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...

Day Two

After a delightful breakfast prepared by Amy Chaplin, we began day two with the passing out of a few door prizes—useful items carefully chosen to enhance the piano teacher’s toolkit. This was followed by Joy Morin modeling for us how to teach a piece by rote, or imitation. As she sang the tune, she said, “Do what I do.” And so it began…the grand adventure of learning how to develop audiation in one’s students. She directed us in moving to the rhythm. Once that was established, she played the piece a few times on the piano, leading us in chanting the resting tone of the piece. Once the rhythm and tonality of the piece was determined, she invited some volunteers to follow her lead in playing the piece, completely by rote, no note-reading involved. All were successful.

...accompanied by the aerial exploits of a huge dragonfly, who paused briefly on a blade of grass, so that I could get a good look at him. Others soon arrived and Amy’s creative culinary expertise produced an amazing breakfast casserole made from—get this, leftover pizza! Very satisfying. 

Once breakfast was out of the way, Joy handed out more door prizes and this time I was the recipient of a book on my wish list: The Ways Children Learn Music: An Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Learning Theory by Eric Bluestine! I also received a pamphlet titled Quick and Easy Introductions by Edwin E. Gordon, which covered the following topics: Introductions to Music Learning Theory; Audiation; Preparatory Audiation; and Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children. I have some happy reading ahead of me. :)

Joy took a quick group shot of all of us and after a brief discussion to determine our preferences, we dove right in to the final day’s activities, beginning with a walk-through of Joy’s own book, Keys at Play: 88 progressive pieces for pianists of all ages. Joy was looking for a resource that presented rote pieces following Gordon’s theories on Skill Learning Sequence. Not finding what she was looking for, she wrote her own. The pieces are simple and can easily be taught using Gordon’s Rote Song Procedure but also help students “more easily develop musical understanding and technical skills at the piano.” This is a resource that I can use with my own students.

After a stretch break, we learned an ear piece together (I.e. by rote), only this time, Joy led us through the steps we might want to take in preparing our students to play these pieces and we role-played that. This was a very useful follow-up to the role-playing we did yesterday, when we all paired off and taught each other a song.

Another very useful follow-up was the end-of-retreat review which allowed us to articulate answers to our own questions about rote teaching, the use of ear pieces, audiation, Music Learning Theory, MLT sequencing, and the use of movement in teaching rhythm.

My key takeaways: 

~ I learned about available tools that I can use with my own students that address specific needs they might have. ~

~ I knew the topic was going to be rote-teaching but what I didn’t know was that rote teaching as used in the music teacher studio is so much more than just learning a song without reading notes. ~

~ I am so excited about how this new knowledge and available tools can help me help my students in spreading the gift of music! ~