How, Why and When to use headphones in your group piano classes.

Headphones get a bad rap when it comes to group piano.

It is assumed that your groups are either simply mini private lessons, therefore everyone wears headphones, or your groups are collaborative, everyone learning the same song, in which case there are no headphones and everyone plays out loud.

Some group teachers will go so far as to tell you that everyone should be playing out loud all the time, otherwise it is not really a group class.

I am here to tell you that actually you can have the best of both if you use your headphones in a way that ensures maximum impact when it comes to teaching and learning.

When we have discovery calls with teachers, it is a question that often comes up:

“Why do you need headphones when you are teaching everyone the same song at the same time?”

In fact I even had someone show an interest in using the KeyNotes program for her groups, but was put off by the images on our website, which have students with headphones on.

Well it all comes down to our systems of differentiation and managing individual learner needs within our groups.

Used well, headphones allow for that individual time to try, to make mistakes, to work on those mistakes, and to work on a more difficult version of the song as needed.

So with headphones it isn’t ALL or NOTHING.

We have outlined WHY you should use headphones in your collaborative group class, here is the how and when.

We recommend that headphones are plugged into the keyboard as students enter the classroom so that when it is time to move to the keyboards, there isn’t the raft of disorganised sound that can occur before students are ready to perform!

We also recommend that you have two sets of headphones per keyboard (using a splitter) so that you can go round and listen to each individual without students having to play out loud to you, thereby distracting other students.

It is important not to send students to the keyboards until you have done some preparation with them as a whole class. We call this the teacher modelling part of the lesson, and it involves going through the song, singing it a lot, pointing at the notes as you sing and even asking students to try a part of the song on the main piano so that you can check they understand a certain element of it (say for example if there is particularly tricky fingering, or a chord that needs to be played in a specific way).

This is also the point at which we talk about the challenge levels for the song. “This is challenge 1, and if you have done this then you can add this part for challenge 2, and then this for challenge 3”.

The students then move to the keyboards with the song firmly in their heads – they have internalised the rhythm and melody, and they have been shown how to work out certain parts independently (mainly by reading the music!). Plus they know that there is somewhere to go with the piece after mastering the first challenge (nothing worse than having six children shouting, “I’m done”, all at the same time, after only minutes on the keyboards! Chances are they aren’t done, and knowing that there are further challenges mean that you avoid this rather frustrating feature in your group class!).

While students are working with their headphones on, the teacher’s job is to circulate and give support/feedback/challenge. This is the order that I personally tend to go in when circulating: 

• Students with any technical problems – headphones aren’t working (usually volume has been turned down!); wrong instrumental sound (“it sounds funny!”), one-finger chord function on (so low notes play whole chords rather than just the one note!) and an array of other weird and wonderful things that the keyboards seem to magically do on their own (I often refer to the keyboard gremlin that must be in the room!).
• Those that are finding it difficult to get started – maybe they have forgotten where the starting note is (thinking about my very beginners here!), or I can see immediately that they are using the wrong fingers. Or perhaps they are just super wriggly and need to be shown again on their own keyboard in order to bring them on task. I normally get to know, within each class, who I am likely going to need to visit first!
• Then there is a general walk around and check. Is everyone on task, are they practicing correctly etc – it’s amazing what you can tell from just a quick sweep of the room (something I really missed when our lessons were online) and you will be able to see where your attention is needed.
• Finally there will come a point where you need to start pushing student onto the next challenge level (if indeed you have these in place as we do in our KeyNotes program). You may actually know that you have a child who is going to need pushing onto the next level straight away and you would need to do that earlier. But I often find that these students are good at knowing when they are ready themselves.

How long does all this take? It depends on the class age and skill level. With my littles, who are age 4-5, I would say around 5-7 minutes out of a 30 minute class is sufficient – much beyond that and those keyboard gremlins may return (students will go off task), plus there is often not much more that they can absorb or change in this time (I find that if they have made a mistake in their fingering or rhythm, they will be unable to fix it until they have done some work away from the song, and then return to it fresh another time).

With my age 6+ beginners, it would be around 10-12 minutes. And with my older/higher level ones, who have learnt the process of practice and can really work on their songs in this time, I tend to have them on for a good 20 minutes out of 45.

What happens after these practice sessions? Well this is where there are opportunities to perform, but also to hear others, to hear corrections and praise, and to do some more subconscious work on their songs.

Here’s how it works.

We take headphones out and I hear students perform one-by-one. Everyone has to listen to each other and clap after each performance. There is so much to be said for doing this, not least because when we have lots of different challenge levels and different versions of the piece being performed, students are inspired to push themselves in terms of the challenges and it will generally make for a very motivated class!

After each performance I first say something that I loved about their performance, and then one thing to work on. I do both of these, even if there was very little to love and a lot to work on! We need to keep up their motivation and their confidence, so that they will keep trying for us (and for them!). What’s great about this is that the other students listening, are inspired by both of these things – what was good and what needed work on. I often find that they will work extra hard on also achieving the element that I praised as they would also like praise, and they even try and not make the same mistakes that they’ve heard others make.

Finally we do some ensemble playing. I often ask students to play the challenge level that they can play most fluently when performing together. We also use a backing track. The ensemble playing is the part that they love and the reward for all their hard work! And after all it is such an important benefit of group learning, making music together, that it is essential we include it in every class.

We can only do that when we are learning the same song together, AND when they have had time to practice the song individually.

I think the fact that we can use headphones in this way is one of the big benefits of group piano over group learning in any other instrument.

Let’s use headphones to our advantage and not think of them solely as a means to teaching mini private lessons. We are not using them the whole time, nor are we playing out loud the whole time – but we are using them to create the best in group learning.

PS. The use of headphones is #5 of our 5 Absolute Musts of Group Piano - a free download which goes through five things you must consider, to teach the most effective group piano classes - get your copy here.