Teaching From Lead Sheets

                                             Periscope #9   

                Just learn the melody and improvise the left hand

     Have you ever used just a lead sheet to learn music? As a musician I am called upon all the time to do just that. For example, yesterday I was playing the piano as a volunteer for a group called MusicMendsMinds. We do music with those suffering from Alzheimers, early dementia, and some residents from our local Care Center. When we arrive, the musicians scramble to come up with an agenda. The guitarists only use lead sheets so they hand me the music and expect I will be able to improvise. In periscope #9 I reviewed some steps to teach from a lead sheet.

1. Teach the right hand melody line
2. Review the chords written above the melody as block chords
3. For the easiest LH play only the bottom notes of the chord.
4. Play the melody and bottom notes of chords together
5. Try fifths in the LH
6. Harmonize the melody by dropping some notes from the chord under the melody
7. Play together
8. Try a different LH, such as, waltz broken chords or arpeggiated chords.

         Faber Piano Adventures uses a lead sheet in every level of their 2nd edition lesson books.

                          

Next week on Periscope is still undecided. I am there on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST and my screen name is GabriB. I hope you will visit me.

     Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.

                                                                 

Teaching Pop Songs- "Hello"

Periscope #8

My video is still available on Periscope until 02/17/16 10:30 PST  

"Hello, How Are You?"

What do you do if beginning students are itching to learn a pop song? You can meet their desire by giving a partial taste or the whole enchilada using a lead sheet. These are some things I covered on my last Periscope Video.

1. Some lead sheets are available at musicnotes.com
2. Start with teaching the scale of the piece
3. Teach chords and their inversions
4. Learn the melody line

                         This can take many weeks. I use this part of the lesson like dessert. 

5. Try melody line with chords leaving out the middle note, just fifths or just a single note. 

6. If they still want more sound, try hanging the chords under the melody. The melody note must be on top so find that inversion.The harmony doesn't have to be under every melody note.

7. This is not precision playing. Allowing exploration and improv.

   
   

 Next week on Periscope is still undecided. I am there on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST and my screen name is GabriB. I hope you will visit me.

     Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.

                                                                 

Reviewing The App Musiclock

               Periscope #7

My video is still available on Periscope until 02/10/16 10:30 PST             

I'll play it first and tell you what it's called later. 

                                                                - Miles Davis

   I want my students to be able to improvise. I learned it myself by messing around, not from my piano teacher. I am always on the look out for tools to teach the basics of scales and chords to give context to making music. Musiclock by perTunes is one of those tools. The front page gives the scale on a staff, a wheel with the steps of the scale, a keyboard showing the keys of the scale, and an accompaniment to play along.

The possible scales cover all the basic patterns and the backing tracks are varied according to tempo.

Below my student is using the on screen keyboard to improvise a melody. When he has circled around this app week after week he should recognize how to use a scale to make up a tune and have a better sense of how to stay with the rhythm.

               

 This app gets 5 stars from me and I was not given any incentive to review this product.

 Next week on Periscope I want to share a few more learnings from the Webinar "How To teach Your Students Pop Music" by 88 Keys. I am there on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST and my screen name is GabriB. I hope you will visit me.

     Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.

                                                                 

Webinar- How To Teach Pop Music To Your Students

Periscope #5

 A few highlights from the online 88 Keys Winter Webshop. The subject was How To Teach Your Students Pop Music.

1. Make pop music accessible to any student by teaching by rote or by finding simplified arrangements.
2. Pop Music does not have to be played note perfect.
3. Two interesting apps that access pop music

                           Chord Tracker by Yamaha

    A free app which uses the music on your i-pod or phone to display chord progressions. My student wanted to learn a piece called War by Peter Jennison. It was not available on Musicnotes.com so I downloaded the track on my phone and opened it in Chord Tracker. I started some simple notation on a staff and then together we wrote in the melody line. He played the chords as fifths for a while until he could work on arpeggiated notes in the left hand. Most importantly he was satisfied and had learned new things about music notation and chord accompaniment.

Chromatik

Another interesting app is called Chromatik. It has many, many pop tunes to open. The fun thing is that it also has the capacity to open the You Tube video along side.That allows feedback on the rhythm issues in the piece. 

   Next week on Periscope I want to share a few things am learning about Music Clock and how I use improvising in my piano studio. I am there on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST and my screen name is GabriB. I hope you will visit me.

     Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.