Contents
Home
Introduction
Lesson Plan
Quiz
Mini-Lecture
Digital Story
Welcome Message
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"Hi, welcome to my tutorial site on beginning piano skills. Please use the links on the homepage and at the top of every other page to navigate your way throughout. Begin this tutorial by viewing the digital story on correct piano playing posture"
This tutorial site is designed for high school musicians who want to learn basic piano skills and piano music theory. It will suit the music student who has some knowledge of music performance on other instruments or voice and some general music theory skills. The activities throughout this tutorial involve students in music practice/performance and composition. A few of the activities are designed to allow students to integrate multimedia into their musical experiences and their developing piano knowledge. Students will work alone, together in small groups and as a whole class to understand the lecture, video, and to practice the material within this tutorial. Students should start this tutorial by viewing the video on Correct Piano Playing Posture to gain an idea of how to sit at the piano before beginning to play. The lecture will be broken down into sections and students will view different parts before applying concepts toward individual and group practice. The lesson plan will provide examples of performance activities for beginning piano players. Finally a quiz will be taken at the end to test each student's knowledge of the material in the lecture, video and various activities.
In "Constructing Knowledge With Technology: A Review of the Literature", Boethel and Dimock discuss several principles of a constructivist learning environment. These principles include adaptive activities - where students develop more powerful understandings based on what they previously learned and understood, situated learning where knowledge is tied to the situations it was created and building knowledge where students are not just receiving knowledge but creating it as well. This tutorial supports, in many ways, critical thinking and the constructivist theory that Boethel and Dimock discuss. The various activities require that students draw from previous experiences with music from both performance on other instruments and of prior basic general music theory. Students will work through this tutorial in combination with daily classroom practice on piano, activities that use technology, and creative composition. Students will be engaged in active learning and critical thinking while watching the video on playing posture and applying it to their own beginning piano playing. Students will apply the beginning piano music theory skills in the mini-lecture towards piano performance, thinking about how to transfer various parts of the lecture material to performance on the piano keyboard. Students will also apply their beginning performance and piano theory skills towards music composition. Students will continue to use critical thinking skills while they use technology to record compositions, upload audio and work with images to design original artwork that accompany their music composition. The activities throughout this site allow students to create their own knowledge of materials and how to use and implement them in their creative assignments.
This tutorial site works to serve the Multiple Intelligences in a variety of ways. It provides images and text for visual learners to see how various concepts in the lecture are applied to piano playing including the clefs and staff, piano keys and notes, fingerings, whole and half steps and scales. Audio examples will allow students who learn by hearing to listen to examples of scales and music. Performance will allow students to apply what they have learned with hands on activities that include listening and rhythmic movement. Using technology and multimedia will allow students to experiment with composition to develop original creative pieces.
This site is also ADA compliant so that all learners can be able to use it effectively. Alternative text is given for all images within the site. Text is provided for all audio examples provided. Webpage equivalents are also given for all downloadable documents.
This site follows good design principles. The navigation throughout is easy to follow with links to various pages within the site. Text size and font are both clear to read and the background colors make the information within the site easy to understand. All images throughout this tutorial directly relate to the site's content. Finally all links within the site and to various places outsite this site as well as all audio examples work properly.