A Creative Introduction to Whirlpool by Angeline Bell
It's a pleasure to feature this lovely piece from the popular composer's latest book, My Seaside Notebook
This isn’t the first time Angeline has graced these pages and I’m sure it won’t be the last. She has a real gift for writing appealing pedagogical music.
“Whirlpool”, the opening piece from her latest collection My Seaside Notebook, is a prime example. It provides a really great opportunity to talk about:
sequences
chords and inversions
the circle of fifths
If you don’t already own it, you can preview the score for “Whirlpool” over at the publisher’s website, musica-ferrum.com, and here’s an audio recording:
Here’s a Creative Introduction worksheet you can use to introduce your students to “Whirlpool”. You can download the worksheets as a PDF here, and there are a couple of tips for using the worksheet below, where you’ll also find a video of Angeline and a student improvising!
Tips
Get your student to record you playing the teacher accompaniment so that they can practise improvising at home
If your student comes up with a good melody, encourage them to add a left hand accompaniment. They could borrow it from the original piece or come up with their own!
Finally, some inspiration!
Here, Angeline and her student improvise above the Whirlpool chord sequence. The student was told to use the A minor scale.