I’ve always admired my instrumentalist friends’ rhythmic  ability.  They seem to have a built in sense of maintaining the tempo through dicey passages, which I assume is from their experience in ensembles.  As young pianists, we tend to slow down or stop when we get stuck, without immediate feedback that’s inherent in an ensemble (i.e., nobody else is slowing down and you’re no longer with the group) so it’s easy to be unaware that you’re not counting correctly. Yet rhythmic vitality is as important as playing the right notes!

Since it’s nice to have a change of pace in the spring and summer, it seems that a duet boot camp might be fun for the students and a chance  to sneak in work on new skills:  counting, collaboration and listening, sight-reading, and recording (so that they can create accompaniment tracks for themselves and others).   By using music that’s a level or two below  playing level, students can also reinforce technique and musical concepts learned over the past year.

I love the Norton Microjazz duets – they come with a CD accompaniment track recorded as an ensemble;  a hit with the kids!   Solo beginner pieces in a number of series (e.g., Waxman, Faber, etc.) offer an opportunity for slightly older students to test their composition and keyboard harmony skills by creating secondo parts and playing with  younger students.  It would be great to get students who are learning other instruments to play melodies with solo piano pieces, and help piano students understand which instruments have to be transposed and can’t play from piano score.

What are your favorite duet series and stories?