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Creativity

Improvisation and Cats: How to Start Scared!

Are you scared to start using improvisation in your piano teaching? I’ve totally been there. 7 or 8 years ago I had basically never sat down at the piano without a piece of paper in front of my face. It would not have even occurred to me. But then I discovered improvisation.  I found out…

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Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: improvising

CKQC048_ Working on harmony in a student’s composition Blog Post Template

CKQC048: Working on harmony in a student’s composition

At a certain stage of my composing projects, the students need to add harmony. How you approach this will depend on the students’ level but this will show you one way I teach this part of the composing process.  Another great way to work on this is to have students find out what’s happening…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity Tagged With: colourful keys quick clip, composing

How to Host a Creativity Showcase Recital

How to Host a Creativity Showcase Recital

When you’re teaching improvisation and composition in your piano studio, shouldn’t your performance opportunities reflect that? Often the creative stuff gets left out of recitals but shouldn’t we show off those skills too? I believe we should. Every year I host a creativity showcase recital and in this article I want to give you some…

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Filed Under: Creativity, Practice Tagged With: creative music lessons, fun piano concerts, music composition, piano improvisation, planning a studio recital

CKQC042_ Using Create First improvisations in buddy lessons Blog Post Template

CKQC042: Using Create First improvisations in buddy lessons

This duet improvisation pattern is from Create First 1 by Forrest Kinney. I love simplifying these accompaniment patterns for using in buddy lessons.  You’ll see I start off with my student here and then leave once she’s secure with the pattern. We also discussed (before this clip) how to land on the home note…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity Tagged With: buddy lessons, colourful keys quick clip, improvisations

Circle of Fifths 2

Exploring Scales and the Circle of Fifths with Improvisation

Improvisation is one of the best ways to teach students about keys, scales and chord patterns. In fact, I believe in teaching scales through improvisation first – before fingering, before metronomes, before checklists. Let me show you how I do it. It was years into practising scales when I finally understood what they were for….

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Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: improvising

CKQC039_ Simple but effective solo improvisation for beginners Blog Post Template

CKQC039: Simple but effective solo improvisation for beginners

This is another pattern from Forrest Kinney’s fabulous Create First 1. Every pattern in these books has a duet and a corresponding solo version. I like to start with the duet so my student can get a feel for the improvisation and explore a little, and then we work on the solo improvisation.  This…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity Tagged With: beginner improv, colourful keys quick clip, Create First, piano improvisation

CKQC032_ ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Moonrise’ improvisation solos for beginners Blog Post Template

CKQC032: ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Moonrise’ improvisation solos for beginners

These two patterns are the very first ones in Create First Book 1. Both the duet and solo options are simple and beautiful. Although we always do improvisation at my studio from the beginning, I’ve been working to get my students to do more improvisation solos. Several of my students even did solo improv at…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity, Music Theory Tagged With: Create First, creative music education, Forrest Kinney, piano improvisation, teaching improvisation to piano students

Inspiring Improvisation for Students with Special Needs with Carrie Lennard

I’ve said before that improvisation can be a tool in our lessons. It doesn’t have to be something that takes away time – it can be an element that enhances what we need to get done. And that’s especially true when it comes to teaching students with special needs. Carrie Lennard has created something truly exceptional…

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Filed Under: Creativity, Planning lessons Tagged With: music for limited mobility, piano for special needs, teaching piano to students with dyslexia, teaching piano to students with special needs, technology in music teaching

CKQC020_ Improvisation “sandwiches” with repeated note embellishments blog post

CKQC020: Improvisation “sandwiches” with repeated note embellishments

The mid-year concert at my studio is called the “January Jam”. This recital is all about creative skills and ensemble playing. This year, all my students created some form of this “improvisation sandwich” as one of their performances. To create a sandwich, they play a piece three times: Plain, as written Improvising the right hand,…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity, Practice Tagged With: colourful keys, colourful keys quick clip, improvisation, piano teaching

CKQC013- Improvising piano duets and exploring the keys

CKQC013: Improvising piano duets and exploring the keys

Beginning improvisation usually works best with an accompanist. This helps the music to sound fuller, and allows students to explore the melodies more freely. In my piano students’ buddy time, I’ve been trying out some modified versions of the improvisation patterns from Create First by Forrest Kinney. In last week’s quick clip, you saw how…

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Filed Under: Colourful Keys Quick Clips, Creativity, Planning lessons, Practice Tagged With: colourful keys quick clip, creative music lessons, improvising in piano lessons, piano buddy lessons, piano student duets

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About Nicola

Nicola Cantan is a piano teacher, author, blogger and creator of imaginative and engaging teaching resources. She loves getting piano students learning through laughter, and helping teachers to teach through games and off-bench activities, so that their students giggle their way through music theory and make faster progress.

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