Stephanie, a six-year-old Hungarian student of mine, supposed to start her Level 1 new piano book today but she flicked the page to the Certificate, similar to what we filled in for her when she completed her Prep book last lesson. Then she flicked the page to the last piece of her new book. She was not too worried of the look of the hardest piece at the end of her new piano book so I thought, let's just see what happens if we try it instead of going back to the beginning of the book and start with the usual revision.
It was amazing to see how Stephanie applied all the things that she learnt. She recognised the Alberti bass patterns, figured out the rhythms and said the names of the letter names. We identified the two chords that were broken up in the left hand bass then she identified the names of the long, held notes in the right hand. In no time she was putting the hands together in quite a reasonable tempo and with great fluency. In no time, she learnt it! What an amazing achievement!
Watch Stephanie's third attempt to play Sonatina with two hands! Pay attention to the fact how she is reading the notes from her book! What an amazing girl!
How is this music reading from a beginner piano player? This video is a great example of raising the bar when we work with children!
