About That Jump Ahead in the Method Books
Incidentally, learning and continuing to keep in practice an entire method book goes along with young children's natural inclinations, I think. While I was starting this blog I was teaching a 4 year old boy who did this spontaneously, without it being required. The Suzuki Method requires memorization of all learned pieces from its string students to play together in groups, and most Suzuki piano students follow a similar regimen at least for the first book or two in that series. While I no longer teach Suzuki piano, I think the originators of the method had some good native intelligence about how children learn. After all, if you're going to take the trouble to learn to play a song, why would you throw it away, like a used paper towel, the day after it was mastered the way other methods almost force us to do?
As another aside, after I wrote the previous post, my sister Kathy let me know that Mrs. Kent had bumped her up a level in the Thompson books too, from 3 to 5 (probably during my time off, though it's hard to say*), and that this ultimately was the cause of her quitting. She got quickly frustrated with the difficulty of the new assignments, and after getting into an argument with Mom about it she stopped for good.
Our shared conclusion, way after the fact, is that our piano teacher must have had a terribly grandiose streak and pushed students much too hard. But I, unlike Kathy, went back for more.
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*Our family scrapbooks contain a bunch of recital programs for my performances -- it might be a complete collection for my early childhood -- and one for Evelyn when she and I were in the same program, but none with Kathy or Carol. That makes dates for their piano study impossible to establish. Despite there being hundreds of family photos, I don't remember seeing any of Kathy or Carol at the piano, or recordings of them either.
Previous: First Lessons Next: Reading and Writing at Home
As another aside, after I wrote the previous post, my sister Kathy let me know that Mrs. Kent had bumped her up a level in the Thompson books too, from 3 to 5 (probably during my time off, though it's hard to say*), and that this ultimately was the cause of her quitting. She got quickly frustrated with the difficulty of the new assignments, and after getting into an argument with Mom about it she stopped for good.
Our shared conclusion, way after the fact, is that our piano teacher must have had a terribly grandiose streak and pushed students much too hard. But I, unlike Kathy, went back for more.
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*Our family scrapbooks contain a bunch of recital programs for my performances -- it might be a complete collection for my early childhood -- and one for Evelyn when she and I were in the same program, but none with Kathy or Carol. That makes dates for their piano study impossible to establish. Despite there being hundreds of family photos, I don't remember seeing any of Kathy or Carol at the piano, or recordings of them either.
Previous: First Lessons Next: Reading and Writing at Home
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