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 our January Jam concert.
I love the simple contrast of F sharp major and E flat minor in these patterns, and we often use them as a pair like this. It’s so inspiring for beginners to be able to make such rich music.
If you haven’t tried improvisation with your students before, I hope this video will encourage you to give it a try – it doesn’t have to be fancy or difficult. Just get started.
What are quick clips?
Colourful Keys Quick Clips are all about giving you a taste of what my lessons are actually like – in action.
I certainly don’t claim to be an expert, and I don’t have all the answers. I just know how much seeing real teaching with real students has helped me to grow and improve as a teacher.
Let me know what you think!
I hope you had fun watching this Colourful Keys Quick Clip. If you have any thoughts or questions, be sure to ask them in the Vibrant Music Studio Teachers group on Facebook or in the comments here, and do make sure to subscribe to my emails and YouTube channel to get notified when a new quick clip is published.
If you want more and extended clips of my teaching, be sure to check out the Vibrant Music Teaching library. There’s tons more like this as well as a whole library of teaching games to boot.
I’ve used a few of his improvs through Tim Topham’s No Book Beginner series. It’s so wonderful! Thank you for expanding on this and I’m going to get the solo and duet book! Quick questions: do you recommend the hard copy books or downloads and so you send the solo music home with the student or just have them play it from memory?
I have the digital downloads, studio licenses I think. It’s handy for if you need another copy plus you don’t need to pay shipping. 🙂
From Nicola’s videos I get the impression that Ireland is always dreadfully dark 24/7 haha.
Really intrigued by how the bass notes really color the experience of the same black notes. So Simple yet effective!
Ha Eric! That’s not far wrong…it’s dark at 5pm in the winter so a lot of my teaching hours are under artificial lights. 🙂
We classically trained teachers do find improv to be a scary world to navigate. Thank you so much for sharing this video and for all the info and encouragement!
Can’t wait to try this with my students!
Glad to help Janet! 🙂