Note Recognition with Kalil in Undergraduate Piano Pedagogy

In week two of piano pedagogy class lessons with Kalil, Borah Han, an undergraduate piano performance major at Michigan State, works with Kalil Olsen on note recognition. As you can see in this video, Borah is an effective and friendly communicator. She's also a spectacular pianist!  Kalil has Asperger Syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum that causes him to demonstrate some unique characteristics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome).  As a possible result of this condition, Kalil exhibits particularly keen music performance abilities while having some trouble with concepts such as note recognition.  His rhythm is very strong, he has a natural ability to create a range of sounds on the piano, and his focus during his lessons (which are observed live by 9 people!) and practice sessions is exceptional.  At the same time, pitch reading has been a challenge that my students have decided to take head on.

This week, my class designed a system of sticker labels to help Kalil make a visual connection to landmark notes on the staff and keyboard.  Using garage sale labels in three colors, my students helped Kalil place red stickers on the G of the bottom line of the bass clef and the A of the top line of the bass clef.  Green stickers were placed on the E of the bottom line of the treble clef and the F on the top line of the treble clef.  Middle C was marked with an orange sticker.  We're hoping that such a system will create a connection of landmark keys with landmark notes in both clefs, as well as reinforcing the concept of distance and interval on the keyboard with the same on the clef.  We look forward to seeing if this works!  Stay tuned...