what, like a calm, breezy day sounds like and they play this slow, beautiful thing. And sometimes parents in the waiting room are like, "huh," like, I know, I heard that too. That was really cool.
Hannah:Well, thank you so much for chatting with us, Sarah. This has this has been a delight as it usually is chatting with you. Thanks for sharing all of these wonderful experiences with us.
Sarah:Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Krista:If you haven't already, be sure to check it out Sara's webinar on MusicLearningAcademy.com called
Early Audiation:Creating a Musical Bath for our Littlest Learners. If you are not already a part of this ever growing community of audiation-based piano teachers, please check us out on the Facebook group Introduction to Audiation-based Piano Instruction and Music Moves for Piano. Thank you for listening. We'll see you soon.