Mind Before Fingers, with Marilyn White Lowe (Music Moves For Piano)

Today we’re joined by one of the leading Gordon-trained music educators and author of Music Moves for Piano, Marilyn White Lowe. Music Moves is an innovative approach to teaching piano, which from the very beginning incorporates all of the “inner skills” we focus on here at Musical U, such as improvising, playing by ear, composing your own music and collaborating with other musicians. musl.ink/pod214
Music Moves uses Dr. Edwin Gordon’s “Music Learning Theory”, which codifies how the human brain learns music, as the basis for designing how musicianship can most effectively be taught. “Music Learning Theory” has previously been featured on Musicality Now, most notably in our interview with Professor Cynthia Crump-Taggart, President of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning. We’ve discussed several times on past episodes the idea of “audiation”, which is a word Edwin Gordon originally coined. Audiation has detail and depth that goes far beyond simply “imagining music in your head”. Marilyn brings a wonderful new perspective to audiation for us, as educators applying it directly in the context of teaching an instrument.
Drawing on ideas from Orff, Suzuki, Dalcroze, and Kodály, The Music Moves For Piano method incorporates listening, singing, movement, audiation, and notation, on top of the pure piano technique skills - and as you’ll hear in this conversation it develops the student into a fully-fledged and well-rounded musician - not just a piano player.
In this conversation we talk about:
- Why clapping, tapping or walking may not be the best ways to internalise the pulse and the rhythmic patterns of music.
- The specific rhythm and pitch frameworks which give students the “vocabulary” they need to improvise and be creative in music.
- Why the age of 9 is a turning point in music learning, and what that means for adult music learners.
A lot of the concepts we talk about here at Musical U are brought to life in this conversation. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like to learn an instrument in a way that truly incorporates musicality training, rather than having it be off in its own separate area, this episode will inspire your music learning.
Watch the episode: musl.ink/pod214
Links and Resources:
Music Moves For Piano : musicmovesforpiano.com/home/
Music Moves Books : www.musicmovesforpiano.com/bo...
Music Moves Videos : www.musicmovesforpiano.com/cl...
The Gordon Institute for Music Learning - Music Learning Theory : giml.org/mlt/about/
Edwin E. Gordon - Learning Sequences in Music : www.amazon.com/Learning-Seque...
Edwin E. Gordon - How Children Learn When They Learn Music : www.amazon.com/Children-Learn...
Gerald Eskelin - Lies My Music Teacher Told Me : www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Music-...
Eric Bluestine - The Ways Children Learn Music: An Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Learning Theory : www.amazon.com/Ways-Children-...
Music Learning Academy : www.musiclearningacademy.com/
Musicality Now - Audiation and Thinking Music, with Cynthia Crump Taggart : www.musical-u.com/learn/audia...
Creative Piano Teachers Podcast - Forrest Kinney on The 4 Arts of Music : topmusic.co/cptp104-forrest-k...
If you enjoy the show please rate and review it! musicalitynow.com/review
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[@musicianshipwithtrish5185]

My own musicianship has been revolutionised by Music Learning Theory and specifically by Music Moved for Piano with my own teaching.
The traditional model of learning to read at the same time as beginning everything else for an instrument is so deeply ingrained - but, for example, we don’t think that babies should be reading letters and books whilst they are learning their mother tongue.
So why do we do this for music learning when music and language acquisition are so similar?

[@rachelpalm7403]

Yes! This has also been my big realization. It is changing the way I am teaching.

[@ElenaVictoriaNezh]

I agree that note reading and sight-reading are just as important as audition and internalizing the music. One cannot exist well or fully without the other in order to make a well-rounded musician.

[@composenberg]

I guess it depends what you mean by "well-rounded." With Music LearningTheory, sequenced learning of patterns comes _way_ before reading, and students learn reading much later in the sequence. However, I believe they are well-rounded musicians before and after they learn to read. The benefit of learning to read notation much later is that, because students have already been audiating and performing all these rhythm and tonal patterns, notation comes much quicker.

[@natalyahennings1085]

Sight reading is overrated? I like the whole idea of audition, but the sight reading is very important.

[@composenberg]

To clarify, the word is "audiation" rather than audition. What's cool is that sight reading is not truly encountering something for the first time. In itself, it is not a real skill. Here are Gordon's words from the 2012 edition of Learning Sequences in Music (p. 120):
"Without audiation, notation can reveal little. Notation assists only in recalling what has been already audiated. Recalling in audiation familiar patterns seen in unfamiliar music allows musicians to engage successfully in what is mindlessly referred to as sight reading."