How to use Piano Comics in my lessons with my students?
Any teacher can use Piano Comics in many ways and even adjust it to their own piano teaching methods. The variety of elements, such as storytelling, rhyming, singing, playing and visual engagement, give a number of tools to work with.
Any way or method you choose to teach, please keep in mind that the students do not need to sing if they do not wish. For more details about the singing element of the Piano Comics please read this short article.
Here are some ways I have used and taught Piano Comics in my lessons:
- First present the entire Comic: while the student is looking at the comics, you can play and sing each page one by one. Then you can start learning the pieces.
- Encourage your students to look at the Comics without playing and ask them to figure out the story behind them. Then have them translate certain scenes in music terms. For example: 1.What dynamic or accent is used when Webeh scares his friends in a certain scene? 2.What tempo is used in a certain chase scene? Then you can introduce the Comic, play it and sing it to them.
- Play and sing only the 1st page and tell your students that when they learn and play that piece you will show them the Comic. Or show the 1st page only and make a promise that as soon as they learn that 1st page they will be able to look at the 2nd page Comic.
- Recite rhythmically or like a solfeggio the rhymed lyrics of each page with your student and then proceed to learn the right hand. It will be so much easier to play it as the brain has already marked the rhythm of the melody and the fingers react to the tone pitch by moving right or left in search of the key they have sung.
- Play each Comic slowly to allow your students sing the rhymed lyrics, or if they don’t want to sing, to just recite them, like rapping. Be specific about using the written dynamics, tempos, accents and articulation in their voice (or rapping). Later, when they start to play the piece on the piano – remembering the lyrics and the context of the story – they will be able to interpret the music far more easily than if they started to learn it pianistically, without having sung it first.
