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Welcome
to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS)
Newsletter!
June
5, 1999
Table
of Contents:
1.
MTIPS Theme
2. Welcome Notes
3. M-TIP Development
4. Notable Quotables
5. Scherzo
1.
MTIPS Theme
There
is no right or wrong, there is only exploration. Have
your students approach these journeys without judgement,
without the goal of creating the next major Fantasia or
Etude. Be certain to insure that one thing is always
present...enjoyment. Encourage your students to have fun
with the exploration of an improvisation. Watch their
technique improve while their creativity and motivation
soar!
2.
Welcome Notes
Welcome
to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS)! Thank
you to our friends who forwarded MTIPS to their friends.
That's how we grow and have a greater impact on the
music community. THANKS!
MTIPS
is a free monthly newsletter that's goal is to provide
piano teachers, (hopefully you!) with insightful
practices that will make the career of sharing music
with soon-to-be musicians a more rewarding and
successful one. I hope that this electronic publication
assists you in creating a more enjoyable and successful
lesson for you and your students. Please let me know how
I can be of service to you in reaching this goal.
You
may contact me at NickAmbrosino@musicsimplymusic.com
.I look forward to playing with you through this
newsletter. Let's have some fun!
3.
MTIPS Development
I'm
about to date myself, but, in the 70's there was a TV
show called Password. It was a word association game in
which your partner was given a word and you had to guess
the word based on a single word clue that he gave you.
He would say "choo-choo" (with a raise in his
voice!) and you would hopefully reply "train".
Let's play a quick round. I say,
"improvisation"; you say "____"? Was
the first word that came to your mind "jazz"?
Many people associate the art of improvisation with the
jazz genre of music. Yet, many of the great historical
composers that we share with our students were
improvisational geniuses. Mozart was known for his
variations on a theme, spontaneously created at the
parties he so frequently attended. Bach, the church
musician, was forced to create spontaneous sections of
music in order to smooth the connections between mass
parts. Bartok, improvised and then notated pieces
(exercises) for his son and pupil, Peter. Those pieces
became the collection we now call Mikrokosmos.
Improvisation,
the art of spontaneous creation in real time (you don't
have the luxury of using an eraser to change your
"mistakes"!) has much to offer the growing
musician.
Choose
a musical element or technique. Let's say arpeggios. Now
create a tempo, (or choose not to, it's your
composition). Next, start to explore that element, very
much the way an artist would explore a certain color.
Just remember to stay with that one element and to keep
making music. Play the arpeggio cross-handed. Change the
chord. Play it in contrary motion. Create a melody by
adding different rhythms.
Play
an arpeggiated ostinato (repeated figure) in one hand
while creating a melodic line based on an arpeggio or
chords in the other hand (Chopin used a similar idea to
compose the Op. 28 No.3 Prelude as well as his Etudes)!
There
is no right or wrong, there is only exploration. Have
your students approach these journeys without judgement,
without the goal of creating the next major Fantasia or
Etude. Be certain to insure that one thing is always
present...enjoyment. Encourage your students to have fun
with the exploration. Watch their technique improve
while their creativity and motivation soar!
4.
Notable Quotables
"A
musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet
must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with
himself." - Abraham Maslow
"The
spirit of play is, for me, the most important element in
the creation of music or any art form." - Chick
Corea
5.
Scherzo
Why
was the composer crouching behind the piano?
Because he was Haydn!
What was Haydn's brother's name?
Seek
Copyright
© 1999 Nicholas Ambrosino. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute
MTIPS so long as this copyright notice and full
information about contacting the author is attached. The
author of this article is Nicholas Ambrosino and he may
be contacted at:
http://www.musicsimplymusic.com
director@musicsimplymusic.com
To
subscribe/unsubscribe, send an email to: Mtips-list@musicsimplymusic.com
With either words "subscribe MTIPS" or the
words "unsubscribe MTIPS" in the body of the
email.
"We
enjoy what we do, and so will you!"
phone: 631-863-2354
fax: 631-471-8311
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