Why Every High School Music Program Needs a Class Piano
The jewels of most high school music programs are the major ensembles: Choir, Band, Orchestra. These major ensembles tend to be the core of our programs. They have the highest participation rates and serve as feeder programs to honors ensembles, musicals, and extracurriculars offered. However, often underappreciated and underutilized, general music electives play an essential role in the high school music curriculum. With no prerequisites or performance requirements, they tend to be the most accessible courses offered to the entire student body. Music electives have the potential to fill out the general music literacy skills of our already accomplished musicians, while also serving as potentially the last opportunity novice musicians have of experiencing formal music education. They can even serve as a recruitment tool for our larger programs. No class accomplishes this quite as completely as a high school piano lab. In this article we will explore the benefits to establishing a piano lab course for advanced musicians, novice musicians, and special populations within the school.
Advanced Musicians
As ensemble directors and conductors, particularly of student ensembles, we know that part of our job is to manage the 'big picture' of the music. We take the flute melody, the French horn harmony, the trumpet fanfares, the tuba bass line, and the percussion heartbeat and turn it into a beautiful, balanced, blended piece of music. We also know that the more our students are aware of the big picture themselves, and not simply locked in on their part, the easier that job is. What better way to get our students to be aware of the big picture than by making them responsible for every single musical note and line in a song? In short, by teaching them to play piano! Pianists play multiple notes at once. They are the melody, the harmony, the chordal accompaniment, and the bass line. Pianists don't have the luxury of locking in exclusively on the melody line, and tuning out the harmonies going on around them. Pianists must do the job of every member of the orchestra, including the director. They are responsible for the balance and blend of every song they play. Asking students to learn piano will make them stronger musicians on their main instrument and stronger musical collaborators.
Playing piano also bolsters students musicianship by increasing their music theory skills. Piano music asks students to read both treble and bass clef. Your most accomplished tuba player will struggle when presented with a treble clef line and your most accomplished soprano may resort to writing in letter names when handed a bass clef part. Pianists are fluent in both clefs. Piano can also be an excellent vehicle for teaching music theory concepts. It is a very visual instrument through which students can hear, play, and see chords and scales. Interacting with music theory concepts through piano playing is beneficial to all music students, but most particularly to students interested in pursuing a career in music. Most college and university music programs require students to take some form of class piano or pass a piano proficiency exam. Encouraging future professional musicians to take high school class piano will give them a head start in developing these essential musicianship skills.
Novice Musicians
Many state graduation requirements include some visual or performing arts elective. For example, in my home state of New Jersey, students are required to complete 5 credits in visual or performing arts in order to graduate. At the high school level, this is often the last opportunity students will have to access formal music education, and it is very likely the last opportunity they will have to access it for free. Historically, the course often offered to theses students is music appreciation. However, music appreciation is an inherently flawed approach to music education. At it's core, music appreciation presents the paradigm that some people make music, and other people appreciate music. We know this is not true. All humans have the capacity to make music. Just attend a birthday party, a worship service, an English football or American baseball game and you'll see humans of all musicianship levels making music. A course like Piano Lab presents a more hands on option in which novice students can engage in music making themselves, not just appreciate others doing so.
Piano, as an instrument, is a really great entry point into making music. For one thing, it is often a popular choice with novice musicians because it is used in a variety of musical styles, including music that is currently on pop radio stations. It can be seen as a more socially acceptable instrument to teenagers who are navigating complex social dynamics and may have anxieties about trying something new. Lastly, it is also an extremely accessible instrument. You don't need to take 2 weeks to figure out how to make a sound on the piano. Students can successfully make music on day one of music class. This early success can keep students, who often don't see themselves as musicians yet, engaged in the curriculum when playing piano inevitably gets harder.
Special Populations
The accessibility of the piano is also a benefit for students with disabilities. Making a sound on the piano does not require placing your hands in an unusual, and often initially uncomfortable position. Nor does it ask you to place the instrument on or in your mouth, a sometimes uncomfortable sensory experience. Nor does it require verbal skills as singing does. For these reasons, piano is an unusually physically accessible instrument. Piano technique can also be adapted to fit the individual and unique needs of students with special needs. Fingerings can be changed, songs can be simplified, and hand positions can be altered.
The piano instruction itself can also be easily modified or enriched as needed. Students with learning disabilities can benefit from the visual nature of the piano. Teacher demonstrations or "play alongs" (in which a student follows the teacher's pointer finger from key to key) can be utilized to teach new songs and concepts. At the other end of the spectrum, gifted students can benefit from increased rigor. Playing a simple melody?- Add chords. Playing blocked chords?-Add a chord pattern. Through the combination of modifying physical technique and lesson materials, piano lab can be an extremely accessible course offered to students with special needs.
What Next?
Once you've decided that implementing a Piano Lab course is the right choice for your school, what are the next steps you should take? Research what you'll need to get approval from your individual school. Your principal or subject matter supervisor will likely have these answers. Schools may require you to write a justification for the course showing alignment with state standards, write a curriculum, and/or compile a list of materials needed to start the class. Depending on your individual circumstances, it can also be beneficial to get your students and their parents on board. While you never want to promise students something that hasn't been approved yet, sending a survey to your music students to gather evidence of student interest may help you argue your case to administrators. Some schools have parent booster programs which could help monetarily support purchasing keyboards and other materials. Ultimately, your individual school, district, and state will dictate what steps should be taken.