Creative Piano Pedagogy
This podcast is an enriching resource designed specifically for piano teachers and music educators working with out-of-the-box students: students with disabilities, physical or learning differences, gifted and 2-E learners and neurodivergent students. Each episode delves into innovative teaching strategies, offering insights and practical solutions that promote creativity, inclusivity, and approaches teaching from a positive and student-first environment.
Pedagogue, researcher and music educator Dr. Elizabeth Davis-Everhart will demystify topics such as technique, communication, piano methods, understanding behaviors, autism, ADHD, dyslexia and much more- all with a focus on encouraging teachers to meet the diverse needs of their students and inspiring them to embrace new ideas and cultivate the musical potential of every learner.
Creative Piano Pedagogy
Beyond the Curved Finger: Rethinking Piano Technique, part 2
Playing piano is a much more physical activity than most people realize, requiring complex coordination that many of us take for granted. For neurodivergent learners, the physical aspects of piano playing often become unexpected obstacles.
This episode dives deep into adaptive piano technique, exploring how teachers can modify their approaches for students whose bodies and minds process movement differently. The episode outlines six powerful principles for adapting technique for neurodivergent learners. Connect with the Creative Piano Pedagogy Podcast on social media to see upcoming demonstration videos that will visualize these techniques in action!
Find the full transcript, show notes or links mentioned in the episode here!
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Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 4 of the Creative Piano Pedagogy Podcast. If you're new here, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you have a chance to go back and check up on the first couple episodes in our series about adaptive piano teaching and all that entails. Thank you so much to everyone who sent such encouraging emails or messages about last week's episode. It's always great to hear from you. If you use the text me feature, just be aware that it won't allow me to respond to those, but I do love seeing your notes and comments. Thank you so much.
Dr. Elizabeth:The last episode, number three, was an introduction to adapting piano technique for students with disabilities, and today will be part two of that series, Beyond the Curved Finger. This topic and the implications for technique are so incredibly vast and impactful that I think I'm going to do some short videos with teaching examples soon and I'll share those on Instagram, youtube and Facebook, so just keep an eye out for those. I know it's a bit difficult to visualize some of these things just by hearing it, but hopefully today's episode will give you more context and understanding into the various facets of technique and give you some practical ways to adapt it for either yourself or your own students.
Dr. Elizabeth:We're mainly talking here about teaching technique in these episodes, but I'm also aware that there may be teachers who are also working through understanding the way their own fingers work and the way you play. So if you use that for that purpose, that is great as well.
Dr. Elizabeth:Playing the piano is a much more physical activity than we think and we often don't really think of the physical aspect or the necessity of the physical until a problem arises or we're trying to figure out something isn't why something isn't working, and that's totally normal. If your student is catching on very well and there are no obvious issues with their technique, then you will not be focused on that element of their playing.
Dr. Elizabeth:For neurodivergent learners, there are some kind of typical differences in the way their fingers, hands and bodies coordinate those fine motor skills and movements needed to play the piano. For that reason, let's look at some of the physical requirements needed to play the piano and why those perceived requirements might be challenging when teaching students with disabilities. Just as a disclaimer, this is not including things like limb differences or mobility challenges that also may impact playing or learning. We're just talking about the fingers and hands today.
Dr. Elizabeth:One of those physical requirements is finger control to move each finger independently. This sounds like a very simple thing to just be able to tap each finger on its own, but that alone can be really challenging for students who struggle to coordinate and control their movements. Another big requirement of our hands is the need to control our fingers, to control the placement on the key, because this controls the tone, the volume, the articulation so much if we're able to control where our finger lands on the key. Another aspect of technique that is really tied to a physical requirement is our wrist movement. We really need to have a free wrist that is able to rotate and move freely. That will allow for very fluid and smooth gestures on the piano, and if you have taught students with disabilities, you'll notice that their movements are often not very smooth. Even as they're walking, as they're picking things up, those movements are not always very fluid. So having a free wrist is a really important aspect of playing the piano.
Dr. Elizabeth:Probably the most important thing that we're going to talk about today is the coordination aspect. This is the coordination of their fingers, even just using multiple fingers on one hand and then taking that to the next level of playing hands together. Coordination is a body and a brain process. It's not purely a physical process. It requires the brain, motor planning, to think through which fingers need to play together at the same time and then the body following through on that thought process. There's a lot of coordination required to play the piano or any instrument, but especially a keyboard instrument when you're utilizing both hands and even the feet to control pedals.
Dr. Elizabeth:If you have worked with neurodivergent students, you may have noticed some differences in the way that their fingers, hands and bodies work to coordinate those fine motor skills and movements. You may have noticed things like rigid fingers, very tight, locked, extremely tense muscles in their hands, very, very tight fingers. You may have noticed the opposite, which is very floppy fingers, a lack of a strong bridge in the hand. The bridge is the part of the hand that goes across those four knuckles of fingers two, three, four, five. We refer to that as the bridge because if those joints are strong we're able to really control those finger movements. But for some kids they may have very floppy fingers and will not have a strong bridge in the hand. Some students may have very bendy fingers this is very, very common where students will have collapsing joints and they'll be unable to play with a strong first joint right off. So this is where that whole idea of curve your fingers really doesn't apply.
Dr. Elizabeth:If you have seen children who try to play with this thought of curved fingers, that is often associated with kids lining up fingers one, two, three, four, five on the white keys and just keeping them there in a stationary position while they're trying to play. It allows for very little finger movement. You have to use micro movements in order to do that and it almost always results in tension in the hand. It results in a very poor tone production because you're not actually using the whole finger to play, you're just kind of lining up the fingers and trying to press the keys down while holding the fingers there to keep them curved. It's a whole thing. I need to do an entire episode on curved fingers.
Dr. Elizabeth:So it's not that we don't want our students to have beautiful hand positioning at the piano, but using this whole idea of curved fingers, where students just line up their fingers and keep them on the keys, it does not actually achieve healthy, sustainable technique and this is one of those areas that's really frustrating for a lot of teachers, because all you've heard your whole life and training is curved fingers, curved fingers.
Dr. Elizabeth:For some so kiddos with very hypermobile fingers you may have heard about hypermobility. That is why it's going to be really frustrating for them, because that first joint- joint if you look at your hand where your fingernail is, that very first knuckle, that first joint, that's the one that's going to help them play with very coordinated movements and even just purposeful finger movement. And if that's not there, it's going to be really difficult, not impossible at all, just a little challenging.
Dr. Elizabeth:Similarly, you may notice lots of tension in just the way the students hold their bodies at the piano. Sitting on a piano bench is not a typical position in which we hold our bodies and that for students with disabilities, especially since it might be a little uncomfortable for them, they're going to hold a lot of tension even Even in their feet, their legs, their torso, their shoulders, their arms. They may sit rather awkwardly at the bench just trying to stay upright and focus on all the things they need to do. There might just be a lot of tension.
Dr. Elizabeth:We might also have something and this is kind of a weird way to say it, but it just kind of works I call them wandering fingers. It's when your students might just struggle to find the keys that they need. Even though their hands are in pretty much the right spot, their fingers just sort of wander. I have some students like that and I've had many in the
Dr. Elizabeth:past.
Dr. Elizabeth:. Another difference you may have noticed is students who often play incorrect keys, quite often despite having the skills to know what to play and how to play it. So, in other words, these are kids that know how to play these patterns. They know how to read music You've done it before but they just play a lot of incorrect notes and keys. This is very common for neurodivergent learners. These finger and coordination things are just a few of what I like to call the unwelcome and uninvited companions of neurodiversity, the uninvited companions of autism, adhd, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, so many other neurodivergent diagnoses.
Dr. Elizabeth:Your student wants to play the piano and to make that happen, they are literally fighting their body. They're fighting the natural movement and makeup of their body and"here how their brain is wired. They're fighting the sensory alarms going off in their body and brain when you try to move their hands or show them a new technique before they're ready. They're trying to understand how to do something differently, when what they're doing is all they know and they can't really see a difference in what you're showing them or asking them to do or visualize the steps for how to make it happen. There are so many layers of intricacy and detail when teaching technique and I know you know this, so I'm not even going to attempt to say something like here are the four things to do to fix your piano student's technique, or something like that. Each child and student is so unique and that's what makes them wonderful. But you might be wondering okay, if this topic is so complex and complicated, why are you even talking about it? That's a great question, and here's my response.
Dr. Elizabeth:I've heard from so many teachers that they were or used to teach neurodivergent students or students with disabilities, but they stopped because the students and the teachers grew so frustrated at trying to work on technique and it was just unbelievably hard to even play the instrument with both hands, much harder than the teacher realized. I've also heard similar comments from some of my current and past students who came to my studio because their previous teachers had only emphasized technique and since their hands, fingers and bodies didn't operate in a way in which the teacher perhaps expected or wanted, it was a disastrous and unfortunate experience for everyone.
Dr. Elizabeth:So no, unfortunately I do not have a perfect formula that will guarantee success for adjusting technique, but I will leave you with some ideas and thoughts for how to approach technique and adapt your approach and mindset for your neurodivergent students. These are things I have been doing for a long time. The principles I'm going to share with you- I have gathered them after a ton of research and observation and I think they'll be really practical for anyone listening, those of you who are working on your own technique or trying to determine how to help your students. So here we go.
Dr. Elizabeth:. Resist the urge to watch the pot. When we're teaching technique, we often avoid giving students more difficult music until they've mastered xyz. That could be two note slurs, fluid movement when playing scales, graceful gestures, whatever it might be. Have you ever heard the old saying "a watched pot never boils? I think this can be applicable to technique. If we wait to give our students more advanced or different music until their technique is perfected, it may never be the right time. And what will be the result? The teacher will be frustrated because students aren't making progress. The students will become bored, disinterested, unmotivated, low confidence, etc. So don't wait to teach real music and expose your students to beautiful music. Now I'm not advocating for teaching music that is way above your students playing abilities. That's not what I'm suggesting. But I am suggesting that you go ahead and find music that is within their realm of possibility and ability and teach them, even though you know it will not be perfect and maybe the artistry won't be there just yet. But go ahead and expose your student to beautiful music. Don't put them in a holding pattern and don't watch the pot.
Dr. Elizabeth:2. Use intentional repetition. Continue to give your students lots of opportunities to reinforce the techniques they know while still introducing them to new patterns and techniques that are appropriate for them, even if their technique isn't yet perfected. Are you noticing a theme starting here? You can do this through so many ways. Rote repertoire is a great way to do this. You can even use improvising on chord and finger patterns, duets so many creative ways you can have fun with this. Or another piece- you can do with the same technique from another method book- that's a great idea. Or even choosing a special piece to give them more opportunities to practice that same technique. Intentionally finding ways for your students to use those skills over and over and over again, with intentional repetitions, using new repertoire, different repertoire, changing the tonality of their repertoire, improvising it, really using those skills, but not stuck. There is a difference. The amazing music educator Dr. Alice Hamill wrote a book called Winding it Back" and I love this idea of even when your students are progressing, we still need to wind it back and have them review those old skills. So this is a great way to do that, using intentional repetition.
Dr. Elizabeth:3. Use concrete verbiage, not flowery analogies. Students with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, any other neurodivergent diagnosis- they all have something in common. Well, a lot of things in common, but this one thing especially: they do best with concrete instructions. Concrete language says "do this. It's very definitive and it tells them what to do, not how to think like figurative or hypothetical language. Would I encourage you to ditch the flowery explanations and imaginative analogies and instead think of the simplest way to tell your student what to do with their body or fingers to achieve the needed technique.
Dr. Elizabeth:If you have a tricky student who doesn't respond well to correction or suggestion, look for just the right movement when they're improvising, when they're doing something they enjoy and they're not showing any signs of stress or overwhelm, then just in a casual way say "can your fifth finger let go as soon as it plays like this, and then maybe follow it up with would you like to give it a try? Or can you give it a try? And then that's it for the day? Just plant those seeds using concrete words. Do this with your finger, not imagine a bowl of peanut butter, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Dr. Elizabeth:We all love impressive illustrations and using exciting imagery to explain musical concepts or physical gestures. Isn't that something we all love about master classes, with wonderful teachers? Hearing their amazing explanations for these things, with teaching demonstrations? But please don't do this with your students on a regular basis, unless it's exactly what they need when they need it. 99.99% of the time, though, students first need to hear the do this with your finger. Then you can find an analogy that works for that student, so they feel it's personalized to them. It's a way to reinforce it, but not introduce it. So think concrete before abstract. The whole thing, the "Do this before the little hypothetical parts.
Dr. Elizabeth:4. If you're unsure of how to communicate a gesture or technique to your student, here are a few things you can think about. 1- look through the music. What are the most important things for your students to observe? Only focus on those. The second thing is to think about this how does my student communicate, and how do they prefer to receive communication? Maybe it's through a verbal explanation, like aural learning. Perhaps it's through a demonstration on the piano keys. Maybe they're a visual learner, or maybe hand maneuvering and playing it together, kind of a combination of kinesthetic and visual learning. Tailor the explanation to what works best for your student and don't be afraid to try something new. When in doubt, simply show the student can your finger too, play like this? Then watch their responses. If they get it great. Don't go any further. If they don't watch for stress signs and say "it's kind of like I'm jumping on a trampoline, or what can we say to help you remember this,
Dr. Elizabeth:One of the last things I want to leave you with is- let them make music. This is principle number five. The wonderful pedagogue Marvin Blickenstaff is famous for ensuring that his students always leave a , having truly played and made music. In a webinar through the Francis Clark Center last year, Mr. mr Blickenstaff posed this question as a great way for teachers to evaluate their teaching: teaching"Was Was it a music lesson? Was music made during the time together. This idea exemplifies my teaching philosophy. Regardless of my students' challenges, learning or physical limitations, I ensure that every single lesson together involves making music. I want my students to leave the lesson feeling as if they've created some music using the skills they have, and then they feel more inspired to do more of that.
Dr. Elizabeth:So, here's my question for you- how can you you do this, make sure your students are making music in every lesson? A few ways you can do this are by finding appropriate repertoire and teaching it by rote. This is a wonderful way to work on technique, since you're removing that element of reading and decoding a musical score and the students can just focus on their fingers. Also, don't be afraid to incorporate a lot of improvisation. This allows students to focus on just one thing their fingers and playing with their fingers, using their fingers and hands. What a beautiful opportunity to work on coordination, finger movement, playing in different parts of the piano in different patterns, experimenting with different finger movements to get the desired tone. They're making music while they're doing all of this! I do this in nearly every lesson with my students and a lot of them beg for more of the 'making up the music time.'
Dr. Elizabeth:and a lot six: them beg for more of the making up the music time. Last is number six.
Dr. Elizabeth:Rethink the verbiage you use. This is directly tied to a couple points ago when we talked about Dr. concrete language. We've already talked 'poke,' adjusting our approach using analogies in teaching, but let's take it a step further and think of the simplest words and phrases to describe what your student needs to do with their fingers. For neurodivergent students, who may struggle with hypermobility, where they have a lot of double So, joints and collapsing joints. Even for students with motor control whole, you weak know- motor planning, where they struggle to plan and control their explanation and how they move.
Dr. Elizabeth:I tend to use this word that was shared with me by my mentor and former pedagogy professor, dr Scott Price. It's the word poke, p-o-k-e, and I use it for how students should touch the keys. Students everything- understand the word poke and it is a singular finger movement, one finger at a time. We don't say poke and use a whole bunch of fingers. We keys, just poke one finger. So it kind of eliminates the need to go through the whole. You know we're only going to move one finger at a time. Explanation. We're just going to move one finger at a time. Explanation we're just going to poke finger two. So, for example, if I want my student to play fingers two, ! four in order on the three black keys and they're struggling a lot to do that I might sing as I play and move my fingers Poke poke, poke, poking isn't jumping or anything impulsive or fast, it's just a little poke, and I have yet to find a student who doesn't adapt beautifully with that phrase. Feel free to take that and use it and then find others similar, really little words that work well for you.
Dr. Elizabeth:Lastly, since students with lessened motor control and tiny muscle movement may struggle with controlling their fingers, I encourage you to allow them to use bigger movements and gestures when playing. Let them over-exaggerate, let them play forte, everything until you notice they are no. longer having to focus and really work hard to move their fingers. Then try adding dynamics, but still let them poke the keys just gently. You will notice a difference in your students playing if you try this. Why? Because they're not having to work so hard to combat their natural movements and this will allow them to just work on those big muscle movements and then that will in turn build their confidence, since their accuracy will greatly improve. It is a win-win-win."I've
Dr. Elizabeth:Students are incredibly bright and these special learners are gifted both intellectually and musically. Neurodivergent students are very capable of learning new technique, adjusting their technique and playing beautifully expressive music. We just have to remove our own limitations that we might put on our students Limitations for what correct and ideal technique needs to look like, limitations for sequencing the teaching of technique and achieving XYZ perfectly before moving on, etc. Limitations of hitting communication barriers and assuming that said: "f the student didn't understand your first instructions, then it's all hopeless and a lost cause.
Dr. Elizabeth:This is perhaps one of the biggest, most challenging things to adapt in piano teaching. But I see it click in my students' eyes, their instant confidence of I've got it. I don't need your help and their resilience to keep working to fight their natural muscle
Dr. Elizabeth:and finger movements to make it work for the piano. It's their instrument. Isn't that amazing? Our students love music so much that they're willing to adapt and change how their fingers move on the keys, even fighting mental and sensory alarms to overcome this. That is incredible.
Dr. Elizabeth:Ignacio Estrada was a famous ventriloquist from South Texas and the Southern United States who lived from 1946 to 2024. And he became widely known for his encouraging and inspirational presentations to children using his really cool ventriloquist puppets. His positive messages encouraged kids to be kind, avoid harmful habits and use their creativity and intelligence fully and joyfully. One of his most famous quotes is this and it embodies my whole passion for teaching students who learn differently. He said if children can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. That's all for today. I know this was a lot of information and detail on technique information and detail on technique but I hope it gives you just a glimpse at the possibility of teaching technique differently to your students who learn differently, without putting up unintentional roadblocks of assumptions or limitations.
