Classic Dance Piano Adventures, Lesson Book 1, p. 16
Lesson 1 - Acculturation January 16, 2019 Video Length: 2:35 minutes
This first lesson is to acculturate students to the piece "Classic Dance". They will be taking this to the piano in 3 or 4 lessons. Only a minute or two is needed for this acculturation activity. Depending on your students you may find you can cover more than one of these activities in the lesson. In this first lesson, the purpose was to acculturate them to the piece, and I then started to move to formal instruction by having them find the Macrobeat and Microbeats.
Here is a video of the activities in the first lesson.
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 1 Video Video Length: 11:29 minutes
The following video offers some teaching commentary of a few things to be aware of as you teach.
Lesson 2 - Tonal Patterns January 23, 2019 Video Length: 1:58 minutes
In this lesson, I re-acquainted them with "Classic Dance" by giving them two FLOW activities. One is Free, the other is more Bound. I then selected two tonal patterns. The first based on the tonic and the second based on the dominant. I took them through the following:
Aural/Oral
Verbal Association
What I refer to as a sublevel of Partial Synthesis
A variation on Generalization - Verbal Association
The following is the video of the second lesson and the activities covered for "Classic Dance" this lesson.
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 2 Video Video Length: 11:17 minutes The following video offers some teaching commentary on the video above.
Lesson 3, 4, and 5 January 30, 2019 Video Length: 14:17 minutes
Due to life being life, this video became a combination of Lesson 3, 4, and 5. The student lesson video is all one video. The teaching commentary video is divided into three parts, due to the file size. I have outlined before activities and where they could occur in each lesson.
Lesson 3: Rhythm Patterns:
Teacher plays the piece and students move their upper body in a circular motion. Feelt are "glued" to the floor.
Teacher plays and asks students to find the Macrobeats and microbeats
Ask students to chant Du Da Di pattern if having difficulty finding the MB/mb
Ask students to find the rhythm patterns in "Classic Dance"
Lesson 4:
Compare Phrases
Preparatory Exercise Away from the Piano
Lesson 5:
Take preparatory exercise to the piano
Learn to play "Classic Dance" on the piano
The following is the Lesson 3, 4 and what could be considered Lesson 5
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 3 Video - Part 1: Finding the Macro and Microbeats Video Length: 10:12 minutes
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 3 Video - Part 2 (of 4 videos): Finding the Rhythm Patterns in "Classic Dance" Video Length: 9:14 minutes
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 3 Video - Part 3 (of 4 videos): This could be considered Lesson 4 in the series: Comparing Phrases and Preparatory Exercises Video Length: 10:27 minutes
Teaching Commentary on Lesson 3 Video - Part 4 (of 4 videos): This could be considered Lesson 5 in the series: Learning to Play "Classic Dance" on the piano Video Length: 12:09 minutes
Lesson 4 - Singing and Playing Chord Roots February 6, 2019 Video Length: 9:45 minutes
Although this is the fourth lesson with these students, it really would be more like Lesson 5 or 6 where this would occur. Due to the inquisitiveness of these students, this lesson does touch on the lessons that would come after this lesson.
Singing Chord Roots
Teacher plays the piece and students listen
Teacher sings the chord roots, while students imitate
Teach the students the chord roots, phrase by phrase
Have students sing the chord roots (DO - SO) while indicating the chord with their fingers
Alternative activity would be to then move the chord roots to boomwhackers, bass bars, then played on the piano
Have one student play the piece on the piano while the other(s) play the chord roots on the boomwhackers (switch)
Have one student play th piece on the piano while the other(s) play the chord roots on the piano (again switch)
Although not planned, the students started to discuss how they could arrange and alter this piece. A short discussion and demo at the end is included.
During one student's private lesson, after playing the I - V - I melodic cadence, he then transposed "Classic Dance" into the Keyality of G.
I did not create a Teaching Commentary video for this video, rather the few comments I had, I included them as pop ups in the lesson video.