October 28, 2025: Tuesday Upbeat
Teachers: Happy Tuesday!
Spending Time Exploring, Discovering, and Improvising
Written toward piano, but, how can you apply this to other instruments and skills?
The first thing to teach a piano student is not the location of Middle C. Rather, spend time exploring, discovering, and improvising.
Play cluster chords in the lower register. (Scary!)
Poke around the upper register. (Twinkly!)
With the sustain pedal down, play only black keys, all over the keyboard. (So beautiful!)
Play a chromatic scale - one key at a time - up from bottom to top, and down from top to bottom. Without skipping any! (Can you count them?)
Count the white keys. Count the black keys. Add them together. Do they equal your count?
How many sets of two black keys are there? How many sets of three black keys are there? What's that single black key down there all about?
How does the piano work? Take a look inside. Lift the cover and play something; watch what happens, what's going on inside?
Reach left and right, how wide can you reach? Play those notes together.
What's it like to play sitting? What's it like to play standing? What's it like to play on your knees? What's it like to play criss cross applesauce?
Use your ear. Can you tell higher pitches from lower pitches?
What's a glissando?
Invent a song using both hands in the center of the piano. Sing along. Make up the words.
Learn some simple songs. Right hand only. Left hand only. Hands together.
Do it all again. And again...
Own the piano. Command the piano. Get comfortable at the piano. Learn notes a little later.
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Have a magical Tuesday, a musical (off!) week, and enjoy happy, healthy and tension-free teaching and learning with your students.
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
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