My very first student I taught... cannot read notes easily at Grade 5 above.
- She learnt 2 octaves of notes 'quickly'
- If I told her to do 6 pages of beginner books, she would come back with 12.
- If I told her to do C major scale 2 octaves, she can come back to 4 octaves done easily.
My thinking: I thought she was a prodigy at 5 years old.
- She struggled with the key signatures more than 3 sharps/flats.
- She didn't like chords (reading more than one note)
- She struggled with really high notes, or really low notes.
What did I learn?
- She learnt music flash cards by 'guessing' (she didn't explain how she got the answer, probably from muscle memory)
- She learnt scales by remembering the 'patterns'
- She learnt beginner pieces by 'listening'
She's now 10 years old and still thriving at Grade 8. An amazing feat still. But she's going to struggle with self-confidence on note reading by herself. She always will need a teacher or a practice buddy (parent) to help her. Unless one day, she does the Muso Flash Cards.
This is why we revolutionised & created Muso Flash Cards
This little girl's story is one of the reasons why we created Muso Flash Cards. It's not just the quality of the product and the experience we improved. It's the pedagogy - the learning method.
The Muso-Method will guarantee your note reading for life. But we need you to do the games we show on Muso2Six properly, especially the games: Say, Play, Explain & Compare + Explain.
Even in Grade 1 when they consistently get the same note wrong, ask them to count the lines by themselves and explain: WHY? Because... it's between lines 2 and 3. That's why!
By getting into a habit of counting the lines by themselves, they will stop guessing, be able to differentiate the 'similar looking' notes and recognise notes faster.
You will thank me later when your student is in Grade 5 and sight reading notes left and right like crazy.