Goran BrkovicPiano Teacher

Music School “Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic” Uzice, Serbia

@gbrkovic

April 21, 2012

Using Youtube In Teaching Piano Accompaniment

The session will include the following topics:

- Introduction- The main problem in teaching piano accompaniment- The old way we used to teach it and the problems it involved- The new way: how technology can help teachers and students- About using YouTube- Class Plan- Lesson Timing- How to use Youtube in piano accompaniment class and its benefits- Additional info

Introduction

About me:- piano teacher - 21 years, piano accompanist - 10 years About piano accompaniment:- to watch and listen to several parts of the score- to adapt our own playing to the soloist About piano accompaniment lessons- two pupils in a group at one lesson- 35 classes per year, 45 minutes per class, 1 class per week- no final exam, two obligatory public performances- program: pieces for flute, violin or voice and piano- main goal: to educate piano students how to play piano accompaniment well on public performances.

The main problem in teaching piano accompaniment

How to achieve adaptability while teaching it the old way ? Solo piano vs. piano accompaniment- solo: listening skills limited to our own playing-piano accompaniment: listening to both ourselves and others Easier: - not being alone at the podium- no memorization More complex:- more staves, requires greater musical flexibility, listening to ourselves, listening to others, coordination of both = adapting

The old way we used to teach it and the problems it involved

Limited usability:- no preparation for the public performance. The old fashioned class:- one piano student plays imitating the soloist, the other piano students plays along piano accompany part- both piano students playing on the piano, same instrument color- too exact tempo, same moment of sound production- no breathing pauses and agogics ● artificial and unreal● less adaptation or no adaptation to the real soloist Solution: the new way of teaching.

The new way: how technology can help teachers and students

New way of teaching brings increased class usability:- two students, two different pieces, accompanying YT- 8 - 20 real soloist performances from Youtube- students in real life situation 100% percent of the time during the lesson- never use the same performance on two lessons- different soloists from YT posses various artistic levels of performance. Developing skills:- listening to various and different instrument colors- catching constant small tempo variations, including breaths- adaptability to other performer's musical ideas, dynamics- "hunting", jumping, listening to false intonation, wrong rhythm...

About using YouTubeUsing Youtube (www.youtube.com) requirements:- PC, broadband Internet connection and speakers Problems and solutions:- no PC / speakers > use laptop or portable devices with headphones- no Internet connection > download videos and bring to the class Teacher's preparation for the lesson- choosing the pieces, according to student ability, grade- search YT for pieces, select useful performances- collect and save the links, keep tracks of what is already done making notes and reflections about students' achievements- allowing some time for students to read and learn the pieces

Class plan

Lesson planning and preparation: - coordination - check with other teacher (flute, violin, etc.) - variety - mastering pieces of various difficulty and differently structured pieces - finding informations about composer and the piece - links to pdf sheet music, or sending pdf sheet music to students - analyzing the score, defining smaller parts / numbers, sheet printing, writing rehearsal numbers on sheet

Example of Piano accompaniment class

8 flutists playing Saint-Saens Romance op.37, D flat major - About composer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns- About Romance: http://bit.ly/IfOsjJ- Sheet Music: http://bit.ly/I0zscq YouTube links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6gioeVi9f4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg3RMuyLFy0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNusStMhI50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci-jBYNlpP4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEMRxrV4Ff8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKCcZGbe7Qs&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej3mr4LHjeA&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su2UdsMK1lE&feature=related

About the Composer

About the Piece

Sheet Music from IMSLP

Video from Youtube

8 flutists playing Rachmaninoff Vocalise op.34 No.14, G minor

About Rachmaninoff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff

About Vocalise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocalise_(Rachmaninoff) Sheet Music:http://www.scorage.ru/view.aspx?id=844C7303DC16CB116838E196B7AF17F2

Youtube links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXS-8NfjNU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Ha_uRF-84 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVurqiFHBxQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvpBUitKbsQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAvkcUuUpLo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJtbeAC_PQ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVAthVOx2M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xZICRj9qY&feature=related

Lesson Timing Lesson duration: 45 minutesLesson organization: 3 x 15 minutes 1) warming up, without accompanying the YT recording, every student works on her / his own part, the most demanding spots 2) one student accompanying YT video recording - 15 minutes- integral performance, accompanying Saint-Saens Romance, finding what is most important to listen to, focus on middle section, harmonies played in chords, finding the logic of harmonies and agogics- homework: accompanying the YT recording while playing left hand only, simultaneous harmony changes 3) the other student accompanying YT video - 15 minutes- integral performance, accompanying Rachmaninoff Vocalise- without repeated intervals / chords, the basis of the structure, "invisible" repeats, finger Pedal, obtaining clear Pedaling, playing middle section only, in slower tempo, agogics- making synthesis at the end with YT video again- homework: practice hands separate with YT video, with & without repeated chords.

How to use Youtube in piano accompaniment Class and its benefits

Analyzing : tonalities, form, dividing into parts for practicing Learning the solo part - better listening, better troubleshooting Sight reading - always beneficial, less time to learn new pieces Exercises - rearranging the structure, creating orchestral arrangements in Concertos Transposing piano part - gradually increasing the difficulty, transposing in real-time, accompanying recorded solo Benefits of this type of teaching piano accompaniment:- more efficient teaching, more interesting, practicing real life public performance 100% of the class time.

Additional info

- I recommend using Ubuntu Linux (www.ubuntu.com) and Puppy Linux (http://puppylinux.org), free, stable and secure OS - Use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) to record your student's progress. You can use podcasts at your lessons, like shown in presentation created by Maja Dakic-Brkovic: (http://www.slideshare.net/kakoto/maja-teach-meet-podcast-in-piano-lessons). - Rosegarden is score editor used to analyze or explain the most complex part of the score. My presentaion about Rosegarden: (http://www.slideshare.net/gbrkovic/rosegarden-notation).

Goran BrkovicPiano Teacher

Music School “Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic” Uzice, Serbia

@gbrkovic

April 21, 2012

Using Youtube In Teaching Piano Accompaniment