ABRSM Teacher Development

Core Musical Skills

Introducing notation
Ask yourself if a young child should learn to read before they can talk, to recite words
from a page before they understand, to talk before they can communicate their feelings.
It is a strange phenomenon of instrumental teaching that this is precisely what we often
ask young, aspiring instrumentalists to do. Teaching a young child to learn a poem by
rote before they have the vocabulary and understanding to appreciate it is no more than
a cheap and emotionally barren trick, yet we hear many young instrumentalists doing
exactly this with a piece of music.
In conventional teaching the composition usually So at what point should we introduce notation
comes first, something unrelated to the young and how? The best way is in a natural, planned
musician, not understood and often of poor quality. progression from free improvisation and very
The performer comes second, spoon-feeding them simple compositions (graphic scores, structured
the ability to play the notes often without the aural images etc.) through a range of communicative
awareness to appreciate the accuracy or otherwise activities and resources that gradually refine the
of the performance. Then the musician comes third, understanding needed to read conventional notation.
adding in some dynamics and articulation, providing Many of these activities could use graphic scores
the young pupil hasn’t become so bored with acquiring which you can design yourself using apps or simply
the ability to play the notes that they lose interest. paper and pencil. Many can also be drawn on paper
in different ways and played by your own pupil; their
Yet this order is clearly absurd. The musician must first compositions.
come first, the composition second, the performer
third. Whether three notes or a symphony. Notation In this unit you will find some examples of
is no more than a means of passing a musician’s homemade resources and related activities that will
ideas to a next generation, offering a profound challenge and develop some of the musicianship
scaffold for the performer’s own thoughts and skills and understanding needed to seamlessly guide
feelings. However well chosen, notated music is not a pupil’s understanding of notation over several
a curriculum, just as books are not. So much more weeks and months.
needs to be happening around this.
Don’t underestimate the amount of
The parallels between speaking and communicating learning that can and will take place
with words and performing and communicating with in each activity, or lose sight of
music are hopefully obvious. Good communication the elements in each that guide
relies on: notational understanding. If
• nuance, sounds, shape, pace/tempo you use imagination but keep
your teacher’s hat on and
• recognisable patterns both of pitch and rhythm
analyse the musical elements
• character, freedom, engagement and imagination that are being nurtured, you can
• technical control to achieve these spend some time exploring one
picture or idea and never lose the
All of these can be worked on without conventional
interest of the young musician.
notation and the benefits are huge. Without having
to worry about the right note at the right time
technique becomes freer and more relaxed, listening
becomes paramount and imagination and creativity
is at the core of everything played.
Here are some examples for first lessons (Copyright AJAW) but the best way is to design your own. It is
crucial to understand what your pupils need to know, in what order, and how can you enable this learning
within creative and imaginative musical activities. If you are unsure, don’t rely on others to do this for
you but instead take time to read, ask, consider and research. Without this clear pre-notation curriculum
planning your teaching will lack a context and your pupil’s progress will stall the moment conventional
notation is placed before them.

Graphic Score: Dogs and Kennels (piano specific)

ACTIVITIES:
• Finding lost dogs in their kennels (finding note D)
• -geography of the keyboard, high and low relating to left and right, balance and posture across the
range of the keyboard, relaxed production of sound on a single note, rhythm, pulse etc.
• Fierce and gentle dogs (exploring different sounds on D)
• -controlling dynamics, and sound, relationship with the key surface, articulation, hand position,
speed across jumps etc.
• Dog party (playing Ds together, using rhythmic patterns for their barks)
• -left and right hand coordination, balance between two hands (one p, the other f, ‘barking’ rhythms
and pulse etc.)
• My Dog Story (my first composition, draw in dogs, also for the teacher to play, or invent a dog story
without score but with a narrative also for the teacher to try)
• -imagination, structure, control, communication, awareness of a score as a ‘handover document’,
musical ownership.

Activities:
Graphic Score: These Boots are Made for Walking (any instrument)

ACTIVITIES:
• Walking boots (use cluster chords or single notes)
-posture and technique, control of sound/tone, left/right orientation and reading, awareness of the
stem and body of a note
• Scarily close (cluster chords, single notes/scalic, rhythmic)
- pulse, crescendo, diminuendo, articulation, tone, small intervals, scales
• Missing feet/extra feet (play and miss out or add some boots)
- pulse, rests, following notes, melodic memory
• Stamp and clap (imitate the boots)
- coordination and rhythm, dynamics, pulse
• The missing stamp (sing or play stamping boots in a scale, find the missing note)
- melodic memory, scalic awareness, experimentation with note production, hearing a note
in the head and /finding, playing it.
• Add a boot (play one note, pupil this and adds another, teacher the same until one forgets, try this
again with different dynamics and articulation too)
- aural awareness, instrumental geography, melodic memory, technical control etc.
Graphic Score: The penguin and the ‘C’ (any instrument)

ACTIVITIES:

• Story time (invent a melody or piece that describes the story, on the piano use the horizon as
middle C, on another instrument choose the note)
- creativity, structure, tonal control, technique, articulation, pacing, referencing a line on the score,
pitch up and down, dynamic control etc.

• My own story (add some pictures, ideas to the score)

- composition, personal ownership of a score, imagination, structure, tonal control, technique etc.
Graphic Score: Frogs and Logs (designed for piano, can be adapted for any instrument)

ACTIVITIES:

• The Scales of the Fish in the Pond (introduce a one octave scale by ear, on the instrument, singing
and playing, different dynamics and articulation, missing notes and singing the next)
- intervals of a scale, intervals of 3rds, beginning to sing, aural awareness, high, low, technical control,
tone production etc.
• Jump to safety (Piano: ‘frog jumping’ from Middle C on alternate white notes. Melodic instruments:
from any appropriate referenced line on the score, across the stave lines in intervals of 3rds, big and
small (major and minor).
- awareness of notes written on lines, notes written in spaces, up and down in pitch
• Splash (jumping but then not quite making it, playing the next note in the scale and falling in the space
between the ‘logs’)
- awareness of smaller intervals, the step movement of a scale, the positioning on lines and spaces etc.
• Heavy and light frogs (jumping but across one and two lines with different dynamics, or articulation,
or rhythms)
- awareness of larger intervals, technique, tonal control, articulation, dynamic range etc.
Here are some further suggestions for breaking
down the elements of notation with a few creative
teaching ideas.
HIGH AND LOW:
Ask your pupil to compose a short piece which
includes just six or eight notes (for example). Draw
musical picture stories which represent the pupils’
own composition using a horizontal ‘horizon’ or a
fence, sea surface etc. and put in characters/symbols
above and below.
ARTICULATION:
Ask them to think of a story/mood/character for this
small melody and add different articulation. Choose
appropriate symbols for these long and short notes.
‘ON A LINE’ AND ‘IN A SPACE’:
Give pupils a large stave or just a couple of lines
to write in the notes of their compositions.
Alternatively, the lines of the stave could be
telephone wires, rivers, stairs etc.
PULSE:
Draw graphic shapes (symbols) to represent notes
or chord clusters at regular intervals on a page and
play them to one another in time.
Play and listen to pieces that are dance-like or in
march time, perhaps using pictures of dancers or
soldiers or raindrops and imitate these
Do physical activities like marching, dancing, clapping
and think how these might be represented on a piace
of paper (2 counts, 1 count etc.)
A SENSE OF STRUCTURE:
Draw pictures for some simple compositions –
e.g. ‘Journey from school and back home’ might
have an ABA form/picture.
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WRITING NOTES:
Ask your pupil to write down two or three notes of
on a stave and choose which note one of the lines
represents. Play the notes to them, what happens
if you change the starting note, is more information
needed on the score? Do you need any more
information?
Help them write in the detail you need to play them
as they want them played.
FINGERING AND DYNAMICS:
Add these to their own composition.
Ask pupils to show you in their own performance of
their piece what the dynamics should be. You write
them in if you can hear them.
COMPOSING AND READING:
Build up a portfolio of pupils’ compositions. Always
have something ‘on the go’. Always consider playing
a pupils’ compositions for them before they play it to
you. Be literal so that they are encouraged to put in
more detail or correct it. Ask them to compare your
performance with the composition as it should be or
which they hear in their head.
AFTER THE FIRST LESSON
There is a temptation to be drawn into a much more
conservative, reactive and traditional way of teaching
as students mature and grow and it is easy to fall
into this trap within the first few lessons especially if
a conventional Piano Tutor is used. The importance
of these more creative ideas and activities cannot
be over-emphasised, so build on them. For example,
‘puppy’ stories become literature or poems and
relationships become motivational and inspirational
themes. If each activity nurtures and challenges
another element of notational understanding,
technical control, or aural awareness within a ‘fun’
and emotionally engaging context then it must be
valuable.
If you find yourself spending too much time on
theory or notes then take two steps back and break
everything up into smaller, creative musical elements.
Invent resources and material for specific pupils,
perhaps write yourself notes or a commentary so that
you can use them again, and if needed, explain the
parents how they should be best used support their
child’s musical development.