pianophonics — a whole new world of piano teaching and learning

Pianophonics — a piano method that really works

Pianophonics is a quantum leap forward for piano teaching, just as the Kodaly method was for classroom music. Pianophonics imparts the basics in a virtually foolproof way, with the note-reading, rhythm, technique and motivation all coordinated in a simple and intuitive new synthesis.

I’m Mark Freer, an Adelaide concert pianist, teacher and composer. I spent nearly two decades drawing up, testing and discarding one draft after another in my quest for ‘the perfect piano course’. Finally, through 2009, I wrote Pianophonics 1-15 for around 30 primary-age beginners.

The result was something totally new. Every student learned to read music at the piano, fluently and with perfect rhythm. Some ran along this pathway as fast as they could. Others (including sufferers from autism, Downs and Aspergers) took it at a gentler pace. But all succeeded. And since the publication of Pianophonics 1-15 in May 2010, hundreds of users world-wide are replicating this success.

How was it achieved?

Inductive and deductive learning

We reason — and learn — in two ways. One way is to infer structure and order from the concrete things and events around us, just as a young child learns to talk. Here you’re simply immersed in a particular environment and gradually make sense of your surroundings. This is inductive reasoning: from the particular to the general.

The other way of learning goes in the opposite direction — deductively — from the general to the particular. You learn a language deductively by learning some grammar rules and vocabulary up front, then deducing from the rules how to use the vocabulary.

The ‘whole word’ reading method is inductive, and the phonics method is deductive. Which one is right? Both and neither! Induction and deduction are flip sides of the same coin. Obviously, the best way to learn a language is both to immerse yourself in it and do an intensive course!

Pianophonics has the balance right

So we need the inductive element of ‘immersion’ together with deductive, rule-based learning. Both have to operate in tandem every step of the way. If there’s a secret to Pianophonics, then this is it: it’s got the balance right. You can read more about this in an excerpt from the Teaching Notes.

Opening Pianophonics 1-15 for the first time, you’ll see a set of nicely laid-out children’s pieces with titles like Spanish Dance, Bells and Echoes, as well as a few small exercises. This is the child’s-eye view, and just what a beginner ought to see. But an experienced teacher will see far more than this. Underneath, it’s a sequence of learning events that has been optimized in every possible way during relentlessly rigorous real-world testing and modification.

Pianophonics places a powerful new tool in the hands of serious and dedicated piano teachers around the world. There’s no more hit-and-miss with the note-reading, and motivation is maximized without compromise or dumbing-down.

The biggest motivator is always the sense of achievement and mastery that comes with the aquisition of a real skill!

For around the cost of a piano lesson — $AUD 24.95, including free shipping anywhere — you can purchase Pianophonics 1-15 securely here. For alternative payment options, or for quantity purchase of 5+ copies, please leave a message on the Contact page.

Q: Why do you ship from Australia?

A: That’s where I am! Here we’re often ordering books from overseas, and we’re used to it. This might be the first time you’ve considered ordering from as far away as Australia. But the only risk is the residual one involved in sending anything by post, anywhere. Australia Post is ultra-reliable—it has to be. Allow 7-10 days for airmail delivery, included in the purchase price, and leave a message via the Contact page if you need extra delivery options.

Q: Why Pianophonics 1-15?

A: Later in 2011 I plan to publish Pianophonics 16-30, designed to lead into the Bach 2-part Inventions, and then the task of Pianophonics will be complete. It would be easier to say Pianophonics 1 and Pianophonics 2, but there are too many concepts in 1-15 that have been thought through from scratch. Lesson 16 will be precisely that: the lesson that comes after 15.

Q: Do you welcome customer feedback?

A: Yes, I’m keen to know how users are getting on with Pianophonics, and am happy to offer help and advice.

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"[Introduction]… This small book took 18 years to write. When, in 1991, I started testing ideas on my then 6- and 4-year old daughters, I had already long felt the need for a piano course that imparted note-reading in a more-or-less foolproof manner, that was enjoyable, and that was not filled with clunky, childish and easily-memorized pieces (or, for that matter, puerile kiddie-kulture illustrations).

‘Childish’ and ‘childlike’ are worlds apart, as every adult knows who has ever enjoyed The Hobbit, Winnie-the-Pooh or Animal Farm. Those stories were each written for a particular child — or children, in Tolkien’s case — at whose bedtime the day’s writing efforts would be subjected to the ultimate test. In my case, this initial volume of Pianophonics was written for some 30 children whom I started teaching in February this year as fee-paying students, most of them in state primary schools here in South Australia, most of them getting a 20-minute weekly private lesson during school hours which was more like 15 minutes by the time I had gone to the classroom and collected the child: a real-life piano-teaching situation, and indeed a very average and non-privileged one.

In hindsight it was a more or less necessary part of the process that I should have lost count of the number of false starts I made over the years. It may have been 25, maybe 30, some of which were euthanased quickly and mercifully, others of which grew to over 100 pages before I realized that the final gestalt was still eluding me. But all this preparation made it possible for me finally to write the course for a real-world teaching situation in such a way that my constant revisions didn’t disrupt the progress of any student. By and large the children would be amused when I produced ‘edition 153’ with holes pre-punched, quickly swapped over the plastic covers with my spine binder, then commenced the lesson. It may have cost a couple of trees.

But all has been vindicated, as happy students and parents will attest. Some children have nearly finished this first volume, whilst others have reached Fire Dance, where the notes first go small and grown-up-looking. Students with not only diagnosed but also real learning difficulties are as proud of their progress as the go-getters at the other end of the scale, pardon the pun. Above all, every student is confidently reading the music the way a professional does: eyes on the notes, fingers doing their job without anxious scrutiny: ‘they’re not going to fall off, are they’.

The pieces are designed so that this — the right way — is also the path of least resistance. And because they are real pieces, albeit constructed within tightly controlled parameters, the process of repeatedly reading them can be as endlessly satisfying as that of splashing around, first in the toddler’s pool in lessons 1 through 4, then the shallow end of the big pool in 5 and 6, then finally venturing into the deep end from 7 . Same pool every day? Same water? Same sunshine? Not a problem. The fascinating thing is the process, in this case the conversion of musical code on the page into satisfying sounds, all of which add up to a piece of music that can both be enjoyed alone and performed for others.

In this process a real skill is being acquired in a natural, enjoyable and organic manner, with the right balance of inductive and deductive learning. Reading music fluently is the key to learning piano, just as fluent language reading and writing are the key to all other education. The fact that so many students give up — after, say, three years and, say, $3,000 worth of private tuition — is something to be rectified. For myself, Pianophonics has turned what used to be a difficult and stressful job into a vibrant and endlessly exciting one.

The notes at the end of the book are to help you make the most effective use of this material. Regard Pianophonics as you would a piece of advanced software — akin to the Sibelius and InDesign programs I used for the musical typesetting and the layout — , one that will take a bit of time and effort to learn to use. Your investment will be repaid many times over as you are freed from concern about the material in order to focus fully on the needs of each student.

a whole new world of piano teaching and learning

Pianophonics — a piano method that really works

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