Simpedia

Samali D., Western Australia

I’ve had some fun with students improvising on Night Storm. For the Lower Part we use Arrangement 1. For the Upper Part we firstly play the Night Storm melody followed by improvising on white notes. Rocking the Lower Part chords can add interest whilst the improvising goes on (and on and on …….my students don’t want to stop doing this).

I like to remind my students the Lower Part is all about creating a soft atmosphere, providing a strong foundation and playing a supporting role for the Upper Part to really bring out the melody and ‘sing’ the story. With this kind of balance between the two parts we are able to facilitate a very rewarding ensemble experience, creating a mature and sophisticated sound.

I had a parent last night that improvised while her daughter played the Arrangement. The mum had forgotten the LH of Storm so we just left that out. I spent 30 seconds revising the RH of Storm and off she went. It was beautiful. This is an example of an enormous gain for little time investment.

Another opportunity to improvise is with the Lower Part playing Canon in D (from Level 7) with the Upper Part improvising in the scale of D Major. By the time your students have reached Time for Music you would have had the conversation about mapping out the journey of a key signature on the keyboard. But for those who haven’t done this, just point out the 2 black notes (F# and C#). Once the student is clear about how 2 sharps looks on the keyboard they can use this information to improvise. No need to talk about the fact that it is D Major and get into further theory (addressed in Accompaniment 2). This is a great opportunity to Cross-Pollinate here.

You could invite a parent or younger sibling that has little playing experience to improvise by asking them to put 5 over 5 with thumb on D. Then raise their middle finger to the black note (F#) and just improvise on these 5 notes (D E F# G A). Not needing to lift their hand makes it simpler to play than the first example that used then entire scale, and naturally, when doing this you do not need to include the key signature conversation.

Simply Music really does have the potential to include everyone.

I hope you have fun with these ideas.