“Fun” and “Technical Work” are two phrases that often do not go hand-in-hand. Typically teens don’t love doing technical work in lessons, and many avoid it altogether at home. Which means heaps of scales, triads and arpeggios are learned… yet never mastered.
This is a shame, because skills gained through regular, purposeful and accurate technical practice can greatly assist your teen piano students in almost every song they encounter as intermediate pianists.
While it’s impossible to revolutionize technical work in a single post, today we’re sharing an exciting strategy and a cool duet to solidify the arpeggios that your piano students are learning to play.
Make Technical Work Fun With This Arpeggio Duet
When learning to play arpeggios, piano students typically struggle with two things: 1) the placement of accidentals within the arpeggio and 2) the fingering.
We’re going to tackle these struggles with a short how-to video explaining my “Dragon Claw Arpeggio” strategy and a cool-sounding duet to put the “Dragon Claw” into practice.
Let’s begin with the “Dragon Claw Arpeggios”…
Next, print out our “Dragon Claw Duet”. This piece can be taught by “rote or by note” – it’s an exercise piece that has your piano students working up to a full two-octave right-hand arpeggio beginning on a white key. If your kiddos love video game music, they’ll be begging to do their “technical work” with this super-cool duet.
When performing this piece, the teacher (you) plays the bass clef line while your student plays the treble clef line. The exercise isolates the main hand shapes and fingering patterns of an an arpeggio and helps your students to drill the fingering… without realizing they’re doing any work at all!
While this duet is written to suit a C Minor Arpeggio, we’ve included chord symbols in the teacher part so you can apply it to the arpeggio of any key your students may be working on. Simply transpose as needed and play on!
Looking For More Creative Teaching Repertoire?
Now that your teens are happily thinking technical work is cool… and it’s time to take that same approach to the standard repertoire you wish they’d recognize and be interested in playing! We can help with that too! With our pop-classical books of repertoire The Beethoven Sessions and The Amadeus Anthems, your teens’ love for classical music will bloom. Find them on Amazon by clicking the images below.
Barbara says
Wow! My teens are going to love this. I might not even tell them until AFTER they learn it that it’s…shhh…an exercise! Best “exercise” ever Andrea! Thanks a bunch:)
Andrea says
Hi Barbaba – yes… sometimes words like that are best left unsaid 😉 LOL – have fun with it!
Deb says
What a great idea this piece is! I am thinking ‘how many sets of hands can we get shoulder to shoulder on the keys?’ Maybe play monster concert style and more competent players help others steady their beat and finger transitions.
Andrea says
Sounds cool Deb! Be sure to tag us in a video if you do it! @teachpianotoday across all platforms 🙂
Sandra says
I like this, and I do plan to use it — but shouldn’t the iv symbol be vi?
Andrea says
Hi Sandra – just refresh your browser and the newest version of the pdf will open when you click the link. We noticed my “moment of being backwards” and have a new version there now 🙂
Rachel says
This is great and not just for teens. I have a senior citizen student who has lost the use of her left hand due to a stroke, but still loves to make music. We were just working on right hand arpeggios together last week. This is going to make it 100 times more fun! Thank you!
Andrea says
That’s fantastic Rachel! So glad you can use it right away 🙂
Drema says
Wow, this arpeggio “exercise” is definitely going to rock teens’ technical work time! =) Some of my preteens will really like this too. Thanks so much Andrea and Happy Thanksgiving!
Andrea says
Hi Drema – Happy Thanksgiving to you as well! 🙂 Hope you have fun with the duet.
Mara Sours says
Love it, Andrea! Thanks.
Andrea says
You’re so welcome Mara! Thanks for reading 🙂
Robin says
Brilliant! Thank you!
Marie Lee says
Brilliant, as always! This makes perfect sense, sounds amazing and will be so easy for the kids to learn. Thank you!!
Jodie says
I’m going to teach this to my 11-year-old student. He’ll love it!!
Sherry says
This is simply wonderful!!! Love this one. Can’t wait to share it with the kids.
Nguyen Le Kim Ngan says
it’s brilliant! thanks for sharing…
Judy says
That’s fantastic!
It will be great for my one handed Granddaughter down the track. Need to simplify it for her at this stage.
You really are a very gifted pair!
Bless you.
Andrea says
Hi Judy – you’re so kind – thanks for reading and hope your Granddaughter has fun with it!
anna says
Just wanted to say thank you. What a fun way to work on this 🙂
Andrea says
You’re so welcome Anna! 🙂 Glad you can use it!
Irma says
This is super awesome! My students children, teens, and adults will love this. Can’t wait to try it. Thank you
Colleen Branson says
Well, what everyone else said above…. Thank you so much. A great idea as usual!
Susan says
This is fabulous! I have a quite a few students who are at this level now that are going to love this idea!
lynn kiesewetter says
Hi Andrea- Any chance you’ll print a version of this with the arp. in the LH???
Nina says
This is such a great idea! Just one question – shouldn’t the roman numerals read i VI iv V since it’s c minor?
Andrea says
Hi Nina 🙂 They do! Just refresh your browser to get the most recent pdf file link.
Nina says
Awesome, thank you! I really appreciate the helpful tips you provide on this blog – they’re great! 🙂
barbara williams says
I’m thinking about starting this as a teen/teacher duet, then stumped about whether to transition to a solo (he can handle it), or leave as a duet and teach the teacher part by rote to his little sister.
savithri says
Looking forward to doing this with my students. Do you have something similar for the LH?
Hope you will create soon.
Heather says
This piece has been a huge hit in my studio! My teen group loved it so much after week 1, they decided to perform it at their recital 2 weeks later (teens excited about a recital!!!!) It has also been a lifesaver for students who have forgotten their books and students who are exam weary at the end of May and just need a little pick-me-up in these last couple of weeks before exam time. THANK YOU!!!! (Are there more pieces like this one in your PianoBookClub?)
Andrea says
Hi Heather – thrilled to hear it! Our teen books from PianoBookClub are always huge hits! 🙂 We love writing motivating pieces for teens that keep them on the bench having fun!