Taking Shortcuts

Shortcuts can cause a lot of problems. William and I had a small conflict. We disagreed on whether or not he should be able to use a shortcut for reading music.

His teacher and I are trying to teach William to read music. This is extremely hard because William has a great ear, if he hears something he can play it. So getting him to read music is a challenge - it's hard and he doesn't see a need for it yet. We've been trying a three pronged approach -

1. He has flash cards that have all the notes that can be played on a violin in first position. When we flip the cards he needs to recall two pieces of information - the name of the note and how to play it on the violin. 
2. He has been going through rhythm excesses calling out the rhythm of written notes. 
3. He has been playing easy fiddle pieces by reading the sheet music. The fiddle tunes are interesting and offer some variety to the classical pieces he is playing.

About two weeks ago, I noticed a problem with the latest fiddle piece William was working on - he was getting the notes right, but the rhythm was wrong. I pointed it out to him referring to the music, I thought he was reading. We counted the music. He kept making the same mistake. I diagnosed the problem as concentrating on getting the right note and ignoring the time value. It took a lesson to actually find out the problem - William was taking a short cut.

On the pages of the fiddle book we're using there is encoded in letters and number the finger an string that needs to be played for each note. Of course there is no rhythm encoded in the coding. William was using the encode letters and number as a short cut to play the right notes. I covered the letters and numbers. William couldn't play. He was frustrated and insisted reading the actual sheet music was too hard. I over reacted and started an unnecessary lecture. And we took some time away from each other to cool off.

Here is what I learned:

• Make sure you have the right diagnosis - counting the rhythm didn't solve the problem, because I had the wrong diagnosis - the problem was not that he was struggling with the notes on the staff line - he was ignoring them all together.
• Be careful with the shortcuts you offer - you may be undermining your long term goals.
• Make sure you communicate intermediate and long term goals - William was focused on the short term goal of playing a single piece of music. His teacher and I are focused on the intermediate goal of giving William the skills to learn music in three different ways - by having some teach it to him; by hearing it and working it out himself; and by reading sheet music. He could be successful with only one of the three, but we would really like him to be able to do all three. And my long term goal is for William to learn that hard things become easy with practice, and hard things are often worthwhile and enjoyable things.
• Remember your long term goals and don't over react. 
• Admit when you are wrong and make corrective adjustments