Hear - Do - See - Label

I was visiting with one of our adult students the other night before class. She has been in our RMM classes for over three years. A delightful lady (maybe mid-60s) who was a brand new beginner when she started. She loves playing out of fake books, especially country tunes. She is also a good reader. She has played left hand patterns, octave, octave fifth (C G C), octave fifth with a walk up (C G C D E), seventh chord patterns (C G B) and all the chord shell and broken chord shell activities. So before class, she asks, "How do I figure out what note to start on with the left hand?" She can identify the pattern, but we've never discussed the names of the lines or spaces. We briefly discussed the spaces All Cars Eat Gas and up or down a line from each to name all the pitches on the bass clef staff. She said, "Oh, that makes a lot of sense, why didn't you tell me at the beginning?" Great question! Right?! My reply, "I know it seems backwards, but if I'd dumped this information on you at the beginning - before you could play, do you think the information would have seemed overwhelming?" She said, "O yeah, it would have been way to much. Now, all I have to do is put labels on what I can already play." The late, great Frances Clark taught: Hear - Do - See - Label. Not her exact words, but her idea. Remember to save the "Label" for the end of the teaching process. Labels stick better to information that has been learned by hearing and doing; information that has been seen. Happy Teaching! Happy Playing!