In many years of piano pedagogical work with children in group and individual lessons, we have developed a concept that combines the contents and teaching objectives of piano lessons with didactic and methodological principles of elementary music education. With 1 2 3 PIANO, a teaching work has now been created that enables piano playing teaching and learning from the holistic music experience.
1 2 3 PIANO consists of two game booklets and one teacher's commentary each. Issue I is intended for piano lessons in groups of up to 4 children on two pianos and for individual lessons. We have designed issue II for children aged 7-11 who learn in partner lessons on two pianos or in individual lessons.
The present teacher's commentary on issue II first explains the concept under the aspects of sound material, rhythm and beat, notation, tempo, dynamics, articulation, game movements, improvisation, song play/song accompaniment, polyphonic play, pedal, voice, movement and materials.
In the following chapter " ... for 2-4 hands" the focus is on fundamental considerations on the methodology and didactics of group and partner lessons: action spaces, forms of play, follow-up lessons, internal differentiation, problems ...
The main part of the teacher's commentary is the topic pictures. For each individual piece, we specify the content focal points and show a possible development path.
1 2 3 PIANO Issue II is again wide-ranging in terms of style and content - folk songs from all over the world, songs from recent times, dances from different epochs, blues and boogie pieces, rocking and soft sounds alternate. In addition, the sound spectrum is expanded by interesting scales, contemporary sounds and four-handed pieces.
Major, minor, church keys, full scale, blues scale, interesting rhythms and a conscious and differentiated design by means of tempo, dynamics and articulation ensure that the pieces reflect different moods, sometimes even tell stories. Song lyrics and child-friendly, colorful illustrations reinforce the emotional approach.
The refined and expanded compositional structures of the songs and pieces compared to issue I remain recognizable as such in issue II. In addition, a variety of variation and improvisation tasks demand and promote musical independence.
Ulrike Wohlwender and Claudia Honorary Award, Lampertheim/Heidelberg, autumn 1996