Page 14 Simple Interval Language

To simplify the interval reading process in the early stages of learning, the names Same, Step, Skip, Skip-plus-one and Jump have been given to the intervals in preference to the numerical sizes, thereby connecting the look of the interval with familiar language related to physical movements. This connects the look, the feel, and the sound of the intervals.

The language also avoids many of the difficulties when using the numerical sizes, for example: the concept of a unison or prime being a 'first'. Students often erroneously think that a step would be a first and a skip - a second. (Recently, the AMEB has produced the new Music Craft syllabus which also begins with the easy language of Step and Skip.)

Page 15 Gross Motor Actions for Intervals

If you are able to locate a set of three steps near your studio, ask the child to climb the steps while calling out, or preferably singing the intervals. Say 'one' for the starting position and then walk-sing/say 'step up, step up.' As you reach the top step, sing 'same' as the child puts the other foot down. Then turn around and say 'step down, step down' till you reach the bottom position. Next turn the student around and walk-sing/say 'skip up', then 'same' (turn on top stair) and then walk-sing/say 'skip down' to take the student back down. (This is demonstrated on the CPM-DVD)

Page 15 Interval Drill Game

At this point it is wise to play the Interval Drill Game, as shown on the CPM DVD. Allow the student to place his or her five fingers of either hand over any five consecutive notes (i.e., a hand position). You could suggest they begin on one of the signpost notes (C or F). Beginning on the thumb, sound the note, then connect smoothly to notes which are steps up and down, to establish the feeling and the sound of these intervals. Once these are secure, extend the game to include skips and lastly sames.

As students do not have to concern themselves with reading music they will be able to play more involved patterns of intervals than this early stage of reading would allow. This drill therefore will aid the development of finger dexterity and co-ordination as well as solidly impressing on the student the concepts of direction and the intervals.

In future lessons, use the Interval Drill Game to develop co-ordination between the hands. Ask the student to play identical intervals in both hands, first in similar motion then in contrary motion. Use the drill game each time a new interval is introduced.

Page 17 Picture Songs

The Picture Songs in this book are designed to give students music which uses more intricate finger patterns than they can read at this time. This develops their technique and provides tune material to play until such time as reading skills are at a level to play more complicated tunes.

Note: Once the starting note has been sounded, do not repeat it, simply move on to the next intervals.

Page 22 Colour Coding for the Signpost C's

The two C's to memorise at this point are Middle C in the treble clef and Middle C in the bass clef. Colour coding helps the memorisation process immensely. Write the C's in these colours in their memory positions on the staff, at the beginning of each line of music to be played from page 25 onward.

Page 23 Colour Coding

The bass and treble clefs could also be coloured in blue and red respectively.

Page 24 Hand Positions

The hand positions introduced in this book are intended to help the student realise the location of the five consecutive notes to be played, in relation to the range of the entire piano keyboard. This will help them realise whether the sounds produced are low or high sounding notes. The hand positions are used as a guide until such time as the location of the starting notes, via the signpost notes and the fingering is secure. They do not need to be memorised.

Page 25 The Gestalt Approach

A unique feature of this method is the simplicity of combining several necessary aspects of music reading and performance into one neat package. By asking the students to say or preferably sing the direction, interval and counting, you are training all vital aspects of music - ear, eye, hand and voice and requiring full concentration on the task at hand. There will be no need for the student to watch their hands on the keyboard.

The learning procedure is as follows:

• Look carefully through the music to see whether the notes move up or down.
• Prepare to play, by pointing at the notes and saying the intervals, counting and direction.
• One 2 3 4, Step Up 2 3 4, Step Up 2 3 4, Step Down 2 3 4, Step Down 2 3 4 off.
• The students should then talk/sing the information as they play, saying the interval and direction when they see the asterisk. (*)

This is demonstrated on the CPM-DVD.

Page 28 Colour Coding for the Next Two Signpost C's

The two additional C's to memorise at this point are High C in the treble clef and Low C in the bass clef. Write the C's in these colours in their memory positions on the staff, at the beginning of each line of music to be played.

Page 30 Practice Procedure for All Pieces Written for Hands Together

• Make sure students start on the correct signpost notes with the correct fingers.
• After preparing each piece by a talk/sing through, continue to sing the information as you play.
• Play separate hands before playing hands together.

Page 30 Gross Motor Actions

To help the hands co-ordinate students should use a small tilt of their head to the right or left to indicate the directions (up or down). As it is easier for the fingers to move in contrary motion than similar motion in the beginning stages, the head tilt helps the process of combining the movements when playing in similar motion. See the demonstration on the CPM DVD (43.07)

Page 32 Interval Reading and the Keyboard Note Names

The Contemporary Piano Method encourages the student to learn the keyboard names of the notes, but does not foster the learning of the note names on the staff, other than the signpost notes till a later stage. The intention is that when reading music, the most important feature to observe is the interval and the names of the notes are a by-product of this.

By reading in this manner:

• Both clefs can be approached in the same way
• Fingering for all the notes is not required and the ear is trained to listen for intervals
• The students do not need to watch their hands thereby leaving their focus on the following flow of notes to be read and played

If the note-name is needed for theory purposes, it can always be worked out using a map of the keyboard as on this page. Later on, all that is needed is the names of the notes in keyboard order (ABCDEFGABCDEFGetc). The note-naming exercises in the Contemporary Theory Workbook series are done this way.

Practice Procedure for Tunes in Contrary Motion Using Two-Count Notes

There are several ways your students can talk/sing the music through.

For separate hands:

1. Saying either the interval, direction and the second count: One 2, St up 2, St up 2, St up 2 and so on
2. Saying the interval and the second count only. e.g. One 2, St 2, St 2, St 2, and so on
3. Saying the direction and the second count only. e.g.. One 2, Up 2, Up 2, Up 2, and so on

For hands together:

1. Talk/sing the interval, combined direction and the second count: e.g.. One 2, Step out 2, Step out 2 Step out 2 | OR Step in 2 Step in 2 etc
2. Talk/sing only the combined direction and the second count: e.g.. One 2, out 2, out 2 and so on

Page 33 Transposition and Modal Sounds

This Picture Song can be transposed onto other areas of the keyboard by simply starting with a hand position on any of the other white notes, with the hands one octave apart. This means they may hear some modal sounds. For instance if the melody is played on the white notes beginning on A, the sound will be that of the Natural Minor scale or Aeolian Mode. If the melody is begun on E, the sound will be that of the Phrygian Mode etc. The written hand positions in the book which begin on F all give the sound of the Lydian Mode.

For more information on Modes, refer to CPM Bk3, and Contemporary Theory Workbook 2

Page 36 Shape and Pattern Reading - Song of Two Hills

Follow the flow by tracing the music with the fingers on the page. There are three ways to talk or sing through this piece:

1. Say both steps and direction: step up, step up etc.
2. Direction only: One, up, up, up, | up, down, down, down, | down, up etc (This is useful if the student wishes to play the piece more swiftly.)
3. Say counting only: ask the student to play using counting only if they are already secure reading the intervals and the direction.

Once the student can play the intervals correctly they can begin counting four beats in the bar as is usually done.

Page 38 Finding Hand Positions

From this piece on students should find the hand-positions for themselves, working from the signpost note and the finger number and then placing the fingers accordingly. Sometimes the starting notes are to be judged as a distance from the signpost note. This is so that they become used to beginning on varied starting notes, not just C.

Page 38 Inserting the Second Count

Whenever a two count note appears in tunes which use a mixture of note values, the student needs to remember to say the second count, quite deliberately after saying the interval. To simplify this, the count '2' can be used, no matter whether the music is on the second beat of the bar, or the fourth beat of the bar. See also page 41, for an example of this.

Page 43 Steps and Sames

These two tunes revise steps and sames. In the second piece:

• Make sure that students are on the lookout for the skip.
• Emphasise the second count for the half notes.

Page 44 Cuing

This refers to the bracketed notes inserted at the beginning of bar 5 in this piece. Cuing may be used to help the beginning student become comfortable reading longer pieces which move to the next line (system) of music until such time as the eye movements are swift enough to cope with the larger physical distance between notes at the end of one line and the beginning of the next.

It is helpful for the teacher to copy the final notes of bar four as a cue, in front of the notes in the fifth bar, so that the student can more easily see the interval sizes as they are reading into the fifth bar. This has been demonstrated on this page, but teachers or students can add the cues for themselves if desired from now on.

Page 45 Supplementary Material

At this point it is advantageous to give the student some more tunes to play using right hand only. Several songs in Junior Trax are ideal for this level. The first one to use alongside pages 45-47 of the JP is Warm Kitty - on page 16. It uses the intervals and timing so far covered in the course.

Page 46 Long Legged Sailor

• Work out the starting notes for each hand from the Signpost C's.
• Finger-trace the directions noting the sections of similar and contrary motion.
• Notice the two-count rests.

Page 48 Supplementary Material

'Chop Sticks' is excellent supplementary material at this point, as it emphasises the sounds of harmonic steps and skips. Teach it by ear or by graphic notation, or refer to Hot Trax for the sheet music. Finger the piece using fingers 2, 3, 4 and 5 of each hand, fanning out from F and G starting notes.

Page 55 Supplementary Material

Junior Trax - Use the songs on pages 7 and 10 played with separate hands.

Transition to Level One (Yellow Level)

Coinciding with page 55 in the Junior Primer - Introduce the following practical and theory books gradually over a period of 2 to 3 weeks, while the remainder of the Junior Primer is being completed.

Contemporary Piano Method 1A

While completing the material in the Junior Primer from page 55 on, students are advised to commence Book 1A of the Contemporary Piano Method, from pp 14 & 15 where separate handed lines of music using mixtures of all the intervals are presented. This helps to consolidate and speed up the reading of all the intervals.

If a small amount of reading is set each lesson from pages 14 to 19 in Book 1A, concurrently with the final pages of the Junior Primer, the student will be ready to play the first piece with varying intervals in the method on page 21 as soon as the Junior Primer is completed. They will then also be able to play the two-handed pieces on page 5 of Junior Trax.

Daily Dexter Flexers

Begin playing a few exercises from Group One concurrently with the end of the Junior Primer. Set more, once the Junior Primer is completed.

Dexter's Easy Piano Pieces

Begin this book once pages 5 to 11 in Junior Trax have been completed. Commence with pages 7 and 8, plus Lightly Row (p9).

Pages 58-60 Varying Intervals and Timings Between the Hands

The tunes on these three pages present the task of playing varying intervals and timings between the hands.

• 'What's the Matterhorn?' (Swiss Mountain Climbing song), presents a group of repeated notes against varying intervals.
• Traffic Lights and Johnny Works with One Hammer require the student to sustain longer notes in one hand while playing shorter values with the other.

Continuing practice in these new skills is presented in the first pages of Junior Trax (p5, 6 & 7).

Junior Trax

Junior Trax provides a gently graded and tuneful set of pieces which serve to consolidate and expand the skills learned in the Junior Primer. Refer to page 4 of JT for a chart of the skills covered in the book.

The included duet parts foster ensemble skills and rhythm training for the early level pianist. For best results use this book in tandem with the CPM Book 1.

Go to the Junior Trax page via the Jump list on this site, for information on the tunes arranged for Junior Trax.