Syllabus

Teaching Elements :

• Song, these help to establish an enjoyable musical environment & also enable musical skills to be developed away from the piano viz. musical expression, rhythm, intonation & sense on tonality.
• Finger Zips, Finger zips are unique to Encore On Keys. They are small pieces that may be built around only a few notes. Key concepts are introduced & become the building blocks for the future learning.
• Repertoire Pieces, Solo performance pieces that include Finger Zip elements in a larger & more expressive musical framework.
• Ensembles, these develop part-playing skills, musical interaction & include percussion parts for rhythm training.

Abbreviations :

• Body Solfege/Solfa, Using the following gestures/actions to represent notes; touching toes for do, knees for re, hips for mi, shoulders for fa & head for so.
• Play-Ear Playing & Singing, One & two bar pattern of known material played by the teacher & then imitated by the student (played back on the piano/keyboard by -ear). This activity links keyboards playing to aural development.
• Chord Singing, Chord singing & chord recognition through by-ear (imitation) singing of broken chord pattern.
• Flash Card, Note/rhythm reading games to establish & reinforce reading skills.
• Interval Recognition, Reading & recognizing intervals.
• Keyboard, Piano/keyboard playing
• Note Reading, Note reading on a white board or similar teaching aid
• Paper Keyboard, Demonstrating note & finger patterns either silently at the piano/keyboard or using a paper keyboard.
• Repertoire Singing, Short pieces or songs that are learnt by ear (imitation) in solfege/solfa & sung from memory.
• Score Reading, Points & read letter names from the score/student book.
• Solfege/Solfa Singing, Point and sing solfege/solfa from the score.

Single Staff Notation :

All the pieces in Junior Series Level 1 are notated on either the trebles or bass staff, however, this does not mean that students should be restricted to single hand playing. The aim is to keep the notation simple for young beginners. It is recommended that all pieces notated on the trebles staff be played in both the right hand & left hand (an octave lower). It is also advisable to play these pieces hands together (at the octave) whenever possible.

Some Points Regarding Flash Cards :

It suggested that the teacher keeps a small supply of rubber bands so that  “homework” cards may be isolated from the main pack & kept together as a unit. As the students progresses, the “homework park” will gradually increase in number until it entails all of the cards. 

The Flash Cards are an excellent teaching aids & work well in a variety of contexts :

• Quick response answers
• Sight singing
• Sight playing (they fir neatly behind the black keys on the piano)
• Aural recognition (listen to the pattern and the find the matching card)
• Matching cards with notes & rhythms in the student pieces.
• Creating melodic & rhythmic sequences.

Letter Names, Solfege or Tonic-Solfa :

Although the Encore system of music education has been based on the ‘fixed do” (solfege) methodology, the use of a “moveable do” (tonic-solfa) is also compatible with the course materials. It is up to the discretion of individual teachers wether they use letter names, solfege or tonic-solfa.