This past summer, I did a little experiment with my students. I spent part of our lesson each week reviewing the notes for both bass and treble clefs. I wanted to make it interesting, so I decided to time their progress each week, as a way to encourage and motivate them to beat their own time. I assumed that I would get a lot of push back because the students generally just want to keep on learning more songs and not be bothered with the theoretical aspect of music, mostly because they don't fully understand the importance of applied music theory.
But I was pleasantly surprised to see the younger ones become enthusiastic, and increase their speed in spouting off the names of the notes and locating them on the piano! But the most wonderful byproduct of this experience was seeing the students become more proficient in their sight reading, and their ability to pick up new music pieces in a shorter amount of time. I just love watching them master new levels!
