Once a note cruncher always a note cruncher. Do you have teens that fit that description? I’m always amazed when I discover a teen piano student who has somehow managed to play piano for years while reading every single note every single time.
These students can fly under the radar. They are so proficient at note reading that a teacher may not even know that they are a note-by-note reader.
Unfortunately this is no way for a teen to play music. The mental power it takes to read every single note on every single page drains the brain, leaving the student too exhausted to consider the other elements of music that make a piano piece great; like dynamics, emotion, and other forms of musical interpretation. The key, therefore, is in teaching your teens to blend their note-reading abilities with a keen awareness of musical patterns. The result? Efficient and confident piano students who can “piece crunch” instead of simply “note crunch”
To help your note-by-note readers break this energy-zapping habit, today we’re sharing a pop-infused teen piano piece to reinforce left hand chord patterns.
Making Magic With Left-Hand Accompaniment Patterns and Improvisation
When reinforcing left-hand accompaniment patterns with teen piano students, it is necessary to remove challenges associated with playing the right-hand melody. This allows students to really focus in on the LH and quickly build a level of comfort with the chord progression and pattern. The easiest way to force this focus is to have teens play only left-hand patterns.
But that is too boring for this blog!
So, in the activity below, we’ve combined a common left-hand accompaniment pattern in the Key of A Minor with right-hand improvisation to create a musical experience that your teens will play over and over again!
The activity below is themed to coordinate with our collection of Classical Pop Crossover books (also known as The Sessions Books). If you’ve never played from these books before, you’ll definitely want to check out The Amadeus Anthems, The Beethoven Sessions, and The Chopin Sessions (see below).
Click here or on the image below to download today’s activity:
A Quick-Start Guide To Our Teen Piano Books
Do you spend way too much time searching for music that will motivate your teen piano students? When you finally find something, does it miss the mark? Over this last year, we have published a great selection of teen repertoire books that will become your go-to resources. Here is a quick rundown of the teen books we released in 2018, along with audio samples:
Kelly Koch says
HOW??? HOW in the world do you KNOW just what I need, just when I need it? I have an adult student who I want to start improvising with, but she’s still in the beginning music. She wants to compose though. I wanted to start her improvising, and VOILA, you read my mind AGAIN! Thank you so much! Btw, when did the Rock Repertoire for Teen Beginners come out? Need to get this ASAP. Heading to Amazon now. Xo
Andrea says
Hi Kelly! Great! I love it when the timing is perfect like that 🙂 Enjoy!
Lindy J Taylor says
Thank you for the great options! The rock teen book really helped one is my really tricky kids.
Susan says
I have a few teen students that I know are going to love this! One just had a lesson right before I opened my email and I was about to start looking for something to use with her to help her build confidence in bass clef patterns! I know exactly what I’m going to use with her in next week’s lesson. Thank you Andrea!
Andrea says
Hi Susan! So glad you’ll be able to use it right away! Teaching teens can be tricky – it always feels like your “searching” for something to use, doesn’t it?! If you’re in our teen facebook group we organize all our free printables into an easy-to-find place. Might help! http://www.facebook.com/groups/teenpianomusic
Barbara says
Sooo good! A whole book of these would make a great Book Club Selection, hint, hint:) Thanks for another fabulous resource.
Andrea says
Glad you’ll enjoy using it Barbara! Lots more teen improv is coming! (hint hint 😉 )
cheryl says
These will be so helpful for my teen students who have chosen a recital piece out of the Sessions books. They feel special that they were allowed to choose the one that they wanted to work on. Many of them “took the challenge” for something above their level. They enjoy the scale exercise that goes with their piece. I was wondering if you are going to add to the package of scales in the Wunderkeys section ? My students will be asking when we start back next week. We are excited to see the next set of “flat” scales and minor scales. Thank you for keeping your material fresh and exciting for teachers, as well as our students.
Andrea says
Hi Cheryl – yes, we’ll continue to add to these and are actually working on a book series of the teen versions of them! 🙂 So glad your students are enjoying the “Sessions Books” so much!