What is Mrs. Curwen’s Pianoforte Method?

I’ll first answer the question of ‘who is Mrs. Curwen?’

Mrs. Curwen is Annie Jessey Gregg Curwen. She is the daughter-in-law of John Curwen. John Curwen happens to be the man that made sol-fa famous.

Most of us know the syllables of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, and then Do again. Near London in the mid 1800s lived a lady named Sarah Glover. She penned these syllables. John Curwen made them famous. He created an entire (very very thorough) music program using these syllables as the basis.

He wanted a program that was easier than learning staff notation. He desired for this program to be used by children and those less affluent. The program John Curwen developed using these syllables is called Tonic Sol-Fa. His desire was for the common person to be able to sing at sight. In other words, he wanted them to be able to see a sol-fa syllable and immediately hear that pitch in their head.

Mrs. Curwen happens to be John Curwen’s daughter-in-law. She wrote a book called Mrs. Curwen’s Pianoforte Method – The Teacher’s Guide. Her book is based upon the work of John Curwen.

She started the first edition of her book in 1886. After much dialogue with piano teachers, she realized she needed a more extensive book than the original pocket type book she first published.

Mrs. Curwen ended up writing over thirty editions of her Teacher’s Guide.

Her book is essentially divided into two sections. Section one consists of five preliminary lessons and 6 Steps. Mrs. Curwen meticulously lays out five introductory lessons introducing the student to the fundamentals of music.

She then goes on to introduce Steps one through six. These are a series of books for the students that correspond to her instructions in her guide.

There are four lessons to accompany the Step 1. Once the First Step book is completed, there is an exam written to see whether the teacher excelled at communicating and imparting the correct knowledge and understanding.

Once a student finishes Step 1, they move on to Step 2.

After six steps have been completed, Mrs. Curwen changes her format a bit and moves to a more topical approach with the students. She moves onto studies of, for example, scales, chords, and keys.

In one edition of her book, Mrs. Curwen mentions that her method will span around seven years.

I’ll leave you with Mrs. Curwen’s twelve Educational Maxims showing the principles on which her method is built.

1. Teach the easy before the difficult.
2. Teach the thing before the sign.
3. Teach one fact at a time, and the commonest fact first.
4. Leave out all exceptions and anomalies until the general rule is understood.
5. In training the mind, teach the concrete before the abstract.
6. In developing physical skill, teach the elemental before the compound, and do one thing at a time.
7. Proceed from the known to the related unknown.
8. Let each lesson, as far as possible, rise out of that which goes before, and lead up to that which follows.
9. Call in the understanding to help the skill at every step.
10. Let the first impression be a correct one; leave no room for misunderstanding.
11. Never tell a pupil anything that you can help him to discover for himself.
12. Let the pupil, as soon as possible, derive some pleasure from his knowledge. Interest can only be kept up by a sense of growth in independent power.