Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Meet Melody

Melody Gruber is an undergraduate student in journalism here at Michigan State University and is kindly acting as the student subject for the graduate level Seminar in Piano Pedagogy for the spring semester here at the College of Music.  Melody is a singer, and took violin lessons growing up, but is brand new to the piano.  My students and I will be teaching her on a weekly basis from level two of the Basic Adult Piano Course from Alfred.  We'll be supplementing this method with pop music she has requested as well as other works from the classical repertoire, and assorted technical exercises.  

A student like Melody poses an interesting challenge for my students in that her musical ability and knowledge is coming from a childhood background in music.  She's a beginning pianist, but certainly not a beginner.  Please see the following video for a peek inside Melody's first two lessons.  As you can see, her dedication, passion, and preparation are outstanding.

Do you have adult students like Melody in your studio?  How does your approach to lessons with a student like this vary from your approach with students of other ability levels?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Outstanding playing for a piano beginner. Looking forward to seeing her progress. Thank you for the wonderful information on this blog. Many teachers in my community read this on a regular basis (I'm in Arizona).

music teachers said...

Is she really a beginner? She seems to have learned more than what we expect from a beginner. I hope she continue to improve her piano skills.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful music teacher's resources.

Unknown said...

Hi,
I like your blog. In this website you will find easy piano sheets specially designed for beginners:
http://easysheet.blogspot.com

They are graded by levels so you can find the optimal performance without getting blocked.
Enjoy,
Lewis

best piano courses said...

Indeed! That is an awesome performance for a student. I can say that the teachers teach piano very well. I wish I can enroll on their piano class.

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Wow very talented indeed for a student, I'm amazed on how fast he is with his fingers at such a young age.

bm pharmacy said...

I will like my son learn to play this kind of music, It's amazing!