Blog Archives

Ten Things Music Students Can Do Over Their Summer Break

6/22/2023

Take a short break from piano to refresh and recommit to the project.
Go to a piano concert.
Practice more.
Review your favorite pieces from the past. (You will quickly notice how you have improved.)
Teach yourself, using YouTube, how to make dance music tracks on Garage band.
Try learning a new genre of music. If you play jazz, pick a classical piece and vice versa.
On your walks listen to the best pianists play the style of music you like.
Catch up on your theory.
Find some new friends to make music with.
Go to music camp.

Have a great summer.

If you would like to meet in the summer, call me. I have some limited availability.

Cheers,

david

0 Comments

Blue Bossa Jazz Piano Lesson

6/10/2023

0 Comments

This is a lesson given to a student this week.

Louis Armstrong, on the topic of how to improvise, said something to the effect, "memorize the melody, mess with the melody, and then mess with the mess." For beginners, this is the best advice I've ever come across. It is truly the shortest distance between A and B. Or jazz newbie to intermediate jazz student and beyond.

Prerequisites:
The student can already play. Therefore, it is a question of what to play and less of how to play it.
Warmup:
Two octave scales: C, F, Db, Bb, Eb
Four note broken chords: C, F, Db, Bb, Eb
Two octave arpeggios: C, F, Bb, Db, Eb
Please use a metronome and practice different tempi, dynamics, and articulations.
Etude
Being able to play the broken chords is an important starting point in improvisation.

Free Blue Bossa Broken Chords

Repertoire

Listen and copy the interpretations of the melody from the recordings below. Pay attention to articulations and rhythmic variations.
Add the left-hand chords to the melody and mimic what you can recall.
Now, from memory, play along with the recordings. When the solos begin, keep your left hand playing until the melody returns. Then add the melody back in.
Start “stealing” cool licks you hear the soloists playing.
Next, practice the melody from memory with a play along track. Then practice the broken chords over the left-hand chords. Then experiment with the new licks you’ve discovered.

Blues Bossa broken chords as licks

0 Comments

This week's artwork

6/8/2023

0 Comments

A selection of whiteboard Zoom notes from the past week or so. It gives a good snapshot of what goes on in students' classes.

If you would like to join us, please contact me.

David

0 Comments

Is it easy to learn to play the piano?

6/6/2023

0 Comments

Years ago, while adjudicating piano exams in Aurora Ontario, I heard a young child came in to sit for her grade 2 piano exam. The performance was so beautiful, it took my breath away. Could you learn to play as well as her? Yes, with patient work. Thankfully to play the piano competently only requires you to follow a well-worn path. A path that has evolved over the last two hundred years beginning with CPE Bach's 1787 "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments," to today's Adult Piano Adventures by Nancy and Randell Faber. I invite you to follow the links for more information.

However, you will need to plan to succeed; so please consider the following conditions that you will need to meet:

Time to practice.
Resources to pay for lessons.
Realistic expectations.
Patience.
Trusting the process.

If I can help you, please call me.

David
text: 905-330-1349

0 Comments

Tips, free lessons, and inspiration

Ten Things Music Students Can Do Over Their Summer Break

Blue Bossa Jazz Piano Lesson

This week's artwork

Is it easy to learn to play the piano?

Author

Archives

Categories