Good Question

Okay, so this isn't actually a music book, but it's a wonderful resource for piano teachers.  

That's A Good Question by Marienne Uszler is a small book filled with mountains of information.  I was surprised this was more in "pamphlet" form than I was expecting; open, it's a little larger than a piece of paper.  However, there are many short chapters, and each one brings something new to light.  There are 89 pages and 22 chapters.

This book is about teaching music using the vehicle of questions.  This turns piano lessons from "do exactly what I do" to "let's discover how this piece works!"

Marienne makes a great case that questions keep the student more involved.  The student feels more ownership over something if they are responsible for it.  And they can't tune out when they need to figure out what key this song is written in, as opposed to listening to their teacher wax eloquent about how this is written in G major which is not too different from C major... and remember this other piece we did?

There are different types of questions, open and closed.  Open are the questions that have no right/wrong answer but rely on feelings and perceptions.

• What does this piece sound like?
• How can we make this piece more mysterious?
• If this were background music in a movie, what would be happening?
• How did you play?

Closed questions are the ones that are distinctly right or wrong.

• What key is this piece in?
• Can you tell me what this symbol means?
• What note does this piece start with?

There are pieces in this book and the author goes through both closed and open questions that could be asked to help a student "discover" the piece.  Ms. Uszler encourages teachers to go beyond where they are.  First, notice whether you do ask questions and what type.  If you only ask questions at the beginning, be sure to help the student look through the entire piece by asking questions about hand movements, where the main theme comes back, or what happens at the end.  If you ask mostly closed questions, try using some open questions.  Ms. Uszler does mention that both open and closed questions are useful and should be used.

Some students respond to questions differently, and Marienne has divided students into 4 guide types: follower, doer, thinker, and feeler.  By describing how each student acts in a lesson, she helps teachers pinpoint which questions would work best for each student.  This was particularly helpful to me, who realized that some students didn't like to have a choice of pieces to start with, they would prefer me to tell them.  These followers would rather not make a decision.  On the contrary, I need to be on my toes when I have a doer in the studio, because they'll be playing something whether I ask them to or not.  Having lots of questions and ideas on hand will help me to continue to direct their attention and remain in control of the lesson.

There are also several chapters about asking questions of a group.  The author talks about small groups, larger groups, asking students to evaluate one another, and how to handle having a group of several mixed types.

She finishes strong with several thoughts on questions.  Some teachers feel like asking questions takes up too much lesson time, especially when you're asking the student open questions like: "How does this piece make you feel?"  However, by focusing the student's attention and giving them a task (answering a question, demonstrating a passage) they are not able to tune out.  Ms. Uszler points out that most teachers talk too much themselves, therefore asking questions exchanges "check out" time for focused learning.

I found this book extremely challenging and encouraging.  I shared it with the other teachers that teach at the Academy, and they found it a breath of fresh air.  We studied this together in January, which is the perfect time to find some refreshment as a teacher.

This is available for $9.95 at Sheet Music Plus. I would definitely recommend it.  Also, this book is put out by FJH, so you will probably be able to find it other places, but it doesn't look like Amazon carries it, there are only a few used copies for sale.