Scale Tag

 Periscope #17
Practicing Some Breathing Exercises

Periscoping with my brother was the highlight of my week. It wasn't until after I viewed the video again that I gleaned the really important insights. 

1. We have to bring the rhythm of one cycle together with the rhythm of another cycle.
2.  When the cycle of breathing interferes with the cycles of playing then we get tense and we don't use our body effectively. 
3. If we are aware of our breathing then we start the phrase with a breath and we end the phrase with a breath. Then we have two cyclic movements going together and enhancing each other.

  This week I started using this knowledge. It happened that I had overlap between two boys at their lessons who were the same age. The exercises described in the video below worked so much better with two boys. They felt less on the spot.


                                 

   Playing scale tag was really fun for them and the emphasis was on breathing and staying on the beat.

    Scale Tag

      One students breathes in and on the exhale goes down on a five finger scale. I chose going down instead of going up because it seems more intuitive with the exhale. The other student prepares by inhaling and choosing another five finger scale to exhale while going down. We played slowly, with intention. We go back and forth, from student to student, finding new scales, or playing the same ones. The next step was turning on a drum track. Now the challenge was coming in on the beat. 

   I have so much more context to work with now as I remind my students to breathe easily instead of holding their breath.

The winner of the book "Fascinations of the Human Voice" is Sara from Sara's Music Studio. It will be on the way soon.

                                                          

                      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 to introduce some student compositions and make them available to download.

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.

                                                                 

Awareness of Breath While Playing The Piano

  Periscope #16

                    Talking to Ingo R. Titze, professor of voice and speech and direction of The National Institute of Voice and Speech. 

   When my brother visited conversations moved to the respiratory system and I had to access his knowledge of breathing while playing the piano. My I-Phone would only let me do five minutes segments of the twenty minute Periscope and there is some overlap from segment to segment. I hope you find the information helpful.

                                                Introductions and Setting My Intentions
    Ingo R. Titze is a scientist of the voice and has been studying the mechanics of making sound for forty years. I knew he could enlighten me on the respiratory system and wondered if we could apply his knowledge of breathing to the issues I was facing with a few students who hold their breath.

    My question: I have a student who holds his breath while playing through difficult passages. How could I help?
   Answer: "He needs to use his breath cycle to enhance what ever else he is doing. We do things in cycles almost always returning. We have to bring the rhythm of one cycle and bring it together with the rhythm of another cycle. When the cycle of breathing interferes with the cycles of playing then we get tense and we don't use our body effectively. But, if we are aware of our breathing then we start the phrase with a breath and we end the phrase with a breath. Then we have two cyclic movements going together and enhancing each other.
   Question: How short of a segment could I expect a child to work on?
   Answer: I would choose something about a second or two in length. Make that student aware that taking a breath and releasing it is really part of the playing.

                            

         Inhale before playing the passage and exhale while executing the phrase. Use other movements such as extending your arm to use the body and breath. Breath is a rhythm. Breath is not holding on to something, it is always a gradual letting go. But the timing must synchronize with what you are doing physically.
    What can we observe in regards to how they are breathing?
    Answer: Watch to see if they are regulating the amount of breath they need to play through phrases.
    Question: Should we teach breath along with introduction to legato and wrist lift?
    Answer: Yes

            


                            Discussion of how a vocal teacher could relax the student breathing

              

            Introduction of "Fascinations of The Human Voice" and invitation to use a straw to reset and relax your vocal cords. 

            

Using a simple straw 

                          

Would you like to receive a copy of "Fascinations Of The Human Voice"? 

Just make a comment below about this post. A winner will be chosen on April 28.

 I am on Periscope on Tuesdays at 10:30 PST, but next week on Monday 9:00am,  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.

                                                                 

Mr.Music- A Game For Learning Note Value

Periscope #13

Games For The Beginning Student 

    March brought some new students my way. So, again I pull out my trusty games, one for learning note value and for learning piano key names.

    I thought of Mr. Music when I remembered playing Mother May I as a child. The video below has a description of how to play.

Playing Name That Key came along when I needed motivation for my students to learn their key names with the musical alphabet. I play a key and they must tell me the letter name. We use tally marks to keep score from week to week. To make it challenging for myself when they play a white key for me, I shut my eyes and tell them which key they played. Now, I don't have perfect pitch but I do have relative pitch and I surprise them when I get them correct. Alas, sometimes my ear does not anchor on a pitch and to my student's delight I don't get a point. Drats! 

                          
 

 I hope these games are useful and FYI, next week I will not be Periscoping. But I will return on April 12. My famous voice scientist brother, Ingo Titze, will be Periscoping April 18, yes, that is a Monday, and I will be interviewing him about breath and helping pianists who are breath holders.

 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.

                                                                 

Improvise An Irish Dance For St. Patrick's Day

                                          Periscope #11
                    Teach an Irish Dance for St. Patrick's Day

                My inspiration for daring to teach improvisational playing is Forrest Kinney. He has produced some wonderful books that give ideas for improv patterns in all styles of music. He magically appeared at my dinner table one evening, unexpected and unannounced, and open my eyes to the joy of creating music. Read about it here.

  So today, here is a pattern for an Irish Dance. The parameters on on the picture below and watch the Periscope video to put it together.

                           
                 
                              

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.

                                                                 

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.

                                                                 

Have You Ever Used A Fake Book?

                                              Periscope #9   

                               What is fake about this book?
    
   A fake book is a collection of lead sheets intended to assist a performer learn new songs. Each piece contains the melody and chords above, so that the arrangement can be improvised and you can "fake" playing the real thing.  Fake books came about when musicians needed access to piles of music and these lead sheets were photocopied and past around among musicians. Copyrights were ignored and often poorly crafted chords were added above the melody. 

   Since the 70's, books have been copyrighted and cleaned up and are available for sale. Fake books have a place for musicians who accompany. I use them to accompany a group at our local care home where I do music with seniors who love those 40's and 50's songs. We scramble every week to find music and often the guitarists only have lead sheets.  
          Many lead sheets are sold on musicnotes.comand are less expensive.

   This week on periscope I reviewed the skills involved in playing from a lead sheet. I chose a song called "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover" and below you can see a few minutes of how a simple melody can become a full song. 

                           

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.

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 @pianopro88 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.

                                                                 

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.

                                                                 

The Last Days Before A Recital

Periscope #4

     

Before The Recital

These are some things I covered in the Periscope video on January 26, 2016

1. Encouraging all students to perform 
2. How do we over come performance anxiety?
3. My audience participation piece
4. My own piece at the recital

The week before recital time can be tough for the unprepared and even for those who have  prepared well. There are countless distractions to throw off our focus. Often the rehearsal before is miserable and then the performance goes off without a hitch.

     I don't have an easy answer to making performing simple. I do, however, know that the more we perform the easier it gets. I take each student into a rehearsal in the venue where we will perform and give them time to get familiar. I like knowing how the piano will work and how the sound blooms. This year we will have another audience participation piece performed by a student. This brings a relaxed atmosphere into the room, helping everyone feel involved. Below is a video by Wendy Stevens who wrote this piece.

   Should a teacher perform at her own recital? I think so. I feel the example of being a constant learner is important. When I anguish over my piece it also helps me be empathetic to the concerns my students have. This year I'm playing Star Dust by Elena Cobb. Below is a video of a beautiful performer who captures the piece expertly. To be honest, I played it on Periscope but the distraction of the video ruined my concentration and I erased the whole video. 

   Next week on Periscope I want to share a few things I learned at a online 88 Keys Winter Webshop this weekend. The subject was How To Teach Your Students Pop Music.

     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.

                                                                   

Recitals In January?

Periscope #3

Recitals In My Studio

These are the ideas I covered in the short Periscope video I did Tuesday January 19, 2016. :

1. Time of year I hold my recitals
2. Audience participation
3. Playing a piece myself at the recital

  Yes, I have a recital in January, not in December, when everyone is pulled in so many directions but in January, the end of January. That gives us a whole month to prepare. 

As I have done in the past, I like to have at least one audience participation piece. This year I am drawing from Wendy Stevens, Composecreate.com, and using Yee Haw, a lively beginning piece. The two students preparing this piece thought it looked easy but the rests are tricky. They both struggled at first but when I saw them the next week they had it together. I have not decided if I will have the audience clap or if I will hand out wooden sticks to some of the audience. . 

I play myself at every recital. After more than a hundred recitals what do I play this year?  Well, I happened upon the Dec./Jan. edition of the magazine "The Pianist". The 30 pages of free music is always attractive to me. Stardust by Elena Cobb is just right for my performance. Late intermediate difficulty so it allows me some leeway in preparation time and insuring I will have a polished piece. I played the first page on the Periscope video and promised to play the whole thing next Tuesday morning at 10:30 PST. Come join 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.

                                                                      

Duets

Why Duets?

My second Periscope video was better. I had a good title and I felt like I reached a small audience. Here is a summary of the content of the video.

Providing a duet experience:

1. Develops a camaraderie between students and sustains the idea of being a musician.
2. Strengthens the importance of steady beat
3. Allows for a safe environment to try and fail with a peer and shows how to solve musical problems together under pressure.

Duet Books

1. Kaleidoscope Duets by Jon George
2. Celebrated Piano Duets by Robert Vandall
3. Dusts For Middle Beginners from Opus 149 by Anton Diabelli- Mary Beth Lewis Piano Library
4. Duet Favorites by Jane Smisor Bastien- The Bastien Piano Library

             

           How to manage bringing students together

1. Try a student neighbor overlapping lessons, even if the students are at different levels
2. Invite siblings to play together
3. Bring a parent in to play
4. Teacher student duets are a mainstay for my lessons

        Next Week On Periscope I Talk About Recitals

                          
                        January 19 at 10:30 am PST

I'm Back

        Does absence make the heart grow fonder?

   I have been missing from blogging land for two years. In those years I continued to teach piano but I suppose I lost my desire to share on this blog. I'm back primarily because of the generous hearts of so many other teachers who continue to give encouragement online. 

    Last week I tried Periscope, an app created by Twitter which broadcasts live all around the world, and I did a video about practice incentives. It was a trial and very, very, few knew about my experiment. I will try it again this Tuesday morning, 01/12/16 at 10:30 am PST. The subject will be duets. You can search for me at GabriB and the broadcast will remain online for 24 hours.

     The incentive I am using in January comes from Compose Create. Thank-you Wendy Stevens for these flash cards which I am also using for practice incentives. At each lesson if my students  practice 100 minutes or more they can receive part of a snowman. As they build they must match the intervals. 
   Length of practice time does not guarantee good practice but it creates accountability to me and to their parents. 

  Join me here or on Periscope where my next topic will be Duets, the value they have and where to find good music.