Foundations of Music Literacy: Intervallic Reading (Part 1)
Helping students become confident and proficient readers of music notation is one of the core tasks of the piano teacher. After all, the eventual goal is that our students are able to learn music independently and understand it deeply. The question is, then, how to accomplish this? In my many years of teaching, I’ve found that some students have a natural aptitude for reading and pick up concepts quickly and effortlessly, while others struggle to improve and may take a much longer time to master concepts. My husband, Christopher Fisher, was the first type of student: a natural reader. He told me that his sight reading skills began to flourish by playing hymns during church services. Around the age of eleven, members of the congregation would call out different hymns and he was challenged to simply play them on the fly!
When I consider my own experience as a beginning pianist, I have to admit that I remember very little about the process of learning to read music. I do know that I started lessons when I was about six years old, and that my piano teacher had a candy dish for me to choose from at the lesson’s end, but my memory falters after that point. Do you have memories of learning to read music? What was the experience like for you, and do you feel it has influenced how you teach your students?
One thing is certain: despite differences in aptitude and student background, we are challenged as teachers to help all of our students improve their reading and develop musical literacy. The key to this is time, persistence, and the implementation of a systematic and thorough reading approach.
Factors that Contribute to Fluent Reading
Before we embark on a discussion on why we have chosen to use an intervallic reading approach in the Piano Safari method, let’s take moment to consider some of the factors that contribute to fluent reading.
Notational Audiation
The ability to audiate notation means that a musician can look at a score and hear it internally, without actually playing it. Edwin Gordon, a renowned music educator who developed Music Learning Theory, (MLT) explains this idea more thoroughly in his book The Aural/Visual Experience of Musical Literacy:
“When notationally audiating, the simplicity of what the symbols represent is transcended. Notation is a “window” that one sees through: audiation is on the other side. A musician who can audiate is able to bring musical meaning to notation.”
Notational audiation is key for strong reading skills because a connection exists between the eyes, ears, and fingers. Gordon also says that “Audiation is to music as thought is to language” (Gordon, 1999: 42). Think for a moment about reading a book. While reading, we hear the words in our minds, ideally with character and inflection. We also understand the meaning of the words. Can you imagine trying read without this ability? It would become a mechanical exercise. In the same way, students who lack the ability to audiate will struggle to mature not only in their ability to read notation, but in their overall musicianship.
A more extensive discussion of audiation and how to help students develop this ability is beyond the scope of this article, but I encourage you to read more on this interesting and relevant topic.
Pattern Recognition
When an excellent reader views notation, their eyes naturally group notes into meaningful patterns. Examples of common musical patterns are scales, arpeggios, chord inversions, chord progressions, sequences, and accompaniment patterns such as Alberti bass or waltz bass. This is why it is absolutely vital that teachers drill common technical patterns with their students. A student who has these patterns ingrained in their motor memory will be able to recognize them more easily while reading, and will also execute them with less effort. The thorough knowledge of technical patterns and proficient reading go hand in hand.
Melodic Contour and Intervals
In addition to pattern identification, a fluent reader is able to follow the rise and fall of the melodic line and read directionally. They are able to recognize and understand intervals, rather than viewing each note as its own individual unit.
Individual Note Recognition
A strong reader will be able to instantly connect a note on the page with its location on the keyboard. It is not enough to simply look at a note and name it. There needs to be a developed awareness of the keyboard and where that specific note is located.
Time and Persistence
It is evident that many complex factors combine to create a fluent reader, and they all require ample time and persistence to develop. Consider the number of years it takes a child to achieve reading literacy. The vast majority do not move directly from Dr. Seuss to Tolstoy! Instead, they increase their reading level gradually over a period of many years before they reach complete fluency. It is the job of the piano teacher to work with students patiently and encourage them through the process of learning to read music notation.
Intervallic Reading: A Brief History
The intervallic reading approach was pioneered in 1955 by Francis Clark in Time to Begin, the first book in The Music Tree method (as a side note, this is the method I used to learn piano when I was a beginner). Instead of starting with individual notes and memorizing them, students learn to recognize steps (2nds), skips (3rds), and repeated notes. Students read by melodic contour and interval, measuring the distance between each note, rather than reading one note at a time. Students begin on a partial staff that gradually expands to the grand staff. Other prominent piano pedagogues such as Marvin Blickenstaff, Louise Bianchi, and Lynn Freeman Olson also used this reading approach in their early level method, Music Pathways.
The Piano Safari Reading Approach
After surveying all available piano methods, teaching for many years, and researching the history and philosophy of different reading approaches, we decided to use the intervallic reading approach in Piano Safari. The intervallic approach is optimal because it develops the ability to read by melodic contour rather than note-by-note, and lends itself more naturally to the other factors that create fluent readers.
Our earliest sketches of the reading pieces in Repertoire Book 1 contained pieces on a partial staff. We initially liked the idea of adding lines and spaces with the introduction of different intervals, but in the end we decided to keep things standard with a five line staff from the beginning. Students learn the treble and bass clef signs and start on the landmark notes Treble G and Bass C. These landmarks were chosen because they are central to the staff, and students can play in a variety of keys when they begin on different finger numbers. For example, if a student starts finger 5 on G, they can play in a C Major Pentascale position. If they start on Finger 4 on G, they can play in D Minor, and if they begin on Finger 1 they can play in G Major. This provides flexibility in tonality and also prevents students from getting “stuck” in one position.
In Part 2 of this article, I will provide specific examples of how the intervallic reading approach unfolds in Piano Safari Levels 1 and 2. This reading approach is applied in both the Sight Reading & Rhythm Cards and in the reading pieces that are contained in the repertoire books.
Reference: Gordon, E, (1999) “All about Audiation and Music Aptitudes” in Music Educators Journal v86 n2 p41-44 Sep 1999
