EN Music Studio Blog- exploring things related to piano, music, education, and child psychology!
Planned Improvisation is a important part of EN Music Studio’s curriculum. What is planned improvisation? It refers to the planning before an improvisation session. The student and teacher may plan what the key, rhythm, articulation, ending, beginning, themes, dynamics are. The list is expansive! The more advanced the student is, the more we can plan …
Natural Free Exploration Children love the potential of the piano. Within minutes of having an empty piano in a space, I see children gravitate to the bench. I see them hit the same key repeatedly, observing that the pitch doesn’t change. In addition, I watch them vary their strength (usually to the upper dynamic level!), …
Finger mapping of the keyboard encourages development of music theory and independence of fingers. A maze of black and white notes to beginners, EN Music Studio’s piano lessons aim to help students recognize patterns on the keyboard in a meaningful way. Visual mapping refers to the ability to have in our memory where a particular …
Piano lessons is generally based on the long term one-on-one connection between a teacher and student. Through time and music, teacher learns about the student’s unique abilities, challenges, and personality. One of the issues that arise out of this paradigm, is the lack of different perspectives of the child’s learning. Usually, there are three perspectives: …
Analogies in piano lessons are inevitable. Unless a child has prior training in music, most terms and technical skills seem alien. Arpeggio? Finger pivot? Legato? Consonant and dissonant harmony? For a child just beginning to learn piano, these terms are foreign. All piano teachers generally use a flow of analogies to connect what students know …
