Student Compositions

Periscope #18

Student Compositions

               " Ah....., I'm working on a little something...."


  That is how it starts out. My student has been composing and hesitantly wants me to hear it. It is simply scary to show your creative self. Here are five ways to make composing happen in  your studio.

1. Be willing to listen
2. Encourage them to write down their song with any kind of notation. Provide empty staff paper
3. Be willing to help them notate on your computer during extended lesson time
4. Encourage them to get free Finale Notepad on their home computer
5. As you help them notate be ready to repeat theory lessons you were sure they understood

Here are two compositions which are repetitive and fun to learn. Dancing With The Stars, written by Anna when she was 10 years old,  is in Gb but once the pattern is learned the notes seem easy. Song #6 is a syncopated piece with interesting accents, written by Chris in his early teens You can find them here. 

        

 I am on Periscope on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST and my screen name is GabriB. I hope you will visit me. Next week I plan discuss ways students can use their piano skills in their community.

Also check out Elizabeth Gutierrez on Periscope. She does teachings tips in 10 minutes on Tuesday mornings at 8:00am CST and I really enjoy her insights. Her handle is @pianoprof88 and she has a great blog. 

     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.

                                                                 

Simple Improvisational Composition

                                            Periscope #10   

     Simple Composing, Stealing a Common Bass Line
    
Wow! This is my tenth Periscope. I am finally figuring out how to make a better video. Periscope is very improvisational. People leave comments which surprise and delight. All of the interactive part makes me less anxious to have a polished presentation. What happens, happens and it is gone in 24 hours, unless you save the video to post on the blog.

     Speaking of improv, that is my subject today. How many of your students love Heart and Soul? Why? It is a piece with a pattern, they can play it as a duet, and it has room to improvise new parts. Let's steal the baseline of Heart and Soul and compose a new piece on different difficulty levels so that most students can try this at home.

    I call this C Pop Pock. It begins with a simple LH pattern. Bass C, A, F, G, this is the part that is stollen from Heart and Soul. The right hand has some rounds (repeated chords) of a C Chord and a dropped third to a second. (CDG, CDG)

     Setting up some boundaries helps my students be successful. The LH has a boundary of the pattern C,A,F,G, but with that boundary moving notes can be added. The RH has chords with a dropped second and those chords can be inverted, and moving notes can be improvised. I have tried this with a six year old, simplifying the right hand to thirds, C and E, as well as with an adult who had many add-ons. The video explains some add on improvisations.

          

         Next week on Periscope I'll demonstrate a different pattern with add ons. This becomes just 5-8- minutes of my lesson time but can really energize my students.

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

Also check out Elizabeth Gutierrez on Periscope. She does teachings tips in 10 minutes on Tuesday mornings at 8:00am CST and I really enjoy her insights. Her handle is @pianoprof88 and she has a great blog. 

     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.

                                                                 

Talking About Music

      Talking about music with my students is sometimes quite magic. I handed A. a pencil and told her she was sitting in the teacher seat today. We were editing her music called "Dance With the Stars". In an effort to help bring her note reading skills on par with her composing skills, I was playing what I had transcribed and she was correcting. Finally words like crescendo, dynamics, and tempo had a real meaning. She is very particular about her own music. Being a natural musician, my task is to encourage her to become well rounded in all musical skills.

 
 When my next student arrived I handed her "Dance With The Stars" to sight read. M. reads music but the key of G flat means adjusting to black keys. Quickly she found the pattern and was delighted with the ease but also the sound. I told her who wrote it and we talked about the musical hook that captured our attention. In the middle of this animated conversation M. exclaimed, "There is some music I have to learn!" Why does some music vibrate our heart strings? We didn't find all the answers but I teach for moments like these when music is alive.
   Here is the music. I have permission to share.

Who Knows Where Your Music Goes?

   I had a remarkable thing happen in my piano studio. My student Christopher, a composer, has written seven pieces, two of which we have notated in Finale. Composition #7 is really fun to play. I introduced it to Julian who started it and had to wait until we finished the ending. During the weeks that Julian was learning it, another younger student, Olivia, was sitting through Julian's lesson, waiting for her time. I did not realize how intently she was listening. One week later at her lesson she announced, "I can play Christopher's song!" And that is just what she did. Wow, how we influence each other.
  If you would like to see the music you can find it on the resource page at this, my studio webpage.