TEACHING METHOD

My teaching method is informed by Music Learning Theory (MLT), which is an explanation of how students learn when they learn music. Based on an extensive body of research, MLT provides an approach to teaching audiation, which is the ability to think music in the mind with understanding (www.giml.org).

​

“Audiation is to music what thought is to language.”  Edwin E. Gordon

​

Audiation is similar to the concept of ‘inner hearing’ but it involves a deeper level of understanding and comprehension, allowing students to mentally manipulate and analyse music, as well as to create new musical ideas and variations.

​

The process of learning music is similar to the way children learn their native language – through immersion and exposure. In my classes, beginner students of all ages are therefore invited to participate in a variety of musical experiences including listening, singing, and movement activities as well as exploration of the piano. 

 

As students progress, they follow a sequential programme of activities to acquire a vocabulary of rhythm and tonal patterns, which are applied to piano repertoire, and improvisation and composition projects. In this way, when students are ready to learn to read and write music notation, they do so with fluency and understanding rather than via a process of note-by-note decoding.

​

Since teaching audiation in piano lessons, my students are able to:

• enjoy making music in and outside of their lessons

• play with more flow and sensitivity

• play more accurately

• improvise and memorise music easily

• make progress in every lesson.