Ever had a student struggle with hand coordination and finger control despite their best efforts? You're not alone. This deep dive into the fascinating connection between neurodiversity and piano technique reveals why many students—particularly those with ADHD or autism—find fine motor skills (like piano technique) challenging.
Whether you teach neurodivergent students or simply want to expand your teaching toolkit, these strategies will enrich your studio approach and help every student thrive at the piano.
Links to teaching tools from this episode:
Pop-it Fidget Toy
Squishy Stress Balls
Play-Doh
Play-Doh Mat
Fly-Swats
Lap Drum
As an Amazon Affiliate, I may receive a small commission if you purchase through these links at no extra cost to you. This helps support the podcast and research blog!
Find the full transcript here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Elizabeth (00:00):
Hello friends, thanks for tuning in.
This is episode 9 of theCreative Piano Pedagogy podcast
and we're in today for anotherepisode in our summer series,
"so I have this student.
Huge thank you to all theteachers who have sent in
questions or topics you wouldlike discussed.
(00:21):
I am loving all of thesuggestions and ideas and you've
given me so many thoughts forfuture episodes and series.
So thank you very much andplease don't hesitate.
If you have a question, even ifit's not something you're
particularly thinking of forthis series and you're just
wondering if anybody has anysuggestions for you, don't
(00:44):
hesitate to send me a message oran email.
You can always find me onInstagram, facebook, creative
Piano Pedagogy, or shoot me anemail at creativepianopedagogy
at gmailcom.
I love hearing from you all.
There's one new thing I want totell you about today, and it's
kind of exciting.
Up until this point, thispodcast has been an every other
(01:07):
week podcast, or that's the goal.
We have missed a few, butmoving forward, this fall it's
going to be an every weekpodcast.
I am so excited to commit todoing that with you and for you.
We have some really excitingguests that you're going to hear
on the new season this fall, aswell as the launching of
(01:30):
YouTube videos of the podcastrecordings, as well as a whole
bunch of YouTube tutorials,repertoire, teaching ideas, you
name it.
I am really excited.
If you're interested in helpingme keep this whole podcast
thing going and you have atangible way to do that, I have
(01:52):
a new thing you can do.
It's called buy me a cup ofcoffee".
There's a link in thedescription where you can
literally just say thank you andgive a little bit to this
project.
I hope to have another way foryou to kind of join me on this
venture in the future throughPatreon.
But for right now, if you havea dollar to spare, you can be
(02:17):
sure that that is going to helpall of this research continue
and just gives a little bit ofencouragement and support.
But if you don't, please feelfree to keep listening.
Of course, I am happy foranyone who's listening to be
part of this little communityand more on that community
aspect later because we havesomething else new coming this
(02:39):
fall as well.
So, jumping right on intoepisode nine, we have a great
question today that was actuallysubmitted by several different
teachers who are wondering aboutthe same topic, which means
we've hit something good today,since so many people are asking
the same question.
I think it will apply to a lotof piano teachers and a lot of
(03:00):
students.
And here is that question (03:00):
"Are there specific techniques or
exercises you recommend forimproving hand coordination or
finger independence?
How exceedingly practical.
If you've been listening to thelast previous episodes, we did
a few episodes on rethinkingpiano technique that have been
(03:21):
received with really positivefeedback.
If you haven't had a chance tolisten to those, go back to
episodes three and four andcheck those out, because I think
that will beautifully tie intotoday's topic.
I've seen a lot of questionscome up in piano teacher
Facebook groups recently aboutfinger and hand coordination and
(03:42):
each time there's one of thesequestions, it's almost always
relating to a student who isneurodivergent- usually ADHD or
autism, or both.
If you have neurodivergentpiano students who also struggle
with good technique, finger andhand coordination, that is not
a coincidence.
Muscle control, motor planningand coordination are strongly
(04:06):
linked to neurodiversity, andstudents who are neurodiverse
are very likely to havedifficulty with fine motor
skills.
The term 'motor planning' mightbe a new one for you and it's
such an underrated but verypivotal part of playing any
instrument and specificallythinking in piano, because we
(04:26):
use our fingers for thisactivity, don't we?
The technical term for motorplanning is Praxis, and that is
the cognitive process thatallows us to plan and sequence
movements.
You might be surprised just howmany steps are involved in this
action of sequencing ourmovements.
(04:47):
So, just to put it inperspective, in order to move
our body or a finger, your foot,etc.
You must do three things.
The first is ideation, which isthinking about what needs to be
done.
Next is planning, and that issequencing the steps involved in
(05:09):
that action.
And the third is execution,coordinating the body's muscles
to perform that action.
That's a lot of steps just tomove one body part or one digit,
one finger, one body part orone digit, one finger.
Now, let's put this in terms ofpiano lessons and finger
(05:29):
movement.
So first, a student has tothink about what needs to be
done, such as hmm, I need tomove my right hand finger.
Three to treble G Got it.
Next, a student has to plan thesequence and steps to make it
happen, such as I need to pickup my right hand from the piano
keys and move it to the right onthe keyboard and aim my finger
(05:53):
three for treble G Verytechnical.
Finally, they have to executeit, actually coordinate the
body's muscles to perform thataction.
Since this generally applies,and greatly applies, to our
neurodivergent students, keep inmind that while they're doing
this they're also fightingdistractions from the
(06:16):
environment, sensory overwhelm.
They're resisting tics andimpulsive behaviors and
movements and having to put allof their focus just on this one
task.
At the same time they're alsohaving to coordinate and think
through what the left hand hasto do.
All of these steps we've justlisted are only for moving the
(06:37):
right hand finger three Wow,that's a lot.
I hope that gives you a bit ofperspective, appreciation and
even compassion for yourstudents who might struggle with
motor planning.
I cannot imagine thefrustration of knowing what your
body needs to do but gettingstuck and overwhelmed with just
(06:58):
the physical action of helpingyour body and brain work
together to do it.
So why did I go down thisrabbit trail of motor planning?
I promise there is a very validreason.
This hidden and often unknowncomorbidity can lead to a lot of
issues with finger and handcoordination in piano and that
(07:21):
results in frustration andoverwhelm when your students try
to play the piano.
In a piano student, it mightlook like them laboring and
taking extensive amounts of timeto follow your instructions of
what to do with their hands, andit also may require a lot of
repetitions for them to beconsistently successful and
(07:43):
confident.
By the way, students with motorplanning delays or struggles
may have difficulty withsequencing and performing other
tasks that have multiple steps,such as getting dressed,
completing a puzzle, playing agame, tying their shoes and so
on, so this might show up inother areas of their lesson as
(08:07):
well.
We know that our neurodivergentkiddos find a lot of stability
in routines, so they mightstruggle with new or unfamiliar
tasks, and we also know thatthey learn best in a supportive
environment where they're freeto do repetitions and keep
trying, without pressure or hightension.
(08:29):
They respond well to visualaids.
This can be a big one for uspiano teachers.
If we put all of that together,maybe we can list out a few
ways for you to help yourstudents improve their
coordination and finger movementwhile still maintaining a
supportive lesson environment.
(08:51):
Suggestion number one use theinstrument instead of your words
.
Instead of giving verbalinstructions for what your
student needs to do with theirfingers or hands, teach them in
a copycat kind of way where youuse the piano and you only do
the first step.
Then they copy it.
So, for example, if your goalis for your student to move
(09:13):
their left hand finger one frommiddle C down to base G,
demonstrate this by giving thestudent one thing to watch while
you play it.
When you're demonstrating, youcould tell the student something
like I'm going to pick up myleft hand and move my thumb down
to G like this Hop, then ask ifthey'd like to do it together
(09:37):
then by themselves.
It's so simple.
Of course, you can customizethis for your student and you
should Skip the narrative andjust have them copy you.
You can make it really fun likea challenge, like I wonder if
you can do this.
You could even have them closetheir eyes and do it that way,
whatever engages them andwhatever works best for them.
(10:00):
The important part is to justuse the piano.
It is our visual guide and itshows our students, using the
instrument rather than verbalinstructions, what they should
be doing.
So we always want to go to theinstrument first rather than
resorting to lecture, becausewhen we start with a lecture
(10:21):
with verbal instructions, it maynot work and we have to resort
to the instrument anyway.
So let's just don't waste anytime or energy and we'll start
and end with the piano Done.
This principle also ties inbeautifully with the music
education philosophy of soundbefore symbol.
This was made really popular byEdwin Gordon from music
(10:45):
learning theory.
You should check into him ifyou haven't read anything about
him.
But sound before symbol, thisconcept of going from the known
to the unknown, and in this casethe fingers before the lecture.
Suggestion number two isisolated teaching and learning.
When neurodivergent studentswith hand and finger
(11:07):
coordination struggles arelearning to move their fingers
on the piano, they do not needsimultaneous stresses of
focusing on things like dynamics, articulation, phrasing,
reading music and juggling awhole bunch of layers.
One of my favorite things to dois to choose a really fun rope
(11:29):
piece that focuses on an elementof coordination between the
hands or whatever finger or handmovement I'm working on with
that student.
Without the presence of musicto read and all of the decoding
of the musical score, my studentcan truly focus their fingers
and coordination of thosemovements.
Without so many layers itreally takes a lot of stress off
(11:53):
of the learning environment andthey can just focus on that one
goal and they usuallyaccomplish it really really well
because their ears are so good.
Another fantastic thing to dothat's also very fun is to use
improvisation to work oncoordination and finger skills.
This is especially wonderfulbecause you can really isolate
(12:15):
the skill and have the studentjust use their left hand or just
their right hand, then switchand use the opposite Again.
This is focusing on just theskill you need to emphasize,
without added layers of music.
Reading and decoding that score.
For patterns with trickycoordination between the hands,
(12:35):
it's also really helpful to tapit in a very slow motion, saying
left, left, right together orwhatever pattern is correct for
the piece they're playing.
So having them tap their handson their legs or on a drum,
saying the hand that's going tobe playing and the pattern in
the rhythm of that you're goingto be playing it.
(12:56):
Rather than focusing on thespecific notes, you're focusing
on the gestures or the patternof the hand, and that is so
helpful.
It can also be really great touse a colored pencil and draw a
line between the treble and bassclef notes that are supposed to
be played at the same time.
Love to do that in my music.
(13:17):
This also works really well forstudents with dyslexia, to help
them tap the rhythm and justthink about the coordination of
it rather than focusing on howit looks in the score.
My third suggestion for you isto make it fun.
This is where I like to getreally creative, and if you have
seen any pictures of myteaching setup on Instagram or
(13:41):
Facebook, you know I have apretty substantial collection of
teaching manipulatives.
I think I actually owe you alittle tour of that in a video,
so I'll try to do that soon.
But I love to pull out all ofmy creative things and make it
very fun for my students.
One of my students' favoritesis the poppet.
(14:02):
These are the silicone thingsthat were super popular a few
years ago and they have littlebubbles that the students can
poke and it kind of makes alittle pop sound.
They come in a variety ofshapes and sizes.
I prefer pretty large ones forthis activity I'm going to share
with you, but you could usethem of any shape and size.
(14:24):
I love to use a poppet topractice using specific fingers
in like a finger pattern order,so students can aim for the
bubbles and pop them.
Pattern order.
So students can aim for thebubbles and pop them.
You could do this with a settempo, like with the metronome,
with a backing track.
Sometimes I will play anaccompaniment on the piano and
(14:44):
then my student has to adjusttheir speed of bubble popping
with my piano playing.
This is really good forstudents to practice
coordinating those muscles andfinger movements with a tempo.
It's also really good for thembecause they're popping those
bubbles with a firm finger.
That first knuckle is quitefirm.
(15:05):
No flat fingers are allowed.
It's quite difficult to popthem with a flat finger.
Students could also write theirown finger number pattern.
They could sort of composetheir own finger pattern like 3,
3, 1, 4, 5, 5, 2, or whateverit might be.
They could even use the fingernumber pattern from their piece.
(15:28):
So if they're working on apiece that has a tricky finger
pattern, especially if it'susing fingers 2, 3, four or five
that would probably be easier.
You can definitely throw thethumb in there too.
It's a great way to usesomething creative and fun.
Another one of my studiofavorites is when I pull out the
Play-Doh.
(15:48):
Now you're probably going ohthis is so messy.
It's actually not.
We do it on a laminated mat orsomething like that to help with
the mess, but it really, reallyhelps for students to practice
poking their fingers into thePlay-Doh with firm fingers.
When I'm teaching technique orhelping students with finger
(16:12):
control and finger movement atthe keys, the word poke is one I
use a lot because when you tellkids to poke something, they'll
often do it with quite a firmfingertip without being prompted
.
So when I tell my students topoke the keys, that really helps
them to poke each finger on thekey Poke, poke, poke.
(16:33):
So I'll use that word a lot Forusing Play-Doh.
You could even take Play-Doh andmake little balls of it, like
maybe four, three or fourdifferent balls, and have the
students bounce from one to theother, poking their finger into
the Play-Doh in a steady beat.
This is a great way to practicehaving kids play a repeated
(16:53):
finger like two, two, two, oreven teaching them to play back
and forth between multiplefingers when that motor planning
is so tricky for some of them.
Another fun thing to do is topull out a squishy ball and toss
it back and forth betweeneither the student's hands or
(17:14):
gently with you as the teacher,to a set tempo or music in the
background.
Irina Gorin does this in hermethod Tales of a Musical
Journey and it is such a greatexercise exercise.
It helps to build big musclecoordination, develop a sense of
rhythm in the body with thehands and the arms, and it also
(17:35):
coordinates big movements withthe rhythm and meter.
It's also just really fun andan opportunity to laugh and
enjoy a unique rhythm exercisethat could be very helpful for
your student.
This last suggestion under myfun category might make you
giggle, but one of my favoritethings to pull out for working
on big muscle coordination is myfly swats Literally the things
(18:00):
you get at the dollar store thatyou use to kill insects.
That sounds disgusting and icky, but I promise I don't use fly
swats that have been used tosquash bugs.
Mine are two colors, one isblue, one is yellow, and I've
actually kind of decorated themwith stickers and things.
(18:22):
It's kind of hilarious, but Ilove having my students use
these to practice rhythm andcoordination between the hands
and their arms.
This works beautifully foryoung learners like age three,
four, and for older learnersalike, because if you're tapping
out the rhythm of a section orjust practicing coordination,
(18:43):
it's brilliantly fun and veryunexpected for your teacher to
pull out two fly swats.
Okay, my fourth idea is for youto remember the long game.
Since fingers, muscle controland coordination are all key
aspects of playing the piano,you cannot or should not expect
(19:05):
for one week of exercises oretudes to fix the issue for good
.
As a student learns and grows,their coordination and muscle
control will develop Similarly.
As their body grows, thoseissues may pop up from time to
time or even morph intosomething a little different.
Our goal is not to come up witha short-term fix and
(19:27):
hyperfixate on these strugglesuntil they go away, because they
won't go away.
That will just stress out ourstudents even more and direct
their attention to their ownstruggles.
Our goal is to find ways tohelp support our students, find
techniques that actually workfor them, reminding ourselves
that quote-unquote goodtechnique for our student might
(19:51):
look different than somebodyelse's neurotypical student, and
that is perfectly okay.
Creating activities and findingmusic to help our students grow
and confidence is reallyimportant in this long game
process.
The more opportunities ourstudents have to practice and
build on these skills, the moreopportunities they will have to
(20:15):
be successful and then the moreconfident they'll become.
I hope this helps provide a fewideas for teaching students who
might struggle with coordination.
I know this can be afrustrating thing to work on,
because coordination and fingercontrol are literally at the
heart of piano teaching andpiano playing.
(20:36):
You cannot separate pianoplaying from these other
elements, but I want toencourage you not to get stuck
in what's not working for yourstudent right now.
Give them so many otheropportunities to be successful
with the skills they have, whiledigging out a few creative
ideas to help them improve.
(20:56):
So focusing on their strengthswhile still building up the
areas they need to work on, butnot hyper fixating on those
weaknesses.
That's all for today.
I hope you've enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please feel free to reach outon Instagram, Facebook or email
with any ideas you have, and Iwill look forward to being back
(21:19):
soon.
Hello friends, thanks for tuning in.
This is episode 9 of theCreative Piano Pedagogy podcast
and we're in today for anotherepisode in our summer series,
"so I have this student.
Huge thank you to all theteachers who have sent in
questions or topics you wouldlike discussed.
(00:21):
I am loving all of thesuggestions and ideas and you've
given me so many thoughts forfuture episodes and series.
So thank you very much andplease don't hesitate.
If you have a question, even ifit's not something you're
particularly thinking of forthis series and you're just
wondering if anybody has anysuggestions for you, don't
(00:44):
hesitate to send me a message oran email.
You can always find me onInstagram, facebook, creative
Piano Pedagogy, or shoot me anemail at creativepianopedagogy
at gmailcom.
I love hearing from you all.
There's one new thing I want totell you about today, and it's
kind of exciting.
Up until this point, thispodcast has been an every other
(01:07):
week podcast, or that's the goal.
We have missed a few, butmoving forward, this fall it's
going to be an every weekpodcast.
I am so excited to commit todoing that with you and for you.
We have some really excitingguests that you're going to hear
on the new season this fall, aswell as the launching of
(01:30):
YouTube videos of the podcastrecordings, as well as a whole
bunch of YouTube tutorials,repertoire, teaching ideas, you
name it.
I am really excited.
If you're interested in helpingme keep this whole podcast
thing going and you have atangible way to do that, I have
(01:52):
a new thing you can do.
It's called buy me a cup ofcoffee".
There's a link in thedescription where you can
literally just say thank you andgive a little bit to this
project.
I hope to have another way foryou to kind of join me on this
venture in the future throughPatreon.
But for right now, if you havea dollar to spare, you can be
(02:17):
sure that that is going to helpall of this research continue
and just gives a little bit ofencouragement and support.
But if you don't, please feelfree to keep listening.
Of course, I am happy foranyone who's listening to be
part of this little communityand more on that community
aspect later because we havesomething else new coming this
(02:39):
fall as well.
So, jumping right on intoepisode nine, we have a great
question today that was actuallysubmitted by several different
teachers who are wondering aboutthe same topic, which means
we've hit something good today,since so many people are asking
the same question.
I think it will apply to a lotof piano teachers and a lot of
(03:00):
students.
And here is that question (03:00):
"Are there specific techniques or
exercises you recommend forimproving hand coordination or
finger independence?
How exceedingly practical.
If you've been listening to thelast previous episodes, we did
a few episodes on rethinkingpiano technique that have been
(03:21):
received with really positivefeedback.
If you haven't had a chance tolisten to those, go back to
episodes three and four andcheck those out, because I think
that will beautifully tie intotoday's topic.
I've seen a lot of questionscome up in piano teacher
Facebook groups recently aboutfinger and hand coordination and
(03:42):
each time there's one of thesequestions, it's almost always
relating to a student who isneurodivergent- usually ADHD or
autism, or both.
If you have neurodivergentpiano students who also struggle
with good technique, finger andhand coordination, that is not
a coincidence.
Muscle control, motor planningand coordination are strongly
(04:06):
linked to neurodiversity, andstudents who are neurodiverse
are very likely to havedifficulty with fine motor
skills.
The term 'motor planning' mightbe a new one for you and it's
such an underrated but verypivotal part of playing any
instrument and specificallythinking in piano, because we
(04:26):
use our fingers for thisactivity, don't we?
The technical term for motorplanning is Praxis, and that is
the cognitive process thatallows us to plan and sequence
movements.
You might be surprised just howmany steps are involved in this
action of sequencing ourmovements.
(04:47):
So, just to put it inperspective, in order to move
our body or a finger, your foot,etc.
You must do three things.
The first is ideation, which isthinking about what needs to be
done.
Next is planning, and that issequencing the steps involved in
(05:09):
that action.
And the third is execution,coordinating the body's muscles
to perform that action.
That's a lot of steps just tomove one body part or one digit,
one finger, one body part orone digit, one finger.
Now, let's put this in terms ofpiano lessons and finger
(05:29):
movement.
So first, a student has tothink about what needs to be
done, such as hmm, I need tomove my right hand finger.
Three to treble G Got it.
Next, a student has to plan thesequence and steps to make it
happen, such as I need to pickup my right hand from the piano
keys and move it to the right onthe keyboard and aim my finger
(05:53):
three for treble G Verytechnical.
Finally, they have to executeit, actually coordinate the
body's muscles to perform thataction.
Since this generally applies,and greatly applies, to our
neurodivergent students, keep inmind that while they're doing
this they're also fightingdistractions from the
(06:16):
environment, sensory overwhelm.
They're resisting tics andimpulsive behaviors and
movements and having to put allof their focus just on this one
task.
At the same time they're alsohaving to coordinate and think
through what the left hand hasto do.
All of these steps we've justlisted are only for moving the
(06:37):
right hand finger three Wow,that's a lot.
I hope that gives you a bit ofperspective, appreciation and
even compassion for yourstudents who might struggle with
motor planning.
I cannot imagine thefrustration of knowing what your
body needs to do but gettingstuck and overwhelmed with just
(06:58):
the physical action of helpingyour body and brain work
together to do it.
So why did I go down thisrabbit trail of motor planning?
I promise there is a very validreason.
This hidden and often unknowncomorbidity can lead to a lot of
issues with finger and handcoordination in piano and that
(07:21):
results in frustration andoverwhelm when your students try
to play the piano.
In a piano student, it mightlook like them laboring and
taking extensive amounts of timeto follow your instructions of
what to do with their hands, andit also may require a lot of
repetitions for them to beconsistently successful and
(07:43):
confident.
By the way, students with motorplanning delays or struggles
may have difficulty withsequencing and performing other
tasks that have multiple steps,such as getting dressed,
completing a puzzle, playing agame, tying their shoes and so
on, so this might show up inother areas of their lesson as
(08:07):
well.
We know that our neurodivergentkiddos find a lot of stability
in routines, so they mightstruggle with new or unfamiliar
tasks, and we also know thatthey learn best in a supportive
environment where they're freeto do repetitions and keep
trying, without pressure or hightension.
(08:29):
They respond well to visualaids.
This can be a big one for uspiano teachers.
If we put all of that together,maybe we can list out a few
ways for you to help yourstudents improve their
coordination and finger movementwhile still maintaining a
supportive lesson environment.
(08:51):
Suggestion number one use theinstrument instead of your words
.
Instead of giving verbalinstructions for what your
student needs to do with theirfingers or hands, teach them in
a copycat kind of way where youuse the piano and you only do
the first step.
Then they copy it.
So, for example, if your goalis for your student to move
(09:13):
their left hand finger one frommiddle C down to base G,
demonstrate this by giving thestudent one thing to watch while
you play it.
When you're demonstrating, youcould tell the student something
like I'm going to pick up myleft hand and move my thumb down
to G like this Hop, then ask ifthey'd like to do it together
(09:37):
then by themselves.
It's so simple.
Of course, you can customizethis for your student and you
should Skip the narrative andjust have them copy you.
You can make it really fun likea challenge, like I wonder if
you can do this.
You could even have them closetheir eyes and do it that way,
whatever engages them andwhatever works best for them.
(10:00):
The important part is to justuse the piano.
It is our visual guide and itshows our students, using the
instrument rather than verbalinstructions, what they should
be doing.
So we always want to go to theinstrument first rather than
resorting to lecture, becausewhen we start with a lecture
(10:21):
with verbal instructions, it maynot work and we have to resort
to the instrument anyway.
So let's just don't waste anytime or energy and we'll start
and end with the piano Done.
This principle also ties inbeautifully with the music
education philosophy of soundbefore symbol.
This was made really popular byEdwin Gordon from music
(10:45):
learning theory.
You should check into him ifyou haven't read anything about
him.
But sound before symbol, thisconcept of going from the known
to the unknown, and in this casethe fingers before the lecture.
Suggestion number two isisolated teaching and learning.
When neurodivergent studentswith hand and finger
(11:07):
coordination struggles arelearning to move their fingers
on the piano, they do not needsimultaneous stresses of
focusing on things like dynamics, articulation, phrasing,
reading music and juggling awhole bunch of layers.
One of my favorite things to dois to choose a really fun rope
(11:29):
piece that focuses on an elementof coordination between the
hands or whatever finger or handmovement I'm working on with
that student.
Without the presence of musicto read and all of the decoding
of the musical score, my studentcan truly focus their fingers
and coordination of thosemovements.
Without so many layers itreally takes a lot of stress off
(11:53):
of the learning environment andthey can just focus on that one
goal and they usuallyaccomplish it really really well
because their ears are so good.
Another fantastic thing to dothat's also very fun is to use
improvisation to work oncoordination and finger skills.
This is especially wonderfulbecause you can really isolate
(12:15):
the skill and have the studentjust use their left hand or just
their right hand, then switchand use the opposite Again.
This is focusing on just theskill you need to emphasize,
without added layers of music.
Reading and decoding that score.
For patterns with trickycoordination between the hands,
(12:35):
it's also really helpful to tapit in a very slow motion, saying
left, left, right together orwhatever pattern is correct for
the piece they're playing.
So having them tap their handson their legs or on a drum,
saying the hand that's going tobe playing and the pattern in
the rhythm of that you're goingto be playing it.
(12:56):
Rather than focusing on thespecific notes, you're focusing
on the gestures or the patternof the hand, and that is so
helpful.
It can also be really great touse a colored pencil and draw a
line between the treble and bassclef notes that are supposed to
be played at the same time.
Love to do that in my music.
(13:17):
This also works really well forstudents with dyslexia, to help
them tap the rhythm and justthink about the coordination of
it rather than focusing on howit looks in the score.
My third suggestion for you isto make it fun.
This is where I like to getreally creative, and if you have
seen any pictures of myteaching setup on Instagram or
(13:41):
Facebook, you know I have apretty substantial collection of
teaching manipulatives.
I think I actually owe you alittle tour of that in a video,
so I'll try to do that soon.
But I love to pull out all ofmy creative things and make it
very fun for my students.
One of my students' favoritesis the poppet.
(14:02):
These are the silicone thingsthat were super popular a few
years ago and they have littlebubbles that the students can
poke and it kind of makes alittle pop sound.
They come in a variety ofshapes and sizes.
I prefer pretty large ones forthis activity I'm going to share
with you, but you could usethem of any shape and size.
(14:24):
I love to use a poppet topractice using specific fingers
in like a finger pattern order,so students can aim for the
bubbles and pop them.
Pattern order.
So students can aim for thebubbles and pop them.
You could do this with a settempo, like with the metronome,
with a backing track.
Sometimes I will play anaccompaniment on the piano and
(14:44):
then my student has to adjusttheir speed of bubble popping
with my piano playing.
This is really good forstudents to practice
coordinating those muscles andfinger movements with a tempo.
It's also really good for thembecause they're popping those
bubbles with a firm finger.
That first knuckle is quitefirm.
(15:05):
No flat fingers are allowed.
It's quite difficult to popthem with a flat finger.
Students could also write theirown finger number pattern.
They could sort of composetheir own finger pattern like 3,
3, 1, 4, 5, 5, 2, or whateverit might be.
They could even use the fingernumber pattern from their piece.
(15:28):
So if they're working on apiece that has a tricky finger
pattern, especially if it'susing fingers 2, 3, four or five
that would probably be easier.
You can definitely throw thethumb in there too.
It's a great way to usesomething creative and fun.
Another one of my studiofavorites is when I pull out the
Play-Doh.
(15:48):
Now you're probably going ohthis is so messy.
It's actually not.
We do it on a laminated mat orsomething like that to help with
the mess, but it really, reallyhelps for students to practice
poking their fingers into thePlay-Doh with firm fingers.
When I'm teaching technique orhelping students with finger
(16:12):
control and finger movement atthe keys, the word poke is one I
use a lot because when you tellkids to poke something, they'll
often do it with quite a firmfingertip without being prompted
.
So when I tell my students topoke the keys, that really helps
them to poke each finger on thekey Poke, poke, poke.
(16:33):
So I'll use that word a lot Forusing Play-Doh.
You could even take Play-Doh andmake little balls of it, like
maybe four, three or fourdifferent balls, and have the
students bounce from one to theother, poking their finger into
the Play-Doh in a steady beat.
This is a great way to practicehaving kids play a repeated
(16:53):
finger like two, two, two, oreven teaching them to play back
and forth between multiplefingers when that motor planning
is so tricky for some of them.
Another fun thing to do is topull out a squishy ball and toss
it back and forth betweeneither the student's hands or
(17:14):
gently with you as the teacher,to a set tempo or music in the
background.
Irina Gorin does this in hermethod Tales of a Musical
Journey and it is such a greatexercise exercise.
It helps to build big musclecoordination, develop a sense of
rhythm in the body with thehands and the arms, and it also
(17:35):
coordinates big movements withthe rhythm and meter.
It's also just really fun andan opportunity to laugh and
enjoy a unique rhythm exercisethat could be very helpful for
your student.
This last suggestion under myfun category might make you
giggle, but one of my favoritethings to pull out for working
on big muscle coordination is myfly swats Literally the things
(18:00):
you get at the dollar store thatyou use to kill insects.
That sounds disgusting and icky, but I promise I don't use fly
swats that have been used tosquash bugs.
Mine are two colors, one isblue, one is yellow, and I've
actually kind of decorated themwith stickers and things.
(18:22):
It's kind of hilarious, but Ilove having my students use
these to practice rhythm andcoordination between the hands
and their arms.
This works beautifully foryoung learners like age three,
four, and for older learnersalike, because if you're tapping
out the rhythm of a section orjust practicing coordination,
(18:43):
it's brilliantly fun and veryunexpected for your teacher to
pull out two fly swats.
Okay, my fourth idea is for youto remember the long game.
Since fingers, muscle controland coordination are all key
aspects of playing the piano,you cannot or should not expect
(19:05):
for one week of exercises oretudes to fix the issue for good
.
As a student learns and grows,their coordination and muscle
control will develop Similarly.
As their body grows, thoseissues may pop up from time to
time or even morph intosomething a little different.
Our goal is not to come up witha short-term fix and
(19:27):
hyperfixate on these strugglesuntil they go away, because they
won't go away.
That will just stress out ourstudents even more and direct
their attention to their ownstruggles.
Our goal is to find ways tohelp support our students, find
techniques that actually workfor them, reminding ourselves
that quote-unquote goodtechnique for our student might
(19:51):
look different than somebodyelse's neurotypical student, and
that is perfectly okay.
Creating activities and findingmusic to help our students grow
and confidence is reallyimportant in this long game
process.
The more opportunities ourstudents have to practice and
build on these skills, the moreopportunities they will have to
(20:15):
be successful and then the moreconfident they'll become.
I hope this helps provide a fewideas for teaching students who
might struggle with coordination.
I know this can be afrustrating thing to work on,
because coordination and fingercontrol are literally at the
heart of piano teaching andpiano playing.
(20:36):
You cannot separate pianoplaying from these other
elements, but I want toencourage you not to get stuck
in what's not working for yourstudent right now.
Give them so many otheropportunities to be successful
with the skills they have, whiledigging out a few creative
ideas to help them improve.
(20:56):
So focusing on their strengthswhile still building up the
areas they need to work on, butnot hyper fixating on those
weaknesses.
That's all for today.
I hope you've enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please feel free to reach outon Instagram, Facebook or email
with any ideas you have, and Iwill look forward to being back
(21:19):
soon.
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