Thinking as You Play focuses 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 Play is 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.

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

About the Author

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.

Reviews

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.

* American Music Teacher *

[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

-- Meg Gray * American Music Teacher *

Instructors wishing to sharpen their apporach to private and group pinao lessons and willing to use the techniques Coats outlines will undoubtedly become better at teaching students to think for themselves.

* Music Educators Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253218155
Author Sylvia Coats
Format Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 299g