There are a lot of ways to teach new songs to your students. Kristin and I have different “go-to” methods we rely on. This week I’m writing about mine; in a future post, she’ll introduce hers.
My method is adapted from my Orff training. Under the Orff method, students learn music much the way humans learn language - through listening, repeating, getting it wrong at first, learning from mistakes, and repeating the process until they’ve got it. It’s active learning that, over the long haul, builds real ownership of the material and a capacity for creative risk-taking. It’s a great way to teach kids and adults and it’s a great way to teach taiko.
The steps are below. I usually stop between steps and take questions, or if I see people struggling in a way that indicates lack of understanding. I don’t usually stop for struggling that reflects the normal effort of memorizing a new pattern.
The video on the right shows all of the steps. It’s just under 3 minutes long, but the full process takes 10-20 minutes, depending on how long a phrase you’re teaching and how quickly your class learns.
1. Introduce the full phrase while tapping on your body.
Use whatever phrasing is natural in the song you’re teaching. In the video, it’s 4 measures, which I find to be a good length. Tap your shoulders and legs to show where the pulse of the phrase is.
In the video, I’m teaching the tag from Sanae Swing, one of my beginner songs. Note that I tell the students what I’m going to do before I do it. This kind of signposting is helpful for most types of learners.
2. Break the full phrase into smaller sections and echo teach them.
Get students copying you on the body tapping. Then say “First me” and say a small section of the phrase. After you finish, say “Now you.” Students say that same section back to you. Keep tapping the entire time.
They will not get it right the first time - they’re not supposed to! They’re supposed to do their best. Don’t stop when they make mistakes. Just say “First me” again, repeat the section, and say “Now you” for them to echo again. Keep this up until about ⅔ of them are getting it right about ⅔ of the time (the ⅔ ⅔ rule).
3. Keep adding small sections until you’ve introduced the entire phrase.
Once you hit the ⅔ ⅔ mark on the first section, add the second. This time, DON’T signpost. Just do it. In the video, I add a third section because the class had gotten to ⅔ ⅔ on the first two sections.
I can’t say it enough: don’t wait for everyone to have it perfect before you add the next section. You have to allow for things to be imperfect in this process; imperfection is a natural step in learning. Aim for ⅔ ⅔ and then add on.
Once you’ve introduced all sections and hit ⅔ ⅔ on the full phrase, teach the sticking. Either turn your back to students when you do this or mirror the sticking if you’re facing them (i.e., use your left hand for right hand hits) so highly visual learners don’t get confused.
Change to a count of “ichi ni so-re” to start rather than First me/Now you. It prepares students for the next step.
As you did with the echoing, go over the sticking for one section several times. Add on the next section when you hit ⅔ ⅔. Keep that up until you’ve taught all of the sticking.
5. Build the phrase by sections on the drums.
Have students go to their taiko. Add the jiuchi. Build up the full phrase by sections, as you did with the echo teaching and sticking. Count in by “ichi ni so-re.” Add a new section when you hit ⅔ ⅔. In the video, the class is working on sections 1 and 2.
If you follow these steps, by the time you’ve built up the whole pattern on the drums, students have said, played, or air-bachied (that’s a word, look it up) the phrase 30-50 times. This is enough repetition for many students to have memorized it. Note, we don’t touch drums until Step 5.
This method is harder for visual learners. For this reason, I encourage students to write down what they’ve learned when we take a break and check it with me to make sure they’ve got it right. I don’t let them read from this paper as we play, however. Visual learners CAN succeed with this method, it just takes a little more time and a little more support from the teacher during breaks.
If you use this method, let me know. I’d love to hear how it works for you. Happy teaching!