We all know and have heard students who play like that. "Type, type, type......" the pianist is oblivious to the tone, the accidentals, the rhythm, the dynamics. It is because the task of finding the notes has taken up all his brain power. He has no room to think of the other peripherals. We hear the typing student at sightreading time. We also hear them in the students that do not practise at home, or they practise by playing through the music and not polishing the flow of the music. We hear the typing student in the ones that dislike using the metronome because 'the metronome is distracting'.
Sometimes, the seasoned piano teacher will just wait patiently for the student to finish typing the piece.
1. Self awareness
It all begins with self awareness. Do they know that they sound awful typing the piano? Perhaps show them a video recording of them looking for their notes at the lesson.
2. Sing
Beginner books have lyrics that go with the piece of music. The purpose is to get the kids to sing and keep time to their own singing. It also helps to sing in solfege to build a sensitivity to the shape and phrasing.
3. Build good reading habits
Good pianist do not read one note at a time. Just as good typist with good typing speed do not type one finger at a time on the computer keyboard / typewriter. They build a good tactile feel of where the letters are on the keyboard and simply type sentences at a time and leave the fingers to feel the way around the computer keys. Likewise, good pianists read in chunks of patterns, they integrate scales, chords and inversions, and harmony into their playing. They read the music score like they are watching a movie.
4. Pre-hear the music
To play and read well, it helps to know in advance in the mind's eye what the end result sound like before a single note is played. Just like a potter working at the clay on the potter's wheel. The shape of the clay takes shape as the potter intuitively moulds the chunck of clay into a preconceived end result that is already in his cognitive mind.
5. Good teaching
Sometimes teachers are at fault because we teach students to spell their notes rather than to recognise the intervals and direction which the notes move. I know of students who have transferred to me using the Alfred's Premier Course or the Faber Piano Adventures but were not taught to read intervallically. Their previous teachers have simply used the pieces and taught the music by spelling the right hand followed by spelling the left hand. Some students are able to still build up musically past the spelling stage, but the average students with this poor means of reading are handicapped for life typing well into their piano sonatas and Romantic pieces.
6 Practising in small bite size
A good practise regime helps the student to get past the typing stage. A new piece of music may require a bit of effort to familiarise but with repetitions, the motions go into a more permanent memory. Very often students are apathetic to the task of practising mindfully. Settling for substandard playing through slip shod practise.
7 Playing a piece of music that is beyond their level of comprehension
In this age of instant emails and watsapp. People no longer have the patience to wait. Every parent thinks that their kids are the next Lang Lang. Afterall Mozart is able to hear a piece of music one and replicate it note for note as a child. So if Mozart can do it, so can their child. And so, piano teachers end up being the chief monkey for the kids to mimic their playing. Monkey see, monkey do.
Type, type, type.....goes the student, the piano teacher waits for the music to finish.
