Course Content by Unit
Unit 1: Teaching piano technique to children and young people learning the piano
- Posture
- Hand / arm position
- Independence of hands
- Tonal balance between hands
- Making the sound
- Voicing
- Pedalling
- Legato pedalling
- Pedalling for various styles
- Una Corda
- Pedalling and phrasing
- Finger technique and fingering
- Legato and staccato
- Finger independence
- Tone quality and touch
- Harmonics
- Care of the instrument
Unit 2: How children and young people learn to play the piano
- How learners learn
- Simultaneous Learning
- Learning spiral
- My learners now
- Understanding, assimilating and consolidating
- Skills, knowledge and understanding
- Learning music musically
- Developing aural awareness/perception and acuity
- Pupil/teacher relationships
- Learning scales and studies
- Starting a lesson
Unit 3: Teaching strategies for piano teachers working with children and young people
- Understanding my teaching now
- Preparation for teaching
- Expectation of teaching outcomes
- Diagnosis of learners’ needs
- Audio-Visual-Kinaesthetic learning
- Aptitude for learning
- Motivation for learning
- Simultaneous learning (P Harris)
- Assessment
- Exams/Festivals/Competitions
- Tutors/methods
- Teaching whole classes/small groups/individuals
- Proactive and reactive teaching
Unit 4: Developing a piano teaching curriculum for children and young people
- Understanding what is meant by a curriculum and a syllabus
- Preparing and implementing schemes of work
- Short/medium and long term planning
- Personalising learning
- Becoming a reflective practitioner
- Communicating as a musician
- Playing and performing
- Chamber music
- Special Needs
- Schools of piano playing including Russian; German, French etc
- Alexander Technique
Laura Ritchie
Deputy Director of Academic Studies
Emyr Roberts
Head of department – Piano
