I was really deligthed to be invited to be the guest on the 250th episode of Tim Topham’s Top Music Pro podcast. I was invited to talk about a specific project I undertook with some of my students in early 2021 during the lockdown – my “Lockdown Mash-ups”.
In the episode I explain how I wanted to provide fun, engaging activtities for my students inspired by the music that they chose themselves – whilst also providing great learning opportunities.
In January 2021, as we entered the third lockdown, I asked my students to put together a playlist of their favourite top 5 or 10 songs – and I used these lists to choose different activties for our online lessons. For some students, I identified 2 or more songs from their lists which had the same chord progressions, and worked with the students in creating “mash-ups” of these songs – i.e. arranging them so that they seamlessly blended together. This involved transposing one or more of the songs into the same key as the other and then deciding on left hand patterns, chord arrangements etc.
In the episode we hear two examples – Keiva’s mash-up of Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved and Imagine Dragon’s Demons; and Dan’s mash-up of Yiruma’s River Flows in You and Alan Walker’s Faded.
Typically I always hold 2 student concerts per year – one in December and one towards the end of the Summer term. They are highlights of the year for me and my students. Performing provides each of the students the opportunity to prepare a piece of their choosing to a high standard. As many of my students choose not to take formal exams, the opportunity to perform provides an alternative focus for their playing. And it’s a great boost to their confidence.
Many of my students also enjoy composing and arranging and the twice-yearly concerts also provide the chance for them to perform their own work.
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, it was not possible to hold my usual Summer concert. However, my students had all been continuing their weekly lessons on Zoom and I wanted to give them the opportunity to prepare for something special as normal. So I asked each of them to record a video of them playing a piece of their choice, and put together a video of all the performances to share with them and their families.
It was not the same as a real concert – but it was better than nothing. And it provides us all with a momento of the past few months – where the music has continued, even as much of life has been put on hold.
On Saturday 6th July 2019 I held my 10th student concert. My twice-yearly concerts provide an opportunity for all my students to perform to a friendly audience. Because many of them don’t take formal piano exams, the concerts provide an alternative goal for them to aim for, preparing a selected piece or pieces of their choice to a high standard. Unconstrained by the requirements of an exam syllabus they are able to select any piece that they like and, most importantly, motivates them to play! Often they will be keen to learn a piece from a film such as Nathan, 10, who played the theme from Jurassic Park:
Daniel, also 10, chose Hedwig’s theme from Harry Potter:
Both Nathan and Daniel found good arrangements of these pieces in books. However, Dan, 11, chose to arrange his chosen song – A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman – himself, using a few different arrangements he found online as inspiration:
Pop songs are also a popular choice for my students. I try to discourage them from using sheet music arrangements of current songs as sometimes such arrangements can be of variable quality. However, lead sheets – which provide only a melody line and chord symbols – can be a great way to learn the basics of a song whilst allowing for a creative interpretation of the core ingredients. Luca, 13, used a lead sheet to create his own arrangement of Coldplay’s Clocks which also contained his own improvisations based around the chord progression:
Gabriel, 10, also used a chord progression from a famous song; but rather than use any aspect of the actual melody he used this chord progression to create his own piece. He challenged the audience to see if anyone would be able to recognise the song but because he had changed it so much from the original (John Lennon’s Imagine), no-one was able to identify it!
There were also a couple of debut performances including this from Jago, 4, who played I Like Coffee – a wonderful and very popular rote piece. Do make sure you check out the look on his face when he takes his bow at the end and realises everyone is clapping for him!
Sophia, also 4, was playing in her second concert and performed her version of Mary had a Little Lamb – she had worked out how to harmonise this herself:
I love to play duets with my students. Here’s Myla, 6, and myself playing Broadway Star:
And Izzy, 11, and I playing Simple Samba:
These twice-yearly student concerts are a great opportunity for my experienced students to prepare a chosen piece to a high standard and for some, to perform their own composed or arranged piece. For my new and very young students it’s a lovely way to boost their confidence and provide them opportunities to perform in a friendly and informal setting. For me, it gives me a wonderful opportunity to look back on previous performances and see how my students are growing and developing both as pianists and as people. I’ve now hosted 10 concerts and plan to host many more – watch this space!
I tell all my beginning students, whether they are 3 or 63, that there are three different ways to learn a piece of music: by ear, by rote, or by reading.
Learning music is about learning patterns. The aural patterns of the pitch, harmonies and rhythms, the visual patterns of the black and white keys on the keyboard, and the visual patterns of musical notation. A truly well-rounded education encourages students to become adept at understanding all of these.
By Ear
Too often this is completely overlooked in more traditional piano lessons. I certainly was never taught how to play by ear and only really learnt how to do this when I returned to piano and teaching as an adult. There’s a myth that you can either play by ear or you can’t – that it’s an inherent skill you’re either born with or not. And whilst it is certainly true that some find it easier than others (just as some find learning to read music easier than others) – it can be taught to anyone.
For complete beginners we’ll start with a two or three pitch tune such as ‘See Saw’ or ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ – focusing on the movement of the pitch up, down and repeating (often the hardest to hear).
Once the basic melody is learnt we’ll transpose it into different keys, finding the different patterns of black and white notes on the keyboard. We’ll talk about the concept of the key or the ‘home’ note – the one that makes it sound finished. And then we’ll learn to harmonise.
Harmony is the chocolate sauce to the melody’s ice cream – i.e. ice cream is nice on its own but it is enhanced massively by chocolate sauce. We’ll start by harmonising with just two notes (or chords for older students) – Mary had a Little Lamb being a perfect example. Then we’ll progress to songs needing three or more harmony notes – Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah being a popular choice for adult students who often learn this very soon after commencing piano. By teaching harmony we also learn about pulse – because not only do we need to know what note/chord to play but also when to play it – and the answer lies on the strong beats.
Here’s Keiva,7, who worked out how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by ear, harmonised it, and then created her own arrangement using different left hand patterns and adapting the melody: “Keiva’s Little Star”.
We will also transpose harmonised pieces so that students learn which notes / chords to expect depending on what key they are playing in – later on they learn about the function of chords and can find chords 1, 4, 5 and 6 (and others) in different keys. They quickly realise that many songs they know share the same chord progressions, even if they may be written in different keys. This can lead to great fun with ‘mash-ups’ where the student transposes two songs which share a progression into the same key and creates their own arrangement of both. Here’s Jem, 8, playing a mash-up of Ed Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill and George Ezra’s Shotgun – both of which he learnt by ear – accompanied by a backing track app which I often use in my teaching.
By Rote
Rote teaching has recently become much more popular in Piano Teaching circles and rightly so. However, it has traditionally been criticised for teaching children to play more complicated pieces than they are able to read and thus discouraging them from wanting to learn to read – the pieces they are able to read in the early days seem comparatively boring. However, because I make it clear from the outset that I teach pieces in three different ways – and, to begin with at least, the ‘reading’ pieces may be the simplest – I have never found this to be a problem as expectations are clearly managed.
Rote teaching really encourages students to become familiar with the pattern of white and black keys on the keyboard. I also teach pentascales and chord shapes fairly early on so that students are able to recognise the patterns of the different keys and can relate this to pieces they are learning. Rote learning encourages them to use the whole of the keyboard and not just a few notes around middle C. Often they also use the pedal to great effect.
Here’s an example of one of my students performing a rote piece “Thunder Showers’ by Paula Dreyer at my student concert after only 3 months’ of lessons; this is Madeleine, 8, who had not yet started learning any notation at the point when she was able to perform this piece:
As students progress, rote learning is often combined with and superseded by learning by ear – the more knowledge they have of melody and harmony the better they can work out songs for themselves.
Reading
Of course a purely classical approach to piano teaching would only really focus on this way of learning pieces. This was certainly the teaching that I received. Lesson one – open a book and point to middle C. Many students may gravitate to this way of learning – particularly if they are wanting to play the classical repertoire. However, for many students a reading-only approach is much too restrictive and can result in putting them off the piano altogether.
I do not start teaching notation to beginner students for a few weeks at least – depending on their age and abilities. Often I won’t introduce notation for a number of months, particularly for very young students. (I have a small number of adult students to whom I don’t teach notation at all – they are not interested and / or find it too difficult – rather we just focus on developing a really thorough understanding of chord patterns, learning songs of increasing complexity by ear as well as their own improvising and arranging).
I always begin with rote teaching – so that they learn about the piano keyboard; and ear pieces – so they learn the basics of melody, harmony, beat and rhythm. This is all re-enforced with improvisations and maybe their own compositions. When notation is introduced they find it easier to relate it to what they already know: they can see that the contours of up and down in the notation mirror what they already recognise in terms of the patterns of up and down in pitch and on the piano.
I explicitly refer to the pieces that they are learning by notation as their ‘reading pieces’ so they understand that these are invariably simpler (to begin with) than other pieces they may be playing already.
Here is Nathan, 9, playing JS Bach’s Little Prelude in C. This is a piece full of broken chord patterns so his ability to be able to identify these chords when first seeing the piece really sped up the learning process:
Combining the 3 Approaches
As students choose to learn specific songs (often pop songs or songs from films) I will often use a combination of all three approaches, tailored to the individual in terms of what they find easiest. I will encourage them to work out basic melodies and harmonies (i.e. chord progressions) by ear – using their knowledge of how chords work to help. Some students may need a fair amount of prompting to get there – so elements of rote teaching come into play. And for those students who find reading easier I may also use some sheet music as a prompt for this. Notated arrangements of pop songs are often complex – primarily due to the rhythmic syncopations – so I encourage the students to use this as a guide only to assist them in playing what they hear. They may also use the chord symbols to help with the chord progressions. But I rarely encourage them to play exactly what is written – rather to create their own arrangements suitable to their ability level and tastes.
Here’s Gabriel, 10, performing his own arrangement of “This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman. This is an arrangement that involves playing the melody by ear and block chords in the left hand. (As students get more advanced, we learn different left hand patterns and also learn how to voice chords in the right hand so that the melody is projected). He worked this out primarily by ear, with some prompting by me in the form of rote teaching. This is played in D – the original key.
Here is Elizabeth, 9, who had only been having lessons for 6 months when she performed this arrangement of Jar of Hearts at my student concert. Because she had not been playing long, I transposed this into the key of C for her and she used basic fifths in the left hand with the melody in the right hand. She learnt this mainly by rote, but helped by working out aspects of the melody by ear.
The role of exams in such a teaching approach
My views on the exam system are detailed in other blogs (see here and here for examples). The majority of my students choose not to take formal exams. Rather I hold 2 concerts per year to provide all my young students with a performing opportunity, as well as periodic house concerts for my adult students. Of my young students, less than half choose to take exams and only two out of my 20+ adult students do. Clearly when preparing for exams, the learning is predominantly via reading. However, the students’ knowledge of scale and chord patterns gained from rote and ear work certainly speeds up the process of interpreting the dots on the page! I also ensure that there is a break of at least 9-12 months between exams to focus on all the other ways of learning pieces, as well as other activities. This does mean that my students tend to take longer than some of their peers to go through the ‘system’ – but I am very confident that they end up being much more well-rounded musicians than those who are on the exam treadmill. Even more importantly I think there is less chance of students’ giving up the piano altogether when they are given a variety of ways to learn the music that most interests them. My primary aim in teaching is to encourage a lifelong love of playing the piano and I find that this way of teaching offers the best chance in meeting this aim.
I was very pleased to be able to write a review of the new ABRSM 2019 – 2020 syllabus for the excellent blog by Tim Topham.
Tim is an internationally-renowned music educator, piano teacher, writer and presenter.
Through his blog and podcast at timtopham.com, he regularly inspires more than 20,000 teachers across the globe to become better educators for their students. He has also set-up an international community of dedicated and creative teachers – his Inner Circle – of which I am very pleased to be a member.
Readers of my blog will know my views on the place of piano exams in a musical education. Whilst exams can be an excellent motivator for some students, too much focus on exams can be detrimental to the development of all-round musicianship and, at worst, can put a student off playing the piano altogether. Many of my students choose not to go down the exam route and I will only enter students for exams when they are fully ready. Please refer to my ‘Guiding Principles‘ for more information about my approach to piano exams.
I’ve been holding my twice-yearly concerts for nearly four years now. In the earlier years, I didn’t always record the performances although I have now started doing so. It’s lovely to watch them back and see how the students have developed over the years. Luckily, however, there are some recordings of performances at the earlier concerts so I have been able to look back on some from July 2015 and see how the students have developed since then, as seen in the videos from my latest concert on 30 June 2018. For starters, here is Nathan in July 2015, then 6 years’ old, playing 2 pieces including his own composition:
And here he is three years later, age 9, playing Little Prelude in C by JS Bach……
Keiva was only just 5 years old when she played here at her second concert:
And here she is, at 8, playing the wonderful Emerald Green by June Armstrong:
Here’s Daniel playing at his first concert in July 2015 when he was 6:
And three years’ later he performs his own composition The Easter Blues:
Izzy was 7 when she played Plain Sailing by Rosa Conrad at her second concert:
And at the age of 10 here she is introducing and playing her own ‘untitled’ composition, and challenging the audience to see if they could tell what it was about!
I often bore friends and family by saying I have the best job in the world. But I really do. And watching my students grow and develop, not just as pianists but as young people, is a real privilege.
My twice-yearly student concert was held on 2nd December 2017 at a local church. One of my favourite things about holding regular concerts is being able to see how the students progress in confidence and ability over time. For example, here is Nathan, back in 2015 when he was 6, playing 2 pieces including his own composition:
And here he is two and a half years’ later, aged 9, playing the Theme from James Bond:
For more videos of the performances from Saturday please head over to my Facebook page where I will be posting a new video every day in December as part of an ‘Advent’ project.
I was delighted to be asked to feature in the November 2017 edition of Music Teacher Magazine talking about my role in early years’ piano tuition. The feature is shown below and to purchase a full digital copy of the complete edition please follow this link.
My twice-yearly student concert was held in July 2017. Twenty-four of my students, aged between 4 and 13, played to an audience of over 50 family and friends. Here are a selection of videos of my students’ performances. More can be found over on my Facebookpage.
Here’s Charlie, 12, playing Castle on a Cloud:
And Nathan, 8, playing the Theme from Star Wars:
Here’s Dan, 9, playing We are the Champions:
And Asti, 9, playing May Song and her own composition, Charley:
On 3rd December I held my fifth student concert – two years after the first concert. Since then I’ve been having a lovely trip down memory lane looking back on photos and videos from the first concert and seeing how much the pupils have developed since then. For example, here is Keiva at my first concert – at the time she was 4 and had been learning for just a few months:
And here she is two years’ later – poised and confident!
Piano with Rebecca Singerman-Knight 