Learning techniques and best tips from your music teacher?

June 3, 2020 8:20 AM

What learning techniques did you learn from your music teacher - especially if you used the Suzuki method? Music analysis? Mastery techniques?

I'd love some tips on steps to analyze and memorize short piano pieces, specific approaches to improving how well you play a piece, and any valuable approaches and learning ideas you got from your music teacher.

Were there any particular games or activities or processes that helped you learn better or play better?

Bonus questions:
Do you still play music?
For fun or more seriously?
What approaches or tips have you developed on your own that make you a better player and happier with what you play?

(I'm most interested in piano, but I'd be happy to hear any tips for any instrument, or especially things that may apply to all instruments.)

Thanks!

posted by kristi to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

My kids took Suzuki piano lessons for years. The main thing I can think of is the emphasis on listening. There were albums (it was a while ago) of all of the Suzuki books, and students were expected to listen to the entire album of whatever book they were on at least once per day.
Suzuki's idea was what he called the "mother tongue" technique. He pointed out that even though Japanese is a difficult language, virtually every Japanese child can speak it fluently by the age of five. Children don't learn language by studying it though - they first learn it by listening to it. Suzuki students play for several years before they learn to read music at all (again - like learning your first langauge). The emphasis is on listening and repeating what you hear.
I took conventional piano lessons as a child and quit because my teacher was what would now be considered abusive (she hit my fingers with her pen and called me a baby when I made mistakes). I've started practicing again under quarantine, and I'm using my kids' old Suzuki books. I find it very helpful that the sounds of the pieces are firmly embedded in my memory from listening to those albums every day for years. I started by playing ten minutes a day and am now up to fifteen. This amount works well for me right now - piano is fun for me, and one of the great things about it is I don't feel like I have to be perfect. I'm just trying to get better.
posted by FencingGal at 8:39 AM on June 3, 2020

I took somewhat traditional lessons for 12 years, but a lot of what my teacher did was similar to what FencingGal explained above. Listening/ear-training was super important. In particular, learning to identify intervals was extremely useful. Pretty much every interval can be mapped to some other song (e.g. major third = the kum-ba of kumbaya, perfect fifth = first two notes of Star Wars). Sometimes I still try to pick out intervals when I'm listening to music, just for fun.

Memorizing piano pieces, for me, was a combination of ear training and muscle memory. I practiced everyday for at least an hour (although I started at 15-30 minutes when I was starting out), with and without a metronome. And my teacher and I would regularly go through the sheet music and nitpick all of the different dynamics, ornaments, etc. on an iterative basis. We'd listen to the pieces together, if they were available as recordings, including different interpretations, and have discussions about what I liked and didn't like. When starting a new piece, I'd usually play each hand separately at least a few times.

I'd also start my practice time with 10ish minutes of scales, triads, intervals and other "technique"-based skills. This really did help me, especially as I progressed to more advanced pieces that required some dexterity. By the time I got there, I was already used to moving my fingers like that.

Something I really enjoyed about my lessons is that I'd be working on 3 songs at any given time. One would be a super traditional, classical piece, another would be a more "contemporary", weird classical piece, and the last one would be a "fun", pop-music piece (like Elton John or something). That was always super fun - if I got frustrated with one, I could always pop over to something else.

I do still play music, though I moved on to guitar when I was in my 20s just for something new. That was a difficult transition. But the ear-training stuck with me and helped me out quite a bit, even though I'm not nearly as technically good at guitar. I'd definitely play piano more if I had any space in my tiny apartment, but alas.
posted by thebots at 9:57 AM on June 3, 2020

I did not learn using the Suzuki method but had a pretty traditional "classical" piano education as a kid and teen. (I had a long rambling thing about how my teacher managed to teach children classical music analysis in an age-appropriate way, but I don't think that's quite what you're looking for.)

Some learning strategies I use to this day:
- When first learning a piece, slog through the whole thing once (only once, or it gets demoralizing), and mark up any particular passages you think will be particularly challenging. Then break the whole piece into chunks you think are learnable in 1 session each (size appropriately based on difficulty and attention span). Then ONLY practice in chunks, then work on transitions between chunks, and then FINALLY put it all back together again.
- Make copies of your sheet music and GO TO TOWN with the pens, pencils, highlighters to mark everything you need to pay attention to
- If you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast. Use a metronome.
- If you're having trouble playing a fast run evenly, deliberately play it UNevenly in a swing/dotted rhythm style. Once you can do that, switch up which notes you are placing the empPHAsis on. Staccato practice helps too.
- Learn to savour the feeling of mastery over scales and exercises because if you don't they are boring AF. As a teenager I remember trying to describe how great the burning in my forearms felt after a long series of scales and my friends all looked at me like I was crazy.
- When think you're just about done learning the piece, record yourself and play it back. I swear, somehow just the action of hitting "record" takes away like 20% of my musical ability.
- When memorizing: don't just play from start to finish. Pick certain points throughout the piece and practice deliberately starting cold from there, so if somehow things go off the rails you can regroup and continue without having to go back to the beginning. (I started referring to these as "save points" and had to explain the whole concept to my teacher who thought it was quite funny)

I do still play music, for fun - in addition to piano I also picked up acoustic guitar in college, as one does, and I was a not-very-good trumpeter in various school bands. I found that a lot of the tricks above really helped with learning on these instruments as well - particularly practicing in chunks, slowly, with a metronome. (Like, I don't know what people are talking about when they say their neighbours are musicians and they enjoy hearing them practice, because when I practice it sounds OBNOXIOUS.)

In contrast to my classical education, I learned how to play the guitar by ear, and the #1 thing there is to just listen. I'll play a 20-second snippet of some song on Youtube over and over again, to pick out the various voices. And then listen to evaluate whether or not it sounds right. And then, again, slow practice in short chunks until it all comes together.
posted by btfreek at 10:01 AM on June 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

I learned the Suzuki method starting at 3 and switched when I was about 10. I will never be able to play anything well without hearing it first, unfortunately. There is a huge emphasis on listening is well described above (I even listened to the tapes while sleeping, which my teacher strongly recommended). One practicing technique I like is playing measures in reverse order (so start with the last measure, then play the last two measures, then the last three). This is kind of like the "save point" idea above, but a little different (love that technique and never thought of it that way, btfreek!)
posted by k8lin at 10:39 AM on June 3, 2020

I'm a violinist who learned in a "modified" Suzuki way (it was supplemented with other materials), and I still play today and teach violin using a similar method. I guess you could call me quasi-professional because I get hired to play for various things and I teach, but it's not my main source of income.

I'm thankful for my Suzuki background, as I think it gave me a good ear and helped a lot with my intonation. Also, able to sing a phrase is SO important, and helps players avoid sounding overly technical or mechanical. With violin in particular, Suzuki is also great because there are so many complexities for new players to manage in terms of hand position, fingering, etc., and it gives students a chance to get those mechanics down before adding the difficulty of learning to read music.

On the other hand, IMHO, Suzuki's reliance on playing by ear can also be its down side if you use the method for too long. So, I like to introduce note reading a little earlier than the Suzuki book promotes. I also move my students out of the Suzuki books after Book 3.

As far as practice strategies, I really like the book Practicing for Artistic Success as a really helpful, systematic way to work through music. It forces you to identify your strong and weak points in detail, and be very very specific about what needs correction. At first it feels tedious, but as you use it more it becomes natural. It's amazing to me how, before I started using Kaplan's methods, I'd practice and not really be paying attention to what I was doing. Now I'm able to squeeze so much more out of my practicing. And the book is for all musicians, so it will work great for piano!

btfreek's suggestions are also fantastic, and I use many of them myself and with my students as well!
posted by Fiorentina97 at 3:22 PM on June 3, 2020 [1 favorite]