Music as a Language - Reading Together - The Teaching of Time and Rhythm

To begin teaching time, "the teacher begins by playing simple tunes, with strongly marked accents." (loc: 335) As the students hear these accents, they should beat or clap in time to the beats.

As the students master a song, they should then also beat time while they are singing.
I wonder if this is something that could be adapted to piano playing. Either maybe having students tap with one hand while the other hand plays its part. Or, maybe having students tap with one of their feet while playing their music; sort of the way guitar players frequently tap their feet to the beat of the music. Of course, you'll always have those students who struggle with hand-eye-foot coordination. However, this might help many of them to actually feel the beat of the music, instead of just stringing notes one after another.

note: I'm reading this book from through my Kindle app, so quotations are shown by the location in the Kindle document.

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Music as a Language - Reading Together - The Teaching of Sight Singing

Home recommends that students discover the necessity for the accidentals in the keys of g major and F major on their own. This could be taught either through the Sol-Fa method (as per Home) or through the pattern of whole and half steps that students already know from learning the C major scale.

Another suggestion that Home makes is "for a class to sing at sight fluently in one key before attempting a new one." (loc: 299) Likewise, minor keys should be delayed until students have mastered all the major keys.

When teaching singing in parts, use songs that allow the parts to be interchanged. This allows all students to learn how to both sing the melody as well as the harmony. This also avoids some students feeling inferior because they only sing the harmony part.

note: I'm reading this book from through my Kindle app, so quotations are shown by the location in the Kindle document.

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Music as a Language - Reading Together - First Lessons to Beginners in Ear Training

Home outlines how to begin teaching ear training to new students.

Some points that stood out to me:

• "In beginning the work in staff notation the notes of the scale will be thought of as steps in a ladder. In all keys, when doh is on a line, me and soh are also on lines, and high doh is on a space; but when doh is on a space, me and soh are on spaces, and high doh is on a line." (loc: 260)
• Once the students know the diatonic notes of the C major scale well, they expand beyond that knowledge. The sharpened fourth, the flatted seventh, and the sharpened fifth are all introduced, since these lead into modulations to the dominant, subdominant, and relative minor keys.
• Even though Home uses these exercises and teaching points for singing, they could very easily be adapted for use with beginner piano students.

note: I'm reading this book from through my Kindle app, so quotations are shown by the location in the Kindle document.

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Music as a Language - Reading Together - The Sol-Fa Method

Home debates that students should be taught to sing using the Sol-fa method. She shows that the key fact for using this method is that "the child is taught to think of all the notes of the scale in relation to the key-note." (loc: 206)
Once students have mastered the Sol-fa method, they then move on to written music notation.

In case you'd like to use the Sol-fa method (also called solfege) with your students, I've rounded up some free resources.

• Mortimer - An Introduction to Solfege from Making Music Fun
• Mi-Do-Do Game from Making Music Fun
• Solfege Lesson Plan from Stacey Hardee
• A Series of Lessons on Sightsinging

note: I'm reading this book from through my Kindle app, so quotations are shown by the location in the Kindle document.

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