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The last two weeks have been really interesting for me as so many of my students are progressing towards the same material. This is giving me a chance to discover how one concept can be explained several times. I'm referring to teaching accidentals here, which for non-piano players is the written symbol of ♭(flat) meaning to lower a note by a semitone, ♯(sharp) mean raise the note by a semitone and finally♮(natural) meaning to return to the unaltered note. That is the most basic understanding of accidentals. Sometimes that's enough for a student and we can carry on as they fumble to remember ♯ is a sharp and ♭is a flat. However, I've discovered two new ways of explaining and identifying accidentals that is really exciting, particularly for little ones!
1. Circling accidentals with a black crayon
This happened by total coincidence, but I was so pleased at the success of using a black crayon to circle accidental notes. If you've read my post about 'Music For Little Mozarts', then you'll know that quite a few of my students use a colouring system to learn how to read notes. Black is not a note-associated colour and therefore we can use the colour to idenitfy other things. I began to realize that their repertoire is introducing both accidentals as well as black keys on the piano.
I found, that by circling these accidental notes with a black colour (which we may have already coloured orange for example if it's a G) also identifies the note as a black note on the piano. Although this sounds basic, the simple task of going through the piece and circling all the accidentals black is really an important process. It's a similar process to going through the piece to colour the notes. It's a slow identification practice that overtime solidifies musical literacy. This colour method is all about making colour associations, so why not include accidentals!
2. Using solfege !!!!!!
Luckily for me, some of my students who are using Music for Little Mozarts are also using A Young Singer's Journey as their introduction to theory and ear training. This means that we have so many manipulatives to draw from when explaining theoretical concepts such as accidentals. This approach to accidentals is geared towards a student who is comfortable singing most of their material. Perhaps they sing along with their music, or are really engaged with both their piano and theory work.
For this moment, we will be using fixed Do system - since my students aren't familiar with scales or keys. It's hard to break down step by step, however the goal is to identify F♯ as Fi and relate it to F as Fa. Here are the Kodaly Hand Signs for both Fa and Fi. Once you have played around on the piano,
going back and forth between play Fa (F) and Fi (F♯) on the piano, you are
ready to identify the Fi's in the music. I encourage my students to say Fi instead of F sharp, becuase it reiterates the relationship Fi has to Fa.
This could also be an exciting time to introduce a whole tone scale. It is really dependant on your students and how much time and stamina they
have. Singing Do -Re - Mi -Fa then Do-Re-Mi-Fi is a soft introducting to tetrachords, listening, aiming for pitch and so on. All of this beautiful theory, ear training coming from a simple intro to accidentals!
I sure wish that when I was learning accidentals that I was introduced to ear training at a slow and friendly pace. This is what using solfege will require from your student. It uses their body, it uses their voice and we relate it all back to the piano. This isn't to say that this is the superior way of teaching accidentals, but it is a fertile ground from which to start. Keeping in mind that this is a lot of info for a little one. What I described above might take 2 to 3 lessons just to unfold and then another 3-4 lessons to absorb.
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There we have it! I hope that was as eye opening to you as it can be for my students.
Ultimately, all of this information and knowledge should come out of a place of curiosity and excitement and I can't wait for what's instore next.