During the week of January 13th until the 19th, 2020, I spent a week in Puerto Varas, at COMBAS, which stands for Southern Conservatory of Music and Fine Arts. There, I had a chance to be exposed to a different form of piano pedagogy, and certain practices that I certainly want to incorporate into my teaching studio.
The importance of beautiful surroundings
When the project started, the COMBAS team spent months painting the school, so the environment would be inviting and stimulating. The colorful walls and spacious rooms carry energy that positively feeds into the learning that occurs there.
Challenging repertoire that points towards the next level
This past semester (September through December), I started a lot of beginner students in a variety of methods that provide the basis of musicianship at the piano. As a “good student”, I value the idea of providing as many steps into the learning process in order to avoid holes. Yet, this past semester I have been feeling a bit stuck in giving many of my beginner students only repertoire found in their method books.
At the COMBAS, a student in their first day of piano lessons already learned a brief song by rote, so from the beginning, repertoire served the purpose of challenging and inspiring more learning.
Daily performances
Towards the end of each day of the festival, we would gather around the piano to hear the progress of each piano student. No matter if they only got to practice and refine one line of a piece, they would stand up, announce the piece, perform that line as if it were an entire piece, and bow as they stepped away from the piano. The vital lesson that I learned through this exercise is that performing is a practice in itself, one that can be done regardless of whether a piece is fully memorized or only partially. To an extent, performing their music at the end of each day reaffirmed for each student the importance of the work they were doing, knowing that each day their work would be visible.
Favorite activity
At the end of each day, we gathered in a circle and name our favorite activity of the day, which allowed for each student to reflect on what they learned, and what others learned. This practice was akin to asking each student: what did you learn?, yet it felt more organic and enjoyable.
Weekly joke
After saying their favorite activity, each student had to tell a joke to the group. While it may seem like an unrelated practice attached only to provide a cute ending to the day, I will provide a few “pros” for that activity.
Thank you for reading thus far, and let me know what you think!
The importance of beautiful surroundings
When the project started, the COMBAS team spent months painting the school, so the environment would be inviting and stimulating. The colorful walls and spacious rooms carry energy that positively feeds into the learning that occurs there.
Challenging repertoire that points towards the next level
This past semester (September through December), I started a lot of beginner students in a variety of methods that provide the basis of musicianship at the piano. As a “good student”, I value the idea of providing as many steps into the learning process in order to avoid holes. Yet, this past semester I have been feeling a bit stuck in giving many of my beginner students only repertoire found in their method books.
At the COMBAS, a student in their first day of piano lessons already learned a brief song by rote, so from the beginning, repertoire served the purpose of challenging and inspiring more learning.
Daily performances
Towards the end of each day of the festival, we would gather around the piano to hear the progress of each piano student. No matter if they only got to practice and refine one line of a piece, they would stand up, announce the piece, perform that line as if it were an entire piece, and bow as they stepped away from the piano. The vital lesson that I learned through this exercise is that performing is a practice in itself, one that can be done regardless of whether a piece is fully memorized or only partially. To an extent, performing their music at the end of each day reaffirmed for each student the importance of the work they were doing, knowing that each day their work would be visible.
Favorite activity
At the end of each day, we gathered in a circle and name our favorite activity of the day, which allowed for each student to reflect on what they learned, and what others learned. This practice was akin to asking each student: what did you learn?, yet it felt more organic and enjoyable.
Weekly joke
After saying their favorite activity, each student had to tell a joke to the group. While it may seem like an unrelated practice attached only to provide a cute ending to the day, I will provide a few “pros” for that activity.
- Saying a joke is a lot like a performance, in that it requires practice, memorizing, and a sense of timing. On the part of the audience it also involves a ritual of listening and celebrating each others gifts.
- Humor offers another avenue to think creatively. Humor that does play on words, that surprises at the end, that tells a story, whichever it may be, each type of humor is an exercise in creativity.
- This ritual of telling a joke attached at the very end of a class leaves each person with a sweet taste of what may have been a period of hard work.
Thank you for reading thus far, and let me know what you think!