The document discusses using YouTube to teach piano accompaniment. It outlines problems with traditional teaching methods and proposes playing soloist recordings from YouTube during lessons to give students real-world experience adapting to different performers. The teacher would select pieces and YouTube videos, and students would take turns accompanying the recordings. This allows students to focus on listening skills, tempo flexibility, and adapting to other musicians. The document provides an example lesson plan and discusses the benefits of this new approach.
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Social learning summit 2012 using youtube for teaching piano accompaniment
1. Using Youtube In
Teaching Piano Accompaniment
Goran Brkovic
Piano Teacher
Music School Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic
Uzice, Serbia
@gbrkovic
April 21, 2012
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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...
7. About using YouTube
Using 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
8. 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
9. 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=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su2UdsMK1lE&feature=related
14. 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
15. Lesson Timing
Lesson duration: 45 minutes
Lesson 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.
16. 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.
17. 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).
18. Using Youtube In
Teaching Piano Accompaniment
Goran Brkovic
Piano Teacher
Music School Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic
Uzice, Serbia
@gbrkovic
April 21, 2012