Piano lessons with the blind and visually impaired

A project of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar
for the Master’s Course in Piano, with a focus on Instrumental Pedagogy, and the two-majors Master’s Course in Piano/ Piano Instrumental Pedagogy

Parents of blind children who want to learn to play an instrument approach instrumental pedagogues time and again. But, for a long time, no German university of music offered a degree programme that prepared future instrumental/ piano pedagogues to meet these specific requirements.

The idea of developing a profile to cover this in the Master’s course in Piano at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT, in collaboration with the Weimar-based ‘Diesterweg-Förderzentrum Sehen’, came about in 2009. Students are given specific fundamental knowledge that is indispensable for teaching the blind/ visually impaired, and acquiring teaching experience with pupils.

On behalf of the University of Music, the piano pedagogue Viola Michaelis teaches blind and visually impaired pupils, developing didactic concepts both for her teaching with her pupils and for students’ lectures. Contact is made, expanded and deepened with visually impaired colleagues and colleagues who teach the blind/visually impaired.

The teaching concept for the pupils focuses on listening-based ways of working (using various technical aids). In addition, braille notation is taught. Uncontracted braille is used as a form of written communication.

Students complete a programme that looks at various topic-areas. They start by understanding the world as a blind/ visually impaired person experiences it, then get to grips with their specific requirements and talents, through to the ‘different weighting’ of various topics/ fields of learning. The construction of various didactic strands and the ways to combine them in lessons are discussed with the students, and braille plays a role here, too.

In addition, students are given a brief overview of the eye and eye diseases that can have an impact on didactic decisions. Furthermore, they gain familiarity with unique approaches to learning and potential educational pathways. Students have the opportunity to undertake long-term shadowing and teach pupils themselves.

News

15 years of the blind project: Qualified teacher Viola Michaelis supervises special seminar "Piano lessons for the visually impaired"

A special teaching programme at the Department of Piano at the Weimar Music university is celebrating its 15th anniversary. The so-called "Blind Project" under the direction of qualified teacher Viola Michaelis currently looks after six visually impaired piano students aged between 8 and 39, some of whom are taught at the supra-regional visual support centre in Weimar.

Piano students specialising in instrumental pedagogy regularly sit in on lessons at the Diesterweg School and spend two semesters studying the needs of visually impaired learners.

This special seminar entitled "Piano lessons for visually impaired students" is part of the didactic training of young piano teachers. Professor Bettina Bruhn from Weimar came up with the idea in 2009 and Viola Michaelis has been involved in the project as a teacher since 2011. She gained experience at further training courses, in daily practice and in conversations with blind colleagues and learners, which she prepared for the students.

The teaching material is divided into a total of ten subject areas. As theory and practice are inextricably linked, sitting in on the students' lessons is an integral part of the instruction.

"The piano lessons are not only partly taught in the rooms of the Förderzentrum Sehen, the students can also observe how the school operates here," explains Viola Michaelis. "On the open day in particular, they can experience the world of visually impaired pupils, learn about educational pathways, familiarise themselves with optical and electronic aids for the blind, see teaching materials in Braille and take part in experiments in the dark."

At the centre of the blind project are the piano learners and the acquisition of adequate experience by the students in order to be able to make appropriate didactic decisions in teaching practice. "It is an important goal of the project for the learners to integrate music into their lives, as their leisure activities are naturally limited," says Michaelis. "Creating the conditions for making music in their free time is just as important as the goal of opening up career prospects for particularly talented young people."

Over the past 15 years, a total of around 25 visually impaired people, including visually impaired and blind learners, children with AD(H)S, intellectual disabilities, hearing impairments and speech impairments have been taught. The project is now also part of the Inclusion Network Thuringia (VdM).

[12 July 2024]

Continuing education for piano teachers at the Tyrolean State Conservatory on 26 May 2024

A continuing education course on the subject of blindness took place on 26 May 2024 at the Tyrolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck (Austria). Bianca Vonmetz (representative of the Austrian Blind Association) and Viola Michaelis (Blind Project of the Weimar Music University) were invited as speakers. 

After Bianca Vonmetz's introduction to the world of blind people, Viola Michaelis spoke about her experiences teaching piano to blind learners. She explained the reasons behind certain didactic decisions and how this subsequently shifts the focus of work on certain learning content.

In advance, the piano teachers in Innsbruck were able to submit their questions and areas of interest using a questionnaire, so that answers and suggestions could be clearly crystallised in the presentation. The participants were very interested and took an active part in the course of this further education event by asking questions on site.

Fortunately, several colleagues had already come into contact with visually impaired students. In the winter semester of 2024/25, a blind piano student will also begin his studies at the Tyrolean State Conservatory.

Contact



Viola Michaelis

Phone +49 (0)3643 | 804616

viola.michaelis1(at)freenet.de