Fun Piano Improv for Little Hands

July 11, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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Today we have a guest post by piano teacher Kristin Jensen. She has a wonderful website full of creative and adorable activities to get piano students improvising on the piano! I think you’re going to love it!

Want to know the best way to help kids master their music theory? Show them how to create their own music.

Kids love creating their own songs! When you teach your students to create, kids are even more excited about studying the piano, the parents think you’re an amazing teacher, and the kids really internalize the concepts you’re teaching.

Even very young students can successfully improvise and compose songs. I have two four year old students who always blow me away with their creations. These kids are confident and much more skilled than I was at that age! They have fun at the keys and take great pride in performing their masterpieces for others.

Here’s a quick activity that you can use with young students to get them started with piano improv. Kids love this activity—especially when you turn it into a fun themed contest. Ask all the kids to draw a picture of a space creature from Planet [insert your own silly planet name, or let the kids decide] or a strange critter from under the sea. Then show them this improv formula and turn them loose to create a song for their creature. Have the kids perform for each other at a group lesson and give awards. The kids will have a blast!

Step 1: Position the Hands

Refer to the diagram to position the hands. Note the finger numbers.

Step 2: Play Through the Scale

Begin with left hand finger 4 and play each finger in order. Go up and then back down. You can even expand the scale into the next octave. Remember that the left hand always plays white keys and the right hand always plays the three black key group.

Step 3: Create Your Own Song

Now that you know which keys to play, you can start creating your song. Play the highlighted keys in any combination. Experiment to find the sequences and sounds you like.

If you know your music theory, you’ve probably recognized that this activity is based on the whole-tone scale. You now have a perfect lesson plan for introducing or reinforcing whole and half steps!

Visit Eartrainingandimprov.com for video tutorials and more fun ideas on how to teach kids to create their own music.

Kristin Jensen is a piano teacher who specializes in teaching kids to create their own music. Kristin loves working with young musicians and developing creative ways to accelerate their learning. Visit Eartrainingandimprov.com to see Kristin’s music teaching tips.

Teaching Tip Tuesday: Teach those chords!

October 16, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Creativity.

March 16, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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black hole of piano: survey results!

November 21, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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So, can I just say that I loved all of your input on our survey this week?? We had 42 people take our survey, which is awesome, and the results are very interesting!

A few things I find interesting:

Over half of the survey-takers were not taught any of these functional keyboard skills regularly as a piano student.
About one third of all survey-takers feel fluent in NONE of these skills.
Although only one third of survey-takers were not taught harmonization/chord-playing as a piano student, about 85% of them are teaching these skills to their own students – way to go!

And here are the results!

And I loved all your comments. You bring up some great points, and it’s great to talk about this important issue in our teaching. Here are the comments that were shared during the survey…and I may just add in a few comments of my own in red!

All of my students are early beginners (between 1-2 years of playing), so I can’t teach that yet. {oh but I think we can! Even very young students can improvise on the piano, transpose a SUPER simple melody from C position to G position, or make up their own song.} But I’m working on scales and triads with them, so I can eventually get to the point of doing chords and such! {that is wonderful! way to give them a solid theory background :)}

I can totally empathize with and was a victim of the “black hole”. {uh-huh, so was I!} As a result, even after being a music major in college, I’m working on some of these aspects still today. This is why I’m insisting my piano students learn how to do these things to be a fully rounded musician.

Ah! This is a huge weakness for me, both doing it myself and teaching it. I’d love some suggestions. Books that have helped learn/teach these skill anyone? {good question…any thoughts, readers?}

Great food for thought! I need to get better at teaching these skills. {so do I!}

The skills I use most as a church musician and jazz band member are improv and lead sheets. I want my students as professional musican or hobby players to enjoy music after they leave me so I felt it invaluable to teach how to read a chord chart and how to play well with others in a band . My husband is a guitar teacher and we put our students together and create small rock bands {how fun is that?!} . This has been a great sucess . Not only do they have fun working on THEIR music , they are constantly using all the scales and chords we were trying to teach them in technique.

I appreciate Celebrate Piano course for these reasons!!! They teach most of these skills from week one and two!!! {I LOVE that series, and that is so true!}

I taught myself how to play chording and lead-sheet music when I had to out of necessity with my church’s praise and worship team. Since then, I have taught many students to play chording so they could play “worship” music also. However, I have recently been wanting to learn composing and teach my students. But I am at a loss at how to learn and teach on this subject. {I don’t have much experience in this either – but I do think that kids can be so creative, you may be surprised at what they come up with in a simple composition assignment!} Also, in all my years accompanying, I still find it difficult to play from multiple clefs. I agree that improvising, chording, composition, transposition, and part-playing are all invaluable tools to the modern-day pianist and as a teacher, I want to include these skills in my teaching. Thank you for your thoughts on this!

Thank you for bringing up this topic. I have been teaching for 2 years now, so I have all beginner students. This topic has brought to light a lot of areas that I need to include in my studio teaching. Thank you. {you’re welcome!}

It’s hard to fit everything into a 30-minute lesson but I do manage to get most of it in about once a month. {that is great – and yes it is SO hard to fit in all that they need} I don’t do the multiple lines playing because I think that is a more advance reading than my elementary students can handle.

I am Teaching the Music for Young Children program because It is a comprehensive program that teaches children some of everything they need to know to be a well rounded musician. We teach these skills as a part of their normal lessons. The children graduate with a grade one certificate, but their knowledge goes much deeper than that of most private taught grade one students. I know that my students have been given a great foundation for whatever musical path they choose to follow later in life. {how wonderful! sounds like a great program}

I wish there were a way to expand the 30 or 45 or 60 minute lesson to include these functional skills. Unfortunately, there are so many demands on that precious time when you have recitals, contests, and festivals at regular intervals through the year. {so true!} Our teachers association has a regular yearly event (Music Evaluation Day) that tests students in a number of areas, including repertoire, technique (scales, cadences, chords, arpeggios, and harmonization), theory, and sight reading. I encourage all my students to participate in this or in Piano Guild auditions. If they opt for Piano Guild, I insist that they work through Musicianship Phases, whether they actually do them at Guild auditions or not.

I had to develop my skills later in life after becoming the piano player for my church. There is still so much I could learn! Because I know what I’m missing, I am trying to encourage these things in my students as early as possible. {I feel the same way – because now I know what I missed out on in some aspects of my early piano lessons, I want to make sure my students get a good, well-rounded foundation}

I need to do much better at this! 🙂 {and….this was totally my comment! I am in the same boat with so many of you – so let’s all try and do better together!}

And people – only TWO more days left to enter our giveaway! Come on over!

Playing what’s NOT on the page

November 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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While thinking about this “black hole” of piano study phenomenon this week, I have become more and more convinced of the importance of teaching our students to create their own music, to play what’s not on the page, to be able to harmonize or transpose a melody, to truly be keyboard and music literate (which I believe includes these important skills!). I love this comment we received from Mike, and think that he put it so well:

I’ve always been baffled by this scenario. I believe that creating music is and should be an intrinsic part of playing any instrument. It was not always this way. Bach, Chopin etc all improvised. I think composing, and writing out what you create, should be a central part of musicking with students of all ages at all levels.

I think that there is no better time to start than now! Start now teaching your young beginning students to play what’s not on the page. If you have older students who have never learned these skills before, start now! It may take a little encouragement and time to help them feel comfortable using these skills. They may have to step outside their comfort zone a bit (I know that I needed to!). But these skills will truly help them be a well-rounded musician.

There are so many simple, basic things you can do to help teach your students these functional keyboard skills. Here are some ideas:

Start young. If children are encouraged to experiment on the piano, make up their own pieces, and improvise at a young age, they will be more comfortable and fluent at it as older musicians. I have encouraged my two-year-old son to experiment at the piano, and he loves making up his own songs!

Encourage creativity. Help students feel comfortable making up songs and composing. Praise their efforts, help build their confidence. When students are not encouraged to be creative at the piano, they may continue on in their music study not knowing how to be creative at the piano or being afraid to try.

Improvisation games. Encourage expression at the piano by playing improvisation games. Play what a bird sounds like, or a rainstorm or the ocean.I think that if I had done more of this as a youngster I would be more comfortable improvising today.

Simple transposing. Young students can learn to transpose very simple pieces from one 5-finger position to another, such as from C to G. Once they are comfortable doing this and can do it with ease and minimal effort, move onto more challenging pieces or new keys.

Question-answer phrases. Have students complete a musical phrase by composing an “answer.” This is a simple exercise to get them writing down notes, listening to how music resolves, and possibly to start composing a bit!

Simple harmonization. Young students can learn to improvise an accompaniment to a simple melody when simple chords and chord symbols are learned. Start very basic. Then teach them how to turn block chords into broken chords or an Alberti bass pattern.

Encourage composition. I love how Amy Hansen assigned her students to write a spooky piece for Halloween. Children have great imaginations, why not harness this creativity and help them create their own music?

In what ways do you teach functional piano skills to your students? Please share!

**Don’t forget that you can still enter our giveaway until Monday night!**

Red & Blue Review, and a GIVEAWAY!!

November 15, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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As we are discussing functional keyboard skills this week, I am excited to share my review of some new books featuring jazz, blues, funk and contemporary pieces for piano students!

Blue and Red are part of the new Color series by New York City pianist Dror Perl. Blue contains “contemporary music with a harmonic twist” and Red contains jazz, blues and funk. Mr. Perl’s intent in writing these books was to help teach his students chords and harmony, improve their sight reading skills and refine their technique, as well as to help keep them excited about playing the piano. There is also another volume in the series, Purple, which contains jazz and blues compositions.

As a classical pianist and teacher, I do not believe that any books such as these will ever replace the classics of piano literature. However, in light of our current topic and the great need for keyboard literacy among our students, I think that Mr. Perl has truly created some excellent resources to use as supplementary material in our lessons, and that these books have great merit and purpose. (They also make me look back fondly on the good old days of junior high and high school jazz band…)

What I Like About This Series

I love the fact that each piece includes chord symbols. I think this is a great way to help our students know and understand what they are playing, and will give opportunity for lots of great discussions about chords, including about augmented and diminished chords, seventh chords, and chord inversions.
I appreciate the sophisticated harmonies used in these books. This is a great way to expose our students to some new sounds and musical ideas.
The music in these books are written simply enough to be played by students of most ages. Blue is written for “all level pianists” and is simple enough for some of the youngest students to play (but is great for higher-level pianists as well!)
I think that these books are also excellent for working on technique and sound, and are an awesome sight reading resource.
You can also purchase duet parts for many of these pieces for a variety of instruments – how fun to create your own little jazz combo! Visit www.sheerpiano.com for more details!

The Books

I really enjoyed playing through Red. Here are some highlights:

My favorite piece in Red is Lullaby for the Sun. Mr. Perl calls this piece a “wistful ballad,” and I just love its contemporary harmonies and bluesy feel. It is the perfect piece for working on sound production and learning to bring out the right hand melody.

I would not normally think of teaching my students funk. But I loved Medium Rare Funk and think that it is an awesome exercise in playing syncopated rhythms. If your students can play this piece with an accurate, tight rhythm, then they are in pretty good shape. Here, take a look:

(And yes, all of the pieces in this book are printed in red!) Another great piece for working on rhythm, this time focusing on triplets and swung eighth notes, is Wrong answer!!

I enjoyed Out of ketchup blues and think that this could be a really great piece for doing a little improvisation in the right hand. The student could play through this bluesy piece as written, and then play it again, adding their own flair to the melody.

Sunburn is fun and fast and is perfect for introducing a walking bass line.

Blue is chock-full of great contemporary pieces with a bluesy feel.

One of my favorites in this book is Bluebird. I love that it sounds like a jazz ballad, and that the left hand rhythm almost lulls you to sleep (in a good way!). This piece is perfect for working on sound production. Waves has a similar lulling quality.

Burn with a low blue flame is a piece that I really enjoyed. I love that the left hand is comprised of single whole notes for the entire piece. I think this piece would be an excellent one for improvising a bit with the left hand and practicing filling out chords to improve a student’s harmonization skills.

I enjoyed what Mr. Perl described as a “mildly twisted Waltz” – Once in a blue moon is, like most of these pieces, perfect for improving technique and sound production and for practicing making the melody louder than the accompaniment.

My other favorite in this book (besides Bluebird) is The blue city. One thing that somewhat bothers me about some of these pieces is that they have a very small range, and tend to stay in the lower register a lot (8va markings are very common in this series, which can be somewhat confusing for a more advanced pianist but may make the pieces more accessible for all ages). But in The blue city, there is a great range of notes! The piece begins on a high treble B, then changes mid-song to the middle register of the piano. It then goes down to the lower register, and ends back in the middle. I think students would love this piece, which Mr. Perl describes as “slow” and “meditative.” I think this piece is perfect for sight reading, as it contains a lot of accidentals.

This series is well-written and, I believe, has a wonderful purpose and place in our piano lessons. Whether you use it for fun recital pieces, for instruction on chords and harmony, or simply for occasional sight reading, it will be a great asset to the musical training of our students.

Now, for the GIVEAWAY!! One lucky reader will win a copy of Red, which features jazz, blues and funk. I really enjoyed the fun variety of pieces in this book, and I think you will too!

TO ENTER:

Visit Mr. Perl’s website, www.sheerpiano.com, look around a bit, and then come back and leave a comment telling us what book you would like to try out if you had your pick!

Additional entries:

One extra entry: become a follower or email subscriber of our blog, and leave a comment letting us know you did!
One extra entry: Like us on Facebook, then leave a comment letting us know you did!

Giveaway goes until next Monday, November 22, at 11:59 pm central time. Winner will be announced on Tuesday the 23rd!

U.S. and Canadian residents only, please 🙂

The Black Hole of Piano Study

November 13, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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There is often a big gaping hole in the piano education of classical pianists. Many of us can play very advanced pieces with great artistry, have great technique and are very accomplished pianists – but what happens when someone sticks a fakebook or lead sheet in front of us? Or when we are asked to play something in a different key? Or when we are expected to improvise or play a song by ear? Even many of the most advanced pianists get weak in the knees in such situations and are not able to do these things.

In Martha Baker-Jordan’s Practical Piano Pedagogy, she refers to this phenomenon as the “black hole of piano teaching.” She says,

There seems to be a huge void in the universe of our classical piano training and concertizing that I call the “Black Hole of Piano Teaching and Performance.” The gravitational pull of this hole is so strong that the functional keyboard skills of harmonizing, transposing and improvising (all of which can include reading chord symbols) are sucked out of our world into oblivion. Concert pianists, studio teachers, even piano and pedagogy professors, all are affected, and many go through life without ever acquiring these skills. I include composing here as well, even though it isn’t normally thought of as a functional skill. I believe that composition is also a vital part of piano study and that the ability to teach it is just as important as it is for harmonization, transposition, and improvisation. (Baker-Jordan, p. 243)

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I personally did not really learn these basic keyboard skills in all of my years of pre-college piano study, except for the occasional transposition exercise and basic instruction and exercises involving seventh chords. And even though I was the pianist in my junior high and high school jazz band for a few years, I somehow (amazingly) was able to skip over that whole improvising thing, because I never had a teacher who helped me with it and I felt too completely lost and self-conscious to attempt it in front of the whole class.

So, what is wrong with this picture? Why is it that so many pianists get to such advanced levels of study and ability without these basic skills? I remember in one of my college keyboard classes, we had the assignment to be able to sit down and play “Happy Birthday to You” by ear. I suddenly realized that I had never even thought of trying that before. And I remember thinking about the panic I would feel if I were at a party, and somebody (knowing I was a piano performance major) asked me to play that on the piano to accompany the singing.

So, I would like to focus on this important topic here on The Teaching Studio this week! How are we, as teachers, doing in teaching our students basic, functional keyboard skills? Can our students play chords and harmonize from a lead sheet? Do they feel comfortable improvising? Can they transpose a simple piece up a half or whole step? Or to an entirely different key altogether? Do they have opportunities to compose their own pieces? Can they play multiple lines of music at once (such as an SATB choir song?), or play from different clefs? I can’t wait to hear lots of comments this week!

Please take a minute and take our “Black Hole of Piano Study” Survey!

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