Health & Fitness
My Review of a creative new teaching material for young Children
Irina Gorin excels in producing an exciting Musical Journey embedded in Fairy Tales.
The Statewide Journal of the Music Teachers Association of California published this article in the FALL 2012 issue, CALIFORNIA MUSIC TEACHER. I have copied it here because a new installment of the Magazine contains recent articles.
Irina Gorin’s Tales of a Musical Journey is refreshingly untraditional. Unlike most
method books available on the market today that come with Lesson, Performance,
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Theory, and Technique companions, this is an all-in-one bundle of rich exposure
to tone production and the physical means to the end, note by note. There is no
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rush to play pieces framed in rigidly assigned places, like middle C position.
While many parents might wonder why junior isn’t tapping melodies that can be
easily sung back in the first few lessons, the delay built into the material has
pedagogical merit. It allows the teacher to work on the very fundamental aspect of
playing the piano–creating the basic singing tone that underlies all music-making.
Taking each note, one at a time, learning how to physically produce tonal beauty
with graceful “weeping willow” like movements, traveling over octaves with
“rainbow” gestures, and learning to play notes in a detached way,
with relaxed arms and supple wrists, before legato exposure, is a slow but
substantial approach to teaching the art of piano playing.
Through Book One, a child journeys through the “Magical Kingdom of Sounds,”
with an appealing cast of royalty that includes King Meter, Fairy Musicalina, Prince
Rhythm, and Wizard the Metronome. They make their charming appearance in
sequenced, individual chapters.
Through a series of baby steps, a young student will tap individual notes to
prerecorded CD selections by Prokofieff, Rebikov, and other notable Russian
composers, absorbing an early appreciation of the Classics
that will whet his appetite for more servings of the great piano literature as he
moves along the study spectrum.
In early playing experiences, a beginner will hear two measures of introductory
“ticks” or beats for each piece that imbue a sense of framing rhythm. Cardboard
circles, black for “short” sounds, and white for “long” ones, are
included in the materials packet. These can be sorted on the music rack in any
order a child desires. Through clapping activities, a variety of rhythms are
explored. My pupil, Rina, 4, sorted cardboard circles on the music rack
creating her own unique rhythm.
(Note: References to YouTube video performances will be interspersed throughout this article)
Teachers are encouraged to access these videos and
experience a “live-teaching” demonstration. Kirsten emphasizes
singing tone and how to produce it during the lesson:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX82PZw-eTw&feature=youtu.be
Gorin nourishes a steady metronomic beat in her teaching
while I tend to go outside the robotic pulse framework believing that music
cannot otherwise “breathe.” Yet, some students at the earliest stages of their
musical training need the crutch of a time ticker.
In the following YouTube video, Rina taps E’s and then
F’s to recorded music that accompanies Gorin’s materials.
Rina began her piano studies with me in August, 2011:
I have been using Gorin’s instruction with this four-year
old for eight months. Numerous videos of her lessons
and progress are posted on YouTube. It was clear that she
had absorbed a fluid physical approach to the piano and
practiced with a supple wrist and relaxed arms. Because
Tales of a Musical Journey
focused on these fundamental
physical attributes of piano playing, the child had a firm
kinesthetic foundation to build upon.
Gorin also enlists two novel techniques that promote a
slower, deeper entry into notes, thereby reinforcing her
“singing tone” approach to the piano. In one teaching
example, she suspends the wrists of a young student using
a hair band, and then releases the hair band, allowing
gravity to take its natural course.
In some cases the student will resist relaxation, tightening
up wrists, arms, or muscles. Gorin responds by gently
telling the student to “let go” until there is a dead weight
drop into the key with a firm, rounded finger.
When the hair band is removed after using it many times,
the pupil will have an embedded muscular memory of the
experience—recapturing the “feeling” of the relaxed arm/
wrist drop without needing external crutches:
In another prized teaching moment, Gorin uses putty
found in Dollar stores, to promote a deep-in-the-keys,
molto cantabile.
I have used this technique with Rina and
older students. The use of the putty has a far-reaching
effect on playing, and supports the strength of Gorin’s
pedagogy.
In essence, she teaches a student to think of the piano
like a bowl of jello, to avoid a “fingers down, superficial,
skimming the surface” approach to the keys. The imagery
promotes a “slower” if not denser penetration, preventing
a pokey, percussive attack.
In the following video segment, one of Gorin’s students
practices a “jello keys” feel as applied to a C Major Scale in
detached notes, followed by legato playing:
Three additional prized teaching moments are previewed in these video segments:
Hand Position
Gorin uses two happy faced soft rubber balls to shape a
Gorin aces it here, teaching the relaxed arm swing from
side to side, using a soft toy monkey that is included in her
materials packet. This going-with-the-flow motion nurses
beautiful phrasing, and together with the arm drop and
supple wrist, produces a gorgeous singing tone:
Teaching Staccato to a Beginner
This is a riveting approach that imbues a follow-through
wrist motion so pivotal to beautiful phrasing. I love how
Irina uses the image of a “frog” to capture the spirit of
short, crisp, detached notes:
Learning Note Names
The student learns the the musical alphabet by means of
laminated flashcards with note names associated with
animals, like A for Ant, B for Bear, C for Cat, etc. A child
learns to locate these inside “little” and “big”Houses with two and
three black key roofs that appear along the keyboard
spectrum. Such an imaginative display of these abodes
with animals invited in by letter name, is a uniquely
creative way to assimilate keyboard geography.
Rina explores the big and small note houses in this video,
before she taps a series of A’ to pre-recorded music:
Areas of Disagreement
My points of departure with Gorin’ pedagogy
circumscribe the transition from beat dependent prerecorded
music to pieces that are free of metronomic
framing; the timing of legato playing and five-finger
positions; inserting accidentals in the music to imbue a
consciousness of affect in music (Major/minor duality).
When Rina was 5, I began teaching her short five finge rposition
pieces after exposing her to legato pentachords
(8th month juncture of piano study). Since she
demonstrated a natural affinity for playing smooth and
connected notes following months of individual, detached
note exposures, I decided to go with the flow and let
her take a path that diverged from Gorin’ method book
course. In the following video, Rina plays a five-finger
exercise with both hands:
As a rule, I have always embraced a tailor-made teaching
curriculum that adapts itself to each child. In this teaching
situation with Rina, a changed order of instruction
produced good results.
The freeing of the beat, as well, in a five-finger sequence,
without a ticking timer crutch, also evolved without any
rhythmic problems. Rina had already absorbed a good
sense of a unifying pulse through clapping activities, and
from early CD recorded music/finger tapping experiences
in Gorin’ instruction.
In this video snippet, Rina is playing a five-finger position
in 10ths with a legato singing tone:
Five-finger exercises quickly led to repertoire choices in five-note closed
positions. (Examples: The Reinagle “Minuet”and “Little
March” by Turk)
I taught these pieces to Rina by floating note-heads on
paper that Rina knew well (black and white circles sorted
on the music rack—that I supplemented with eighth notes
and whole notes). We sang, clapped, used hand signals,
and learned both bass and treble parts. Since she had also
absorbed the musical alphabet back and forth so well, it was
an easy leap to learning pieces that I borrowed
from Faber’s Developing Artist, Preparatory Piano
Rina plays “Little March”by Turk Literature
As previously mentioned, I chose to insert accidentals in
Rina’ music sooner than later. Once she had smoothly
played five-finger legato positions—.e.g. C Major, G
Major, and D Major, I introduced the parallel minor. In
this connection, we focused on the “sad” version of each
warm-up.
Here, Rina plays D Major and Minor pentascales and
chords:
Likewise, I had her transpose the Reinagle “Minuet” from G Major to G
minor, and applied the same to Turk’s miniature. (footnote 1)
(Nancy and Randall Faber. Preparatory Piano Literature:
Developing Artist Original Keyboard Classics, (Fort Lauderdale:
FJH Music Company, 1998).
Had I followed Gorin’s curriculum past the pre-recorded
activities, I feel that Rina would not have progressed as
well as she did. But then again, teachers make individual
Perhaps, the fact that Rina had a few years of Music Together classes, might have
made her an easier candidate for a more flexible type of learning that
included leaps of progress earlier than expected.
Despite my minor reservations about the exact course
of instruction in Tales of a Musical Journey, its basic focus
on the physical dimension of piano playing is a vast
improvement over materials that are churned out in every
variety of lesson, performance, and technique book. If
Gorin’s focus can influence publishers of popular method
books to revise their thinking, and slow things down,
promoting an emphasis on tone production and relaxation
techniques, then Tales of a Musical Journey will have ushered in much needed
changes in the whole teaching landscape, particularly as it applies to beginners.
(Note: The following blog offers many more insights into
the creativity and teaching expertise of Irina Gorin:)
http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/irina-gorins-piano-students-shine-again-videos/
