Running head: SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS
SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS: BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
By STEPHEN DANIEL GEORGER
SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: DR. SANDY B. GOLDIE, CHAIR DR. KEITH THOMPSON, MEMBER
A PROJECT IN LIEU OF THESIS PRESENTED TO THE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2015
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Abstract
The purpose of the project is to review what research has been done on sight-reading at the piano for beginner and intermediate level students and to create a curriculum to help students better their sight-reading skills with regards to melodic reading and rhythmic reading. Two questions have been addressed throughout my research. The first one is: what are the components of effective sight-reading skills (the ability to look ahead in the music, reading rhythms, understanding keyboard geography)? The second one is: what are the most appropriate teaching strategies and activities to include in an effective sight-reading curriculum for group piano class? This curriculum can be utilized for all beginner to intermediate level piano students at the secondary school or collegiate level. It is designed to incorporate principals of having the ability to look ahead in the music, the ability to recognize common pitch patterns (major chords, scales and arpeggios), the ability to recognize common rhythm patterns, the ability to predict what is coming next in the music and understanding keyboard geography. The curriculum accommodates a fifteen week course that meets two hours per week (two days per week, one hour per day). Fifteen minutes are spent on this curriculum each period. It can be implemented at the beginning of each class and act as a warm-up and sight-reading practice. There are six exercises that the students are to complete each week based on the specific rhythms stated in the objective for that week.
SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 3
Sight-Reading Curriculum for Group Piano Class:
Beginner to Intermediate Level
Students all over the world and of all ages take piano lessons. Students may take piano as an elective in college and even middle school. We teach music students to learn to read music and to play with feeling, dynamics, articulation, etc. At some point in this students’ lifetime, they are asked to sit down and play something that they have never seen before. This is when the student stands back and utters the words “I can’t.” Why is this? Not enough of our music students know how to sight-read at the piano. According to Mark Olivieri, “In general, students are not sight-reading in their lessons as much as they should” (Personal Communication,
November 20, 2014). As music educators, we need to understand a clear definition of sight- reading and determine what it is we need to work on with our students in order for them to better their skills in this area. Kopiez (2006) states, “The unrehearsed performance of music, so-called sight-reading, is a skill required in particular fields of western music culture. It is characterized by great demands on the performer’s capacity to process highly complex visual input (the score) under the constraints of real time without the opportunity or error correction” (p. 97). Mark
Olivier believes that sight-reading is an important part of the music education curriculum (M.
Olivieri, personal communications, November 20, 2014).
After completing a preliminary review of literature, studies indicate that music education needs a curriculum for group piano. “While some music education programs have reduced the emphasis on music reading skills, characteristics of traditional programs written music continues to frequently serve as a starting point in instrumental music instruction” (Gudmundsdottir, 2010, p. 61). Music teachers teach the basic theory of reading music, but when it comes time to reading fluidly, students struggle (M. Olivieri, Personal Communication, November 20, SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 4
2014). After completing this preliminary review of literature, it is evident that only a certain amount research has been reviewed. There is information on sight-reading on band instruments and some on piano. The research that has been done pertains to students of a more advanced age and level. Each student has a different way of learning and way they approach the piano. As students sit down at the piano, they must have a set of skills that will assist them in learning music. “Sight-reading is an integral part of the musical experience for all musicians. “ A specialized area within the larger domain of cognitive research on sight-reading has focused on the patterns of eye movements discernible in experts” (Brittin, 2005, p. 44). As Brittin (2005) states, music educators are focused on this larger domain and not digging deeper into what music reading actually is. Reading music is much like reading a book. If the students are reading one note at a time with breaks in between, there will be no fluidity and comprehension will be very difficult (L. Jackson, personal communication, November 20, 2014).
In a study completed by Zhukov (2014) titled Exploring advanced piano students’ approaches to sight-reading, “the findings emphasize the need for a new approach in the development of sight-reading curriculum for higher education.” There were 74 students surveyed in this study and it was discovered that when students got to the higher educational level, they had little to no experience sight-reading.
Purpose
The purpose of the project is to review what research has been done on sight-reading at the piano for beginner and intermediate level students and to create a curriculum to help the students better their sight-reading skills with regards to melodic reading and rhythmic reading. Rather than just giving students things to sight-read and monitoring progress, the project reveals what skills the students need to work on within the larger scheme of sight- SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 5 reading. A series of lessons were created to help students practice the skills that they need to improve to become better sight-readers. A certain amount of research has been done to determine what skills students need to become effective sight-readers. This includes rhythmic and melodic reading. The project will include objectives, goals and assessments.
Guiding Questions
1. What are the components of effective sight-reading skills (the ability to look ahead in the music, reading rhythms, understanding keyboard geography)?
2. What are the most appropriate teaching strategies and activities to include in an effective sight-reading curriculum for group piano class?
Component Skills of Sight-Reading
There are several components of effective sight-reading. The curriculum is designed to incorporate these components that include having the ability to look ahead in the music, the ability to recognize common pitch patterns (major chords, scales and arpeggios), the ability to recognize common rhythm patterns, the ability to predict what is coming next in the music and understanding keyboard geography. Researchers have their own ideas on what skills are the most important for sight-readers to obtain. This curriculum incorporates several of their ideas.
Pike (2012) is a firm believer in the idea of “chunking”, which is the idea of taking several small ideas and organizing them in such a way that is easier to remember one large idea verses several small ones. Being able to recognize that a group of four notes organized as a broken pattern that creates a major triad is chunking. This repetition of music (intervals or rhythmic), will give the students a repeated pattern they can recognize. Soon, the students will be able to see Alberti bass in a section of music and will be able to recognize it as a whole instead of reading all of the notes individually. Kostka (2000) determined the amount of hesitation that students demonstrated SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 6 while looking at music for the first time. She suggests that the students’ ability to recognize notes and intervals at a rapid pace will improve students sight-reading ability. Betts (2000) has done research that supports Kosta. He finds that the ability to harmonize increases one’s ability to sight-read. If the student is able to quickly recognize groups of notes, they will then be able to recognize chords and chord structure. The hierarchy of key signatures also plays a role in the students sight-reading skills. Alexander (2012) finds that the more sharps and flats that are in a piece, the more difficult it will be for the students to sight-read effectively. In my curriculum, I have incorporated a variety of keys with up to two flats and sharps. This way the student gets exposure to a few closely related keys. The ability to predict rhythms is important. Hayward
(2009) talks about the prediction of rhythms. If a student looks at the first few measures of music and understands the rhythms, they should be aware that those same rhythms may appear in the rest of the piece. A lot of repetition occurs in music and the students should be able to be aware of repeating measures that may occur.
Activities and Strategies to Assist in Effective Sight-Reading Skills
Several researchers have looked at the different ways to teach sight-reading to students.
It is much more than simply giving a student a book and having them sight-read. Olivieri (2014) suggests that this is one way to approach sight-reading but other researchers suggest differently.
Swope (2011) lists a few suggestions to assist in teaching sight-reading. One includes teaching patterns for recognition. This would be considered a “sound before sight” method. The patterns that students should recognize, according to Swope (2011), include but are not limited to scales, triads, and thirds. By recognizing these patterns, the students will not have to read every note, but simply play the pattern they are accustomed to playing. Other sight-reading strategies according to Swope (2011) include singing the parts prior to playing and sight reading SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 7 backwards. An example of this would be to read the last measure, then the last three measures, then the last five, and so on.
In a doctoral dissertation written by Kuo (2012) from the University of Kentucky, it is discovered within a particular group of students that “sight-reading on a keyboard percussion instrument is typically very challenging for percussionists because percussion instruments are the only kind of instruments that the player doesn’t physically touch when they play them”. The use of the mallets disconnects the performer from the instrument. This suggests that it is appropriate for a keyboard sight-reader to attempt sight-reading on keyboard percussion instrument. Kuo
(2012) says it will “improve accuracy in the instrument and increase their level of self- confidence.” If a student can feel confident while playing with this disconnected feeling toward the instrument, then adding the physicality back will make it seem easier. This is similar to a baseball player swinging two bats to warm up prior to stepping to the plate.
In a previous study, Pike (2010) outlines the idea of musical chunking. In a later article of Pike (2012), she discusses memory stating “memory is the critical link that connects the visual and kinesthetic demands of sight reading. Experts display superior recall on domain specific material, even when they are not explicitly asked to memorize. Therefore, if you saw a phrase of music only briefly, you would likely be able to recall and play the score.” (Pike, 2012, p. 25).
This is suggestion that music has a tendency of repeating itself. Chances are if you read something once, you will see it later in your playing. Pike (2012) also says that sight-reading in small amounts consistently is more effective than in large amounts less frequently.
Griffin (2014) indicates in his book that practicing with a metronome, backing tracks, or even better, a live ensemble will increase the rate at which a student betters their sight-reading abilities. With these tools, the student is pressured to continue on in order to keep up. Without SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 8 these tools, it is easy to feel the need to stop and make corrections. Acting as an accompanist will help maintain continuity and fluency in piano playing. Also in this book, Griffin suggests that sight-reading should be integrated into every lesson. Students need to be taught how to sight-read rather than just told to do so.
An investigation was conducted by Kostka (2000) on undergraduate music majors. This investigation detected the number or errors made by sight-reading undergraduate students in three categories. They included pitch, rhythm, and hesitation while sight-reading at the piano. A pretest/posttest model was used in this study. After the 69 students were tested, it was determined that sight reading rhythmic errors were the most common. This suggests that students make the most errors when presented with rhythmic challenges. It also suggests that a curriculum designed for university class piano students would be most effective with a rhythmic component in addition to melodic.
In a study completed by Cassidy and Bretts (2000), it was discovered that the right hand made fewer errors than the left when looking at sight-reading. The left hand made the least amount of improvement on all tasks involved. This indicates that sight-reading exercises and activities should mirror in the right in the left. This way we are exposing each hand to complex rhythms. Our minds and eyes are focused on the top line of music and the bottom line is strictly an accompaniment to the right. This can be avoided with composed sight-reading exercises targeting specific rhythms in alternating hands.
When investigating sight-reading abilities and skills at the piano, it would not be valid to do so by leaving out the ability to sight-read for string players, vocalists or in instrumentalists in their respective programs. A study by Henry (2011) was designed for string players to determine if the key had to do with a person’s ability to effectively sight-read. It was discovered that the 95 SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 9 students who participated in the survey got very different results when playing in different keys.
This suggests that it would be beneficial to sight-readers if they have the opportunity to see music in different keys and get used to reading it on the spot.
Project Overview
The project contains a curriculum for class piano with a series of studies written for piano. The curriculum is designed around sight-reading skills only. It isolates different musical skill sets such as the reading of melody and the reading of rhythms. As the students’ progress through the curriculum, the exercises progress in difficulty. Students will then come back to incorporating both musical skills later in the curriculum. The idea of “chunking” will be used
(Pike 2010). The curriculum project will isolate other skills such as looking ahead in the music and the ability to transpose. These include looking ahead in the music, and the observation of dynamics and articulation. Teaching strategies also have to be looked at and taken into consideration when preparing the exercises for students to play. The way material is presented also plays a role in the project. Differentiated teaching will have to be applied in order to address the needs of all the students. For example, both rhythmic and melodic chunking will be utilized. This will accommodate the different needs for the students.
Description of Curriculum
This curriculum for group piano class is unique. It is set up to accommodate a 15 week course that meets two hours per week (two days per week, one hour per day). Fifteen minutes are to be spent on this curriculum each period. This curriculum is designed to be implemented at the beginning of each class and act as a warm-up and sight-reading practice. There are six exercises that the students are to complete each week. At the end of the sixth exercise, the student performs a piece. Each week, objectives and tempo markings are provided. For SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 10 example, week 1 centers on quarter notes, half notes and whole notes. The meter is 4/4 time and the metronome marking is quarter note equals 80. The exercises are outlined as follows:
Exercise 1 of each week:
This is a rhythmic exercise that incorporates a given set of note values and a metronome marking. The rhythms in exercise 1 are to be tapped on the desk with the right hand only. The note and rest values in the first exercise will be the same ones used in all subsequent exercises for the week.
Exercise 2 of each week:
This is a rhythmic exercise that incorporates the same set of notes and metronome marking as in exercise 1. A second rhythmic line is added. The top rhythm is to be tapped on the desk in the right hand and the bottom line is to be tapped in the left hand.
Exercise 3 of each week:
Exercise 3 is to be played in C position on the piano. The only notes that the student will play are C. The note values and metronome marking are the same as in exercise 1. The rhythms in this exercise are identical to the rhythms in exercise 6.
Exercise 4 of each week:
Exercise 4 is similar to exercise 3. Both hands will be placed in the key of C and the rhythms are identical. The only difference is that the student will be reading the notes C and D.
Exercise 5 of each week:
Exercise 5 is a piece written in the key of C major. The piece incorporates the same note values and metronome marking as in all the previous exercises. The rhythms are identical to those in exercises 3 and 4. All notes are utilized.
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Exercise 6 of each week:
Exercise 6 is the same as exercise 5 only the student will sight-read in different/closely related key. The transposing keys include G, F, D, and Bb major.
Different objectives and metronome markings will be provided each week and the same sequence of exercises will be practiced. They will get progressively harder as the weeks continue. Several different note values, meters, key signatures and metronome tempos will be utilized.
Week Rhythmic Meter Tempo Exercise 6 Values Transposed Key Signature 1 Quarter, half and 4/4 time Quarter note G Major whole notes equals 80 2 Quarter, half and ¾ time Quarter note G Major whole notes equals 90 3 Quarter, eighth, 4/4 time Quarter note G Major sixteenth notes. equals 80 4 Quarter, eighth, ¾ time Quarter note G Major sixteenth notes. equals 80 5 Dotted ¾ time Quarter note F Major eighth/sixteenth, equals 80 quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes 6 Dotted half and 6/8 time Dotted quarter F Major dotted quarter note equals 60 notes 7 Dotted half, 6/8 time Dotted quarter F Major dotted quarter, note equals 60 quarter and eighth notes 8 Dotted half, 6/8 time Dotted quarter F Major dotted quarter, note equals 60 quarter, and eighth notes 9 Two 6/8 time Dotted quarter D Major eighth/sixteenth, note equals 60 quarter, eighth notes SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 12
10 Two 6/8 time Dotted quarter D Major eighth/sixteenth, note equals 70 quarter, eighth notes 11 Dotted eighth, 4/4 time Quarter note D Major triplets equals 90 12 Dotted eighth, 4/4 time Quarter note D Major triplets, and equals 80 sixteenth notes 13 Two 9/8 time Dotted quarter Bb Major sixteenth/eighth, equals 80 dotted quarter, quarter and eighth notes 14 Quarter, eighth, 2/4 time Quarter note Bb Major dotted equals 90 eighth/sixteenth and triplet notes. 15 Syncopated 4/4 time Quarter note Bb Major quarter notes and equals 90 eighth notes
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Sight-Reading Objectives and Exercises
Figure 1.1: Week 1, Exercise 1
Figure 1.2: Week 1, Exercise 2
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Figure 1.3: Week 1, Exercise 3
Figure 1.4: Week 1, Exercise 4
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Figure 1.5: Week 1, Exercise 5
Figure 1.6: Week 1, Exercise 6
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Figure 2.1: Week 2, Exercise 1
Figure 2.2: Week 2, Exercise 2
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Figure 2.3: Week 2, Exercise 3
Figure 2.4: Week 2, Exercise 4
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Figure 2.5: Week 2, Exercise 5
Figure 2.6: Week 2, Exercise 6
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Figure 3.1: Week 3, Exercise 1
Figure 3.2: Week 3, Exercise 2
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Figure 3.3: Week 3, Exercise 3
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Figure 3.4: Week 3, Exercise 4
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Figure 3.5: Week 3, Exercise 5
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Figure 3.6: Week 3, Exercise 6
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Figure 4.1: Week 4, Exercise 1
Figure 4.2: Week 4, Exercise 2
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Figure 4.3: Week 4, Exercise 3
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Figure 4.4: Week 4, Exercise 4
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Figure 4.5: Week 4, Exercise 5
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Figure 4.6: Week 4, Exercise 6
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Figure 5.1: Week 5, Exercise 1
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Figure 5.2: Week 5, Exercise 2
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Figure 5.3: Week 5, Exercise 3
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Figure 5.4: Week 5, Exercise 4
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Figure 5.5: Week 5, Exercise 5
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Figure 5.6: Week 5, Exercise 6
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Figure 6.1: Week 6, Exercise 1
Figure 6.2: Week 6, Exercise 2
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Figure 6.3: Week 6, Exercise 3
Figure 6.4: Week 6, Exercise 4
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Figure 6.5: Week 6, Exercise 5
Figure 6.6: Week 6, Exercise 6
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Figure 7.1: Week 7, Exercise 1
Figure 7.2: Week 7, Exercise 2
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Figure 7.3: Week 7, Exercise 3
Figure 7.4: Week 7, Exercise 4
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Figure 7.5: Week 7, Exercise 5
Figure 7.6: Week 7, Exercise 6
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Figure 8.1: Week 8, Exercise 1
Figure 8.2: Week 8, Exercise 2
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Figure 8.3: Week 8, Exercise 3
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Figure 8.4: Week 8, Exercise 4
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Figure 8.5: Week 8, Exercise 5
Figure 8.6: Week 8, Exercise 6.
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Figure 9.1: Week 9, Exercise 1
Figure 9.2: Week 9, Exercise 2
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Figure 9.3: Week 9, Exercise 3
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Figure 9.4: Week 9, Exercise 4
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Figure 9.5: Week 9, Exercise 5
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Figure 9.6: Week 9, Exercise 6
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Figure 10.1: Week 10, Exercise 1
Figure 10.2: Week 10, Exercise 2
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Figure 10.3: Week 10, Exercise 3
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Figure 10.4: Week 10, Exercise 4
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Figure 10.5: Week 10, Exercise 5
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Figure 10.6: Week 10, Exercise 6
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Figure 11.1: Week 11, Exercise 1
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Figure 11.2: Week 11, Exercise 2
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Figure 11.3: Week 11, Exercise 3
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Figure 11.4: Week 11, Exercise 4
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Figure 11.5: Week 11, Exercise 5
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Figure 11.6: Week 11, Exercise 6
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Figure 12.1: Week 12, Exercise 1
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Figure 12.2: Week 12, Exercise 2
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Figure 12.3: Week 12, Exercise 3
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Figure 12.4: Week 12, Exercise 4
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Figure 12.5: Week 12, Exercise 5
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Figure 12.6: Week 12, Exercise 6
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Figure 13.1: Week 13, Exercise 1
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Figure 13.2: Week 13, Exercise 2
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Figure 13.3: Week 13, Exercise 3
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Figure 13.4: Week 13, Exercise 4
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Figure 13.5: Week 13, Exercise 5
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Figure 13.6: Week 13, Exercise 6
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Figure 14.1: Week 14, Exercise 1
Figure 14.2: Week 14, Exercise 2
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Figure 14.3: Week 14, Exercise 3
Figure 14.4: Week 14, Exercise 4
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Figure 14.5: Week 14, Exercise 5
Figure 14.6: Week 14, Exercise 6
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\Figure 15.1: Week 15, Exercise 1
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Figure 15.2: Week 15, Exercise 2
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Figure 15.3: Week 15, Exercise 3
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Figure 15.4: Week 15, Exercise 4
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Figure 15.5: Week 15, Exercise 5
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Figure 15.6: Week 15, Exercise 6
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Conclusion
After working on this project, I realize that sight-reading is more than just reading through music for the first time. There are many things to consider as you sight-read and practicing the skill is necessary for development. Whether it’s looking ahead in the music, rhythmic reading, melodic identification or keyboard geography, students have to practice the skills on an individual level and then systematically start putting them together. My curriculum is designed to allow students to practice the rhythms, then simple melodic intervals, and then ultimately taking those skills and putting them into a piece and then transposing into a closely related key. I have learned that these skills need to be developed so that when they are more advanced players, they can take the skills they learned and automatically apply them to a piece they are looking at for the first time.
Along the journey through this project, I have learned that developing a curriculum backwards is very important. The idea of thinking about what you want your outcomes to be and working backwards to create the lessons is significant. This gives the curriculum direct movement from lesson number one, to where you want your students to be at the end of the curriculum. If a teacher is not aware of where they want students to be at the end of a unit, the lesson sequence may wander.
This curriculum is designed for beginners to intermediate level piano players at the secondary school level and the college level. The main focus is on note and rhythm recognition.
Future curriculum development might include developing exercises to help students learn to sight-read dynamics, articulation, and increasingly difficult key changes. Currently, this project only transposes to keys with up to two sharps and two flats. SIGHT-READING CURRICULUM FOR GROUP PIANO CLASS 83
In addition to completing this curriculum, students can do additional things to better their sight-reading skills. They can study intervals and practice scales and arpeggios. We see scales and arpeggios in many compositions. If sight-readers can identify these in pieces, they will be able to recognize them as a “chunk” rather than reading note-for-note.
Future steps for this curriculum include testing its validity. An appropriate way to test this would be to administer it to a group of students. First, I would have a benchmark for each student. This would be a piece of music that the students would sight-read to see how well they do on it. Then, I would have the students complete the curriculum over the 15 week period. If the curriculum is successful, the students’ ability to read the sixth exercise in each week should get better as the weeks go by.
Sight-reading is an important component of music that may be neglected in many music education settings. This curriculum is designed to develop students sight-reading skills at the piano for beginner to intermediate level students at the secondary school level or at the collegiate level. It is possible to better students’ sight-reading skills by improving their the ability to look ahead in the music, their ability to recognize common pitch patterns (major chords, scales and arpeggios), their ability to recognize common rhythm patterns, their ability to predict what is coming next in the music and having them understand keyboard geography. If students become better sight-readers, they will feel more accomplished at their skill and have more success with performance opportunities and any other future musical endeavors.
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