School of Visual and Performing Arts
Department of Music
presents
A Professional Development Day for Music Educators
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The Pedagogy of Group Piano
in the General Music Classroom
8:00 AM- 9:45 AM
and
10:00 AM-11:45 AM
Kathleen Ann Theisen, M. Mus., NCTM
Nationally Certified Teacher of Music
CT Certification, Music K-12
Co-Founder, www.PianoTeacherSchool.com
Adjunct Professor of Music, WCSU
www.wcsu.edu/music
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
I. Goals of teaching class piano in the general music classroom?
Musicianship
Note Reading Skills (Middle C, Multi-key, Intervallic, Eclectic)
Rhythm Reading Skills (Descriptive/Nominative, Numerical, Metric, Syllabic)
Creativity
Improvisation
Transposition
Piano Technique (Drops, Arm Weight, Posture, Rotation for legato touch)
II. Teaching Scales
Pentascales
Tetrachord Scales (KHHW WWWH)
Octave (or more) Scales with one hand
All fingerings are in groups of 3s and 4s
There are three ‘hieroglyphic’ scales (B, F#, C#)
III. How to choose music
Is the method systematic and logical in its presentation of concepts and skills?
Does it provide ample reinforcement?
Does it present a comprehensive intro to music through piano playing?
IV. Music recommendations
Rote Songs (Ebeneezer, Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Pentascale Songs (Jelly Bean, Do do do, Ice Cream…)
Songs by ‘ear’
Heighted notation (Halloween)
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
Use more sophisticated sound as students get older
Pop arrangements
Leadsheets
play roots of chords with LH; melody or chords with RH
create ensembles ‘on the spot’ in class
Chord Progressions
Harmonizations
Transpositions
V. Recommended Hardware
Keyboard (MIDI)
USB Camera: LogiTech HD WebCam C910
USB Microphone: Blue Snowball
Projector (or computers for each student)
VI. Software
Classroom Maestro (low-tech: Keynote Visualizer)
Remote Desktop
Garage Band or Audacity (to record exams)
Home Concert Xtreme
Karaoke Player
Synthesia
For conferencing: Skype, Internet MIDI
Smart Music (to record exams)
Online drop box or assignments (e.g. Moodle, Blackboard Vista)
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
Screen Capture Software (for making videos): Camtasia, ScreenFlow
MIDI files (use a textbook that has MIDI files, such as Alfred Group Piano)
VI. Setting up your lab
Pianos with weighted keys
Pianos at proper height (or raise the benches)
Built-in ‘extra’ sounds and metronome
Ability to connect to computer
VII. Support for Group Piano Teaching
National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy
handouts from conferences: http://www.francesclarkcenter.org/NationalConferenceHandouts.html
Clavier Companion Magazine
Music Teachers National Association
GP3 - group piano pedagogy http://members.mtna.org/gp3/index.html
Connecticut State Music Teachers Association, Inc. www.csmta.org
American Music Teacher Magazine www.mtna.net
MTNA E-Journal www.mtna.net
Website: KeysToImagination.com (to buy MIDI files, software, guides to setting up your lab)
Website: PianoTeacherSchool.com (to take online courses in Technology)
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
VII. Piano Pedagogy Books
Baker-Jordan, Martha. Practical Piano Pedagogy. Warner Brothers.
Uszler, Gordon, Mach and McBride Smith. The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher. Schirmer.
Bastien, James. How to Teach Piano Successfully. Kjos.
Jacobsen, Jeanine (edited by E.L. Lancaster): Professional Piano Teaching: A Comprehensive Piano Pedagogy Textbook for Teaching Elementary-Level Students. Alfred
Fisher, Christopher: Teaching Piano in Groups. Oxford.
IX. How students should prepare to major in music:
Knowledge of Music Theory
Major and Minor Scales and Key Signatures
Sense of meter/pulse/rhythm
All Pentascales (like ‘choral warmups’) and ‘leapfrog’ arpeggios
Intervallic reading approach
Ease and comfort at the keyboard
Solfege/Scale Degrees
Ability to sing simple melodies at sight
Good practice skills and strategies
Link to NASM: http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/index.jsp?page=FAQ%2017
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
Kathleen Ann Theisen, M. Mus., NCTM
Kathleen Ann Theisen, Nationally Certified Teacher of Music, trained as a bassoonist and classical and jazz pianist before pursuing an operatic career. She has performed as a soprano with The Metropolitan Opera and numerous regional opera companies and symphonies. Theisen has taught at Western Connecticut State University since 2007, where she has taught courses in Keyboard Competency, Arranging, Theory, Piano Pedagogy, Accompanying and Sight-Singing. She is in her fourth semester as the conductor of the WCSU Concert Choir. She also designed an online Music Essentials Course for WCSU that has been offered since 2010. An enthusiast for classical, jazz, and contemporary music, Kathleen has also been on the faculty at the University of Illinois “Illinois Summer Youth Music” Piano Camp (2008, 2010, 2011), Walnut Hill Summer Theatre School, Madison (WI) Country Day School, Wausau (WI) Conservatory of Music, Greenwich (CT) Public Schools, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Piano Project. For four years, she served as Director of Choral Activities at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her Chamber Singers had the distinction of being the only high school choir invited to perform at the Harvard Festival of Collegiate Womens' Choirs in April of 2002.
In 2011, Theisen co-founded an online training school for music teachers: www.PianoTeacherSchool.com. The school currently offers four courses in business and technology and will be adding additional courses in 2012 in business, technology and pedagogy. An active member of many music teachers’ associations, Theisen currently serves as President, Newsletter Editor and WebMaster of the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association, Inc.(www.csmta.org), Website Designer and Secretary of the Fairfield County Chapter of CSMTA (www.fairfieldcountymusicteachers.com) and Chair of the Young Musicians Festival in Voice (www.ymfestival.org) for the Schubert Club of Fairfield County. She is also the national chair of the State Presidents Advisory Council for the Music Teachers National Association. Now in her 22nd year of private teaching, she maintains a private voice and piano studio in Greenwich and Danbury. Her current and former private students can be seen on television, in movies and on Broadway. In the Fall of 2006, she spent five weeks teaching movie star Elle Fanning for her piano solo in the movie Reservation Road, which was released in theaters nationwide in October 2007 and is available on DVD.
A recipient of many piano, vocal and teaching awards, Theisen won the University of Wisconsin Beethoven Competition for her performance of Op. 106, Das Hammerklavier, and was the Wisconsin winner of the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition. In 2010, she was one of four professors at WCSU to receive the “ClassTech” Grant from the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching for her high-tech approach to class piano. She also received the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Award of Excellence in recognition of her piano teaching. She has presented workshops on topics such as high tech class piano, online class piano, online music theory, creating videos to enhance your teaching, jazz piano, music technology, website design, studio entrepreneurship and music for life at the MTNA National Conference, College Music Society/Association for Technology in Music Instruction National Conference, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and many state and local music teachers associations. Publications include articles in Clavier Companion and American Music Teacher.
Theisen spent many years playing clubs in the Midwest and has composed classical, pop, rock and jazz music (and even a polka!). She performs her own works frequently throughout the NY metro area. Theisen earned the B.Mus. (Piano) magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and the M. Mus. (Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy) summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with additional graduate work in piano at the University of Michigan. She holds permanent professional certification (piano) from MTNA and Music (K-12) certification through the Connecticut Department of Education. For more info: www.kathleentheisen.com and www.PianoTeacherSchool.com.
WCSU Professional Development Day 2011 - Kathleen Ann Theisen - Group Piano
