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.

 

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.

 

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 214

 

Links and Resources

Music Moves For Piano

Music Moves Books

Music Moves Videos

The Gordon Institute for Music Learning - Music Learning Theory

Edwin E. Gordon - Learning Sequences in Music

Edwin E. Gordon - How Children Learn When They Learn Music

Gerald Eskelin - Lies My Music Teacher Told Me

Eric Bluestine - The Ways Children Learn Music: An Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Learning Theory

Music Learning Academy

Musicality Now - Audiation and Thinking Music, with Cynthia Crump Taggart

Creative Piano Teachers Podcast - Forrest Kinney on The 4 Arts of Music

 

 

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