Hi everyone,
This year has been a challenging one for me in teaching. I have 4 or 5
students who have big problems recognizing and reproducing pitches. I have
worked with these students and they have made progress, but I don't think
I'm doing enough. I find it difficult to help these students because I have
no idea what they are going through. I think most of these students have
relatively good ears, in that they hear the pitch correctly, but their
brains get in the way in interpreting and then reproducing the sound. I
have tried having them close their eyes and then asking them to "see"
something when they hear the pitch - and then trying to have that same image
appear when they sing the pitch. This works - sometimes.
The other part of this is in reading music that they are familiar with, they
have a hard time coordinating what they see with what they "know". For
instance, the song America the Beautiful presents a distinct challenge for
every one of these students. It's a song they've heard hundreds of times -
but cannot sing correctly all the way through. They tend to change keys
several times in the process of singing this song. We talk about intervals,
but the other frustrating part of this is that many of them have no
experience with actually "reading" music. In other words, they cannot
identify notes, key signatures, etc., making it difficult to identify
intervals.
Most of them can tell when they are not on pitch, but don't know what to do
to get to the correct pitch. Many times they cannot tell if they are above
or below the pitch.
Does anyone have any insight into this problem? And, has anyone had any
success in helping students of this nature?
Any input from your creative minds would be very appreciated. This is a
special challenge for me.
Have a wonderful day!
Lisa M. Nuske
Soprano and Voice Teacher
Appleton, WI
http://home.att.net/~earthbounddiva
You are the music while the music lasts.
~ T. S. Eliot ~
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