The International Piano Teaching Foundation

Activities included are natural parts of children's lives; creative movement, dramatic role playing, singing, rhythm instruments, drawing and coloring. Comprehensive musicianship training includes equal development of ear training, rhythm and steady beat, orientation to the piano black and white keys, reading readiness, technique, theory and repertoire.

We will show how Music for Moppets can enhance your studio by building a solid core of enthusiastic young students eager to continue more piano study. We will also present advertising and marketing ideas so you can let your community know what you have to offer.

Activities focus on the process of identifying patterns in music:
melodic motives that repeat, sequence and invert; question and answer phrasing; keyboard geography - the interrated position of twins, triplets and ABC's ; steps and skips on keyboard and on the staff; intervals of 4ths and 5ths; grand staff; transposition - pentachords; building a steady beat accompaniment; rhythm patterns in 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 time; pentatonic improvisation, dorian, phrygian, major and minor. tone clusters and bitonality

Students can transition into this program from Music for Moppets or use it as a beginning course.

Group Piano Level 1

This course focuses on the concepts presented in the Robert Pace Level I books. Learn how to integrate theory right from the beginning, as well as how to develop all music skills simultaneously (ear training, sight reading, technique, improvisation, transposition, and theory) through the repertoire studies. Learn how to create a buoyant, creative atmosphere in each lesson. Learn how to facilitate good peer teaching and cooperative learning. Discover what it means to teach music concepts and how doing so will create an upward pattern of spiral learning, and develop independent learners who will become life long music participants. Level I curriculum concepts include: steps and skips, up, down, same, patterns, repetitions, sequences, parallel and contrasting question and answer phrases, 5 finger patterns, I and V7 chords, waltz style, alberti bass, broken chords, march, dorian, pentatonic, roving triads, passing tones, upper and lower neighbors, tetrachord scales, major and minor key signatures, parallel and contrary motion, down up phrasing, staccato vs. legato, and many more.

We will address good business guidelines including how to market and expand your student clientele, establish studio policies, and the importance of maintaining personal professional growth.

Level 2

This course includes: application of the IV chord, fingering concepts expanded beyond the pentachord range, neighboring and passing tones, waltz, broken chord, alberti and march style basses, linear harmony with parallel 6ths and 10ths, short short long phrase construction, parallel and contrasting question and answer phrases, bitonal, bichordal, dorian, phrygian, 12-tone, roving triads, blues, canons, pentatonic, major, minor, diminished chords, intervals (2nds through octaves), migration to V and return to I, major and minor scale fingering, Hanon exercises, portato touch, pedaling, and how to achieve musical playing in all styles.

Teachers who have taken Level I training will be familiar with the conceptual learning process and will discover how the concepts learned in Level I are expanded upon in an increasingly upward spiral development of understanding. However teachers may take this course without prior Level I familiarity, and will see how it adds a fuller dimension and robustness to the understanding of any late elementary, or early intermediate repertoire in terms of the complete integration of theory analysis, transposition, keyboard harmony, sight reading, improvisation, ensemble, and technique and interpretation skills.

Level 3

Applications of II chord; ii V I chord progression in all inversions and all major and minor scales; Augmented Chords, Binary and Ternary Form with migration to Dominant and return to Tonic; Secondary Dominants; Quartal Harmony; Baroque Ornamentation; 2 Octave Scales and Arpeggios in all Major and Harmonic and Melodic Minor keys; Hanon Variations in all keys; expansion on level 2 concepts of linear harmony in 3rds, 6ths and 10ths, parallel and contrary motion; upper and lower neighbors, blues, canon, asymmetrical rhythm; bitonal, bichordal, 12 tone, modes, roving triads and nuances of technique required for beautiful and stylistically correct interpretation of repertoire of all major musical periods and styles.

Registration Form

To receive a paper form by the mail,
phone or email your request: LSMSpiano@aol.com

Phone: (312) 335-8426