The First Key-Finder Lesson
- Sarah Lyngra
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Yesterday I live streamed a complete first lesson. It was about an hour, and this is pretty much what I do with a brand new student 12 years and older. Most of my newer students are adults at the moment.
Here's the link to the video
In a lesson, the student would be the one playing, not me. If you were my student, at the end of the video I would be asking:
What did you notice? (I let this question sink in for a few minutes, students often need time to think, and in the past, I didn't give enough time for them to give me an answer and ended up being an interrupting pest. It's hard to sit and say nothing for 2-3 minutes.)
how many times did we go around the circle of 5ths?
How many repetitions of the 1-4 chord was played in the left hand?
Did you notice that some keys were easier to play than others?
Did you feel the pattern getting easier as you played it?
How did the black keys feel under your fingers compared to the white?
How did what you were playing sound?
Was this easier or harder than you expected it to be?
As they answer the question, I fill out a Notice Happiness card with 1-3 tiny things I notice the students are doing. For example:
I noticed that you had well formed melodies when you were playing with me in the beginning few minutes of the lesson.
I noticed that it only took 3-4 attempts for your fingers to relax while playing the 5 note scales with your right hand.
I noticed that you were able to play with both hands and keep good time while I was counting aloud like an annoying mosquito in your ear.
I noticed that by the time we got halfway around the circle your left hand was getting calmer and more consistent with the fingering.
I noticed that you naturally moved your arm towards the fallboard to play the black keys rather than shooting your elbow to the side.
You may note that the kinds of comments I write on the backs of the little cards are not over the top "you're a genius, I've never heard someone with so much talent" comments. They are honest observations of what I actually notice during a lesson.
The assignment for a student for the week is to play around the circle doing what we did in the lesson. It's up to them if they want to go partially around or full circle.
Adaptations for some students:
If you have a student with poor fine motor control, take the middle note out of the chord.
Most, but not all of my new students can make it around the several times during a lesson. Sometimes I will go halfway, with the chords, and halfway with the scales. Other times we will do either the chords or scales full circle but not both.
You can do fewer repetitions of each pattern. I think I did everything twice here.
I often refer to the chords as "yellow" and "blue." At the first lesson, they may not need the full explanation.
This lesson is the foundation. The next lesson will be a lot easier for a couple of reasons. Even if the student does noting over the course of the week, the effects of spaced learning take effect. There was so much repetition during the first lesson, that the brain has already started encoding the motions.
I don't have to give a full explanation of the cards any more. Students are already familiar with going around the circle of 5ths so I don't have to explain the process. this saves time in the second lesson as well. Even though I don't talk much about it, harmonically, the student is starting to develop an ear to recognize the 1-4 pattern. The last part of the lesson is hands together playing with a syncopated rhythm.
Often a student is feeling a little overwhelmed by that first lesson. It's a lot. They'll be tired in the head. But- they are also really excited. They didn't expect to be playing with both hands in this way, they also don't expect to play in all keys, on black keys etc. etc.
What they played sounded musical. It is often easier than expected. If they have brought previous method books from past lessons, I sometimes pull them out and show them what we did in comparison to what they would have been doing.
I may also demonstrate different pieces that use similar patterns that they just learned. (In the second lesson we do the minor keys and there are tons of them using very simple patterns)
What's next?
I am going to be writing this into a book of sorts, I won't know how it turns out until after I have done more of these videos to see what makes sense in the future. I wrote 4 different pdf sketches in all 12 keys; left hand 1-4 major, left hand 1-4 minor, and two different 4 bar 8 chord patterns for the right hand. However, I think the second video will use the same pdf, making it minor instead.
Here's the pdf that goes with the video
The materials in the video are here. They are always on the piano, even when students no longer use the cards, the scale degrees and some of the other information on the cards is useful. The folder is invaluable. The rhythm reference is used regularly, as is the circle of 5ths. When the students start advancing the description of the 7th chords is helpful.
Two lessons instead of one
This was an hour lesson. If I were to break it into two lessons. The first lesson would look like this:
Welcome
Black key improvisation for 5 minutes
5 note scales with right hand (sometime we do right then left)
1-4 chords with the left hand
Notice Happiness card
The second lesson would look like this:
Welcome- how did the week go?
Back key improvisation for 5 minutes
Clapping the syncopated rhythm
Brief warm up on 3-4 keys with the 5 note scale
Brief warm up on 3-4 keys with 1-4 chord
Playing first 2 bars of the One Four pdf all around the circle.
Notice Happiness card
It's a lot. I know. You may feel just as overwhelmed with too much information, just like my students. However, I hope you can see the possibilities and the excitement that teaching this way generates.
You can find Notice Happiness cards here. I'm going to be creating several music sets as well. I have a huge archive of beautiful works. Getting one card is nice, but now my students are starting to see that they have a collection and they look forward to the next one.
Notice Happiness:
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