improvising

When you teach projects from Tune Toolkit, are you assigning them as improv projects or composition projects? Do you have the students come back and play something or report on what they did? How do you keep accountability that they are trying the projects? In…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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I would love to start a conversation about how we might use the MAC soundtracks with our students. Some of the tracks might need some more background or learning to understand their use, but I think others could be used by most of our students…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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I can’t wait to use the MAC soundtracks in my own studio. Has anyone already tried this? What ages of children are able to hear the beat within the soundtrack, and match their own playing? What tips do you have in coaching children to be…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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Mark S. Meritt, any suggestions for starting Tune Toolkit with a student in level 7? Is there a way to accelerate through each project without impeding the layering process? I’ve been through the program a few times with other students but this particular student is…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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Is the idea with the 3-note comp/improv exercise that the students are to play three consecutive white notes in the RH or can they be any three notes, black or white? I get them to pick any 3 white notes without telling them about the…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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Would it work, when there is a month-long break from teaching, to suggest that dedicated students (at the appropriate level) work through Tune Toolkit and The Chord Drill on their own? I have the vaguest recollection from the training on those that “students can work…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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Successful new idea I hit upon with a new group. These are kids on the young side, 6-7. I ended up teaching them just the Capitals & Periods from the Pause Button (Tune Toolkit Project 2) prior to teaching them the rest of that project,…

• Last updated 6 years ago
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I recently heard someone mention a SM requirement that students begin every practice with improv. Is that official? Something that many teachers do? I’d love to hear more about this–where it appears in the training, and even if it doesn’t, how people who use this…

• Last updated 8 years ago
• composing, improvisation, improvising, playlist management, Robin Keehn

I have tried improvising on black notes with ‘Life Song’ from the Time for More Music program with terrific results. I have tried these options: Lower part played on the keyboard, Upper part sung (or played on another instrument) and then improvising on the upper…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• improvising, life song, tfmm, Time for More Music