Tukukkk

I have a student who, when he tries, can figure out what notes he's looking at on the score at a decent pace. He couldn't sit down and sight-read something fluidly, but the foundation is there.

The problem is that when he's trying to learn something new, these skills go out the window, and there's a lot of flailing and guessing until he hits the note that he remembers sounds right there.

This seems to specifically occur when there's a change in hand position. When he's reading intervals without having to move his hands, he does fine.

This issue occurs independent of any fingering issues.

What's a good strategy to address this? Particularly look for tools that help him when he's learning music at home, not just in class.

I understand that anxiety can cause a kid to freak out a little and start "flopping" the fingers, but I won't allow it to continue. I stop them and maybe do one measure at a time, or even one note to the next note. I will ask them again to tell me the note names and the fingering if applicable, and have them play one note at a time. If they had been attempting the music both hands, I have them go down to one hand. The more they "flop", the more I need to step in and micro-manage the reading of the music. I have a pencil at all times, and with my beginners it is almost always pointing to each beat/part-of the beat as they learn a song. In this way, it helps them focus on that one note/set of notes, and I also am physically showing them what tempo I want them playing at. The pencil goes away as they become more secure in what they are doing.

I have a motto as a teacher: "painfully slow, so slow it hurts." If my students are playing too fast, I stop them and make them start again. I drill in the importance of practicing correctly. The muscles memorize movement, and the player needs to make sure to create a proper "groove" of movement so the nerve impulses from the brain to the finger move smoothly, automatically, and fast. But this "groove" cannot be created unless is is painstakingly formed slowly and correctly each time. I tell my students that if they are flopping their fingers around, that is what they are teaching their fingers to do. I reiterate that the brain is in charge. The brain needs to clearly tell the fingers what to do and then make sure the fingers "obey."

I also usually do not play the song first for my students if they need to read the music. I might play it after they struggle through reading it so they can hear how it sounds all put together.

I see this all the time with my students. Most students are impatient. They want to rush through it because they don’t want to give it a lot of time. I think a percentage of them also play too fast in an effort to show me how smart they are.

Changing this involves a change in belief, which takes a long time to change.

Besides explanation, I have 2 practical approaches that are both effective: 1.) I put my finger on the page and tell them not to play past my finger as it moves, and I narrate what their doing and any challenges I see they’re going to run into, such as big jumps, hand shifts, or odd fingerings. 2.) I basically do the same as 1 but I’m at the keyboard playing with them instead of pointing.

I make them go back and re-do things they skip over, and if they’re truly being a hot mess, I make them stop what they’re doing, take a deep breath, and tell them that it’s hard to help them if they aren’t listening to me. If you always focus your comments / directions through the lens of helping with them, it’s very hard for them to argue with someone who only wants to make their life better.

Hope that helps.

Are you certain this student actually knows the locations of notes on the staff?

I'm thinking of my own students as they first learn a C clef. If the music moves by second or third, they know the pitches without difficulty. But a leap of a sixth always creates some hesitation until they get their bearings again.

It sounds like this is exactly what your student is doing; he's "reading intervals" (like my students moving by second or third) but then gets lost when he has to move his hands (like my students when they leap a sixth).

With only this information, I would recommend slowing down and really making sure they have immediate recognition of note names on the staff.

When I was at that stage on piano, reading bass clef, which was new to me at the time been a saxophonist. My teacher would make me sing the piece out first of all naming the notes.

I also found doing more and more sight reading of different pieces helped me to follow the music easier.

More often than not, the notes to be played are diatonic. Playing up and down the appropriate scale a few times prior to sightreading will put those notes at the forefront of his mind.

Instead of mentally reading each letter name, then finding it on the 'board, which is a two tier process, try a different approach. if, for instance, the next note is just two spaces above the last, again in a space, then it's a 5th above. No real need to name it, but play the note a 5th above. Same goes for line notes.

Get him to be used to looking at how far away notes are, in bigger intervals, in all keys, using the 'ladder'. For chromatic notes, the idea is similar, and the accidentals give clues.