Preparatory C (from 5+). Lesson 3

 

NOTESOUND

The quintessence of the Hiner Method is NOTESOUND--a unique opportunity for every beginner to immediately see and actively interact with the sound, its symbol (the note) and the duration of both.

 

All other schools in the world present these 3 properties of a musical note separately, which makes the results unpredictable and ineffective.

 

The concept of “notesound" was first articulated by the Author Hellene Hiner at a scientific conference in Oxford.

The Grand Staff or staff that unites the Treble Clef and the Bass Clef is the universal form of notation and the musical system in the world of music.

The basis of the staff is the organization of white keys, which have a direct graphical connection with the lines and spaces of the staff.

The Treble Clef and Bass Clef are arranged systematically and symmetrically according to their lines and spaces.

Teaching musical notation apart from vibrations creates a false notion for beginners that the key system and the organization of the notes are different systems that have no visual connection with each other.

This leads to the practice of memorizing notes separately from their sounds with the involvement of additional memorization techniques that send beginners away from the language of music notation.

So, landmarks from groups of 2 or 3 black keys are used most of the time when memorizing the location of the keys. This landmark has nothing to do with musical notation and leads students away from reading the musical text.

At the same time, notes are memorized by their position on the lines and spaces of the staff by the mnemonic formula “Every Good Boy Does Fine” without relying on the geography of the keyboard space, taking the study of note symbols away from their sound equivalents.

This contributes to the failure of the integrity of the system. The ability to cover notation and sounds by both hemispheres of the brain at the same time becomes impossible since the centers for the perception of vibrations and abstract understanding of signs are located in different parts of the brain.

Separate teaching of sounds and their symbols, as different systems, leads to the fact that only students with very pronounced musical abilities can quickly identify the world of symbols and the world of sounds in spite of existing methods, but not because of it.

Most beginners whose musical ability needs to be strengthened can permanently develop the textual perception of music separately from the auditory one.

That is why those who rely on auditory preferences easily improvise and create music, and those who have a predominantly visual-analytical approach are able to read the musical text, but cannot work with sounds to compose and improvise music.

The discovery of the fact that the Stave is a system for integrating note symbols and vibrations required the new perception that a musical note is a synthesis of sound and symbol or sign.

If in teaching reading, the synthesis of a sign and its speech equivalent goes through a picture – A= "Apple"-- then in music the unifying graphic principle is the position on the staff and in the keyboard space.

Solfeggio syllables are a necessary, but insufficient approach for connecting a symbol and vibration: when reading a musical text fluently, it is the speed of decoding the graphic relationship of the lines with the keys that is decisive.

Thus, "notesound" is a unit of musical writing in which a graphic sign and its sound equivalent have their exact place both on the Grand Staff and in the keyboard space of any key instrument.

Working with notesound, as with a single and inseparable unit of Staff, significantly improves the efficiency and quality not only in teaching beginners music as a language, but also in developing the neural connections between the centers of auditory, visual and abstract perception of a musical text.

Working with notation helps beginners to quickly master written music while simultaneously developing a musical ear and musical memory, contributes to the liberation and free development of the muscular system, and is also the basis for creating a healthy balance in the development of both hearing and seeing for writing down and performing sheet music.

The experience of working with students from 60 countries has shown the indisputable advantage of this approach both with gifted children as well as children with disabilities from 2 years and older.

Hellene Hiner
August, 2021

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