The following lesson is preceded by:
Preliminary Lesson 1
Preliminary Lesson 2a
Preliminary Lesson 2b
Intervals
Preliminary Lesson 3
Preliminary Lesson 4a
Preliminary Lesson 4b
Preliminary Lesson 4c
As you may have noticed, I’ve broken up lesson 4 into multiple smaller lessons. You may be able to go through all of Lesson 4 in one sitting with a student. Don’t let the posts hold you back. Go faster or slower.
You’ll find below that Mrs. Curwen covers the remainder of the lines of the staff below. If you look ahead to 4e, you see the time names being covered. Instead of covering all the lines in one lesson and all the time names the next lesson, cover two more lines today from below and the first time name from the next lesson.
Please, though, give your student or child a good foundation for learning piano. No matter how fast you go, ensure your child has complete understanding. It will help them immensely in finding the joy in playing if a good foundation is laid.
Dictation Exercise
We know the names and pitches of five of the lines. We shouldn’t have to count the lines anymore to find the pitches.
High F
G above middle C
Middle C
F below middle C
Low G
Which ones do we know? (You can draw a staff on a small whiteboard or pull out this free download.)
You can also find a staff preprinted on a small whiteboard on Amazon. I’ve never bought one but could see it coming in handy.
Let me hear the sound of this line? And this line? And this one? The teacher points at the lines on the staff, and the student finds the sounds on the piano.
New we’ll reverse this exercise.
Draw an eleven line staff on a white board or pull out a copy of one. The teacher will now dictate the sounds in varying order?
What does it mean to dictate the sounds? The teacher simply plays the sounds on the piano, one by one, and the child notates the sounds on the staff.
Dictation is a very important exercise. It is common for a new student to name a line correctly but then play the wrong key. For example, they may correctly identify the high F line but then play the incorrect F on the keyboard.
This usually comes from failure to realize “clearly the connection between the keyboard and the staff; that is, the absolute pitch of each line or space, and the precise place where each particular pitch will be found.” (page 61, 31st edition)
The use of dictation, in Mrs. Curwen’s experience, is the best means of clearly establishing the connection between the staff and the keyboard.
The A line and the E line
Only move on to learning new lines on the staff if the above four lines have been established.
Let the student find middle C on the keyboard. What sound is a third below middle C?
Let’s now find that line on the picture of the staff. This is the A line.
Let the student go back to middle C on the keyboard. What sound is a third above middle C.
Let’s now find that line on the picture of the staff. This is the E line.
We have now learned seven sounds on the staff. Let’s go over all of them.
The teacher can play the seven sounds on the piano. The student finds the lines on the staff. (The child can draw a small ‘X’ or circle on the line where the note falls.)
Then the teacher points to the lines and the student finds the sounds on the piano.
The B and D Lines
Find the names of the pitches of the second line from the top and the second line from the bottom of the staff.
Immediately after establishing the B and D pictured above, move to the middle line in the treble and middle line in the bass.
Beginner pianists generally find these middle lines the most difficult to remember. We must aid the memory in every way possible.
Form as many mental links as possible with the child. Use other known lines as reference points. High F and Low G should be very well established by now.
Maybe point out that where D is found in the treble, a B is found in the bass. They’re kind of opposites.
Summary
1. F’s and G’s are opposites.
2. A’s and E’s are opposites.
3. B’s and D’s are opposites.
4. There is only one A-line and one E-line on the Staff.
5. C stands by itself in the middle. It is the only C-line.
Note
“Teachers find some children, who quite clearly understand the relation of staff to keyboard, unaccountably slow in naming and dictation. They will correctly name a line of space, and then, looking down at the keyboard, appear to hesitate as to the corresponding key. Others, when once the connection is seen, make daily progress in speed, both in writing and localizing.
In the case of the hesitating child, try this: – Let him, before looking down at the keyboard, visualize it, i.e., imagine he sees it, and think where the sound he has named is to be localized. When he is sure of this on his mental keyboard he will go straight to the spot. Conversely, in the dictation exercise let him visualize the staff before looking at the diagram or his slate, and decide on the exact line or space which belongs to the sound played before he proceeds to write it. It is because the other child instinctively does this that his work is rapid. With the slower child we must make the process a conscious one until a marked increase in speed shows that it is becoming sub-conscious.” (page 62, 31st edition.)
Homework
A.) Draw a Staff and put small X’s on the following lines:
1. Treble G
2. Bass G
3. Bass B
4. Treble B
5. C
6. Bass A
7. Treble E
B.) Continue the ear exercise:
1. This is a B sound; which line should I give it?
2. This is a D sound; which line should I give it?
3. This is an E sound; which line should I give it?
(As a teacher, always strike the treble sounds with the right hand and the bass sounds with the left hand.)
C.) Name and Dictate all the lines
1. Name the lines and find the sounds on the piano.
2. Teacher finds the sounds and the child marks the line.
Sometimes it helps if the child describes the line as he names it. Something like B middle line or high F. If describing the line or naming the sound becomes a hindrance, by all means, let the sound be played at once without naming.
There are some students whose minds will work so quickly that describing and naming become cumbersome. If they can go straight to the point at which we are aiming, there is no need to force them to take a longer route.
If, though, there is slowness, hesitation, or wrong answers, go back to describing lines and sounds. This will individualize the lines.
N.B. “Do not teach the spaces until the lines are known quite well; that is, till the connection between staff and keyboard is quite clear to the pupil’s mind. Rapidity in naming will come with the daily practice given in the lessons of Step 1.
Point to be kept in view by the teacher all through the staff’s work: that the letter-names belongs primarily to the sound, and only in a secondary sense to the line. See also note in Second Lesson, section Pitch.” (page 63, 31st edition.)
Prepare for the next lesson here: Lesson 4e.