How Would You Introduce This Piece? – Idea Share #10

We had such a fun time at the “Hello, Autumn!” webinar! We released new music (including two new Halloween series), and introduced Jason Sifford as the newest ComposeCreate composer! We decided to do something a bit different for Idea Share #10 and had Diane walk us through how she would introduce one of our most popular pieces, Pretty Creepy, to a student (you can see what she said below!). Other teachers shared their wonderful ideas for introducing the music as well, which you can find in the Idea Share!

There were so many new pieces released at this webinar from Wendy, Diane Hidy, and Jason Sifford. If you didn’t come, you can find all of their new pieces below:

• Creepy Creatures Bundle (Wendy)
• Little Fuzzies Trick or Treat (Wendy)
• Autumn Glow – part of the Beautiful Places series! (Wendy)
• Black Widow Waltz (Diane)
• Ominous Odes (Jason)
• Spooky Sox (a Halloween version of the super popular Stinky Sox!)

We are so thankful for each of you in our ComposeCreate community who came to the event and your willingness to share!

Here were the two questions for Idea Share #10 and some of my favorite responses:

1. What are some ways you have surprised a student during a Halloween lesson that enhanced their learning?

• Kelli: I have stuffed animal monsters that I have as an “audience” as we prepare for recitals.
• Phyllis: I had my Little Fuzzies stacked up between the pages and it was on the piano ready for the student when he came in. It drew him right in and he loved the piece. He had so much fun with the Ding Dong part.
• Jason Sifford: Jason shared that he had a new transfer student who was somewhat timid and was struggling with the left hand. He brought out the monster and would have her play a chord, then high-five the monster. It not only brought fun into the lesson, but helped to disarm her while learning the passage!

2. How would you introduce this piece (Pretty Creepy) to students?

Question #2 was about introducing the piece “Pretty Creepy” to students. Diane Hidy gave some really valuable insights on how she would introduce a piece like this to students. As Diane pointed out, a piece like Pretty Creepy can look really overwhelming to students because of the number of eighth notes they’re looking at. Students can also tell it moves all over the piano, which can feel even more daunting! Instead of handing students the blank score with all of those notes, Diane hands them a score that like the one you see her holding in the video below – one covered in sticky notes with stickers!

Diane covers up anything that repeats, which helps students scan through the music for when changes happen. Students can see the first line, but don’t know what’s happening beyond that. As the teacher, we know it’s the same material moving around in different registers. Diane suggested practice doing the pattern without moving around first, and then allowing the students to be the composer and let them try moving the pattern up or down the piano. Once they’re that comfortable with the pattern, they can choose which post-it note to remove, and see which direction those notes are moving in. As Diane said,

Anything you can do to both simplify the process and make it more interesting to look at and interact with is a good thing.

~ Diane Hidy

There are many more ideas from ComposeCreate teachers in the PDF download!

Thank you to everyone who attended the webinar and watched the replay! And a special thank you to those who submitted answers for Idea Share #10. We’re so grateful for this community of teachers who is so willing to help each other out. These Idea Shares are downloaded by hundreds of other teachers, and allow us to all benefit and learn from one another! Let us know in the comments if you have any other ideas to add!

What’s a Piano Teaching Idea Share?

If this is your first time hearing about our Idea Share, here’s a quick overview:

During the webinar, we ask teachers to answer a question that would benefit every piano teacher. After receiving answers from both webinar sessions, we compile them all into a free downloadable PDF so that you have access to the insights and creativity of the entire ComposeCreate piano teaching community!

Idea Shares 1-9 can be found here:

• Piano Teaching Idea Share #1- Encouraging books, creative ideas, injecting energy, online games
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #2 – How teachers are lightening their load
• Rhythm Idea Share #3 – Teaching rhythm
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #4 – Gadgets and gizmos, lifesaving ideas, marketing ideas
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #5 – Taking care of yourself and Energizing Ideas
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #6 – What are you excited about and Best Marketing Tips
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #7 – Student holiday gift suggestions and Making the holidays less stressful
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #8 – What new things are you doing and Adding a Composer of the Month to your studio
• Piano Teaching Idea Share #9 – How does “surprise” enhance student learning?

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