Thinking as You Play: Teaching Piano in Individual and Group Lessons [Paperback]

Thinking as You Playfocuses on how to teach, not what to teach. Sylvia Coats gives piano teachers tools to help students develop creativity and critical thinking, and guidelines for organizing the music taught into a comprehensive curriculum. She suggests effective strategies for questioning and listening to students to help them think independently and improve their practice and performance. She also discusses practical means to develop an awareness of learning modalities and personality types. A unique top-down approach assists with presentations of musical concepts and principles, rather than a bottom-up approach of identifying facts before the reasons are known.

Thinking as You Playis one of the few available resources for the teacher of group piano lessons. Ranging from children's small groups to larger university piano classes, Coats discusses auditioning and grouping students, strategies for maximizing student productivity, and suggestions for involving each student in the learning process.

This thoughtful and thought-provoking book is stuffed full of information that sometimes must be digested slowly. Coats illustrates her points with stories from her own teaching and the teaching of her pedagogy students. The many non-piano references provide valuable jumping-off points for further study.

Informative, practical suggestions on how to teach piano students to think independently and musically.

Sylvia Coats is Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Class Piano at Wichita State University. She is an active member of MTNA having served on the Board of Directors and as President of the West Central Division. She lives in Wichita, Kansas.

[A] wonderful book for the experienced teacher who wants to take his or her teaching to the next level. Graduate pedagogy students or undergraduates . . . would also benefit greatly from this book. . . . [T]houghtful and thought-provoking . . . stuffed full of information.Sept 2006

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