Mrs. Curwen’s method is geared toward two groups of people. She has a complete method written out for use by the teacher. She also has a complete series of books written for use by the student.
Can one be used effectively without the other?
One big clue can be found on the front cover of all her books. It says, “This Method cannot be effectively used without the ‘Teacher’s Guide.’
Before I had ever looked at any of the student’s books, I read through Mrs. Curwen’s Teacher’s Guide. I honestly was so confused at all the references to books and pupil’s books. There were gaps until I was able to find a place to purchase the student’s books.
I found such relief as I paged through her pupil’s books and the page numbers and exercises actually corresponded correctly to the ones referenced in her Teacher’s Guide.
As I’ve continued down this path of studying Mrs. Curwen’s method, I still find myself growing lazy as I flip the pages in her student books in the same manner I used to pull method books off the shelf at the local music store.
In all of Mrs. Curwen’s lessons, she has a definite and purposeful aim. Each lesson, the student should be able to walk away saying, ‘I learned………..today.’
Let’s look at an example.
In all of her student books, you’ll see a series of pages like the above. There are eight different facets of music studied on this page.
- Finger Exercise.
- Naming Notes.
- Dictation.
- Interval identification practice.
- Ear Exercise. (Tonic Sol-fa)
- Rhythm Exercise.
- Ear Exercise. (Rhythmic)
- All the above combined.
These lesson pages are simple and may appear redundant. What is less visible to the teacher’s eye, though, is the study of compound and simple meter found here.
Summary of the above lesson:
- Pulses are sometimes divided into three equal parts. This kind of pulse is called a triplet, and it’s time-name is ta-te-ti.
- Some tunes sound as if all their pulses were triplets. Those tunes are in compound measure.
- In other tunes we hear only halves, quarters, etc. Those tunes are in simple measure.
- Sometimes we hear a triplet in a tune that is in simple measure. Then the triplet is written with a little ‘3’ over it.
There is an abundance of review on this page. We review note names. We review intervals. The unseen lesson behind this page is the introduction of compound meter and the difference between simple and compound meter.
As a teacher, could I look at these pages and find the lesson or new material represented here? Could I use these pages to the fullest? Could I find the meticulously laid out plans Mrs. Curwen penned for learning piano?
Could I have looked at the above page and thought to myself, ‘this is a lesson on simple versus compound meter?’
Maybe this is why ‘this method cannot be effectively used without the ‘Teacher’s Guide.’
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