The Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank
When a student starts learning The Happy Farmer in Suzuki Book 1, I assign them The Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank exercise. This exercise helps them learn the form of the piece and the endings for the A theme. We discuss how there are 2 sections or themes in Happy Farmer, the A theme and the B theme. The B theme is always the same, and rather short. But the first two times we play the A theme we step down from F# on the D string – “F#, E, D” or “three blind mice.” Then when the A theme comes back after we play the B theme, the 3 notes at the end change! We might call this theme A’. The ending for A’ is “one fat cat” or “A, F#, G.”
I like teaching the form of a piece so that from the very beginning. It gives the student mental hooks to hang the information on. It helps them keep track of where they are and keep their mind engaged in the piece. The Happy Farmer’s form is AABABA.
The Happy Farmer Form
A theme – 3 blind mice
A theme – 3 blind mice
B theme
A’ theme – 1 fat cat
B theme
A’ theme – 1 fat cat
How to play The Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank
Then we play Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank. I’ll play the A themes and the B themes but I’ll stop playing and the student has to play the correct endings for all the A themes. Their first preview spot is to learn all the endings for the A themes.
This assignment is active listening. They have to listen to me play the whole piece multiple times and play the 3 note ending in time and at the correct time. I have found that this active listening assignment makes teaching the rest of the piece much easier. They’ve already listened to it over and over. And another bonus is the recording I give them is a slower tempo than the recording with the book. So my speed-demon students don’t race to play it at the performance tempo.
I’ve been creating voice memo recordings for students forever, and I just realized maybe I should make one with a piano accompaniment that I can share. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of this 15 years ago? Watch, I’ll probably still be finding random Happy Farmer Fill In the Blank recordings on my hard drive.
