If you teach piano to teens then you know that lessons can look very different from week to week. One week they’re enthusiastic about every piece you recommend… the next week they only want to play a piece they completed a year ago. It is a rollercoaster ride that can turn your lesson plan into a survival plan.
The weeks when your students are crying out for creativity can be the most difficult. Teen piano repertoire is very often “by the book” and does not offer many opportunities for students to truly make their music their own. So when your teen piano students crave creativity its time for some improv piano solos.
And that’s what we’re sharing today… Unbound: a 3-page improv piano solo for teens who are desperate to break away from traditional scores!
Unbound… A Teen Improv Piano Solo
If you’ve followed our blog for some time then you know that we love to release teacher/student improv duet packages. These work great with young students who enjoy the chance to find freedom on the keys. But as your students get older, they have the ability to provide the accompaniment to their own improv endeavours.
Today’s printable is a gentle introduction to the world of improv that is easy to teach (even if you’ve never improvised yourself!).
Unbound: A Teen Inprov Piano Solo provides enough structure to be approachable, with just enough freedom to encourage creativity. Your teen students can quickly master the provided pattern-based measures of music and then, using the given rhythm, can improvise a melody during the “B Section” of the piece.
The package you download here (or by clicking on the image below) contains three pages: an “improv practice page” and a two-page piece. On both the practice page and the sheet music, the treble staff has been removed for the improv sections, leaving a line of rhythm. This is intentional, and allows your students to break free from the page to create their own melodies. Your students can choose to use the provided rhythm as a guide (matching their own choices of notes to the rhythm), or they can create their own rhythm and melody.
Wait… There’s More Fun Stuff For Teaching Piano To Teens!
If we’ve got you excited about teen piano resources, be sure to check out our new Facebook community: WunderKeys Piano Music For Teens. New members who join get to download our uber-popular teen solo, Wolf, for free! Over 1,200 teachers joined in just 24 hours and it’s rapidly becoming a hoppin’, positive place for all things teen piano!
Thanks so much Andrea! My teen students can’t get enough of your music and it is fantastic to have an improv resource like this – I can’t wait to get them started on it 🙂
Hi Judith – thrilled to hear it!:) Enjoy and thanks for commenting!
Wow… and away we go. Thank you for being intuitive and helping us out here in the trenches.
Hi Michele – you’re welcome! Hope it is useful in these busy “back to school” weeks that can be stressful for tweens and teens 🙂
This ROCKS! I’ve used your Celtic Courage book with this concept and it’s fantastic. Thank you!
Hi Kelly – so glad you’re excited about it! Thanks for your constant enthusiasm and support of our resources 🙂