Leaving the city behind,
I cruised through the countryside of southeast Michigan, enjoying the scenery—lush green lawns flanked by evergreen and deciduous trees alike. After about an hour or so I arrived at my destination: Joy Morin’s Retreat at Piano Manor 2023. I was greeted by the hostess, Joy Morin, a tall, slender woman with a friendly, welcoming smile. First thing I noticed was the number of keyboards present—oh, half a dozen at least—lining the walls in various rooms throughout the house. The king of them all was a full-size grand piano in the living room. The walls were lined with bookshelves housing piano music of all kinds: graded method books, collections of various composers’ works, sheet music, etc.
In the kitchen, Amy Chaplin (of Piano Pantry fame) was putting together the finishing touches on a delicious lunch: chicken salad served either as sandwiches, croissants, or without any bread; raw veggies, fruit, and to top it all off—sweet potato cookies! This lovely lunch was accompanied by a delightful raspberry tea drink. While I was enjoying my lunch, our hostess joined a small group of ladies who were assembling folders for the attendees, a task quickly finished. Other piano teachers soon arrived, some greeting old friends and others making new ones.
At the appointed time, everyone gathered in the living room and the proceedings began…
After some brief, introductory comments, we dove right in, “exploring rote + note learning in piano teaching.” We discovered that none of us were taught anything by rote from our own teachers (with the exception, perhaps, of scales and arpeggios) but that all of us, as children, had learned certain songs—by rote—from other children! These songs included “Chopsticks”, “Heart and Soul”, the “Knuckle Song”, and “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater.” And all of us could still remember how to play them all these years later!
So we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of rote learning versus note learning. We defined the word “rote” and considered whether it might mean something different when piano teachers generally use the term. Do we even want to teach by rote? Are rote learning and note learning mutually exclusive?
This led to an exploration of the idea of “audiation.” What is that, you ask? Audiation is the “process of both mentally hearing and understanding music, even when no music is present.” An extreme example of this is Beethoven still composing after having gone deaf. But that’s an extreme. A less extreme example is when a young child begins to pick out familiar songs in different places on the keyboard, such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
So, what’s a piano teacher to do? It has been said that the best way to learn any language is by every means possible. Music is a language all its own. Could we, as piano teachers, integrate and combine rote + note + audiation learning in piano teaching? What would that look like? Or should I say, what would that sound like?
To explore this idea further, we organized ourselves into groups of two and three and looked at piano method books, past and present, to see how rote learning was used and whether the approach as presented was user-friendly, known to produce good results, still in print, etc. A number of the teachers present expressed surprise at what was found, since rote learning played a foundational role in piano pedagogy many, many decades ago but fell out of fashion. Some of the teachers present discovered new materials that they want to begin using themselves in their own studios.
Our hostess, Joy Morin, gave a presentation on Dr. Edwin E. Gordon—the man who coined the term “audiation”—and his writings and philosophy regarding Music Learning Theory. This included a brief summary of Gordon’s Learning Sequences for both rhythm and tonal content.
The next step? Finding and collecting rote solos that align with the levels described by Gordon. Suggestions were made as to how to keep track of favorites. By this time, hungry tummies were beginning to beg for attention, so the group broke up for supper, reconvening on the backyard patio after dinner. Some of the teachers shared entertaining stories about their funniest moments teaching and other experiences, while fireflies blinked secret messages of their own...
