White-Out on Music? Why Not?

This is a nifty tip I learned from my colleague, RCM examiner Colleen Athparia: If you keep coming to a dead halt at the barline, get rid of the barlines!

I've tried this with a few students recently with songs in triple meter, or in the above case, in 6/8 time. It works like a charm!

Of course, you want to make sure that you know your rhythms and time signature well. This is best used when you are trying to get the music flowing.

Music Practicing 101 - Alternating Hand/Bar Drill

My students and I started playing around with this practice drill last week. It's an accuracy drill to clean up notes, fingering and wonky timing. Try playing the left hand alone in bar 1 and then right hand alone in bar 2, etc. Check out this video for a demonstration.

An Introduction to Fake Books

You may be intimidated the first time you crack open a fake book. However, if you're familiar with (or at least willing to learn) your chords, then that's half the battle. A fake book contains pieces written out in lead sheet form. That is, you see the melody and chord symbols written above.

The idea is that you "fake" - or create - your own accompaniment. Throw down a pop groove on "Happy Birthday" one day. The next day, you could play it in ragtime style.The possibilities are endless.

Plus, with the music condensed in this format, you can have hundreds of songs in one book. It's so much easier to bring one fake book to a gig than 10 music books.

These are some of the fake books that I've collected over the years. They are also the ones I shared with my fellow music teachers when I did a presentation to the Piano Pedagogy Group last month:

Fake Books for Beginner to Intermediate Students:

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The Easy Christmas Carols Fake Book Melody, Lyrics & Simplified Chords in the Key of C. Composed by Various. Easy Fake Book. Christmas. Softcover. 114 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.238187).

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Your First Fake Book - 2nd Edition Featuring Large Music Notation, Lyrics, & Simplified Harmonies C Edition. Composed by Various. Easy Fake Book. Broadway, Pop, Standards. Softcover. 176 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.299529).

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The Easy Disney Fake Book - 2nd Edition 100 Songs in the Key of C. Composed by Various. Easy Fake Book. Children, Disney, Fake Books, Movies. Softcover. 232 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.275405).

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The Easy Broadway Fake Book - 2nd Edition Over 100 Songs in the Key of C. Composed by Various. Easy Fake Book. Broadway. Softcover. 218 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.276670).

Everything is in C Major. For an added challenge, you can ask your students to transpose them into other keys once they've learned the pieces.

Fake Books for Intermediate to Advanced Students, and Music Teachers:

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Classical Fake Book - 2nd Edition Over 850 Classical Themes and Melodies in their Original Keys. Composed by Various. Hal Leonard Fake Books. Classical Period. Fakebook (spiral bound). With standard notation, chord names and vocal melody (on some songs). 648 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240044).

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The Ultimate Pop/Rock Fake Book - In C 4th Edition. By Various. By Various. Hal Leonard Fake Books. Pop Rock, Rock and Pop. Fake book. With vocal melody, lyrics and chord names. 584 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240099).

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The Best Fake Book Ever - C Edition - 4th Edition C Edition. Composed by Various. Hal Leonard Fake Books. Country, Fake Books, Jazz, Pop, Standards. Fake book. With vocal melody, lyrics and chord names. 856 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.290239).

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Just Jazz Real Book - C Edition C Edition. Composed by Various. Fake Book. Jazz. Fakebook (softcover). With vocal melody, lyrics, chord names, black & white photos, discography and introductory text. 400 pages. Hal Leonard #FBM0003. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.321416).

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The Praise & Worship Fake Book B Flat Edition. Composed by Various. Fake Book. Christian, Worship. Softcover. 432 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240324).

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The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book - 6th Edition For Piano, Vocal, Guitar, Electronic Keyboard & All C Instruments. Composed by Various. Fake Book. Christmas, Fake Books. Softcover. 232 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.147215).

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The Disney Fake Book - 4th Edition Composed by Various. Fake Book. Children, Disney, TV & Movies. Softcover. 288 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.175311).

Pianists - make sure you buy the "C" edition fake books!

If you need some guide books on how to read lead sheets, check out my earlier post, Jazz Music and Improvisation Guide Books.

Sight Reading Tips

While cleaning up some archived entries on my teaching blog, I found this one on sight reading tips, called (predictably) Sight Reading Tips. Here are some other articles and vblogs that I've come across that also address how to practice sight reading.

• Five Steps to Mastering Sight Reading

• Sight Reading A to Z

• The Sight Reading Box

This is a pretty good tutorial. I like the driving analogy.

Jazz Music and Improvisation Guide Books

As I mentioned earlier, I recently presented to the Piano Pedagogy Group. The piano teachers in this group are currently working on their Grade 10 or their Piano Pedagogy certification through Royal Conservatory of Music, Conservatory Canada or London College of Music . They are all classically trained (translation: improvisation, lead sheets and chord charts are scary). This is a list of the "How To" books that I use whenever I teach and play contemporary music (e.g. pop, rock, Latin, jazz, ragtime) that I shared with them:

Conservatory Canada Contemporary Idioms Syllabus

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How To Play From A Fake Book

By Blake Neely. For Guitar, Piano/Keyboard. Piano. Instructional. Instructional book. Standard notation and instructional text. 88 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.220019)

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Lead Lines and Chord Changes

By Ann Collins. For Piano. Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Early Advanced; Late Intermediate. Book. 80 pages. Published by Alfred Music Publishing (AP.199)

...more info

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Volume 1 - How To Play Jazz & Improvise

By Jamey Aebersold. For any C, Eb, Bb, bass instrument or voice. Play-Along series with accompaniment CD. Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long series. Beginner, intermediate. Book & CD. 104 pages. Published by Jamey Aebersold Jazz (JA.V01DS)

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Volume 3 - The II/V7/I Progression

By Jamey Aebersold. For any C, Eb, Bb, bass instrument or voice. Play-Along series with accompaniment CD. Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long series. Beginner, intermediate. Book & CD. 100 pages. Published by Jamey Aebersold Jazz (JA.V03DS)

(6)

...more info

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Boogie Woogie for Beginners

Arranged by Frank Paparelli. For Piano/Keyboard. Keyboard Instruction. 48 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.120517)

(2)

...more info

There are a few more in my "To Check Out" pile. I'll add them once I've had a chance to go through them a bit.