Gordon Harvey
Diminished Chords with Jazz Clue 1
Jazz Clues…doing clue one with Here to stay. The Bmin7-5 sounds bad with 1 and 5 LH because the 5 is supposed to be flatted. So do you have the students flat the 5th or stick to the clue? I don’t recall this being addressed…
Lament and Modes
Just wondering if the sheet music for ‘Lament’ in the Jazz program is treated as a completely separate exercise to the improvisation in the reference book. Alternatively, do we work out what 4 note chords to use in the LH for the sheet music version…
Why Improvise and Compose
How would you explain to 12-14 year old kids why learning to improvise and compose songs is part of the simply music program? How does it help them learn to play songs, if that is their goal? Do you have the Tune Toolkit Program? The…
Playing with Other Musicians
I’m realizing something is missing in my musical life. I want to make music with other musicians (apart from just my studio students). What do you all do to express yourselves musically in the community? I’ve always mainly played in educational/church settings. Now I’d rather…
Transcribing Ties and Dotted Notes
I am at the end of the Reading Rhythm TTM in my own learning process and have a question about transcription. I see that ties and dotted notes (like all the other ingredients) include the step of “Continuing to process transcriptions into MOR.” As someone…
Scales
I am going deeper into “scale” with my more advanced students in the Development Levels and in Accompaniment 2. Having come from a very extensive classical musical training, I understand scale, key signature, and advanced theory. However, a student has asked me, and I ask…
Mirron and Jazz Program Pieces
I have a student who is flying through the steps in the Jazz program. He can play the Mirron as a piano solo (with exact rhythm), with Jazz clue 1 and 2, and has almost completed all of the “dropping in” exercises for the the Mirron using just…
Getting the Humpty “Swing”
I have one student who is really struggling to get the “swing” feel for Alma Mater Blues and also Rocking Honey. It seems for some it comes so naturally, and for others, it’s a huge effort. We verbalise the “here’s humpty dumpty”, we clap the…
All Inclusive Tuition
Alex (Thai), Stephanie, and I opened our combined commercial studio in March. So far, so good! We’re still working together and Thai doesn’t have too many white hairs yet. We recently started a discussion about switching to an “all inclusive” tuition package, where we would…
Slowing Down Students
What creative ways do you use to get students to slow down? I don’t know any creative ways, I just resort to tapping a slow beat, and getting them to play along to the audio slow version. I wonder if it is a stage they…