Somehow I recently came across the Roots store on the PianoArtistryStudio.com website (do you ever follow so many rabbit trails online that you forget where you came from in the first place?!).
I think I was exploring their collection of rote pieces, but in the process came across a couple of free resources that seem very useful! The Beginner Piece Variations immediately reminded me of my friend and colleague Agnieszka Lasko and her approach of using guided improvisation activities with pieces the student has already learned to help them explore new ideas. In this resource, the authors (Ryan and Laura Abshier) have put together a collection of 30 ideas to use in just such a way. This is so helpful because sometimes in the moment I draw a blank as to how a student could modify an existing piece in a creative way. These handy cards will be the perfect antidote to those mental blanks and will hopefully get the students’ creative juices flowing into dozens of other ideas as well!
One of the simplest group activities I’ve planned that works great for both in-person and virtual students is an improv moment. Each student thinks of a description of some kind and writes it on a slip of paper, then puts it in a basket. Then they all take turns drawing out of the basket and then creating an improvisation at the piano based on the description they drew. Well, Ryan and Laura Abshier have also created a list of 100 Improv Prompts for Piano that would be ideal for an activity like this! It would also be perfect for a private piano lesson if you want to devote a few minutes to letting the student be creative at the keyboard. For a fun game you could even print off the sheets and cut them into columns, then just give the student one column from which to select. They create their musical improvisation and you try to guess which one they chose.
I’m excited to add these valuable free resources to my piano teaching stash for future use as I start planning lessons and group classes for this year!
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