Piano Accompaniment Program

Level 1: Total beginners: For those who have little or no piano experience. Instructor will teach single melody lines of famous Celtic tunes by numbering or lettering the keyboard keys with wee stickers--good fun! Students are most likely to be familiar with these tunes already, so knowing the rhythm will only require an indication of what the actual note order is.Level 2: Intermediate: This is for learners who can't, or have just learned to, play hands together. They'll get a bit of two-handed accompaniment training (for accompanying your fiddle-playing friends) and some Scottish/Irish tunes to learn and take away.Level 3: Advanced: For learners who can play hands together, and are reasonably good at reading music or fairly good at learning by ear. This is more advanced than group 2, tackling more tunes, with more indepth two-handed tune accompaniment, and a wee bit of improvisation of accompaniment!! We plan to have of the top fiddle players from the school come and play for the accompaniment learners.

Regarding readers vs. non-readers of music: Many students play folk tunes before they can read. Instructor will group students according to their playing level, not necessarily according to reading ability. For those who are “readers”, reading music doesn't mean just the ability to read manuscript, students may use note letters written underneath, or chord names. The music given will always be basic, as the aim of the course is to show how students can work out tunes and suitable accompaniments themselves. The sheet music will simply have melody lines for the right hand, and basic arpegiated runs or chords for the left hand.