Ability

STAFF / CLEFS / NOTES

My beginning and elementary students use a graded sight-reading series which introduces new concepts in a logical and effective order.   Each new student also receives a set of note flashcards–divided into 4 smaller sets—which they gradually learn to “say and play” at the keyboard.  

RHYTHM  

Piano students must learn to do their own counting as soon as they begin lessons.  I teach a straight-forward professional method, so students will never need to learn a more correct system later—even for the most complex rhythms.  I was fortunate to see this method demonstrated by Kal Novak in a workshop at the U. of Wisconsin — just before I began teaching piano full-time.  So I’ve taught this method to all of my students since then– all ages and levels.   Students love it because it doesn’t include any unnecessary syllables –which detract from the melody and from feeling the natural flow of a musical phrase.   They learn to internalize all note values and count correctly in all meters– through a series of rhythm exercises which I’ve designed–which they clap or improvise at the piano.

FINGERING

Logical, consistent fingering is essential to piano progress.  Most pedagogical music includes a finger number for each hand position change, which is all that is needed.  But I also teach my advanced students to work out their own fingering by a set of logical Fingering Principles.

© Eunice Wonderly Stackhouse, 2020. All rights reserved.