I chose to do this activity with one of my grade one piano students. One of the challenges any beginner pianist experiences is differentiating left hand notes from right hand notes when reading sheet music. The general rule is that when the note stem is facing upwards, the right hand plays, and when the note stem faces downwards, the left hand plays. There are exceptions to this rule but usually when reading beginner music, you can rely on this strategy. Music is also organized by two staves and the top is for the right hand and the bottom is for the left hand.
We have tried a few different strategies such as writing the words LEFT and RIGHT directly on the music, and verbally expressing which hand comes next before playing. The student remembers during class, but will have a tendency to mix them up when she comes back for her lesson. This week, I decided to offer more thinking strategies. This student really enjoys visual arts, so I asked her to pick two different colour crayons. Pink would represent the right hand notes, and green would represent the left hand notes. Together, we went through the music and she would circle each note with its respective colour.
The response was overall positive. Now, the student is able to associate pink with her right hand and green with her left hand. She mixes up her hands less, and when beginning a new piece, she will ask if we can colour code the notes. I am glad that she seems to enjoy the colouring aspect, but also that this step-by-step visual method has proven beneficial to her learning.
References
Wearing, J. (n.d.). Teaching Strategies for Critical Thinking Learning Activities. Faculty of Education, Queen’s University.
Richmond Hill, June 2014
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