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The Main Line Muse

Welcome to the MLMTA blog! We will be posting monthly, content contributed by our very own members!

Creating from the Beginning

10/13/2018

3 Comments

 
Submitted by John Kline

Something young children do more than almost any other age group is create.  They master new skills very frequently, integrate the skills into their everyday lives, and are soon creating things of striking originality.  Something I try to do in each of my lessons is have a student create something new, something to express their musical thoughts.

I mostly do this through improvisation at the piano.  Even at the first lesson, the student and I discover high sounds, low sounds, how they differ from each other, and how they make us feel.  This is all the information we need to create our own original piece of music!  It is usually a duet, but sometimes the student cannot wait to be the sole performer of their new song.

Exploiting high and low sounds, the groups of 2 and 3 black keys, fast and slow, loud and soft are all great for beginning improvisations.  But this strategy also works for more advanced concepts like scales, chord progressions, and interval recognition.  Just last week, a student and I took some time in a lesson to improvise a piece in an unfamiliar key (B Major) to help facilitate the learning of her next piece.  Seeing the notes of that scale on the keyboard and hearing how they functioned and interacted with each other really helped her confidence once she started practicing her piece.

Try some improvising with your students (and maybe yourself as well) and see what you can create!
3 Comments
Miriam Shingle
10/14/2018 10:03:49 am

Thank you, John. This is very helpful! I like the idea of improvising in the scale of a new piece. I am also now thinking it would be beneficial to improvise in the assigned scale of the week, as many of my students go through the scales around the Circle of Fifths. This would make learning scales more relevant to the student, showing the value of them. So thanks again for the idea!!

Reply
Susan K
10/15/2018 02:04:16 pm

Yes, John. It is always helpful to introduce a new key, rhythm, or articulation to a student in a different way before starting a new piece of repertoire. For a young beginner, I have found some really helpful resources at https://susanparadis.com/wp_susan/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ItsOctober_2Versions.pdf. Tonight I will be giving a new young student a worksheet to compose his very own song, "It's October." Susan provides a colorful worksheet with the rhythms an lyrics. I will have him take the worksheet home to fill in the leaves with one of 3 notes, either CDE or the 3 blacks.

Reply
Jonathan Flowers link
10/17/2018 09:09:41 pm

Thank you, John for your astute observation that students need to internalize a musical concept before they start playing that concept from notation. Improvising allows a student to visualize a concept at the piano, get it under the fingers and hear its musical possibilities so that the notation will then have meaning for them. I can't wait to try your suggestions with my own students!

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