Creativity in the Piano Lesson

Have you ever heard of the paper clip test? It measures creativity* by asking a simple question:

How many uses can you think of for a paper clip? 

Most people can come up with a list of 10-15 things. How many things do you think a kindergartener could list? Around two hundred. 

There is an infinite amount of potential for teaching and learning with this level of creativity. The question is, how can we as teachers create opportunities for divergent thinking and foster creativity in our students? 

Here are a few ideas:

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5 Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Piano Students

1. Find ways to incorporate creative movement. 

Introduce a new rhythm pattern (preparation for a new song, perhaps) and ask the student to create a corresponding movement. I had a student last week suggest elbows and fist pumps. I kid you not.

2. Use different voices to speak rhythm patterns. 

Sometimes, rhythm syllables and neutral syllables get old. Some other creative ideas include: opera star, baby, howling dog, barking dog, cow, etc.

3. Improvise. 

Build in time for an in-lesson improvisation, based on something familiar to the student.

For instance, I had a student last week who had just gotten back from Zoo Camp. Naturally, I asked him to improvise a song about the animals at the zoo. He chose to include: lions, a tiger, a gazelle, a crocodile, a blue jay, and a mouse. (I know because he added in narration along the way.)

4. Respond to the moment. 

This is a creative challenge for teachers - what do you with a wiggly five-year-old at the end of their lesson when you're just trying to get through "In a Canoe" and they just want to experiment? 

You propose a "murky water" improv section (setting the scene for the canoe) + patterns from the song. And you go with it.

5. Give a weekly creativity challenge. 

I add this to the bottom of the student's assignment sheet. I usually provide a few simple parameters (i.e. use only black keys or only short sounds) and/or a theme or point of inspiration. 

Here’s an example for a kindergarten student:

“Create a song about cars and trucks.  What do they sound like?  Are they driving or stuck in traffic?  Be sure to give your improvisation or composition a name!”

Related post: 40 Ideas to Inspire Creativity in Your Piano Students

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Have other ideas for adding creativity into the piano lesson?  Leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you!

*Note: If you haven't seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on this topic, watch it here (short animated clip) or here (full video).

Building a Successful Children's Choir Program

So, you want to start a children's choir. Awesome!

Wondering where to start and what to do first? 

Here are a few ideas and suggestions for getting started and building a new choir program, based on my experience starting and directing a children's choir program at a small church in rural Massachusetts.

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

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Building a Successful Children's Choir Program

Getting Started

The first step in building a new program is choosing a rehearsal time and setting age parameters. Will you rehearse during the week or on Sundays? Will you rehearse throughout the school year, or just for a season?

Consider the children you have in your congregation who may be interested in singing in choir. I started out with children in grades 1-6 so that we’d have a group of about 12. If you have enough interest, consider dividing the children into two age groups: K-2 and 3-6.

Once these pieces are in place, then you can start thinking about an overall theme for the year.

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Choosing a Theme

An overall theme can guide your planning, music selection, and activities, and foster engagement among those participating.

For the first year, I decided to build on an idea from a children's choir I had worked with in the past - "The Image of God." The visuals were things like film strips and photographs and each month, we explored a new way that we are made in God's image.

The second year, I planned an "Around the World" theme with music from various countries, flags, passports, and international prayers like Alan Paton’s “For Courage to Do Justice” (United Methodist Hymnal #456):

"Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to those places. AMEN."

Once you have a theme, begin planning ways for the children to participate in worship throughout the year.

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Participating in Worship

One of the things that sets a church children’s choir apart from a school or community choir is the element of spiritual formation. Talk about the importance of sharing music in worship (read more here and here), the difference between worship and performance, and the impact of the message we have to share. Help the children to see that singing praises to God is a true privilege and that they are leaders when they participate in worship.

In addition to a few anthems throughout the year (including a few with the adult choir), you might plan and coordinate the music for the children's Christmas play as another opportunity for them to sing in worship.

Set goals for the program—both musical and spiritual—and begin searching for music.

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Choosing Repertoire

Pull from a variety of musical resources (especially those that are free!): hymnals (consider choosing a Hymn-of-the-Month, which maybe gets incorporated into worship on a day they sing), octavos already in your choral library (unison/2-part or SA), online resources, music you have at home, and a few new anthems that you find through Sheet Music Plus, J.W. Pepper, and Choristers Guild.

Related post: Top 50 Favorite Anthems for Children’s Choirs

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An invitational postcard for our "Around the World" choir year

Getting the Word Out

Next, promote your new program and invite children to participate. Write short announcements in the bulletin and newsletter, post information on the church website, post a flier at the library or gym, and pass out fliers at the beginning of the school year.

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Planning for Rehearsal

As you begin planning for the first rehearsals of the year, try to include several elements of discovery:

• uncover a new symbol somewhere in the room each month (a new picture on the film strip or a new flag)

• collect “stamps” from each country you visit in passports made with copy and construction paper

• fill out scripture cards (if the children look up the month's verse at home, copy it down and bring it back in, they get a piece of candy from the scripture jar—added incentive!)

Begin preparing your choir room or rehearsal space with other visuals like a "Thankful Tree" (the children in my choir loved this so much, we kept it around in the spring and turned it into a "Good Attendance Tree") and a world map where you can mark all the places you travel throughout the choir year.

For fun, pull together a few silly songs and musical games to use as change-of-pace activities: Ham and Eggs (traditional) and Irish circle/line dances when you "visit" Ireland around St. Patrick's Day. I love Madelyn Bridges' book, Sing Together, Children.

In a typical rehearsal, I started with a gathering activity or musical game. We did a few minutes of stretching and warm-ups before singing through the Hymn-of-the-Month. We read the scripture verse, reviewed the Symbol of the Month, and read the opening prayer together.

Next, I reviewed something familiar—a hymn or anthem. Then, we spent some time looking at a new anthem: learning the melody and text and discussing its meaning. By this point, the group was usually ready for a change of pace: a hand jive or clapping activity, a silly song, a musical game, or some rhythm improvisation. Generally, there was time left for one more song or anthem, one more change of pace activity, and our closing prayer.

Related resource: Free Children’s Choir Rehearsal Template

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Singing with Purpose

Consider tying in a mission element. For the "Around the World" theme, Operation Christmas Child was a perfect choice. This gave the children an opportunity to participate in something greater than our church and give to those in need. Together, we packed and shipped over two dozen shoe boxes to children around the world that year.

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Celebrating

How will you celebrate at the end of the choir year? Consider an ice cream party or game night or a special outing or field trip of some kind. 

Our end-of-year celebration for the "Around the World" year was a pizza party. Each family brought a different colored pizza topping and everyone helped make pizzas that looked like flags from around the world. We played a few traditional games from different countries, did a little trivia, and celebrated a year of exciting travel and music-making.

Related post: Four Ways to Celebrate the End of the Choir Year

End-of-the-Year "Around the World" Party Invitation

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Learn how to lead and teach your children’s choir, creatively and confidently.

Join me in Directing a Church Children’s Choir 101,
a 4-week online training program geared specifically toward children’s choir directors in church settings.

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I hope these ideas are helpful as you start your own children's choir program! Have other ideas or suggestions for working with children's choirs? Please share them in the comments!

Cultivating Creativity

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original."

What a great quote by Sir Ken Robinson.

Confession: Sometimes, I get caught up watching TED Talks.  They're just so engaging and each presenter has something unique to say.  Topics are often very different but the commonality is found in the discussion of innovation, education, technology, and creativity.  In this talk, Sir Ken Robinson talks about the creativity of young children and how our educational system counteracts it (i.e. kills it) in favor of more important subject matter (math and science).  He offers three useful points when describing intelligence:

1. Intelligence is diverse. We think visually, in sound, and kinesthetically; we think in abstract, we think through movement.

2. Intelligence is dynamic. The brain is interactive.  Creativity often comes about through different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

3. Intelligence is distinct. How did you discover your talent?

How can we cultivate creativity in our teaching?

Child's Play

It was gorgeous here on Saturday.  Too gorgeous to sit inside all day.  So, I took my notes, my current summer reading material, and my new pair of sunglasses and packed up for an afternoon of studying in the park.

A few people passed by on their way to the bus stop, the coffee shop, or the parking garage and didn't take much notice of me on my bench.  A middle-aged woman and two young children crossed the street and sat on the bench to wait for the bus.  The children - two girls, the oldest was maybe seven and her sister either four or five - immediately began exploring the park.

Instantly, they were in play.

"Hi!" the oldest said to me as she rounded the curve where I was sitting.  "Hi!" I said back, smiling.  She continued on her way, with her sister following close behind, imitating her every step.  "This is the path to the princess," the older one said.  I pretended to read my notes as I watched them play.  They were skipping around the same section of the park - an oblong circle - but every time they rounded the corner, it was as if it was brand new territory to explore.

"Y'all get down from there!" a voice said from behind me.  "You're going to fall!"

The girls returned quickly to where their "Nana" was waiting but within a minute or two, they were back on their quest for the missing princess.  "For real, for real, this is the way to the princess," the older one said as they made their way around the circle again.  "Princess!" the younger one called out.  Within minutes, they went from searching for the princess to chasing the princess through the magical forest.  They changed direction and circled round the same section of the park as if it were brand new.

"Y'all stop that!  Come over and sit on this bench.  You're going to miss the bus!" the voice said again.

The girls again paused their game of play and sat for a moment but just as before, they were quickly on their feet again.  Now, the game was Hide and Seek.  The older one ran across the little park to a new section (yet to be explored) and the younger one soon followed.  As they chased each other around the flower bed in the middle of the park, they saw a bright orange butterfly.  They both froze in an instant, mesmerized.  The older one quickly gave instructions to her sister - "Wait here, I'll get it," she said as she tiptoed closer and closer.  As she reached her hand out slowly, the butterfly flew up into the air suddenly, causing both little girls to jump back and squeal.  Now, the game was "chase the butterfly."  A man blowing leaves off the park benches jumped into the game for a minute when he reached his hands up as the butterfly flew overhead.  The girls giggled.

Within the span of twenty minutes or so, these girls moved seamlessly from one idea to another without discussion (i.e. "now what should we do" or "how about we play this?") and without explanation (i.e. "so, there's this princess in a magical forest and we're going to go find her").  They were in almost constant play the entire time (except for those intervening moments where an adult told them to STOP playing and wait for the bus).  I was struck by their uninhibited creativity, their level of imagination, and the quick change of pace.

This is play.

Do we remember what it feels like?  How did we forget?  Do we encourage it when we see it or do we tell children to stop playing so they can do something boring and adult like sit on a bench waiting for the bus?

Maybe play is more important than sitting and waiting.  Maybe play is more important than watching TV all afternoon.  Maybe real play is more important than playing games on a handheld device.  Play is how we learn, how we grow, and how we develop creativity.  Play is how we learn to interact with others.  Play is how we learn to dream, discover, and explore.  Have you searched for the lost princess lately?  For real, for real, this is the way.

Image Credit: my iPhone

Shooting Stars

Earlier this week, I had an eight-year-old student bring this into her lesson – her first composition.  At our last lesson, I asked her to try making up a few of her own songs that used some of the same musical elements she had recently learned (quarter notes, half notes, legato playing, and changing registers).

“Shooting Stars” is a piece for right and left hand in 5/4 time (how cool is that?!), spanning four octaves.  There are repeated rhythm patterns as well as tonal patterns and the ascending tetrachord in each pattern combined with the shifts in register really exemplifies the title.  Notice the “key” in the top left hand corner that indicates hand position (modeled from our lesson book, The Music Tree).  Up to this point, the songs in the book have only included black keys; I love the initiative it took to create a new piece on the white keys!

I’m so proud!

Matthew's Lesson

Every Monday night at 6:30 p.m., seven-year-old Matthew comes for a piano lesson.  Some days, these lessons are 80% discipline and 20% playing but this week’s lesson was an exceptional contrast. In preparation for our lecture recital, Steve and I had moved the piano from it’s usual front right position to front and center (and rotated 180-degrees).  This change to our normal lesson scene made an immediate difference with Matthew.  The curly-headed, wiggly child sat right down and flipped his book open to our newest page.  “Are we starting with this piece?” I asked, pointing to the first of the two.  Without a word, he brought his hands up to the keyboard and began to play.  He meant business!  I sat to the side and observed until the end of the piece.  Matthew has an excellent sense of rhythm so generally it’s just fingering and tonal patterns that we need to review.  This performance, however, required no review!  He played the song in it’s entirety while chanting the text.  I was impressed!

We moved on to the second piece on the page by reviewing the rhythm/text.  After tapping and chanting, I asked him to find his hand position.  Again, he played straight through, while chanting the text with no issues!

Normally, by this point in the lesson, I would be kindly asking him to take his feet off the pedals, sit still, play with only fingers 2 and 3, etc.  Since he was so focused and playing so well, I encouraged him to explore the change in sound when adding a little pedal.  He played very gently – adding about half of the sustain pedal throughout.

At the end, I asked, “How did that change the sound?”  He had an immediate response.  “It stays,” he said simply.  “Yes!” I replied enthusiastically.  “It makes the sound last longer, doesn’t it?”  “Yes, and if I were just playing notes like this-” he stopped to demonstrate a pattern of steps “then I wouldn’t need the pedal.  But if I were playing here [high register] and then I wanted to go down here [moving to the mid-low register] then I would need the pedal.”  What an insightful response!  It became clear to me that Matthew not only recognized the sound difference but knew how he would use it in the future as a way of connecting patterns in different registers!

Having recently learned about 2nds, playing on white keys (this book starts on the black keys), and dotted half notes, I asked Matthew to improvise a piece that incorporated all three things.  He thought for a minute before beginning.  Thoughtfully, he played a stepwise melody with a repeated rhythmic motive.  He used both hands and a wide range of keys.  The piece ended rather abruptly but from the look on his face, this was intentional.

“That was beautiful, Matthew!”  I said.  “What’s the name of that piece?”  “I haven’t decided yet,” he said in a matter-of-fact way.  “Let’s ask your grandma what she thought,” I suggested.  “I thought it sounded whimsical,” she said.  Seeing the perplexed look on Matthew’s face (“What the heck does that mean?!”) she quickly added, “Like playing with toys.”  “Hmm, what do you think, Matthew?” I asked.  “Toy Days,” he stated.  And “Toy Days” it was.

We moved back in the book to review his recital pieces – “Inchworm” and “Playing Frisbee.”  We work on text from the very beginning of learning a new piece but in preparation for the recital, I’ve been working on having Matthew think the words internally instead of speaking them out loud.  We reviewed this for both pieces and as I joined him on the bench to add the duet part, I reminded him about bringing our hands up to the keyboard at the same time and lifting our hands off the keys and back to our laps at the end of the piece.  His grandmother was very impressed.

I had one more piece to review – “Merrily We Roll Along.”  This is a great example of knowing/singing a song one way and reading it another.  This elementary piano book carefully presents this song within a 3-note range for each hand and with only basic rhythms (for instance, no dotted rhythms).  I believe that reading is important, but I also know that Matthew knows this song with a different rhythm.  I’m not going to correct him with the simplified version when he can hear and play the more complicated version.  All I had to do was turn to the page and he began to play.

I had turned for just a minute to make a comment to his grandmother about practicing but I could hear him working out this song by ear.  He was looking at the book but we both knew he wasn’t really reading it.  He was singing to himself and when he played a wrong note, he would say to himself, “Wait!” and then begin the phrase again and again until he figured it out.  He didn’t stop until he could play all the way to the end.  I thought this was excellent and praised him for using his ear to self-correct.  I played my accompaniment for him and we sang the melody together (with the familiar dotted rhythm).  After that, it was much easier to play both parts because he already had an idea of how the two parts fit together.

We ended our lesson time with a few preparation steps for a new song – reading the text in rhythm and tapping while chanting.  We discussed the implications of the title (“Parade”).  “Have you ever marched in a parade?”  I asked.  “No, but I’ve seen a parade before,” he answered.  “Well, what do you think would happen if you were marching in a parade and suddenly, you decided to stop?”  “You would get run over!” he replied with big eyes.  “Probably so!”  I said.  “That’s what this song means when it says, ‘Keep the step!’”

Lessons like these remind me why I love teaching.  The creativity, the innocence, the playfulness, and the imagination make music so much more fun!  Can we all be a little more like seven-year-olds sometimes?

Making the Intangible Tangible

My piano studio is officially up and running and I have nine students enrolled for the fall.  I have quite a spread at the moment with students ranging from age 5 to retired adult.  I am also teaching seven students and staff members at Fitchburg State University.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to teach at so many different levels but I must confess, Kindergarten and 1st Grade is still my favorite age. Yesterday, I had a lesson with 5-year-old Lily.

With a head full of curls and always decked out in the latest fashion, Lily is bright-eyed and full of energy.  As such, we started our piano lesson with “warm-ups” a.k.a “get the wiggles out before you sit down on the bench.”  We wiggled our arms, we bobbed our wrists, and we wiggled all of our fingers (what a great way to promote large-body movements to fine motor skills and relaxation – something we all should practice!).

We spent the beginning of the lesson reviewing the pieces we started last week: chanting the texts while keeping a steady beat (for the following piece I used an imaginary oar as a variation of the arm swing), tapping the rhythm on the keyboard cover, singing, and looking for musical patterns.

Crossing the lake in a canoe, Paddling along enjoying the view!

“What do you see when you’re paddling across the lake?”  “Umm,” Lily said, cocking her head to one side.  “I see some trees, and a blue sky… and some clouds, and – this is silly.”  “What is it?”  I prodded.  “A bread-tree,” she replied, matter-of-factly.  What is a bread-tree, you might ask?  In Lily’s words, “It’s a tree with slices of bread on it!”  What an imagination!  If only we could look at the world through the eyes of a five-year-old every once in a while.

The second half of the lesson was spent on new material: We walked in place (keeping a steady beat while chanting the text), swung our arms, tapped our hands, and identified the starting hand position.  After demonstrating the beginning of the piece, I said, “Can you copy me?  Do you have it in your head?”

Immediately, Lily’s facial expression changed and I knew this was a concept difficult for her to grasp.  Think about the question literally – imagine the notes swirling around or maybe the printed page crumpled up in your head.  Quick – improvise!

“It’s not in your head?  Well, open it up (pretending to open a door into the top of my head) and put it in!”  She quickly copied my motions, smiling.  I knew she had heard me play the piece and we had spoken the text in rhythm several times as preparation.  Once we overcame this intangible gap, she played the piece just fine.

I learn so much about myself as a teacher in these kinds of lessons.  I can’t help but come home beside myself with excitement and eager to share my creative experiences with Steve – it’s the five-year-old in me.

Rodeo

Five-year-old Alison had just finished playing one of her previous lesson book songs chosen from her “piano box” – an elaborately-decorated tissue box holding the names of all of her “checked-off” songs. Her mom says it’s one of her favorite parts of practicing at home and she begged to incorporate it into piano lessons, too. I think she feels a great sense of accomplishment when she can turn back a few pages and play a familiar song successfully and from the teacher’s perspective, it’s a great repertoire-building technique.

We turned the page for her new assignment, “Rodeo.” As exciting as the piece looked on paper, it just wasn’t engaging enough to hold her interest today.

I asked, “Did you remember your cowgirl hat? You need to wear it in order to play this song.” “Yep!” she replied enthusiastically. “I have it right here,” she said as she pulled the imaginary hat from behind her back. “Guess what color it is?” said the girl dressed in all pink. “Pink,” I said. “Yeah,” she said, as if no other color existed. Hat in place, she began to copy my phrases as we sang together.

I was pleasantly surprised that the imaginative distraction worked – she was actually learning the new piece without even realizing it! I thought too soon. Halfway through, she stopped suddenly and turned to her mom. “I need a skittle! I can’t play anymore until I have one!” she said dramatically. “The skittles are in the car – you can have them after your lesson. Only a few more minutes – I think you’ll survive,” her mom replied.

Alison was insistent, jumping off the bench to plead a little more. “Alison, didn’t you put your skittles in your cowgirl hat?” I asked, trying the imagination tool once more. “Oh yeah!” she said. “I forgot I put them in there!” She pulled the imaginary pink hat off her head and pulled out an imaginary handful of skittles. “What color do you like, Miss Ashley?” “I like the green ones,” I said as she pulled a few imaginary green skittles out of her imaginary handful and handed them to me.

After the brief imaginary skittle-break, we resumed playing “Rodeo,” imaginary pink cowgirl hat in place.