The Art of Checking Both Side View Mirrors
It’s with great pleasure that I share a blog post written by Chee-Hwa Tan, first and foremost a great friend to me and also a colleague at the University of Denver where she heads up the Piano Pedagogy Department. She’s the mastermind behind the implementation of the first Piano Preparatory Program at DU. I’ve been privileged to coordinate her thriving program the past two and a half years.
Her bio is extensive and impressive and Chee-Hwa balances it with her warm and gracious heart for others, for composing and for the art of teaching piano.
-Leila
I demolished my side view mirror backing out of the garage last Sunday…
Yes, this was while someone wanted the volume of the classical station blasted and others were arguing about their seating. For those of you with kids and who want some quiet in the car, try this stunt and I guarantee that you will get the silence you crave – after the crunch of the car mirror against the garage and the final crash as it shatters to the ground, of course. It’s a wonder I didn’t take out the garage doorframe too!
After about 5 minutes of stunned silence, I did tell my children that they were not to blame and that it was my responsibility to stop and not drive in all that chaos. A good lesson for my two teen drivers who were just thankful that it was mom and not they who managed that feat!
However, as I view my mangled mirror-less shell that resembles an eye-less robot from a sci-fi movie, I have been thinking about the importance of checking our figurative “side mirrors” as we go about our lives as teachers.
In the many “good” things I do with my students in lessons, I’ve been mentally observing myself in my teaching and noticing the many important issues that can so often slip our notice because of this very same need to “check the other mirror”. I thought I would share some of these observations with you.
Before that - speaking about mirrors – one of my essential teaching tools is to actually have a free-standing mirror by my piano. If your instrument is positioned by a wall, it doesn’t cost much for an inexpensive dorm mirror from Walmart. Since my studio set-up does not allow for that, one year I procured an easel mirror from Target for less than $50. That way, I move it around wherever I need it.
Remember the saying?
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Which is more effective -- for our students to visually check their full body posture and hand balance before they start playing, or, for us to remind them verbally what to fix each time?
I also encourage my pedagogy students to whip out their smart devices and snap a quick “postural picture” of their students in lieu of a mirror. It adds a little variety and it puts the responsibility on the student to evaluate what is needed. Honestly, every child in my household has a mirror (of the cheap variety) in their practice areas.
Here is a spring checklist of a few other things to look for in our lessons:
Do you tend to sit or stand on the same side of the student when teaching?
Be sure to walk over and change your viewing side while they are playing.
It makes a tremendous difference to our ability to notice imbalance of technique or unhealthy posture.
This can prevent injuries and give us solutions to many technical issues.
I routinely watch my students play from the right, left, and even the back. It is amazing what you will notice.
So, don’t stay fixed on one side!
Do you have your student do a quick “performance posture check” each time before they play for you?
Part of what we do as teachers and parents is to help them establish routines of healthy habits. Instead of just telling them, or, sending it home as an assignment, try partnering with them to start the habit throughout the lesson. I usually have them evaluate and adjust their entire body posture which includes the following:
Height of the bench
Distance of the bench from the keyboard
Placement of arms
Shoulders, hands and feet
Balance of the weight between the feet.
Can they shift their weight from hip to hip and foot to foot for lateral moves at the keyboard?
Or are they “scooting” their bottoms?
We talk about it as “athletic posture.” It helps to get off the bench and simulate catching and throwing a basketball. Like I say, it doesn’t work real well to shift into that posture in the middle of the game.
Legs too short? It’s worth it to invest in a foot or pedal box.
Are their wrists and hand position balanced as they prepare to play?
So often, we notice these things in the midst of their performance. Let’s start with the end in mind.
Where are their feet when they are playing?
Do they know where they should be placed? Do they know, but have they developed a lazy habit? Think of growing teenagers!
Talking about teenagers… It is good to remind yourself to revisit and reintroduce the important issue of playing posture as the foundation of healthy technique. Especially when they seem to have it down, but then start growing in all directions.
We need help when our fingers, hands, arms, torso, legs and feet keep changing sizes on us – a new body size requires a new prescription for position. I hate to tell you this, but you may need to be alert about this every week for at least two years during this amazing period of adolescent growth!
The list could of course keep going on and on, but I would like to close with an honest look in the side mirror at our teacher-student interactions.
Are we “telling” them or “leading” them?
Do we ever leave any room for them to “lead” us? You might end up somewhere that you never would have thought possible – in a wonderful way!
Are we doing things that make them “dependent” on us, or, do we do things that encourage them to be “independent” of us?
It is the best gift you can give as a teacher – the gift of being an independent learner.
Chee-Hwa Tan has a passion for nurturing the art and love of music making in pianists of all ages and levels. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed collections A Child’s Garden of Verses, Circus Sonatinas and Through the Window Pane, now published by Piano Safari. Selections of her works are included in the Repertoire and Study series of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada. Chee-Hwa’s compositions encourage students to explore and express sound images at the piano while developing specific technical skills necessary for artistic playing. She believes that it is possible for every student to communicate artistically through music and that making music is a contagious gift that can transform lives.
Chee-Hwa is in demand as a clinician, pianist, educator and composer and has conducted piano workshops and lecture recitals for universities and teachers throughout North America. Over the years, her students have been highly successful as performers, teachers and life-long music makers, with former students receiving the D. H. Baldwin Fellowship in piano pedagogy, a prestigious award in recognition of outstanding pedagogy graduates in the United States. Many of her students have gone on to distinguished careers at universities, music schools and private studios across the country, while establishing themselves as influential leaders in their musical communities.
Currently the Head of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, Chee-Hwa teaches both graduate and undergraduate piano pedagogy. She loves mentoring pianists and teachers to be nurturers of the next generation of musicians and supporters of the arts. A specialist in curriculum development for pre-college piano and class piano teaching, Ms. Tan has also served on the piano pedagogy faculties at the Oberlin Conservatory and Southern Methodist University. Ms. Tan holds masters’ degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from Southern Methodist University, where she was a student of Alfred Mouledous, and a B.A. in Piano Performance and English from Oral Roberts University, where she was a student of Joyce Bridgman. A native of Malaysia, Ms. Tan currently resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband Christopher and their four musician children.