In this episode, Hannah and and Krista discuss a variety of topics including how they choose repertoire, teaching students to improvise and compose over chord progressions, and ways to guide your own audiation development.
Links
Pattern Power: Learning Piano Repertoire through Rhythm and Tonal Pattern Play: A free mini-webinar by Hannah
Experimental Songs and Chants, by Edwin Gordon, Beth Bolton, Wendy Valerio, and Cynthia Taggert
Improving Musician, videos by Andy Mullen
PDLC: Professional Development Levels Course by Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Support Keys to Music Learning through the Keys to Music Learning Community!
Join us on Facebook!
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.
In this episode, Hannah and and Krista discuss a variety of topics including how they choose repertoire, teaching students to improvise and compose over chord progressions, and ways to guide your own audiation development.
Links
Pattern Power: Learning Piano Repertoire through Rhythm and Tonal Pattern Play: A free mini-webinar by Hannah
Experimental Songs and Chants, by Edwin Gordon, Beth Bolton, Wendy Valerio, and Cynthia Taggert
Improving Musician, videos by Andy Mullen
PDLC: Professional Development Levels Course by Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Support Keys to Music Learning through the Keys to Music Learning Community!
Join us on Facebook!
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're back. We have a few more questions in our Q&A series. And quite a few questions I think are coming up now about repertoire and rote solos and we're just going to jump right into it with this one. It's a multi-part question, here it is. What are some criteria for picking the best rote solos? Do you have a way you organize this? So you don't spend so much time finding rote solos. I have some of my own ideas, but I love hearing how others do this. There's so much piano music. Gosh, that's true. And I get overwhelmed thinking about all the music I'm not teaching. So whatever solo I choose to teach needs to be really purposeful, since I've selected it over lots of other choices.
Krista:So maybe some foundational guidelines for choosing rote solos. And one is to look at the skills that your students have. Look at the context they are familiar with. Look at the content they have been using in their lessons. Say we're at the end of Book One or beginning of Book Two, they've been doing Major and Minor tonalities. They've been doing Tonic and Dominant within those tonalities. Contexts for meter: they've been doing Duple and Triple. Functions: Macro/microbeats, also starting Divisions and Division/Elongations. So when I'm picking rote solos, I might look for rote solos that include those skills and those contexts and content. Does that mean I always stay with them? Not really, because I would do Boogies and Blues, and that has subdominant in it. And they have not yet done subdominant. So you're not necessarily caged in to what they have done. You can absolutely kind of go out and try something else. We've done a Mixolydian tune or a Dorian tune as well, because the students love them. But you know, kind of having that foundation of what have the students done in lessons is a really great place to start.
Hannah:When I am looking at repertoire, I first am looking at the rhythm content. That's my number one thing I'm looking for. And after I peruse the rhythm content, and compare it to where my student is in the rhythm sequence, meaning have they only done Macrobeat/microbeat patterns, have they done Division patterns? Have they done Division/Elongations? And also their level of comfort with those patterns, then that's my first thing that I'm looking at. So if I see a piece that's got exactly what I'm looking for rhythmically for a particular, like a Book One student or a Book Two student or whatever it might be. That's one thing. The other thing that I look for next is the Tonic and Dominant. There are so many beginner piano pieces that are all Tonic and Dominant in the familiar keys that we do in Book One. And this there's so much and one of my favorite older composers is Reinagle. And the Opus, I think it's Opus One, the very beginner piano pieces. I love those pieces. There's also some really wonderful collections. The Faber Developing Artist collection is great. The Expressive Etudes collection is great. And so I learned a lot about repertoire in pedagogy. And in pedagogy, you look at all of these different collections of classic pieces and from not just classical but the classics, whether they're from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic period, whatever it might be. So I have gone through all of these books, and I have marked the pieces that I like, that I think sound good and that I think are appropriate for certain students. So you might if you like color coding you might you is a yellow sticky notes for Book One appropriate solos and green sticky notes for Book Two appropriate solos. And then I just keep those on a shelf, kind of organized by Book One or by Book Two. And then I also have loads of drawers full of repertoire books. And then there are some like databases of pieces. There's the repertoire list on Marilyn's Music Moves website that she created. And then there's another list, like an Excel sheet, that I have that someone started. And so anytime somebody's got, like a long list of rote solos that are organized in some kind of way, save that. Save that and go listen to all of those pieces, and then mark the ones that you like, because some pieces are totally appropriate for, let's say, a particular rhythm skill or Tonic and Dominant skill, like certain audiation skills, but they're not that good. They're not particularly great to listen to. So just leave them and the you don't have to think about them anymore. And so you're only saving what is like the creme de la creme. Because we have so much. We don't need to know about the mediocre pieces, we only want the best of the best. And the ones that really fit what we're doing. The other thing, the last thing so we have rhythm and tonal. I use Performance Pieces as a model. So what am I looking for in a rote repertoire, a supplemental repertoire piece is very much based on does it kind of look like a longer version of, let's say Stepping Stones? Does it kind of look like a longer version of Gliding. Does it kind of look like a longer version of this piece or that piece? That's from the book. And I go "Oh, that one really reminds me of fill in the blank. Popcorn. Not Popcorn. Nothing reminds me of Popcorn.
Krista:Well, I just did one of the Diversions.
Hannah:Oh, there is one that does sound like Popcorn. The one that goes like this (Hannah plays). That is kind of popcorny. Pop corny. That's funny.
Krista:And I just did a Diversion that uses (Krista sings). What song is that everybody? Russina Folk Song Two. So they use the same patterns. It's fun when you find those connections to a longer piece. And the students really liked to do that.
Hannah:I don't know that those answers are particularly magical. But that's about it, get yourself some color coded sticky notes. I did this over a summer one time I pulled out like every beginner repertoire book, beginner to intermediate I had. And it was really good timing, because there was a used music sale going on, later on. And I had it all stacked on my piano. And whenever I just got a moment, I would just hurry up and play through some stuff. And I would mark it if it was good. And then I whatever I didn't sticky note got put in the used music sale pile. And I was able to actually do a lot of house cleaning that way that was nice. Piano teachers have way too many books.
Krista:It's really easy to get overwhelmed, right. As human beings, when you're faced with many options you can get paralyzed, right. Like I think we're choosing paint colors for the house right now. And I actually had somebody to come over to help me give like two options for each room, because you start to look at those paint decks. And you start to wonder, wait, but this one might be better than this one. But this one, this shade might be better than this shade, even though they're almost identical, right? So when we're when we're faced with too many options, at least I know for myself, it can get overwhelming. So just start by opening one book and playing through them. And if you have somebody to do that with even better. This last summer, another one of the Music Moves for Piano teachers at the Community Music School, I work at - her and I just brought our books together and we did it. I would play one then she would play when we would talk about the piece you know, this one would probably be really good for Book Three students or this would be really great or Oh, this one just it doesn't feel right let's we're just going to put it to the side. So doing it with somebody else is really helpful as well. And then we just made copies of the pieces because I don't work from home, I work there. And we made one big binder with all these different options. So it's less overwhelming than having all these different books that you have to look through. Here's we made a kind of a binder of these. We think these will work and we write notes on them when we do them with students. So don't be scared of also just trying a piece right? We don't we don't know really how it's going to be with a student until we try it. And you learn from that. So you know, choose that piece, say I'm going to try this with so and so student and try it and learn from that. And you might say, "Oh, this piece worked really well for where they are and what knowledge they had." Or you might say, "Oh, this was a little bit, this was a bit frustrating for the student, because they just they weren't ready for that." And that's okay. You can do what you can with it and put it away and just make a note that maybe next time you wait till they have, you know, so and so skills, but don't hesitate to try the pieces with the students. Learn. And then over time, you're just going to get better and better at selecting appropriate pieces for your individual students.
Hannah:Right. And there's a thing that I do when I'm playing through a bunch of repertoire. I ask myself, "How hard is this going to be for the student." And if it's hard, it has to be really motivating, because it has to be worth the effort. And most of the time, I'm looking for things that feel really easy. Because if it feels really easy for me, then it's probably okay. And I mean, really easy for me. And if it feels like there's any thing like a moment, if there's more than one moment, for sure, I'm probably going to put that piece to the side. But it may be if there's one moment of kind of more challenge, where I kind of have to think about what I'm doing for a second. That's okay. But if there's a whole lot of those moments in the piece, where I'm really having to think too much and not feel, then I'm probably not going to choose that piece. So I'm really trying to put myself in the mind of a beginner or an intermediate student or whatever it might be a Book One Student, Book Two, and feel what it feels like to play that piece, not just read it from a score, and like hear and see what it sounds like. But to really feel what it feels like to play that piece. Is there a lot of moving? Is this moving the kind of moving that is fairly easy? Or is it like a lot of really advanced fingering or whatever it might be. And so think about what it feels like to play that piece, not just what it sounds like.
Krista:Yeah, and repetition. Repetition is a good thing. Form of pieces, I tend to shy away from pieces that they might have some repetition, but each time something is repeated, something changes. That's this kind of like, okay, that's a little tricky. I have also changed pieces before to make them a little bit easier, because students really love them. But the way that they're written is maybe not the best for the students. So I have made modifications as well.
Hannah:And there's really, there's a lot of really great five finger pieces, because it's just like, there's so many of them! There are a lot of really great ones that are considered, pre-primary or very primer level pieces. But because they're five finger, they would fall a little later in our approach. They would fall more towards the end of Book One. And I also re-finger and see "Can this whole thing be played successfully with maybe just the three long fingers or maybe just the middle finger?" So I'll do things like that. And I'll make notes as I go along that way. I also have a huge database on my own computer, like you were talking about your binder, I have kind of a digital binder of all the ones that students just absolutely love. Those are in a folder.
Krista:Yeah, I also have many students playing the same one sometimes because I learn a lot from teaching the same things to different students. So I think even right now I have a couple of students playing one new solo, they all really loved it. So I said, "Okay, let's, all do it." And then I learned a lot from teaching it as well. So don't think you have to give your students all different ones. You can use the same ones.
Hannah:I've been using the same solos. And I know that that makes recital planning a little different. But they don't have to play that solo at the recital.
Krista:Or they can make changes
Hannah:Or they can make change. Everybody can play the same solo in different ways.
Krista:Yeah, that's true. So our next question is also about repertoire. I would love help with teaching rote pieces to transfer students who are new to audiation but have experienced playing with music notation.
Hannah:I'm gonna go back to an answer if I can just jump in with my answer. I'm gonna go back to what I said previously, in whatever episode that was before, where I'm not really doing anything different. The way I would teach a non transfer student, a total beginner, is the same way I'm gonna teach a transfer student, it's not different. The only difference might be is that I've got the notation involved, perhaps. Maybe the notation after they've learned it in a lesson with completely notation free, maybe the next lesson, we have the notation on the piano. And I'll point to things every now and again, when they have a sound to take to that notation. Or I'll ask, you know, "what do you see on this page, that you know exactly what that means. Explain to me everything you already know, on this page." And that gives them the opportunity to kind of show off what they know. Or I might point to a rhythm pattern and say, "Can you tell why this rhythm pattern is Du-da-di Du Du-da-di Du? Or whatever it is, and see if they can kind of put it into words, and we'll have conversations about the notation. We will look at the notation. But we are not doing like a decoding note for note, or counting or anything like that. But there's not a whole lot of difference. I'm going to follow the performance peace model always. For any kind of supplemental repertoire, I'm going to do the same things to prepare for that kind of music that I would use to prepare performance pieces. And all of that is laid out for you in the Teacher Guide.
Unknown:And so you just take that same checklist over to a longer piece of music, and you work in chunks. Maybe this lesson one is phrase one, or maybe the A section, or whatever a reasonable amount of repertoire you can get going in a week. You have to take it a little slower, I think, because you're really trying to internalize a lot more. It's not just like, you're going to read a piece, and then you're going to try to memorize it. We're really trying to get to the essence of the piece by using the rhythm patterns and the tonal patterns. And so that can be a slightly slower process, sometimes. Sometimes it can be a faster process than trying to read it. It all kind of depends on the student. But I think that that's what I have to say about that is that I'm not really going to change what I'm doing just because a student has music notation experience or can decode.
Krista:And I'm going to take a step back from what Hannah is saying, and just remind everybody what they're starting with when they're teaching a new piece of repertoire, because we're not starting at the piano. Right, we can follow that same model that Marylin has created in the Music Moves books with all those folk tunes. We start by playing it with them moving, right? So we're playing the piece, and they are doing some kind of continuous movement and just listening and absorbing. And you could do this for one week before you move on to the next step. You could do it for two or even three weeks if you wanted to, if you're planning that far in advance. So you play it, they're moving, no expectations, not even a question. I just have them move to the piece. And then after that, after they have that experience, kind of listening and moving, then we focus on one part, right? And this is where if you haven't listened or watched Pattern Power yet, is that what is called Hannah?
Hannah:Pattern Power, yes.
Krista:Pattern Power. So the next week, you're going to just
focus on one element:rhythm. Okay, you're going to play the piece. And then you're going to have them chant the rhythm patterns for the piece. Now, this depends on the students what I do at this point, sometimes we'll just do it all vocally. I'll play a part of the piece, we'll chant that rhythm pattern. I'll do the next part, we'll chant that rhythm pattern. Other times, we'll do that. And then I'll have them come to the piano. And we'll play it on one key and create with the rhythm patterns, just like the checklists, right we chant, perform, create with them. So sometimes during that week two, I guess we could call it, I'll actually have them at the piano. And we'll be creating with the rhythm patterns, but we're focusing on the rhythm. And then after I do those parts, I'll have them stand up again. And I say, "I'm going to play this for you one more time. Let's just move." And at that point, they're now hearing that piece with more understanding, with more rhythmic understanding because of those quick activities that we did with the rhythm patterns. Then the following week, I'll play it for them again, they'll move and then we focus on the tonal patterns. And depending on the student, sometimes they'll just sing them. Other times, we'll establish tonality and keyality on the piano. And we'll sing the tonal patterns. They'll perform them, which means they play them, and then they'll improvise with them. So when they stand back up, and they move again, now they have this deeper understanding of the piece. Now they're hearing things tonally that they might not have heard before. So by the time they're sitting at the piano, gosh, they're bringing all of this understanding. I mean, Hannah, have you had students by that time that sit at the piano and they're kind of like, "Oh, yeah, I can. I think I could play this already.
Hannah:Oh, let me try, I think I can do.
Krista:Because they have, they have internalized already so much of it. So whenever you're teaching rote solos, to your students, really, make sure to follow that procedure before sitting down at the piano, to learn the piece. There have been times in the past where there have been easy pieces we've had, you know, 10 minutes at the end, and I'll say, "Oh, let's just start, you know, to learn this Diversion" or something. And I almost always regret not taking my time and doing the listening and the moving and extracting the tonal and rhythm patterns beforehand. Because the next week, 90% of the time, the student will be like, "Oh, I didn't practice it, because I didn't remember it. Because they didn't have all that beforehand. So following that procedure is really important. And then as Hannah said, when you're learning the piece, that checklist. Whatever checklist they're using in their book, use it for their repertoire.
Hannah:Right. And remember, the learning sequence. This is really kind of just like putting a bow on what Krista said, always starts with listening. So Marylin does this by way of Songs to Sing. And then those Songs to Sing become pieces. Or if they're not Songs to Sing, they get played in Activity Time while the students are moving. And so the listening and the moving part is more incorporated into the lesson plan. It's not so much on the checklist for the student. So this is all a really fabulous model for all repertoire learning.
Krista:Yeah, and even before the Song to Sing, she said, she put that the song in at least three times with just movement.
Hannah:Right. Three is the magic number
Krista:Three is the magic number.
Hannah:And also the use of keyboard maps, blank keyboard maps to remember what certain patterns are or where they happen on the piano. It's basically like a keyboard game notation, or the kind of notation that we see in the Student Books with the keyboard map. Those are very helpful and you can get a blank keyboard map page in our Facebook group, we have some on the Music Moves website, there's a page for the Little Gems. If you're looking at the Little Gems book, there's a little download you can get for free, so you can make your own.
Krista:So I've often thought of making them as stickers, so they could stick them in there.
Hannah:There's a sticker available in our group, in one of the files. The little Avery label stickers with a little tiny pianos, we use those a lot.
Krista:So I think we're ready for the next question. Yeah, so in the Music Moves for Piano books, Marilyn
Hannah:I think so too. It's mildly related. Ideas to help really is working towards this. Working towards the students students compose melodies based on chord progressions at all being able to improvise over specific chord progressions and stages of audiation, but mainly at the Generalization and beyond levels. So if you are in Generalization, that's where we are basically letting the students do their thing. So this is like getting into some terms that maybe we don't want to get too deep into. But basically, Generalization is when a student can generalize what they have learned in the levels of discrimination learning. And they can take that information into new situations where they might be creating or listening to something and deciding what they're hearing. But if you want more information on Generalization, a really good place to go is the Everyday Musicality podcast where Heather breaks down all the different parts of the learning sequence. But Krista, do you want to start with this one? you see a lot of it in Book Three, not only in the Student Books, but in the Teacher's Guide. Creative activities you're having students improvise melodies, not only over I, IV, V but also I just did one that was I ii V I. I think there's another one that's I ii iii I. And first doing that, in a way, that's discrimination learning, you're really doing it with a student, right. But then after you do it with the student, then they're able to do it more on their own, once they get the hang of it. So it really is working towards this. And what I have learned is, the more that I can show them and give them examples, and we can do it vocally, we do a lot of vocal improvisations in my classes, as well, that students get this when they're ready to get it. It's when they're ready for it. Yeah, I think what you're talking about is really excellent, because improvisation is a real readiness for composition. And so much of what we do has an improvisation priority. I remember seeing these chord progressions with not just the primary chords, but the secondary chords. And then Marylin also sometimes has instructions in the book, like,"try this chord progression, but then make your own chord progression." And I will also say that rhythm is the thing that everything hangs on to. So if you are doing a Music Move style project, you're always going to start with a rhythm pattern just about. Or you're going to or you're going or she's going to say establish meter and improvise rhythm patterns in this meter, triple meter, or duple meter. But it always kind of starts with rhythm. So I think if you're trying to help a student compose, that's the best place to start, in my experience. And then you use the keyboard skills that you're learning are also a great readiness for composing, you've got your melodic cadences that you start with, then you're going to do Springtime, which is basically a pentascale melody that students learn. That's a little more interesting than just a straight up in a scale. And then they do the root arpeggios. And they do all these great keyboard skills that we all need as pianists. And then when you combine those keyboard skills with rhythm, you're composing, you're improvising. If you write it down, you're composing. And so many of the projects that she has, are building blocks that a composer needs. So I would say, if you're really interested in kind of like, jumping into this a little sooner, where it really gets good as Book Three, Four, and Five, and you really start to see some of these more advancing steps, like learning about upper neighbors and lower neighbors and passing tones. That is an essential thing that composers need to know. And so you take a familiar melody, and you make a variation by adding in upper neighbor notes or lower neighbor notes. And that is a another readiness, I think, for composition. I got all my students started with a melodic cadence and a rhythm. And I would tell them, play the melodic cadence, pick a rhythm pattern, play each pattern of the melodic cadence using this rhythm pattern, combining them, and then add some passing tones, add an accompaniment and like, boom, you're making music. So if you're looking for like a very first step kind of thing, after your student gets a couple of melodic cadences under their fingers, and they've got some rhythm vocabulary, then you can start combining that. But if you just go through the books, and you're using these lesson books regularly and having your student go through all these ECI projects, that's where you're going to get a lot of these step by step processes for composing.
Krista:And I love when they improvise for the first time with the melodic cadence because they've been doing so much random key improvisation. They're like "Ah, I created a song." It sounds like a song to them. And this just...
Hannah:It is a song. You did do that. So our next question is asking about a checklist for reporting to parents. And I think I don't have a whole lot to say about this except for two things. Number one, I do most of my parent educating and communication in the early days of lessons And I have a whole thing built into my website that is only for parents to go to, and get these little like very digestible pieces of information, most of which I have taken directly from the Teacher Book, or the front and back cover areas of the student books. And then also just like putting in some notes and resources, and I'll do that for parents. But as far as an actual checklist, the checklist is in the books all the time. That's what I would tell them, I would say this is your checklist. And maybe I don't know that I'm fully understanding the question, because this can actually mean a lot of things, a checklist to report to parents like what skills maybe they've learned, or what pieces they've played or something like that. I'm just kind of interpreting what the question means. But most of my dealings with parents happen in the early days through education in small snippets on my website. And then I tell them, I explain to them about the checklist. And I tell them, if there's a date in the lesson column, then that means you should be doing it at home if you're going to practice. Yes, I said, "if you're going to practice," because I don't expect anyone to ever, and if they do, great, but if they don't, that's okay, too. So that's all I really have. I don't have like a checklist that I give to parents.
Krista:Yeah, I created a progress report for Keyboard Games, because we're at a community music school, and they have progress reports. And also, I thought it was really nice way to show parents what we were working on, like, "Oh, look at all these things that we're working towards developing." And on that our skills such as being able to sing the resting tone, moving to the macrobeats, moving to the microbeats. We have some technique, and keyboard geography skills on there, I can't think of exactly what they are off the top of my head. And also like, able to find S1 and S2 on the page, just things that we're looking for as teachers. But also for Keyboard Games, especially it's a scale, that's not like we're looking for 100%. But one of the options are developing. And we have written on the bottom that this is a skill that we're working towards. And just so that the parents can know what we're working on in class. And I believe we have one for Books One and Two. But I think it's important for whatever checklists or report that you give to parents that they know that these are skills that are consistently developing, and that we're doing things with, so it's not like a one and done. They got it. And that's it. So I think that's important when you're creating any type of report to and for the parents.
Hannah:And if you're going to make a checklist for parents keep learning sequence in mind. We listen, and then we speak, then we think, then we read, then we write..
Krista:I like this last question. It's a good one to end our kind of Q&A series on. What is the best strategy to self learn audiation as a teacher? What do you think, Hannah? What
Hannah:Oh, I'll tell you what I did. From the Music Move series, did you do? I kept the pattern CD in my car at all times. I would listen to it ad nauseam. And that was one way to do it. Looking back I would maybe focus on you know like the Book One patterns for some time. I would just let that thing play and I was just hearing pattern pattern, pattern. And that's a bit much. It doesn't really keep them in any sort of organized way. Brain organization is a little lacking if you do it that way. But perhaps you just listen to the Book One tracks a whole lot. Meaning the patterns for Book One. And then maybe next after you feel like you're sort of anticipating that's how you know it's it's good to go on. You're just like anticipating the pattern. You're like "Oh I know what's coming next." Then Book Two patterns can come next, and the Book Three patterns etc. The other thing I did was I used Gordon's Experimental Songs and Chants book which you can get on GIA publications. And I would just teach myself all of these songs in different tonalities in meters and I would sing them to preschool students. And I didn't really know the whole thing yet. I just knew that I was supposed to sing and chant, I didn't understand that I was supposed to have a lot of movement and like, create a playful game like environment. We did a little bit of that. But mostly, I was just like singing songs and chanting to my students in the context of how I was already teaching. So I learned lots of songs and chants and different meters and tonalities.
Unknown:And then the third thing that I did, and probably was the most helpful was use Andy Mullen's, Improving Musician YouTube channel, which has grown a lot since I first started. So I'll tell you where to start. And I started with his first iteration of rhythm and tonal pattern lessons. He has since created a new iteration of rhythm and tonal pattern lessons, but I think they're all still there. And basically, I learned how to deliver learning sequence activities, which is the pattern instruction, by his model. So I got to hear an expert doing it. And like the learning that breathing was important. And I got to be the student. So I got to sing the first pitch and the resting tone and the whole pattern, and I got to echo and label and this and that, and the other thing. And I got to do it in the correct order. So I got to be the student, by way of pattern CD, Andy's YouTube channel, and just teaching myself songs and chants in meters and tonalities that I was not as well versed in. And then once I started doing all of those three things, for a while, then I really felt like I am feeling like this is really helping my musicianship. And I think that this is how I need to be teaching. So I was kind of imitating. I was going through the learning sequence, actually, because I was in imitation. I was in acculturation, and then I was in imitation. And then eventually I was in assimilation, where I was able to assimilate it into my own teaching. And then just a lot of listening, so much listening. More listening than I've ever done in my entire life. I got the Music Play, because I'm an early childhood music teacher as well. Once I got the Music, Play CD, that was another big game changer, because I could hear all the different patterns. And why we categorize patterns a certain way. And when we use said patterns. And I really got to know that better. And I think also just learning about the theory in general, like it's not maybe going to help your audiation, but it's going to help you understand why certain things are happening at a certain point or why maybe you can't do certain things yet, or whatever it might be. Just kind of like self study of Music Learning Theory as well. Because that's really where it all comes from. All this talk about audiation.
Krista:I don't even know if I have that much to add, Hannah, you covered so many great things for developing audiation skills. So I was really lucky to go to a school and study with somebody that is Music Learning Theory and audiation-based, Dr. Suzanne Burton, and she had us singing resting tone, she had us moving, she sang to us in different tonalities she had us echoing tonal patterns and rhythm patterns. And I just remember going into that class and like,"I can't hear any of this," and I thought I was a pretty good musician. But there's that listening, right, and then the imitating I would sing them I would sing the resting tone I was moving. And then also if you're able to go to a PDLC, then you can get that experience with other teachers, other musicians. That was really powerful for me to be kind of immersed in it for two weeks, and to improvise, and to compose my own songs in the different tonalities. That was also really helpful. So finding your own way to listen and to find resting tones and to sing patterns is all really helpful if you can't find your way to PDLC and then just being on the Facebook groups, there are some wonderful teachers in our community that offer musicianship based classes. You might be able to find something like that to go to to kind of dive deeper into it with a group of teachers. But start with the listening.
Hannah:Yes. Always start with listening. And oh, there is one more resource on Andy's page that I want to make mention of there's a lot of resources on his page, but the lessons: the tonal one rhythm lessons, two different iterations. And then he's got a bunch of pieces and songs in different tonalities. And one of the things that I got really excited about was his Singing Bassline videos, which is very, very much a part of what we do we learn the melody, we learn the bassline, and then we sing together the student and the teacher or two students. Where one is singing melody, one is singing bassline. And singing baselines is like the thing that everybody goes, "Oh, wow," when they first do it, because it's so cool. So look for the singing bassline. There's probably about five of those videos with different songs, in Major and Minor.
Krista:Oh major and minor? Because learning the other tonalities too, and learning the basslines for those are really helpful.
Hannah:He's got his acculturation videos. He just calls it like Dorian Acculturation, Mixolydian Acculturation. Those videos are also great, because he goes through the melody and the bassline for those. So you get to hear the Tonic - Subtonic, not just Tonic and Dominant, and you start to audiate those tonalities which is very game changing.
Krista:Oh absolutely. I think this might be one of the longest episodes that we've ever done.
Hannah:So much to talk about.
Krista:A lot to talk about. But we went through all the questions. Thank you to everybody in the community that saw the post that I had up, put on the Facebook group calling for questions. They've all been great. And we've really enjoyed discussing them.
Hannah:We thank you for your questions, because these are questions that get asked frequently. And so now you've given us this opportunity to record answers that we can now continue to share with people that are new to our group.
Krista:And if you're not part of our group yet, that is on Facebook, called Introduction to Audiation-based Piano Instruction and Music Moves for Piano.
Hannah:Thanks so much. We'll see you soon.