Synopses & Reviews
'Highly acclaimed for its creative approach to beginning piano,
Contemporary Class Piano presents materials in an engaging manner and in a logical progression of difficulty. Easily accessible to students with no prior music or keyboard experience, the book offers a well-rounded and abundant solo and ensemble repertoire--including classical pieces and folk, jazz, rock, pop, and blues tunes--with ample opportunities for students to improvise, transpose, harmonize, and compose accompaniments.
New to the sixth edition
FREE TO INSTRUCTORS UPON ADOPTION: Packaged separately from the text, a set of four MIDI disks--containing approximately 200 orchestration accompaniments prepared by renowned composer Phillip Keveren--that can be used in class. These accompaniments motivate students to practice and complete their assignments more readily.
A teacher\'s manual with suggested lesson plans and teaching tips available at www.oup.com/us/classpiano
Thirty-one new solo repertoire and sixteen new ensemble repertoire pieces (arranged for four to eight hands)
Thirteen new songs to harmonize, six of which make up a new \"Famous Themes\" section, with favorites such as Für Elise and Liebestraum
Eighteen new teacher accompaniments
Easy-to-play arrangements of three patriotic songs in Appendix C
Opportunities for students to experience aleatoric (chance) music in Unit 1'
Review
"Four MIDI disks with accompaniments written and performed by Phillip Keveren are available to class piano teachers from the publisher at no cost. The professional orchestrations are clever and an added attraction for teachers looking for a new college class piano text. With the additional material, extra teaching resources, and flexible format, the revised edition of Contemporary Class Piano is a welcome publication and an excellent choice for adult group piano teachers."--Mary Beth Molenaar, Music Academy, Northwestern University (Clavier Magazine, May/June 2004)
"Both my students and I have had numerous fun-filled and stimulating sessions due to the wide variety of materials presented from the earliest stages. The occasional inclusion of rock rhythms...modern music...exotic scale patterns...and Mexican style...are some of the diverse examples that create a very colorful learning environment."--Roberta Kraft, Hope College
"I feel that Contemporary Class Piano is easily adapted to fit one's own curricular goals."--Peter Collins, Southwest Missouri State University
"I am impressed with the opportunities the students have to transpose in a variety of keys...the careful introduction of scales, an excellent choice of repertoire, and the students' favorite, improvisation. Improvisation is a fun way to break the traditional norm of learning to play the piano. The results have led to some very exciting improvisations with some of the students continuing with applied lessons and playing jazz piano professionally."--Cassandra Hanna, Miami-Dade CC, North
Synopsis
Dresch here combines ethnography with history to describe the system of sedentary tribes in South Arabia--a strategically sensitive part of the world--over the past thousand years. He examines the values and traditions the tribal people bring to the contemporary world of nation-states, and
discusses the relation of the major tribes to pre-modern Islamic learning, the Zaydi Imamate, ideas of contemporary statehood, and the area as a whole.
Synopsis
Highly acclaimed for its creative approach to beginning piano,
Contemporary Class Piano presents materials in an engaging manner and in a logical progression of difficulty. Easily accessible to students with no prior music or keyboard experience, the book offers a well-rounded and abundant solo and ensemble repertoire--including classical pieces and folk, jazz, rock, pop, and blues tunes--with ample opportunities for students to improvise, transpose, harmonize, and compose accompaniments.
New to the sixth edition
· FREE TO INSTRUCTORS UPON ADOPTION: Packaged separately from the text, a set of four MIDI disks--containing approximately 200 orchestration accompaniments prepared by renowned composer Phillip Keveren--that can be used in class. These accompaniments motivate students to practice and complete their assignments more readily.
· A teacher's manual with suggested lesson plans and teaching tips available at www.oup.com/us/classpiano
· Thirty-one new solo repertoire and sixteen new ensemble repertoire pieces (arranged for four to eight hands)
· Thirteen new songs to harmonize, six of which make up a new "Famous Themes" section, with favorites such as Für Elise and Liebestraum
· Eighteen new teacher accompaniments
· Easy-to-play arrangements of three patriotic songs in Appendix C
· Opportunities for students to experience aleatoric (chance) music in Unit 1
Synopsis
Contemporary Class Piano, 5/e, offers a creative, diverse approach to beginning piano. Colleges and universities throughout the country have found success with Elyse Mach's carefully constructed, step-by-step technique. The text balances the classical works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, with a contemporary repertoire that includes jazz, rock, improvisation, and avant-garde pieces. More than sixty repertory pieces are new to this edition, including an increased number of pieces designed to let students enjoy immediate success. New and expanded sightreading in all major keys, teacher accompaniments, and teacher/student ensembles offer additional keyboard enrichment. Worksheets have been added to the end of the first four units to aid students in the mastering of techniques and skills.
About the Author
Elyse Mach is Professor of Music at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She has given concerts throughout Europe and the United States, appearing as a piano soloist with the NBC Symphony and the Netherlandische Philharmonic Broadcasting Orchestra. She has written nine books on piano and pianists and has been a contributing music critic for the
Chicago Sun-Times. She is active as a consultant, clinician, master class teacher, and frequent adjudicator. The first recipient of the Board of Governors Universities Distinguished Professor Award, she has guest lectured at Northwestern, Yale, The Juilliard School, and many other institutions.
Table of Contents
Preface
UNIT 1. Keyboard Basics
Keyboard Posture
Finger Numbers
Basic Note Values
The Keyboard
The Major Five-Finger Pattern
Dynamics
Reading Notes
Intervals
Keeping Time
Slur and Phrase Markings
Key Signature
Transposition
Eighth Notes and Eighth Rests
Drone Bass
Repertoire
Improvisation
Harmonization
Sightreading Studies
Technical Studies
Rhythmic Studies
Ensemble Pieces
Worksheet Review
UNIT 2. The Five-Finger Pattern
Playing in Different Registers
Tempo Markings
More Dynamic Markings
Dotted Quarter Notes
Accidentals
Slurs
Parallel Motion
6/8 Time
Identifying Flat Key Signatures
Change of Dynamics
Contrary Motion
Major Triads
Five-Finger Studies and Triads in Major
The Minor Five-Finger Pattern
Minor Triads
Five-Finger Studies and Triads in Major and Minor
More Tempo Markings
Pieces Using Major and Minor Triads
The Dominant Seventh Chord
Block-Chord Accompaniments with I and V6/5
Music Chord Symbols
Five-Finger Melodies with Letter-Name Chord Symbols for I and V6/5 Chord Accompaniments
The Subdominant Chord
Cadences
The Circle of Fifths and Major Key Signatures
Pieces with I-IV6/4-V6/5 Accompaniments
Five-Finger Melodies with Letter-Name Chord Symbols for I, IV6/4, and V6/5 Chord Accompaniments
Changing Five-Finger Positions
Repertoire
Improvisation
Creative Music and Harmonization
Sightreading Studies
Rhythmic Studies
Technical Studies
Ensemble Pieces
Worksheet Review
UNIT 3. Pieces with Easy Accompaniments
Major Scales
Major Scales in Tetrachord Position
Major Scales with Fingerings for Both Hands Together
Scale Studies in Clusters
Triads on Major-Scale Degrees
Intervals of a Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth (Octave)
Extending the Five-Finger Position
Sixteenth Notes and Sixteenth Rests
The Dotted Eighth Note
Musical Forms: AB and ABA
Melodies with Letter-Name Chord Symbols for I, IV6/4, and V6/5 Chords
Broken-Chord Accompaniment Patterns
Arpeggio Accompaniment Patterns
Syncopation
The Damper Pedal
Other Accompaniment Patterns
Secondary Chords
Intervals Within the Scale
Melodic Lines with Intervals
Chord Inversions
The Damper Pedal (Indirect Pedaling)
Hymn Style
Augmented and Diminished Triads
Repertoire
Improvisation
Creative Music and Harmonization
Sightreading Studies
Rhythmic Studies
Technical Studies
Ensemble Pieces
Worksheet Review
UNIT 4. Tonality and Atonality
Minor Scales
Minor Key Signatures
Natural Minor Scales in Tetrachord Positions
Harmonic Minor Scales
i-iv6/4-i-V6/5-i Chord Progression
Parallel Major and Minor Scales
Other Scale Forms (Modes)
The Chromatic Scale
Jazz
Pandiatonicism
The Whole-Tone Scale
Bitonality
Atonality
Innovative Notations
Quartal Harmony
Repertoire
Bitonal Improvisation
Sightreading Studies
Ensemble Pieces
Worksheet Review
UNIT 5. Letter-Name Chord Symbols
Letter Names of I, IV, and V7 Chords
Melodies with Letter-Name Chord Symbols
Famous Themes
Strumming Accompaniments
Arpeggio Accompaniments
Major and Minor Seventh Chords
Letter-Name Chord Chart
Ensemble Pieces
UNIT 6. Twenty-Four Piano Classics
1. Rameau, Tambourin
2. Schein, Allemande
3. Corelli, Sarabande
4. Krieger, Minuet in A Minor
5. Witthauer, Gavotte
6. Telemann, Gigue
7. Mozart, L., Burleske (from Notebook for Wolfgang)
8. Haydn, Gypsy Dance (Trio)
9. Bach/Ricci, Risoluto
10. Mozart, W.A., Minuet in C
11. Beethoven, German Dance
12. Schumann, Melody (from 43 Piano Pieces for the Young, Op. 68)
13. Rebikoff, The Bear
14. Bartok, Springtime Song (No. 2 from For Children, Vol. 1)
15. Kadosa, Homage to Bartok
16. Kabalevsky, A Conversation (Op. 39, No. 7)
17. Hovhaness, Moon Dance (No. 2 from Mountain Idylls
18. Starer, Evens and Odds
19. Gillock, Autumn Is Here
20. Hartsell, Moonlit Shores
21. Mier, Sneaky Business
22. Tingley, Dreamscape
23. Tingley, Early Spring
APPENDIX A. Score Reading
Three-Part Texture
Four-Part Texture
APPENDIX B. Major and Harmonic Minor Scales in Two Octaves
Major Scales in Two Octaves
Harmonic Minor Scales in Two Octaves
APPENDIX C. Three Patriotic Song Arrangements
1. Carey, America
2. Bates/Ward, America the Beautiful
3. Key/Smith, The Star-Spangled Banner
APPENDIX D. Performance Terms and Symbols
Title Index
Composer Index
Subject Index