The young students who stay at Phat Diem are taught how to play the keyboard, or "organ." The method is pretty similar to what we use in the US, with both hands playing unison for a while, then eventually patterns for the left hand emerge.
The books have the regular notation for both hands, but also consistently reinforce the sofeggio (Do-Re-Mi). This helps the students to not only be able to put their fingers in the right place, but to see the music and hear it in their heads or sing it...a very stong approach to music education.
The goal is to have the students be able to play in church. The seminarians and pre-seminarians, along with the priests, are excellent at being able to hear a melody and then improvise an accompaniment. The guys did this many times at daily mass in the chapel.
There are not enough keyboards for every student to have one for practice, so they share. I was most impresssed with how two and even three students can practice simultaneously their own pieces on the same keyboard.
There is an intensity of practice that I admire. You can see by this young musician's face that he is working hard and tuning out the distractions of twenty other students playing in the same room.
The students also play for each other, sort of mini-concerts, and freely help each other.
All of this practicing in heat and humidity, with only open windows and a ceiling fan.
