Now Available: Muscle Builder Book 5

December 31, 2014 Jennifer Boster

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Now available in the Store is the next volume of the My Muscle Builder Book technique series! I’m super excited about Book 5 and about all of the things students have learned once they have reached this level. In this book we are using our “Sneaky Thumbs” and finger crossovers learned in previous volumes to play two-octave major scales!

Students will learn the basic scale fingering patterns and put them to good use on and off of the piano. We review our minor triads and then use them to play some fancy, musical arpeggios on both ends of the piano.

We also start dabbling in full-octave arpeggios, using the black-key major keys of D-flat, E-flat, G-flat, A-flat and B-flat. Students will really have a fun time as they cross over and under and play all over the piano in 19 different keys! As always, this Muscle Builder Book is in full color and includes all of the colorful picture scales and arpeggios to help students of all ages become literate at the piano.

Also available to purchase is the companion Muscle Builders Extras pack, including 3 full-color picture scale/arpeggio reference sheets and a “Book 5 At a Glance” page, where teachers or students can keep track of their Book 5 technique progress on one handy sheet. I recommend printing the Muscle Builder Book 2 pages per sheet in booklet format.

My Muscle Builder Book 5 and the Book 5 Extras pack may be purchased in the Store or at the bottom of this post. Enjoy some preview page views below. Have a happy new teaching year!

My Muscle Builder Book 5
40 pages, digital download
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My Muscle Builder Extras – Book 5
4 pages, digital download

Teaching Tip Tuesday: Visualize the Music

April 10, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Inspiration.

October 29, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I wanted to share a few wonderful things I have discovered lately:

1. This fun blog, Music for Tots. I love this post about making a difference in someone’s life.

2. Another great piano blog, Gretchen’s Pianos, and this post that tells how sometimes “enthusiasm trumps experience!” Love it.

3. These. Although not exactly piano-related (hehe), these were my usual practice break treat in college, and they are a-mazing. Last week when my usual dark chocolate wasn’t available at the store I decided to try extra-dark….mmmmmm…

4. A great scale preparation exercise, or spider fingers – what a great idea! I love this blog by pianist/writer/teacher Amy Greer, who I first became familiar with by reading her column in American Music Teacher five years ago.

5. Dvorak piano quartets (or maybe quintets?)…so a couple of weeks ago I went to the grocery store at night after putting my son to bed. As I pulled out of the garage and turned on the classical music station I heard the most gorgeous music. After sitting in the grocery store parking lot for a few minutes and realizing that an entire new movement was just starting, I called my husband and asked him to google the radio station, listen online and find out the name of the piece! Well, he caught part of the name and we know it is either a Dvorak piano quartet or a quintet….quite possibly this one, but I’m still not sure. Either way, it’s gorgeous!

Technique Exercises for Beginners

April 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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So, we know that technique is important for our beginning piano students. But what technique exercises are good to assign to beginners?

Here are a few ideas (and I’d love to hear what exercises you use!):

Five-Finger Scales

Five finger scales are basically the first five notes of a scale; I have my students play up and back (for example, C Major is C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C). I always have my beginners start playing five-finger scales right away. I think these are great for many reasons:

They are simple and the student can begin practicing them right away
They get the student playing in many keys right away
You can use a five-finger scale to learn all sorts of techniques, such as legato, staccato, different dynamics, etc.
They lay a good foundation for the “real” scales the student will learn down the road
They are a great way to practice playing with a good hand shape and to help make that a habit

So many ways to practice five-finger scales:

Slow, hands alone to learn correct hand shape (student has time to watch each finger to make sure it is curved and the knuckle does not collapse)
Slow, hands alone to learn high loud fingers: have them say, “up, down, relax” while lifting each finger, playing each note and relaxing the wrist. When you speed up this motion you’ll have a nice, relaxed wrist and a lovely legato passage with a nice, strong sound
Hands together
Legato, staccato, loud, soft – you name it
I usually have my students play a four-octave five-finger scale, crossing hand over hand. For example, for a C Major five-finger scale, the left hand will start and play an ascending five-finger scale on a low C, then the right hand plays one on the next C, the left hand crosses over and plays one on the next C, then the right hand plays one on the next C — 4 octaves. Once you get to the top of the last one in the right hand, come back down with descending five-finger scales. Doing this in each white-note key is a great way to familiarize your student with the keyboard and with all different keys.
I also have my beginners do four-octave arpeggios (similar to the scales described above, just using notes C-E-G), as well as block chords (play a C chord on each of the four octaves, going up and back).
You can also use the metronome to help the student acquire speed and evenness

You can assign a different scale per week (or however long it takes them to learn each one) until they have learned all of them (C, G, F, D, A, E, B).

Technique Books

Most of the piano methods these days come with a Technique Book that coordinates with the concepts being taught and pieces being learned. These are such a wonderful resource. Just make sure to teach and show your student the correct technique in each exercise, so they’re not just playing the notes and passing them off.

Junior Hanon

Good old Hanon. Have you seen this version of it? It is great because it has many of the same exercises, but they only go up half as high (not as many ledger line notes) and are in bigger print (easier to read). Although your beginners may not know every note yet, they should be able to play these because they are repeated patterns, just like the original Hanon book.

What are your favorite exercises to assign to your beginners?

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