Piano By Numbers? Nay Nay

Piano by numbers is a cheap and easy way of teaching piano, which ultimately ends in confusion and frustration. That's right people, just say "no" to piano by numbers ('nay nay' will also do). Piano by numbers is has been highlighted as a way to engage students in the success of playing a whole piece before they can actually read music. It uses the finger-number system and "hand positions" to replace musical literacy. While I find that it helps students achieve a sense of musical accomplishment, and performance confidence the transition to reading is much much harder than that of traditional piano students. Therefore, students who may feel musical success are disheartened at their true lack of knowledge in the instrument. I am currently transitioning one of my students from piano-by-numbers to musical literacy and it is just blowing her mind. First we discussed why we read piano music on a "grand staff"; which is to distinguish the same letters from each other, organized by high and low sounds. Low sounds being at the bottom of the grand staff and high sounds being at the top.

We worked all of this out on the staff white board which I purchased at a local music store. I decided to focus on the note G because it spans from the bottom of the Bass clef to the top of the Treble clef (whoops, I spelt trebble in the lesson, haha).

Then we just counted up the lines and spaces from the lowest G to the highest G we used. We played all 4 Gs on the piano, which my student recognized were the 'same sound', just higher or lower.

Wahoooo! Yes! We're making a break through.

I think the reason I'm so adamently against teaching piano by numbers is because it ultimately puts the student at a disadvantage . Songs become increasingly harder to play, theory doesn't make any sense becuase it isn't soley organized in numbers (that could be contested, but still it would require knowledge of named notes) and piano-by-number students are not being taught the language in which this art form is taught. It really feels to me like an effort to make students sound 'good' as quickly as possible, which might get you lots of students and a great sounding recital. However, would you expect an art class to simply be paint-by-numbers? HECK NO.

Seeing my student's mind open tonight just unleashed her excitement and her confidence with me as a teacher. We then dumped her old theory book and started using 'A Young Singer's Journey', which I've mentioned in my blog before (read that post here).

If you notice that your child or a love one is being taught piano-by-numbers, stop them in their tracks and discuss it with their teacher. Musical literacy is important and I never ever ever start with numbers becuase it jepordizes that.

It's also important to manage expectations; a student wont necessarily be able to play a whole song in a few months, but they might be able to identify 4 Gs on a grand staff and I think that's pretty cool.