![]() But of course, it’s always worthwhile! We work on the ear, and we work on recognizing familiar patterns, intervals, direction, contour, etc.Īnyway, coming back now to mnemonic devices… In those rare cases where I allow students to use mnemonic devices, we use them lightly. It takes time to help students un-learn their previous processes and re-learn something new. These students often mis-identify notes, because they don’t have an easy way to confirm what they read or see how the notes fit into a context. More generally: When you get the sense that students seem to view notes as single identities, rather than as part of a whole.When students get stuck on the same notes they saw earlier, even just a measure or two prior.When students often go to the wrong octave on the keyboard for a note they’ve “identified.” This is a clear indication that students aren’t getting the big picture.Here’s a few examples of such signs, which I’m sure you’ve sometimes seen students exhibit. Understanding notation becomes easy when it’s approached as a way of representing something we are already familiar with, versus approaching it as something that must be decoded as a pre-requisite to experiencing music in the first place.Ī few of my current students came to me already reading music, but showing signs of not having a very clear understanding of how the grand staff is used to represent pitches. My approach is a bit eclectic according to what I think each student needs, but I try to put a heavy focus on building students’ ears first. If I can help it, I’d rather use almost any other way to build students’ understanding of how our musical notation system represents the music we hear. How about you? If I DO use mnemonic devices with a student, it’s in only certain circumstances and we use them only lightly. In most cases, I tend to avoid having students use mnemonic devices as a tool to identifying notes on the grand staff. ![]() Hi there! In this blog post, I’ll briefly discuss both the usefulness and shortcomings of mnemonic devices (such as “FACE” and “All Cows Eat Grass”) when it comes to music reading and then share with you a new FREE printable, pictured above. ![]()
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