How do you use technology in group instruction?

 

I first started thinking about group piano instruction in 1975. I had just begun work on a master’s degree in piano performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Shortly after I arrived, there was an opportunity to apply for a group piano teaching assistantship. The job entailed teaching functional piano to non-pianists.

Not surprisingly (by the standards of the day), the group classes were taught in a room that was furnished with half a dozen upright acoustic pianos. Although many schools offered piano classes with acoustic pianos, these schools were actually way behind the times! Wurlitzer had pioneered the concept of using electronic pianos in a class setting in the mid-1950s. The Wurlitzer instruments had a piano-like action with hammers that struck tuned reeds, and the pianos even had an audio control system that enabled the teacher to listen to individual students who played with headphones on. Imagine all of that technology over 50 years ago!

Regrettably, I did not get the assistantship. However, the application process got me focused on class management and group teaching issues. As a traditional piano teacher who taught lessons in a oneto- one context, I was accustomed to adapting my teaching style to the learning styles of individual students. Teaching a class of diverse learners struck me as a major pedagogical problem–one that required carefully sequenced instruction, clever organization of class activities, and the deployment of a variety of visual and aural teaching aids.

A couple of years later, I was introduced to a well thought-out group teaching system authored by Richard Chronister and David Kraehenbuehl and marketed under the name National Keyboard Arts Associates (NKAA). This group teaching system was designed for private teachers and did not rely on having multiple instruments available.

NKAA made group teaching practical and affordable by supplying teacher training, curricular materials, and plastic dummy keyboards to the private teacher. Although these keyboards were not an adequate substitute for the real thing, the keyboards–along with the amazing organization of the curriculum and the logic of the instruction–made teaching in a small group both possible and even effective for the private teacher.

Although I did not teach the NKAA materials in a group context, I did get a chance in the mid-1980s to teach class piano at Northeastern University for several years. At my disposal was a room full of electronic pianos that were a great musical improvement over the Wurlitzer instruments. Instead of hammers hitting reeds, the movement of the keys activated oscillators that produced sounds that impressively simulated a real piano. Of course you must interpret my use of the word “impressive” in the context of the mid-1980s. These instruments were nowhere near the standard of today’s digital pianos.

The lab at Northeastern also had an audio control system that enabled me to communicate with students over headsets. In addition, it had a camera focused on my keyboard and connected to a television that everyone could see. At the teacher’s station, the lab featured a second keyboard instrument that was left over from a retired Wurlitzer lab. The school kept this keyboard because it was hardwired to a Wurlitzer Key/Note Visualizer, an illuminated sign that provided a simple but useful display of a grand staff and keyboard. The keys and grand staff would light up when I played, showing students exactly what was happening at the teacher keyboard. You can find the modern MIDI version of this product at www.thevisualizer.com.

I made heavy use of the Key/Note Visualizer at Northeastern. However, during my stint as a class piano teacher, my wife and I purchased our first computer and this got me thinking along more futuristic lines. Surely it would be possible, one day, to connect a computer to a musical keyboard, have the computer put notes on a musical staff dynamically as I play, and somehow show whatever is on my computer screen to an entire class! And why stop with a dynamic, visualizer-type product? Why not be able to show entire pieces of music projected from my computer, enjoy automatic page-turning, and more?

Fortunately, dreams sometimes do become reality! Today there are many tools available to a creative group piano teacher, especially one who has a computer and projector or large monitor available. For starters, if the teacher’s computer is connected to a projector, whatever the teacher can display on the computer screen– music, diagrams, text, images–is viewable by the class. Better yet, if the teacher’s piano is connected to the computer via MIDI and the teacher is using interactive music software, the teacher can use these tools dynamically during the class by doing little more than playing the piano itself!

Compared to the rest of the computer software world, the marketplace for class piano teaching software is very small and there are few, if any, software programs whose sole purpose is to facilitate group piano instruction. However, there are hundreds of programs–music programs and non-music programs–that can be used creatively in this context. These include Microsoft PowerPoint (www.microsoft.com) or Apple Keynote (www.apple.com) for prepared presentations, MusicReader (www.musicreader.net) and similar programs for displaying electronic music notation files in PDF format, and a host of MIDI-based music programs from eartraining to notation to piano practice.

A single article cannot cover all possible uses of technology in group piano instruction. You can already see, however, that creative teachers have many resources on which to draw. Please continue with the next segment of this article and check out what one such teacher–Dr. Mario Ajero–is doing in his classes at Stephen F. Austin State University. I think that you’ll find a few surprises!

One last note: If you enjoyed the foregoing review of the technology advances in group piano teaching over the last 50 years, you might also enjoy reading Richard Anderson’s article From Paper Keyboards to MIDI: A Brief Look at Group Piano Through the 20th Century (http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/keyboard/ppf/9.2/9.2.PPFAnderson.html), which reviews the nearly 200-year history of group piano instruction.

Technology in the group piano lab and beyond

by Mario Ajero

Technology plays an integral role in keeping order in my group piano classes at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. A few years ago, an older pianist told me about the “good ol’ days” when class piano students had to wheel in four different upright acoustic pianos into one room. It was chaotic to say the least, with students playing at the same time, unable to hear themselves, and even having to share pianos with one another throughout the semester. That is quite a difference from today’s piano lab technology, which enables teachers to instruct multiple students without all of that cacophony!

The instrument is the most important technology

Group piano settings can vary widely from small labs in a private studio–often comprised of just a few portable keyboards– to large labs at a university consisting of full-featured digital pianos. Cost and space considerations will often dictate what kind of keyboards you can consider when putting together your lab.

At my university, we are fortunate to have a classroom lab of 17 Yamaha Clavinova digital pianos (www.yama ha.com). The student instruments are basic, high-quality digital pianos. My teacher instrument is a CVP Clavinova with all the bells and whistles, including hundreds of voices, registrations, automatic accompaniments, and record/playback features.

While I encourage my students to practice on acoustic pianos as much as they can outside of class, the weighted action of the digital pianos in the piano lab provides them the chance to build finger strength– something that they might miss if they played regularly on non-weighted keyboards. The students can also practice independently with headphones. As you think about what is best for your lab, be sure to consider the quality of touch and the quality of sound that you will be getting– these two elements are the core of a good teaching (and learning) experience.

Keeping it together keeps it fun

A basic task in any group-teaching situation is having all of the students play simultaneously. During these activities, students can often get out of sync with one another. To compensate and provide a rhythmic frame of reference, I often become a “metronome” by playing a teacher accompaniment.

Although I enjoy playing accompaniments myself, I can also take advantage of the technology built into the teacher’s digi- tal piano and play a prerecorded MIDI accompaniment, complete with orchestrated tracks. This gives me the freedom to roam around and “spy” on my students’ hands. The CVP Clavinova also provides an autoaccompaniment feature. I can choose a tempo and a style and then direct the chord changes with my fingers. The instrument does the rest. This feature is terrific for generating a musically satisfying accompaniment on the fly when you don’t have a presequenced MIDI file ready.

Say goodbye to cacophony

At the heart of any medium-to-large group piano lab is the audio control system, also known as a lab control system. Each instrument or “station” has a special set of headphones with a built-in microphone, allowing students to play on their pianos in privacy and still communicate verbally with me or with the class. These headsets are networked to a lab controller, which allows me to navigate around the room electronically and listen to individuals or selected groups over my own set of headphones.

I have had tremendous success with the Yamaha audio control system. In particular, the lab controller provides me with the power to control the whole room. For example, with the touch of just one button, I am able to turn off the audio on all student keyboards and force the class to focus its attention on what I am saying.

The lab controller allows me to set up many other audio scenarios. For example, I can have the students hear their own individual pianos and my piano but not the other student pianos in the room. In this case, even though I am teaching a dozen students at one time, each individual student experiences one-on-one interaction with me, the teacher.

At various times throughout the semester, my group classes practice duets and multi-piano ensembles. The lab controller enables me to pair or group students who are working on the same ensemble. Students can talk to other students in the group and hear their instruments, but they do not interact with the rest of the class. This is the virtual equivalent of sending groups of students into separate practice rooms to work together. Thanks to the magic of the network, they can accomplish this without even leaving their seats!

An electronic blackboard

To stay efficient in the group setting, it is essential to maintain everyone’s attention. In addition, students who are unfamiliar with the piano can learn quickly when they can all see your hand position and the notation of what you are discussing. For years, I used a large orange box called the Key/Note Visualizer (www.thevisualizer.com). The Key/Note Visualizer was connected to the teacher’s piano via MIDI, and it featured lights that would flash on a virtual keyboard and staff to show the students what I was playing. While effective, the Key/Note Visualizer had its limitations. The keyboard on its front panel only displayed 44 keys. The staff was limited to the same range, with only a couple of ledger lines above the treble staff and no ledger lines below the bass staff.

I always thought that making a software version of this visualizing concept could solve many of these limitations. After all, you can’t just add another key or some ledger lines to the orange box! Fortunately, someone already has created just such a software visualizer, and it is called Classroom Maestro (www.timewarptech. com).

I use Classroom Maestro every day in my piano lab. I have an LCD projector mounted to the ceiling that projects my computer screen onto the white screen at the front of the room. Classroom Maestro can display all 88 keys and as many ledger lines as necessary (ledger lines are added to the staff as needed while you play). The representation of the notes on the staff looks as clear and beautiful as a published musical score. The program has the flexibility to display the grand staff or one staff at a time. And, the program can even display alternate clefs, such as alto and tenor, so that I can undertake score-reading drills with the students. All of these features and many more make Classroom Maestro a “must-have” for any up-to-date piano lab.

Instruction beyond the lab

One of the difficulties with teaching so many students in one piano lab is that you have limited time to hear each student individually. In the past, testing and grading each student’s solo repertoire would often take the entire hour of class time.

Last year I tried an experiment that helped to address this issue. I discovered that all of my students were members of the social networking group called Facebook (www.facebook.com). So, I invited them to join a Facebook group that was limited just to members of the class.When it came time to evaluate their playing, I offered students the option of uploading a video of themselves performing their repertoire at the piano in lieu of playing live during our class period.

I did not have to give or lend any video equipment to any of my students, because most of them already possessed video recording technology. Some students uploaded video performances recorded from their own digital video cameras while others used the video recording features in their digital photo cameras. Many students recorded videos from their mobile phones, and a few students recorded from built-in cameras on their portable computers. Students who did not have their own technology usually had a friend in class who was willing to lend them their own gear.

There were a number of interesting results from this experiment. One student came up to me in the next class after submitting a video performance and asked, “Dr. Ajero, do you know how many times I had to play that piece before I could get it right on camera?” I replied, “No. Please tell me.” The student said, “It had to have been about 20 times!” I smirked a bit and told him, “Well, at least I know you practiced it about 20 times!”

A majority of the students showed significant improvement when not being under the pressure of getting it right the first time. Of course there were a few who just “phoned in their performance” (pun intended). The majority of students, however, were perfectionists and polished their playing to the point where they were not embarrassed to have their classmates see their video on Facebook.

With students posting videos of their performances online, I was able to grade and give feedback outside of the normal class period. In addition, classmates could watch each other online and offer constructive criticism. Weaker students often used the better video performances as models.

With many of the students electing to submit video performances, I was able to devote more class time to teaching other concepts that I wanted to cover. The private social networking group on Facebook even enabled me to post supplementary video lessons on material that I was unable to cover during class time.

I hasten to point out that the use of online tools does not have to be limited to the college setting. Independent teachers with private studios can take advantage of these tools as well. When dealing with online social networks, however, the independent teacher may not be able to connect directly with younger students. But, the same concept can be used to connect with parents of young students. I know of some teachers who manage their classes of young students in this way. It is a wonderful way to get parents involved in their children’s musical education.

We are fortunate to live in an era of technological achievement, and there are a host of remarkable tools available to us as instructors. Taking advantage of these tools can help us teach more efficiently and spend more time on important musical concepts. These tools are also engaging and fun for students, enhancing the experience for all involved!

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