Teaching Strategy #16: First lessons in piano and cello
Charlie has his second cello lesson today and, now that I have a sense of what’s involved, I’ve begun to put together a music book for him. The school music teacher loaned me the book the students use. A single page is crammed with lines of music, complete with bass clef and rests, and words and numbers in different fonts: A bewildering array for Charlie. I enlarged two lines of music to the size that Charlie is used to from the piano book his teacher made for him. With a binder, dividers, a hole punch, a glue stick, tape, velcro, and pennies, I put together Charlie’s cello book.
Shari asked what I mean by ” . . . a carefully structured ABA approach for piano” and I’ll try to describe some of this here along with talking about how I’m thinking about how to adapt a similar method to teach Charlie cello. (And keeping in mind, that the ABA method of teaching piano is not mine at all, but that of Charle’s piano teacher, Jeff Young.)
There are certainly more educational treatment programs for autistic children out there now than when Charlie was just diagnosed. He started a home ABA program when he was just over two years old and, with the exception of the Miller Method (there is a school using this here in New Jersey; it’s not the right thing for Charlie), most teaching methods (DTT, Floortime/DRI, VB, RDI, various special education teaching methods) have been tried with Charlie in the many classrooms and schools that he’s been in, by numerous teachers, therapists, and aides. Charlie has seemed most at ease and learned the most in a classroom that uses ABA (which is a method that can be readily transferred to a school setting at various age levels; I have some experience with VB in the classroom and less with the other methods). He seems to prefer having schedules (especially visual ones; Charlie’s is now in a binder that he works through with some reminders) and he still needs to have his lessons “broken down” into small parts (in discrete trial teaching, DTT).
When we started piano lessons, Jeff had made up a music book, a schedule book (with pictures, as Charlie can’t read well enough yet), a token board, and two laminated cards on which were small laminated and velcro-backed letters with the names of the keys, starting with middle C and going up an octave for the right hand, and down an octave for the left hand. Jeff put velcro on the piano keys and had Charlie “match” the letters to the keys, with Jeff showing him how to do this the first time. Over the course of a year and a half, letters have slowly been removed so that only middle C, the G above it, and the C below middle C remain.
The first songs that Charlie played used no more than five notes. Jeff always had Charlie “read the notes” first, often with Charlie pointing to each note and reading the letter name (which was printed on the note). Then Charlie played, with Jeff (and me, when we practiced at home), standing beside or behind Charlie and with our hand gently directly Charlie to play the right notes (this was “errorless teaching“).
Thus, Charlie first learned to read the notes and play the notes as a kind of matching exercise. As I noted above, it’s easiest for Charlie to just have a few things to look at on a page: The songs that Charlie first played had the five-line music staff and a few very large notes, with their letter names printed in the middle. There was only one line of music per page. Jeff only gradually added the treble clef and then two lines of music per page (and then three—wow, I thought), and an occasional rest and the time signature. Charlie learned to play with his left hand and the bass clef separately. Switching back and forth from one hand to the other was not easy and required more of the gentle hand-over-hand directing/prompting; Charlie got it, gradually. Harder was playing with both hands together; Charlie has been doing this now after about three months of working on the song “Merrily.” He has also learned to identify and play sharps. We practice for about a half-hour a day and I’m present for the whole practice, to prompt Charlie as he learns new songs and to guide his eyes by pointing to the notes.
(I’ve learned a lot about why reading is difficult for Charlie from these piano practices and seen how hard it is for him to coordinate his right and left hands simultaneously—this is another post!)
I’ve spent a lot of the past week thinking about how to teach Charlie cello. Foremost in my thoughts is that the first thing to learn is simply how to hold the instrument over his left shoulder, with the strings facing away from him (Charlie kept turning the instrument towards himself last Tuesday at his first lesson) and where to place his left hand and fingers. Learning to hold the bow with his right hand is an entirely separate skill to practice without the cello, and having Charlie bowing the strings a lesson even further off in the future.
The music book I put together somewhat resembles Charlie’s piano book (familiarity has its uses). I hope to take some photos of Charlie tomorrow holding the cello and bow, playing pizzicato, etc. (using my rather blurry cell phone camera—-I wrecked my digital camera last summer when it got too much sand and salt water in it as I stood in the waves to take pictures of Charlie swimming; second camera I’ve lost that way). I made up some pages with all A’s and all D’s, and then one lines of A’s and one lines of D’s, and then more D’s and then A’s and A’s and D’s. The intent is to have Charlie learned which is the A string (the highest one) and which the D and to be able to switch back and forth. But my main goal for tomorrow is for Charlie to learn to hold the cello itself correctly and to start to hold the bow in his right hand—practice makes perfect. I’ve rented the cello for four months and bought a music book, so they’ll soon be more to practice (now, if my parents can locate my old music stand from their storage room……).
And, I’ll be transporting the cello in the back of our black car, which is a station wagon: Charlie and the cello won’t be riding the yellow school bus together.
Not, at least, just yet.
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POSTED IN: Education, Music, Reading, Schoolbus, cello, piano
14 opinions for Teaching Strategy #16: First lessons in piano and cello
flowsnow
Feb 19, 2008 at 7:10 am
Hi Kristina! How are you? It has been a while but I will always remember you. I came by to read about your son. So you have moved to a new site! Wow he is learning to play cello and piano! Amazing…really amazing. I can’t help but reading a section of your jotting saying that Charlie has problem co-ordinating the left and right. I think most of LD kids have that problem which is probably linked to motor planning - motor dyspraxia. I was told by my lecturer that Brain Gym helps. There are some simple exercises which you could do with Charlie before classes or during breaks to help to increase blood floor to the neurons in the brain. I have gone through some exercises and they seemed quite logical in sequence and application. They are just exercises which requires mid line crossing which I am sure will help Charlie in his piano lessons which requires two hands co-ordinations. I have some sample exercises if you have not already done with him which I can send to you. Take care and hugs and kisses and always. Tricia
Regan
Feb 19, 2008 at 11:00 am
Kristina,
Thanks for sharing the the process and progress. It is interesting to see your approach to the task analysis of learning the piano.
Definitely keep us up to date on how Charlie does with the cello.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 19, 2008 at 10:31 pm
@Tricia,
So great to hear from you and a big hug from all of us—how is White Horse? Thank you for the “Brain Gym” suggestion; I will look it up.
@Regan,
The lesson was more like a lesson today—-showing the music teacher the music book I made helped a lot and served as a kind of guide for Charlie throughout his lesson. The cello is on the floor behind me right now….
NealsMom
Feb 20, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Hi Kristina:
Thank you for this wonderful post. It’s been a while, and I am so impressed to hear about Charlie’s music lessons. I’ve just ordered the Young book online, and I am hoping we can start that. Neal, now 7, is finally beginning to enjoy singing and we just bought a piano for my older son (12), and Neal loves to bang away at it. I’m Let’s see how it goes. You’re such an inspiration–since we’re both in academia, I’d love to hear how you balance research/writing and our second full-time job as the mother of an ASD child!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 21, 2008 at 2:13 am
I’d love to hear how it goes with Neal at the piano! It was a very slow process for Charlie—tonight, we worked on him learning the A and the D strings on the cello.
Charlie loves to bang on the keys—-since playing piano, it seems (to my ear) that his banging is more rhythmic, and done with both hands.
What do you teach? Balancing can tend to feel more like a very impromptu juggling act; somehow things get done, more or less! Thanks for your too kind words—I’m up for tenure this year…….
In District or Out?
Feb 22, 2008 at 5:19 pm
[…] on seeking other ways for Charlie to be included in areas in which he excels, such as music (those cello lessons—yes, now we are practicing two instruments, piano and cello almost every day) and sports (a […]
Thinking in Music
Mar 18, 2008 at 1:36 am
[…] one sort of language, that Charlie can read and that is music. I’ve detailed something of how Charlie learned to read music—notes on the treble and bass clefs—here. His piano teacher (who is currently taking a […]
Straight Up Singing
Mar 22, 2008 at 1:25 am
[…] to stand in the neighbor’s yard and to practice the cello—(we ended up practicing both cello and piano)—-on a ride down local roads to get to a certain central Jersey (open 24 hours) diner where […]
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Apr 14, 2008 at 1:36 pm
[…] Charlie with fleece blankets and jackets, and hats and gloves for their soft feel. And to the cello for good vibrations. He’s been learning to play the different strings—plucking A and D, […]
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Apr 20, 2008 at 4:15 am
[…] the community (more on our visit to the Met later today), to help out around the house, and to play piano and cello. Parents learning how to be teachers of autistic students do bring something extra to the […]
Jan
Apr 20, 2008 at 4:59 am
Both my kids have special needs, one of them has Asperger Syndrome and dyspraxia, the other has dyspraxia. They have many motor planning issues, and my youger son particularly had problems with crossing the midline.
They have both had cello lessons. My elder gave up when he transferred to a school that did not offer it (he already has a full schedule after school and I wanted to conserve days off!) He is now transferring his interest to electric guitar. My younger child still plays cello and has been invited to join the county orchestra. It has definitely helped iwth coordination and motor planning in both children. However, handwriting remains a problem, and they both now use a laptop in school with a typing tutor, for recording work. My eldest son is just about to start using voice recognition software.
They both love music and it is good fun for them too!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Apr 20, 2008 at 5:57 pm
@Jan, this is really inspiring—thank you! Did they have private lessons or lessons at school? Very best—
Brain Tune-Up
Apr 24, 2008 at 8:59 am
[…] focus” in particular—-intrigues me. I have been thinking that Charlie learning to play piano and cello “tunes up” (pun intended) his brain. Teaching him to play cello has been not only a […]
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May 11, 2008 at 2:14 pm
[…] gotten my gift: Charlie has been learning to play the cello for the past few months. It’s been a very slow process, with the school music teacher and me […]
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