The Dallas Morning News: Park Cities

Tuning future piano teachers

SMU program is an education for children and students alike

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

By ELIZABETH LANGTON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

A line of nine children marches behind Leonardo Zuno, stomping the floor in unison to the beat of the song that Kevin Gunter plays on the piano.

The young piano students are learning how to play triplets, three notes that occupy a single beat. The activity is one of a flurry of exercises the two graduate students use with their second-year class in Southern Methodist University's piano preparatory department.

Photos by JOHN F. RHODES/DMN

Piano student Emily White, 7, raises her hand to signal that she has 'matched up a chord,' using pennies to mark the keys. 'This is one of the only programs where you are actually going to teach a class,' said graduate student Kevin Gunter (left).

The class serves two purposes: to teach children how to play piano and to teach college students the art and science of teaching, called pedagogy.

"It's a learning laboratory for piano teachers," said Matthew Kline, associate director of the department. "It works as a place for graduate students to gain practical teaching experience."

The program started when Louise Bianchi, a private piano teacher, returned to SMU for a graduate degree in the 1960s. Mrs. Bianchi was then recruited to teach after the pedagogy professor's departure.

Mrs. Bianchi and two other private teachers pooled their pupils to create the piano preparatory department, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

"She definitely was a real pioneer in the field," Mr. Kline said. "There are so many teachers in this community and around the country and the world who carry on her legacy. It is an important place to be as a teacher and as a graduate student learning how to teach."

Becky Corley, who owns the school Dallas/Music in University Park, said she knew she wanted to teach piano but no college offered such a degree. As a piano performance major, she was among Mrs. Bianchi's first students.

JOHN F. RHODES/DMN

Youngsters' hands mimic their instructor's hand. About 75 children participate in the program.

"There wasn't an avenue to pursue to learn how to be a piano teacher," she said. "She had the vision to know that was an important thing to learn how to do."

David Karp, a music professor at SMU for nearly 30 years, said other colleges followed her model.

Mrs. Bianchi retired from SMU in 1988 and taught for a time at Dallas/Music. She died in 1999.

"She became my dearest friend and my mentor. She taught me everything I know about how to teach," Ms. Corley said. "A lot of my staff – I have 15 teachers – are SMU graduates because they have such great training."

About 75 children and six to eight graduate students participate in the preparatory program. The children attend a private lesson each week and, depending on their experience, two or four group lessons each month.

At a recent lesson, Taryn Eberhardt, 10, said she enjoys her class and learning to play. Greg Eberhardt of Dallas said he considers music an extension of his daughter's schooling.

"This is certainly more comprehensive than coming to just a private lesson," he said.

Vance Maultsby of University Park said he sent his two daughters to the preparatory program in part because a music background enhances math and language studies. But he also believes music adds to quality of life.

Daughter Marissa, now 21, developed a passion for piano and still plays regularly, said Mr. Maultsby, who himself takes private lessons at SMU.

"It's something you can carry with you your whole life," he said. "The preparatory program is a wonderful thing for the kids. It's a serious program with serious teachers who are trying to master their craft."

Mr. Zuno, a graduate student from Guadalajara, Mexico, said he chose SMU because of the program's reputation for balancing piano performance and pedagogy.

"The faculty has lots of expectations," he said. "The performance aspect of the program is top-notch."

Mr. Gunter, a graduate student from Birmingham, Ala., added: "This is one of the only programs where you are actually going to teach a class. There's really not any program quite like this."

Cathy Lysinger, director of the piano preparatory department, said she wants to produce quality piano instructors while teaching students in a nurturing environment.

"Our goal is that kids stay in it for a long time, and the reason they stay is because they know how to succeed," she said. "We want to train our teachers so they know how to help the children and how to be leaders in the field."

Unlike musical conservatories, SMU accepts piano students of all abilities. But parent and child must commit initially to the twice-weekly classes and daily practices, Dr. Lysinger said.

"Anybody can learn if they are willing to do the homework," she said. "We have high expectations of what the children do, but it's in a very supportive environment."

During the last 40 years, thousands of children have taken lessons in the department. Such an experience is the greatest educational investment a parent can offer a child, Mr. Kline said.

"Even though very few of our kids will go on and major in music or be concert pianists, by the time they finish, they could," he said. "We believe that the skills that kids develop while they commit to mastering an instrument can be transferred to success in the rest of their lives."

Elizabeth Langton is a Plano freelance writer. E-mail elizabeth_langton@yahoo.com.