Grace Lee is a piano teacher from California who noticed a gap between traditional note naming using music flashcards or flashcard apps and fluent sight reading. In order to close that gap and help students become more secure in their sight reading abilities, Grace developed one of the fastest-growing apps focused on note reading and sight reading music – Note Quest.
In today’s interview, Grace shares her personal piano story as well as the process of developing Note Quest.
Listen to the full episode here
Grace's Piano Story
Grace’s family wasn’t innately musical but they enjoyed classical music and church music. Grace remembers watching PBS Great Performances as a child and her parents noticed how much she enjoyed this music. Soon, they enrolled her in formal music lessons.
A combination of a love for piano and a kind piano teacher contributed to Grace’s positive experience with piano. However, Grace noticed that she was interested in many other things in addition to the piano. She studied cello and participated in youth orchestra during middle and high school.
The ability to perform with a group and the need to keep reading and processing music to stay with the group helped to develop her sight reading skills.
In addition to music, Grace was interested in business and collaboration. All these interests helped shape the person she is today.
Grace says her pivotal piece was Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major (K. 545). She was proud to learn a “real” sonata, not a sonatina.
The Note Quest Story
Throughout her college years and early teaching, Grace has been interested in pedagogy and understanding who students learn. She studied her own teaching methods with her students to see what worked and what didn’t. Some students could easily grasp the concept of reading music notation and other students struggled.
Like many teachers, Grace employed music flashcards to help students learn to identify notes on the staff. Once technology developed in the form of iPads and portable devices, she included music apps in her teaching. Again, some students could grasp the concept of reading music notation and other students struggled.
One thing Grace noticed was that both flashcards and music apps focus on individual note recognition. The issue with music reading is not only being able to recognize individual notes but, more importantly, the relationship between the notes. There were no apps that focused on intervallic reading; noticing the relationship – the direction and distance – from one note to another.
Grace began her journey, utilizing her early interests in business and collaboration, to develop an app that would meet the needs of students to focus on reading note relationships in music.
Note Quest includes a complete system for building music reading skills. Beginning with landmark notes, the app moves students forward to two-note intervals, more notes beyond the landmarks, and on to seeing, hearing, and playing short musical excerpts.
From the Note Quest website, “Sight reading is a skill that is separate from performing, so it needs to be practiced separately.”
More Tips on Sight Reading
the difference between note recognition and actual sight reading Note recognition is the ability to recognize a single note or pitch and play it on the piano. Most flashcards focus on this valuable skill but if students don’t move to actual sight reading and recognizing patterns of notes, their sight reading skills will be delayed. Sight reading is the ability to decode music in time to process actual music.
rhythmic continuity As mentioned above, sight reading is the ability to decode music in time. In order to develop good rhythmic continuity, students need to be able to listen and feel; they need to internalize music. An external metronome can be very frustrating for a student who hasn’t developed their own sense of musical timing.
practice consistently and “imperfectly” Consistency is the mother of skill. The only way to become proficient at a new skill, like sight reading, is to do it regularly. To practice imperfectly is to put the musical pulse, the steady beat over the need to play every single note perfectly. In sight reading, keeping time is more important than perfect notes. If you cannot play correct notes, slow the tempo down.
What parting words of wisdom or quote do you have for parents of new piano students?
Three takeaways for piano parents:
Sight read often, in short segments.
Keep a separate stack of music in a basket near the piano to make sight reading accessible.
Don’t be afraid to allow your piano kid to use their ears. Piano playing involves three senses: touch, seeing, and heraing. Allow your child to use all three.
See Note Quest in Action
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
Try Note Quest for yourself! (this is an affiliate link)
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