One of the things that I love about teaching piano is the challenge of figuring out how to integrate every part of the student’s learning so that they understand concepts in a relevant way. One of the ways this can be done very effectively is through structured improvisation assignments.
If you’ve been a reader on Music Matters Blog for any length of time you know that I’m a huge fan of Pattern Play as the most effective approach I’ve found to truly teaching improvisation at the piano. But now that most of my students (and I!) have become more comfortable improvising, we create a variety of assignments from week to week that utilize improvising as a way to help students cement various musical concepts.
Right now Mercy is learning chord inversions as part of her Theory and Technique section in our C2 practice incentive theme, so this was the short piece she improv-ed using a c-minor chord and inversions:
It’s amazing how much more exciting and relevant theory concepts are when you see them become a creative expression like this!
Forrest Kinney says
Natalie, I was so pleased to read this post. I couldn’t agree more with your final statement: “It’s amazing how much more exciting and relevant theory concepts are when you see them become a creative expression like this!” Both theory and technique can be learned creatively rather than mechanically, and what a difference that makes!
Brian Jenkins says
Thanks for sharing! I’ve never been all that good at improvising, so my students rarely get to experiment with it. I can definitely see how improv would be beneficial, and probably a lot of fun for students. Looks like Mercy is doing great, and I’m sure she’s having a lot of fun!
raythunder says
The phrase “creative expression” is exactly what makes theory feel relevant. Asking a student to improvise with one minor chord and its inversions turns the concept from a worksheet answer into something they can hear and shape. While working on Gesture Synth, I’ve seen the same value in giving learners a small musical constraint and letting a hand movement change the result in real time. The narrow prompt seems to build confidence without removing creativity.