Musicmaking!

look Ma, 4 hands!

Black Spirituals

I never realized that all of the black spirituals, like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot for example, can be played on the BLACK notes of the piano!  Wintley Phipps presented a fascinating talk with examples at Carnegie Hall:

 

Now THIS is Improvisation!!

Donny Lee is a Simply Music Teacher.  Here's a video he's posted of himself, improvising on Night Storm:

 

A Melody A Day: Valerie

Having challenged some of my students to try the "Melody A Day" approach to composition, Valerie has made a few, and recorded them for me:

 

Improvisation

Check out this improvisation from Simply Music student Steve Mangiamelli. Steve is a student of Robin Keehn in Washington and has been taking lessons for about 3 years. Great job Steve!