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Keys to Music Learning
Keys to Music Learning
Community Chat with Jenny Fisher (Part 3)
In our final community chat episode with Jenny, she shares incredibly important advice for both new and seasoned teachers.
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Movement Motivators
Make Way for Play
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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 the 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 are back with Jenny Fisher, GIML faculty member and piano and class piano teacher at Eastern Michigan University. And we have been learning so much about you, Jenny, and I'm loving it. Welcome back.
Jenny:Thanks again for offering this forum to our community.
Hannah:Speaking of a forum for our community, let's just get right into this question. That was a perfect setup. Thank you for that. What advice would you offer to this community of teachers or to new teachers who are getting started with audiation-based piano teaching?
Jenny:I think I'm going to distill it down to two things. I think thing number one is going to be be kind to yourself. And thing number two is going to be take advantage of the opportunities that you have, whether those be to study, to be in a book club, to observe a teacher, to read another book. Take advantage of the opportunities that you get. I I find that it's difficult for me to do as much of the reading and research as I would like to do. I'm interested in doing it. I do love learning, but I never felt like I could keep up with Marilyn or like all the things that Music Learning Academy has to offer. And then all the podcasts audiation in the wild and everyday musicality keys to Music Learning, like I just I do my best. But I just don't feel like I can take in everything that I want to. So take advantage of what you can and then be kind to yourself about what you can't. And I feel like teachers who are drawn to audiation-based piano instruction are generally very conscientious people who really want to do the best for themselves, the best for their students the best for the profession, and are just very conscientious. They want to do it right. And it can be overwhelming when you get into this because it's seems so foreign for many of us. It's exciting. There was somebody at our PDLC last summer, was it. Vanessa had no idea that what she experienced was not typical. She experienced an MLT type of classroom, she experienced MLT teaching as a student. So to her there was nothing foreign about this. And this felt like hand right in a glove. But for many of us, this is so foreign and it can be daunting, it can feel feel like we're nervous about doing it wrong, or doing it out of order. I mean, honestly, one of the things that drew me to Music Learning Theory was the concept that there was a sequence, there was an order for things to happen in. And it was supported the natural way that we want to develop musically. And the structured part of my teacher personality wants to follow that. And I find, like in a Keyboard Games class, I sometimes wrestle with the fact that I've got this really great fun lesson plan. But somehow the kids aren't with me. We just played London Bridge. And now I want to go to the second activity time and toss pebbles off the bridge into the river and go down under the bridge and build sand castles and dig around in the sand and they're just not there. And and I have to remember that. Yes, there's a sequence and there's a structure and my job right now is to give them a rich musical environment. But I also have to remember that this is supposed to be learner centered. This is called Music Learning Theory. It's about the learner. And there's a sequence that supports the learner but I sometimes wrestle with that, that the tension between those two. I'm wanting to be very structured and wanting to do it right. But also knowing that I need to and loving it. Sometimes when I follow the student and I follow the learner, amazing things happen that I never would have thought of, never would have expected never could have planned for. But it seems like no matter what I do, whether I stick to the plan, or I go with the learner, at the end, it's so easy to beat myself up. Oh, I didn't do XYZ, instead, I did ABC. And I feel like I, even to this day, have to remind myself to be kind. I'm doing the best I can with the information I have. And even on my poorest teaching days, I am giving something way more valuable to my students than I ever did when I sat next to them with a notebook and pointed out notation. So those are my two things. Learn what you can, take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, and be kind to yourself as you're learning.
Hannah:And it's a really exciting time in the life of Music Learning Theory, and MLT practitioners, because you do have these very smart people who have come along and understand that this is a lot to digest, and it's very overwhelming, and it can get dense and heavy. And they have come along and they have done things to sort of bridge the gap between Music Learning Theory and the people and make it more accessible. And we have Everyday Musicality. I mean, Heather breaks the learning sequence down in that podcast. And of course, that's our goal with Music Learning Academy, to break it down. Break Music Moves down and break down audiation application to piano. So it might also be a really good time to just remind people the importance of knowing the theory, because even if you're not using Music Moves for Piano, or even if you find yourself sort of struggling with Music Moves for Piano at first, it's probably because you don't have a real handle on the theory and the reasons why we're doing all of these things. So I encourage, I'm going to just highlight what you said. Take every opportunity that you can, as you are able to learn.
Jenny:Yeah. And I think one of the things that helped me the most was, like I say, studying Marylin's Teachers Guide and seeing how she wove all those different components together and sequenced them.
Hannah:I had a new appreciation for her. I had a long conversation with someone about a different approach, not MLT, but a separate approach. It was not related to piano. And I could just feel how much Marilyn did for us. So even if you don't fully understand the theory and the sequence, at first, you can just kind of follow along and just follow instructions. And then as you come to know more about the sequence, you begin to see it a little easier in the method, but there are so many people who come and they don't really have that the way we did. So thank you, Marilyn.
Krista:Speaking of Marylin, and Music Moves for Piano, how has Music Moves and Music Learning Theory been valuable for your piano teaching? And we touched on this a bit, but what do you think it brings to the table that other piano approaches or methods might not?
Jenny:Yeah, you know, the number one thing for me is the, the sense that when I'm with students, we're all musicians. I, when I sat on the bench next to my teacher, or when I was the one sitting next to a student on the bench, it always felt like, you know, there's a teacher and there's a student and there's a distinction between those two. And I feel like in Music Moves, and this was something that surprised me when I started doing Book One and started going through checklists and working with students. Like maybe my vocabulary is bigger than yours, but we are total equals right now as music makers, when we're taking the rhythm pattern of Big Ben, Du-da-di Du Du-da-di Du, and we're gonna play that on any keys we want. Here's my total random idea. Oh, here's another one, maybe not as random. We're total equals and I love the camaraderie that I feel as we're just working through those. I mean that is probably my favorite part of Music Moves books is the checklists, and the create with a tonal pattern, create with a rhythm pattern. I love that because this is where I see students have ownership, and that process of discovery, for me is just fun to watch. And it's amazing when they have like, sometimes they have that moment of discovery, like, oh, my gosh, I just did that. That was so cool. I couldn't imagine going back. I couldn't imagine giving that up.
Hannah:I relate to that so much. And oftentimes, I think about it as like gatekeeping. You know, before I felt like, I was gatekeeping, all this mystical, magical information that only I had. And I had a hard time transfering. I wanted to transfer it to the other person, I just had a hard time doing it. And I was like, gatekeeping on accident. And I didn't always know how to, but I didn't want to be that person. But I ended up being that person. And now, it is so communal, the music teaching and the music learning. It's like I'm walking around the room with them. We walk to the piano together, we walk away from the piano together, we are together. We're not in this like hierarchy of I know all the things and you don't know anything. And if you're lucky one day, you might know some things. From the very first lesson we can be knowing things.
Krista:Yeah, and the students feel that right? They feel that. Absolutely. That's why they keep coming back for more.
Jenny:Yeah. Absolutely. One of my favorite, I have a couple of favorite moments that just popped into my mind. One is thinking back to the university classroom. Now, the first time I started to introduce songs to sing and I sang to my piano class. Do you want to know what they did? I got the audiation stare. The entire classroom was looking at me with their mouths open like they do as infants. And I was like, Oh, my word. And I thought they're experiencing something for the first time. They're experiencing a musical interaction that has never come their way before. It was astonishing to watch.
Hannah:Teaching late teenagers and early adults is very fascinating. Because you know, almost immediately, like after a week of teaching, you know who in that room has probably had some good early childhood music, or at least musical exposure and participation over their lifetime. And you know which ones don't have it. Because they're not moving with coordination. They're not coordinating the breath with the chanting, you can just tell. And so it's kind of special and magical to sort of get to, like, heal that inner child, what they never got to have. We talk about healing our inner child all the time, but musically, there's like a musical being that gets healed whenever that happens. That is really special. Jwnny, it's my favorite question. Now I have to ask you. And that is, what is your favorite part of teaching piano using an audiation-based approach? I mean, I feel like you've kind of answered this in many different ways during our chat. But if you would like to maybe highlight one or two very special things, what would those things be?
Jenny:Yeah, definitely. It's the the creative aspect of Music Moves for Piano, making a place for that. In my experience, there was no place for that. When I was asked, I forced myself to be in a jazz combo when I was in grad school, because I loved the genre. But I didn't have a clue how to participate in that. So I'm like, Well, I'm scared to death, but I'm going to do this. And I didn't have vocabulary to apply. So it was it was kind of rough. But I love that students can get some vocabulary and they can begin to improvise and they can like unlock early, way earlier than I did, unlock their own things to say in music. And that's really special to me. The smiles. I mean, the genuine fun they have. The the kids who come in and they're like, Oh, are we going to move first? And and I kind of think don't we always. Like, I hope we're gonna move first. Yup, we're gonna move first.
Unknown:Even when I started with Music Moves for Piano, and I accidentally would turn the page, turn the page, turn the page, because I didn't realize right away, oh, I'm supposed to be maybe supplementing with some extra solos and you know, I didn't know anything else but like, Okay, Well we did this so we're gonna turn the page and there was so much more I could have been doing. I feel like one of the big challenges I have faced is just being in this sort of wonderful but challenging space of Music Moves for Piano is growing and developing and evolving, like in front of my eyes as I'm trying to use it. And so, you know, sometimes I'm like, wait, which patterns am I using? I thought I had these patterns. Now I have another set of patterns. Oh, now there's another set of patterns over here. Wait, what am I doing? And how am I doing it? And oh, I thought I wasn't supposed to teach anything about notation until they were in Book Three. Oh, I can do some things before that. Oh, I'm supposed to be doing some more rote solos. Like there's so many of those moments along the way where I feel like, Oh, Well, boy, in hindsight, if I had known that I could have done something different. But I think the truth is, like I say, be kind. I was doing the best I could at the time with the information I had. And and I mean, I'm fortunate I've had almost a front row seat, not quite, but almost a front row seat to the development of Music Moves for Piano and being in Marilyn's. home for a week in 2010 to watch her teach. That was I mean, it was amazing. She would always say, oh, yeah, you can teach a groups and you can teach with mixed ages and I could not compute that. But watching how organically her students would come and go, and she would work with them. So naturally and so easily. It gave me confidence that Okay, I would be willing to try and do this. And I've been able to do some of that. So I'm super fortunate, super fortunate. Like I said, I never would have guessed that I would be teaching. Like as a part time lecturer class piano, I never would have guessed I would be a GIML faculty member, oh, my gosh, my first PDLC. But I don't know, here we are, life unfolds in funny ways. So it has been a fun ride. And I know I'm not done.
Krista:Jenny, we are so lucky not only to have had you on these three episodes of the podcast, but to have you as a part of this community. And you are a very important part of this community. You were my instructor for my first GIML PDLC. And you were amazing. And I learned so much from you. And I'm so happy to call you a colleague now. If you have not seen Jenny's webinar, because you really should be learning more from her because she's amazing, there are two on the Music Learning Academy website. One is a little hidden, though. So if you go to webinars, you will see her webinar that we mentioned in the last episode, which is called Movement
Motivators:A primer on the purpose of movement in piano instruction. And she also has a webinar called Make Way for Play, which is included in the audiation and piano summer 2020 webinar series. And all the proceeds from that webinar series go directly to the Marylin Lowe Fund, which provides scholarships to Music Learning Academy courses and other learning opportunities. So if you have not seen those webinars, we strongly encourage you to do so. If you are not part of our Facebook group, please join us at Introduction to Audiation-based Piano Instruction and Music Moves for Piano. Jenny, thank you so much for doing this community chat with us.
Jenny:Absolutely, it was a lot of fun. I hope I didn't bounce around too much. And I just I have so enjoyed getting to meet people through Facebook or through the PDLC or through zoom meetings. And I'm excited about where piano is going, how it's growing, how we're going to be able to offer again, level one and level two this time right here on my campus. And I just wish Marylin were here to see it, to see how things are just really kind of booming. I feel so excited. I hope I get to meet more of you this summer.
Krista:Thanks so much everyone we'll see you soon.