"My head kept humming...I drifted downtown, and presently discovered that my feet were keeping time to that relentless jingle...jingled all through the evening, went to bed, rolled, tossed, and jingled all night long."--Mark Twain, from "A Literary Nightmare"
You probably saw the title of this blog and thought "Ew!" Well, let me reassure you...Ear worms are not real worms.....but they may be just as bad!Have you ever had a song stuck incessantly in your head, driving you nuts? THAT's an ear worm. Some people also call it a brain worm. Whatever you call it....it still sucks.
Now can you imagine being a piano teacher that teaches the same little jingles over and over every day? The simple kind that, as a rule, always get stuck in the brain. Here is just a sampling of what runs through my mind almost on a daily basis:
Yankee Doodle
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Alouette
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Jingle Bells
Ode to Joy
Among others....
So far, the only technique I found helpful is to think of the song and play it from the beginning to the end in my head, forcing myself to keep moving through all the parts of the song without getting stuck on one. This works about 50% of the time. The worst is when I don't know the whole song and can't complete it.
It seems to have worked for some of my piano students, too. They often get songs stuck in their heads from practicing. I'm curious to see if anyone else has a good technique for getting rid pesky songs?
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Yeva Delband is a piano teacher in West Los Angeles and specializes in teaching students with autism and other special needs. She has created her own method for teaching piano to very young learners and students with special needs, including ABA techniques in piano lessons.
