Tips for teaching 4 square piano

The A pages

When teaching the 4 square piano method, it is important to encourage each student to follow the visual practice schedule. It may help to ask students to repeat each box 3 times in the lesson, so that this becomes normal practice before they go home. This repetition gives multiple opportunities to appreciate what went well, and to suggest improvements that might be made in the next attempt. It allows for detailed coaching in technique and musicality, and provides both a sense of quick progress, and a space for deeper challenge. The blue box contains the hardest challenge, and playing this 3 times can be time consuming, so this may require a different approach, such as working hands separately to begin with.

The B and C pages

The B and C pages are designed to be used flexibly, in whatever way works best for each individual. They may be used as in-lesson activities only, or they may be sent home as extra material to learn in the week, depending on the pupil. If an A page takes 2 weeks to learn, the B or C page might be added to it in week 2. For students with a spiky learning profile, it is possible to progress through the A, B and C pages at different rates. For pupils who have learnt with other methods or teachers in the past, B and C pages from earlier levels can be used for sight reading practice, to recap skills, or to fill in any gaps in their learning. In general however, it is helpful to master each complete set before moving on.

Games and activities for faster learning

Before we play any note in a piece of piano music, our brains may have 5 concepts to synthesise: a note, a key, a letter, a number and a finger. This is a complex process! It links our muscles, our instrument, our background knowledge, and what we see on the page, all while processing rhythm, sound, emotion and more. As teachers we would like our students to be conversant in all these elements so that nothing will hold them back in their musical journey.

These 5 elements of basic reading can be connected in 10 different ways, so I like to use 10 mini games to help beginners master each of the 10 connections individually. By practicing these games, a student is building neural connections in the brain between each element, so that eventually they will all flow together intuitively. allowing pupils to focus on the more interesting nuances of musicality. It's also helpful to practice different rhythmic skills with each element in turn.

Younger children particularly benefit from having complex skills broken down into individual components, so cycling through these games will be a great help to them, as well as providing fun and variety within lessons.

Below is a free pdf of each set of games, as well as the cards and tiles needed to play them. Enjoy!