MultiPiano
Anna von Zweigbergk, 2002-05-03
http://www.multipiano.com/

Table of contents

Multipiano, an online method for students and teachers

This individualised piano teaching method was developed by the pianist and piano teacher Anna von Zweigbergk. The Multipiano method is the result of many years of multimedia studies and experience from the pedagogical work of this teacher, whose private lessons and her later founded school Concertino Internationella Konsertskolan in Stockholm had an enormous success in the eighties and the nineties. Anna von Zweigbergk is a member of several international associations, i.a. the SPPF (Swedish Piano Teachers Association) and the EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association). She is now living in Brussels, and from there she's managing the online open music school Concertinotown.

Multipiano is an enhanced version of the video piano school "Annas videopianoskola", known as AVP, which was demonstrated as a prototype already in 1987 at an inventors' fair in Stockholm as an example of creative interaction between technology and arts and of the application of video technique for didactic purposes. The prototype Annas Videopianoskola was developed for purely didactic and research purposes. These purposes were based on a desire to attain better results in the work with students, and a fascination for the possibility of non-verbal elimination of errors in the first and most important phase of building up the student's pianistic foundations, as well as a desire of documenting this method of work by means of a video camera.

The possibility of demonstration by the teacher personally of the pianistic elements and technical exercises for a correct playing position of the pianist, interactive elements and the work with an amateur video camera, accessible for everyone, were in the focus of her special interest.

"I wasn't just interested in documenting the method, but I saw the video camera as a future working tool for the teacher. The student got a lesson cassette, and thus had unimpeded access to essential instructions which I demonstrated personally, just like during a lesson, with the only difference that the student took the lesson home."

Anna von Zweigbergk's method didn't arise on a commercial ground and never pretended to a comparison with products available at the market. They may be very inspiring games and didactic plays, better and not so good, but they cannot be seen as teaching methods. According to our definition of teaching, there can be no method without a teacher, and we don't aim to dispose of the teacher.

The Multipiano method is dynamic like every creative work with elements of improvisation, and that's why the Multipiano method is a professional working tool in the hands of a professional teacher, not the other way round. Moreover, we offer our method and collaboration only to interested professional teachers who have been trained for this work.

During the many years of testing, the AVP students loved the exercises and made tremendous progress. Licensed teachers are getting prepared to these new and unexpected effects and will be able to make use of them in the further work with the student.

The present Multipiano method is adapted to work online with students, or offline on CD-ROM/DVD. In the ere of broadband Internet there will be more and more online schools. They will need adequate working methods for students and teachers, using digital video, improved video conferencing methods, communication and computer technology.

With the beginning ere of online teaching, we are decided to challenge the anonymousness and the incompetence hiding therein, and we want to change the serious social isolation of the pianistic profession into a platform open for everyone. Concertinotown online music school is such an open platform for students, teachers, parents, artists, music lovers, experts and amateurs. Our Multipiano method can even serve as a self-teaching material for beginners. Where the student meets difficulties, he or she can always turn to Concertinotown for competent help. On the other hand, it's obvious that our guarantee doesn't cover cases of "application of the Multipiano method" by incompetent teachers without accurate training.

Multipiano, an online method for students

1. Characteristics
The contents of the method package we offer are adapted individually to each student, which enables him or her to study in a more efficient way, according to his or her ambitions, capacities and possibilities, without unnecessary stress, making use of the best sides of his or her own personality and talent.

2. A web studio of one's own
Each student has a web studio (Internet application) for his or her exclusive needs. It includes i.a. information about the current course, the status of the user student, online technical support, online consulting Multipiano teachers, a library, different modules, e-mail, direct links to music stores, etc.

3. System news centre
Information about new versions, tools etc. are being sent to all users automatically. Where needed, courses are offered to members free of charge.

4. Motivation
Our students regularly receive by e-mail motivating reminders and invitations to interesting events enhancing their motivation to finish their courses.

5. Online support
It's possible to phone the teacher in charge for help every day from 8.30 to 17.00. The teachers also answer by e-mail. An elaborate index and a chat will be helpful in solving occasional problems. Starannie opracowany indeks oraz czat będą pomocne w rozwiązywaniu doraźnych problemów.

6. Feedback
Our students are regularly invited to evaluate our courses and teachers. The results of these polls are published as synthetic summaries.

7. Languages
The teachers teach in English, French, Swedish and Polish, which are their first or second language, no matter where the student and the teacher are living. For instance, a Swedish-speaking teacher living in Warsaw may give lessons to a Swedish-speaking student living in New York or in Brussels.

8. Exams
At the end of each module, there is a test, so the student is sure about having attained the current stage of knowledge and ability. If the final test of the course gives a score of at least 7 on a scale from 1 to 10, the student is awarded a diploma.

9. Our guarantees
We guarantee our students the very best Multipiano teachers. They have the required music training and, in addition, a Multipiano teacher licence. That means that they teach according to a method that they recognise as their own.

10. Our original study technique and security.

Thanks to such a uniform methodological base, our students may have any number of consultations with all our teachers, working with the consulting teachers they choose, even with several ones in parallel, which enables them to make tremendously rapid progress. That's one of our main innovations in Concertinotown online music school. Live individual consultations are performed according to our original study technique aiming to highest security and pedagogic quality.

All participants engage to respect international Internet security rules, according to a text adapted from the EUN Community Member Conduct Guidelines.

11. The Music Laboratory
in Concertinotown online music school is open for everybody and free from any charge.

Multipiano, an online method for teachers

1. The Multipiano Licensed Teachers
A Multipiano licensed teacher is employed on the basis of a contract with Concertinotown online music school. The Multipiano teachers have their own pages (studios) in Concertinotown for their personal presentations, and access to an online studio and Multipiano materials directly to their computers. The teachers are professionally and financially interested in protecting the Multipiano copyright, as they have their part of the profits from sold copies of the Multipiano Method.

2. The Music Laboratory
in Concertinotown online music school is open for everybody and free from any charge. We offer everyone, including schools, a playful system of building up a music knowledge and an original way of learning notes, participation in contests and projects, teaching aids and a forum. We will encourage school-employed music teachers who like our method also to apply for a Multipiano licence.

Multipiano, an online method of the future

Multipiano is the right method for those who want to make progress. Teachers and students form a team, enabling them to co-operate in a broad context. In the Internet, we see possibilities of integration and preventing isolation. We appreciate them and will develop them.

Presently, Concertinotown is an online music school in four languages, but we aim to constantly increase the number of languages.

Our motto is protection and development of the free profession of the music teacher, on a par with school-employed teachers and with equal rights to take part in the development of the ICT of the future. We are here today, and we'll be needed in the future. 

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