What if there a way to make learning music theory much more fun?
Juan Cabeza Hernandez’s Piano Patterns in Harmony teaches diatonic harmony in an extremely practical way.
It’s an excellent course and I’ve used its curriculum with many students in the last weeks with great success. I’ve already reviewed it (link above) but Juan kindly sat down with me to explain the course for you.
I hope you’ll check it out!
Transcript
Garreth
Hello and welcome to Piano Creativity today. I'm delighted to be interviewing Juan Cabeza Hernandez, who is the author of a wonderful course on creativity called Piano Patterns in Harmony. I've been using a lot with my students in the last few weeks. I think it's really transformative. Thank you for being here, Juan.
Juan
Thank you for having me here.
Garreth
It's a pleasure because I am a big fan of your work. I'm a really big fan. I've used it a lot with my students in the last weeks. I've used it with 12 year olds, adults, and older teenagers, and I've been really delighted with the results.
It's really impressive, and I'll talk a little bit more about what I like about it later. But could you briefly describe what's in the course?
Juan
Yes, the course is designed to teach two things, harmony and improvisation. Music is made of patterns, there are patterns everywhere, melodic patterns, rhythmic patterns, figuration patterns, left hand accompaniment, chord progressions that repeat in music.
In the course, I use patterns created by several composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, or even Philip Glass. During the course, we explore these patterns. We learn how to change this pattern to modify little things of these patterns in order to create our own music and everyone can improvise.
You have the tools to do it. And what better way to improvise that using patterns created by such great composers. So we are going to explore scale degrees and improvisation based on scales. At the end of the course, I hope people taking the course is going to be able to create their own music using not only the patterns in the course, but the patterns they find in the music they are playing.
Garreth
What do you think makes the course unique?
Juan
I think my course is unique in one thing. There are a lot of piano courses, about improvisation and books about improvisation out there on the internet, but most of them are focused on jazz and boogie woogie and blues. There are also some courses about Historical piano improvisation. I am a classical pianist. But these classical or historical improvisation courses are focused on people that have a lot of knowledge about theory about harmony, about piano technique, but I haven't found a course for, classical music pianists, for intermediate level or so.
So I am a big fan of Forrest Kinney. I know you are a big fan of Forrest Kinney. I started using, mixing the Forrest Kinney patterns with the patterns I found, in my students pieces, the pieces they were playing. I started to mix these two things, the Forrest Kinney patterns and patterns we found in music.
We started to create amazing music, and I've been doing this kind of work for a long time. So then I started to think about to do this course, because there wasn't any, there weren't any course like this out there, or at least I don't know any course like this. I think this course may help a lot of people and a lot of teachers to start creating.
So I intend with this course to create a bridge between, people know Forrest Kinney, that is an improvisation amazing person, using freely the concepts that he, he teach, he teach. And I, I, I want, I wanted my course to be a bridge between this kind of improvisation and, and the historical courses like John Mortensen, that are amazing courses, but I find, I found that gap between these two worlds. And also, I, I think I have incorporated into my course, the way jazz musicians and modern pianists learn to improvise using patterns, they use, a lick or a pattern, and create through this pattern in very different ways. And I wanted to, without thinking in, in any rules, and if you are making parallel fifths or parallel fifths.
These rules are okay, but you can improvise without these rules in mind. So I hope to have created this the this course. I hope this work for for people to want to improvise in a classical music, but without thinking in all our rules.
Garreth
Yeah, I think what I love about it is that it maps so closely onto the way that I think about creating music. I'm not a trained composer.
I took analysis at university and loved it. Then I figured out how to create my own music. To begin with, I was just using patterns like you're doing. My feeling is that that's an intuitive way of accessing creativity, and because it's intuitive, people find it easy.
If you approach composition through learning rules, it feels very restrictive, and your course is not restrictive. As you go through the series of patterns, a student experiences theory live, and then they experiment with changing it, in doing so, they experience good harmony and good writing, although simple but they also realize they're not constrained, they start to hear the relationships of tonality, the dominant, the supertonic, all of those things, and they experience it live. That is wonderful for students who are already interested in improvising because it gives them a clear roadmap of what they're doing. I find it actually really works with students who feel very nervous about getting creative.
I think one of the most exciting things I've done this last couple of weeks has been using it with students who have said that they don't like improvising, but they like songs, and they understand chords, I'm like, "let's just play through these patterns", and they get the pattern, they enjoy playing the pattern, because it sounds nice, then I'm like, "well, we can just change this", or "we can just change that", and then before they know it, they're actually improvising, then I'm like, "you're improvising", and they're like, "oh!". That's such a wonderful thing to give to someone, particularly if they feel nervous about, being creative. So, it's been wonderful.
I want to ask you some more questions. I've worked with adults teenagers and younger kids and it's been fantastic. So the delivery format that you've used is that the teacher takes the course and then delivers the content to the students.
I can imagine there are big benefits to students when they work through the course materials live with the teacher, as opposed to you teaching it on a video course that the student takes. Is that what you had in mind?
Juan
Yes, when I started designing this course, I thought about two possibilities because I, I wanted to, to do the course to piano teachers because know a lot of piano teachers.
I, I do trainings for piano teacher here in some conservatories of music in Spain and in other countries. I wanted to help. But also to have a single user version in case you want to learn this for yourself, you don't need to be a teacher to have the course. There are two options, the piano teacher's edition and the single user edition.
But as you mentioned before, the best way to Take the course, I think, is to have someone teach you. If you have your piano teacher doing the course, and your piano teacher, helps you, to learn through this course is much better because I firmly believe in live teaching.
Garreth
Yeah.
Juan
It's okay, but if you don't have a teacher or a teacher that, that don't like the, or don't know how to teach improvisation, you can do this course by yourself. But that's why I did two versions, I think the best way is to have a teacher because the teacher know you better than anybody else and know what pattern, because this as you have, have seen in the course, there are a lot of examples, a lot of activities you don't need to do all the activities. And if you have a piano teacher, this teacher is going to select the best activities for you at that particular moment. So the best way I think is with a teacher, but you can have the course by yourself also.
Garreth
What kind of student do you have in mind who might benefit most from the course? How old are they? How advanced are they as students and what do they need to know?
Juan
Yes, that's a very good question. This course is not for beginners. If you have a level four of a piano syllabus, like, ABRSM or Trinity it's a level four onwards, maybe you are a pianist or a piano teacher or an advanced pianist, and you don't know how to improvise, that's very common. That was my case.
When I finished my piano studies, I didn't know how to improvise. You have to be at least at an intermediate level. You don't need to know. about harmony and improvisation. I encourage you to know some improvisation using Forest Kinney's patterns, but if you don't know Forest Kinney or some improvisation, you can learn improvisation.
You don't need to know anything about harmony, but in order to follow the course, you need to know chords and their positions, at least the closed position of the chords if you are capable of playing chords in different positions, and to play more or less the Burgmüller Study Opus 100, the last ones, you have the tools to do this course.
The student age obviously depends on the student, but if you are a piano teacher and you have a talent maybe since he or she's seven or eight years old, maybe. When they are 12 or 13 or teenager, they are capable of doing the activities of the course.
But this is in the case you are taking the activities in the course with a teacher. If you don't have a teacher, you may, need to be 18-year-old or, or more because it's hard to study a piano online course if you are a teenager or 13 years old it is very difficult to follow a piano online course.
But if you are 18 or more, or grade four or more, you are capable of doing these.
Garreth
I think that's one of the things I realized as I was teaching it, is that the materials really require the teacher's support, particularly for the younger students, don't they? You almost need to have some experience of, teaching in order to understand the progression so that you make sure that your student has the tools they need to progress.
I've worked through unit two with a lot of students in the last couple of weeks, sometimes the student might do, four exercises in the class because they just need time to review it. And then sometimes we might go all the way through the unit in a class. It just depends on how able they are, doesn't it?
But the thing I found is, and I mentioned that 12 year old girl who's really enjoyed it. She was good. She knows her chords, but she's not brilliant at inversions. One of the things I really like about the course is that it's great for revising stuff that you've already learned harmony-wise.
So she's now much better at her inversions, even after a couple of weeks, because we've done a load of them. And because the course encourages you to transpose, and it encourages you to see the connections between the different chords within a key, it helps her to understand that relationship in a way that she's maybe not understood so much and this is a 12 year old, right?
So it's been great And one of the things that really impresses me about the course materials is how well structured they are. Could you give me a quick overview of the overall progression? There's 14 units in total, aren't there?
Juan
Yes, there are 14 units. In the first unit I revised some theory concepts.
This is in unit one. Unit one is the only one we are not going to improvise in because I wanted to tell some theoretical concepts that I'm going to use during the course. There are not so many concepts, but I wanted to clarify how I use roman numeral and corposition and these kind of things.
In unit two, we start to improvise with only one note, two notes, three notes. This unit is for people who have never improvised before. With this unit they can find out that everybody can improvise even with one note you can create amazing music. It's very exciting for students to realize that with just one note or two notes they can really create some music. They can enjoy creating music.
Garreth
In unit three and four, be clear on that. The pattern that they're using is not just one note. It's the melody that's one note. Isn't it?
Juan
Yes
Garreth
yeah.
Juan
It's a left hand accompaniment. Give some example of different, left hand accompaniments, and they improvise with right hand and with only one note, two notes, three notes, we incorporate the different, scale notes, until to use the whole scale, and, left hand uses more than one note.
Yes. Then I introduced in unit three and four, chords and different positions.
Unit five is where the content starts to become very interesting because we started to incorporate the scale degrees little by little. We explore tonic and dominant, and unit seven tonic dominant and subdominant. Unit eight with the second degree also, and we incorporate, scale degrees until unit 10.
I only use, one, the four, the five and the second degree and with only those four chords you can create amazing music, very different music in very different ways. And there are a lot of piano works that are mainly based on only using this. You can create amazing music.
In unit 11, I incorporate, other, scale degrees I used examples from a new age music class. These incorporate scale degrees three six and seven. In unit 13, I use, secondary dominants because if you know, the diatonic scale degrees and, and secondary dominants you are going to understand, most of the music written during centuries 17, 18, and 19.
Obviously there are more chords, but maybe I write a course in the future talking about Neopolitan or a chord or I've made this sixth or diminished. I haven't, talked in this course because I wanted to focus on very few concepts, for people to understand that with only these elements, these ingredients, they can create, a lot of music and they have the power to express themselves using only these few chords.
And in unit 14, I, summarize all we have learned during the course at the end of the course, I have the two guides, a pattern guide with the 100 patterns I like the most that I use in the course and a core progression guide. And you can. Mixed chords, that's with, with patterns and you, you, you have material there to create for years.
Garreth
Yeah. One of the things that, I mean, I haven't got to that stage with any of my students yet, but I've experimented with it myself and it is fun. I was kind of doing that in my work anyway, but it's new prompts and it's fun and one of the things you haven't mentioned is that all the way along, you're encouraging students to think about the relationship between the relative major and the relative minor.
And I think that's one of the course's real strengths as well is because it makes it. I think it's very clear that these are related in a way that I think a lot of theory courses really struggle to demonstrate in an easy way. I can't remember which unit it is, but I think it might be unit three, where you do a set of progressions that are in the major and then you switch to the minor and the student can see the relationship between the two but they also experience the differences. I think that's really cleverly done.
And then the other thing that I really value about the course is that right from the start, you sow the seeds of the material that they will be learning later. So, right from, Unit 2, there's Roman numerals there. I've often explained what's going on, and will call a chord the dominant chord or whatever, as they're playing their chord progression, depending on the student.
Even if I haven't covered that when I'm teaching unit two, I will then cover it in unit six or whatever it is, because it's already been laid out. And so there, that's a very subtle and effective way of teaching, and I think you're really to be complimented on how well you've structured it and the subtlety with which you've structured it.
I think it's really high class teaching. So well done.
Juan
Thank you very much. I wanted my students to learn how to use the Roman numeral and the analysis to create music. I start working with my student always at that moment, they can play chords I want them to know the relationship between tonic and dominant and then the subdominant.
And I think this is very important. And they need to practice this not only in C major and A minor, but in some other case, because this is very important for them.
Garreth
Yeah, and I think the other thing I really like about the course is how flexible it is, despite the fact that the structure is so well thought out.
We've already touched on this, but that really reflects what teachers need, because every student is different and at different levels. Can you talk about how you've built that flexibility into the course?
Juan
I tried to provide so many examples that you can explore the activities you want.
You can skip some of them because some of them are harder than others. My main goal for people taking this course is that they can use the things they have learned. This course is very flexible, they can use these ideas with the pieces they are working on, these pieces are not in the course, but they are going to open their minds and they are going to be capable of, finding patterns in other pieces and to change these patterns in the way, I do in the course. My goal is, to give my students, the tools, to do this kind of work with other pieces and not only with classical music. Most of the examples are taken from classical music, but I wanted to explore this new age unit in unit 11. In other styles of music, the ingredients are the same, the same chords, the same scales, you can create music, but you have to learn some language of this particular music style to create the music in that style.
But if you have learned how to use this, you are able to improvise not only in classical music but in other different styles of music.
Garreth
I have a student, a teenage boy who's very resistant to learning classical music at the moment. We did one of the units with him, I think it might have been three, At the moment, he's studying some real classic New Age pieces, like River Flows in You, and the music from Amelie, which everybody knows, and you've included that in the course, I applied the Amelie left hand pattern to the River Flows in You chords, and he was so delighted.
It was really fun. It was great. And I think one of the things I appreciate is, I'm not unique as a piano teacher, in that a lot of my students are very interested in that kind of music and less interested in classical music. But because you're teaching classical harmony in a way that's, so pattern based and new age music is so pattern based that you then give those students a way into classical music that they can then understand it.
Much better than if they're just exposed to something they don't understand and sounds old fashioned to them. I think usually I'm quite good at getting kids excited about classical music, but not always and sometimes I fail. I found this is a useful tool. That kid, he's now curious about learning more classical music, because I've shown him the relationship.
I used the Bach Prelude No. 1, which is another part of your course. That's a crucial moment, that one is in Unit 2. That was a light bulb moment for him, when he realized these two things, are related that the new age is built from the same ingredients as the Bach, although it's using fewer ingredients than the Bach.
The Bach is, that Prelude just so complicated harmonically, isn't it? But actually there's a relationship between the two. And I think that was a real light bulb moment for him. Like I said, so it was very cool.
Juan
You can mix the piano pattern from Bach Prelude No. 1 with some progression in River Flows in You or in Amelie and create your own music and students start to see that all music is connected and you can introduce your student to classical music in a different way. Maybe you can create this curiosity in your students to know, ah, this pattern is interesting.
Maybe Bach is cool and I have other pieces I want to learn. Yes.
Garreth
And that's the thing because one of the challenges of teaching classical music is that it's a musical language that is very sophisticated you often see piano teachers complaining about the fact that their students don't like that music it's because they've not been exposed to enough of the language, I think.
They're hearing stuff that they don't have the context to understand. Then you get other students who've got a much more classical music orientated family and so they've grown up hearing that music. For them it's obvious that this music makes sense.
But your course enables students who've not had that exposure to classical music to get access to classical music. And that's, I think, that's really wonderful. It's a real, that's a real gift to younger people, because it is so enriching.
My next question is about how long do you think it would take a student to take the course? The answer is going to be, "it depends", but how long does it take for a student to...?
Juan
Obviously my answer, depends on different factors.
But, maybe if you are a piano teacher, watching this video and you, want to learn for yourself, maybe you are going to, it, it going to take you, for months or something like that. But if you want to teach this course to a student or maybe you are not such an advanced pianist.
It is going to take you one year. And if you want to teach to your students, maybe it's going to take you, one or two years because there is no rush. It is better to assimilate the concepts in a deep way. I have done this. The last year, I, I have, go through the whole course with three or four of my students in a year, and my teenagers students.
And this year I am still working on the patterns on the course. I am, working more on the two guides I mentioned before, the pattern guide and the corporate regressions guide. So maybe two years for the student if they are 14 or 15. With this course, if you're a piano teacher, you can use the key elements we are using with your seven year old student.
You are not going to ask your student to play a Bertini's pattern but the way I teach how to change the patterns to create our own music you can do it from the very beginning, not, not with these examples, but with other activities, you can learn.
Garreth
You mentioned flexibility before, if you've done the course, you can do this kind of activities with the students, uh, with seven years old, obviously not using the same examples, but you can change the pattern that you can use from the very beginning.
The principles that you learn while taking the course are really great because they show teachers that music can be changed, and that you can take a pattern from anywhere, it's, a similar principle to what I've been trying to do with my Creative Introductions, isn't it? You can change things here, and that's fun, And it teaches you about theory as well.
Juan
When I find you on the internet, I find your pianocreativity. com and your, piano guide to some pieces, this was amazing for me because I thought, this is the way I think music and Garreth has done it the same thing because it's the same principle of life. I work on with my students.
Garreth
Likewise. I think the difference between my approach and yours is that, and what I really value about yours is that yours there's a real curriculum there, which is logically well thought through. Mine is, How are we going to change this piece? How are we going to change that piece?
I haven't got an overall structure yet. And so in that sense, what we're doing is really complimentary because I'm showing the principles from your course when it's applied to this specific piece, and it kind of works together, I think. So maybe I don't need to do the curriculum work because you've already done it.
My next question is who or what influenced the course curriculum?
Juan
Yes, I have several influences. I started teaching in the same way I was taught, during the first, I don't know if 10 years or so.
And then I discovered Piano Safari method. This is not an improvisation method that for those of you that don't know this piano method. It's a method to teach beginners. This discovery completely changed my mind about teaching and my way of thinking about music.
And so, because they using this method, rote teaching and also intervallic reading, and they use a lot of pieces based on patterns and activities based on patterns. This completely changed my point of view about music. So I started to look for patterns in different pieces and activities based on patterns, for my students and also for me, for improving as a musician.
So in this, I started to look for these patterns. I found, Forrest Kinney. I mentioned before, you and I, and I love, Forrest Kinney work. He's amazing. He was amazing. And he, for those who don't know, his work, he has a lot of books and videos and material in his website.
I highly recommend when you stop watching this video to go to ForrestKinney.com because it's amazing. You have a lot of books, most of them are about creativity, but there are also another books and when I discovered the piano patterns, he suggested to improvise with and Create First and Pattern Play.
And they are amazing because I learned that everyone can improvise from the first lesson with Forrest Kinney's material and the philosophy of Forrest Kinney. This is the way he thought about teaching that you learn through creating.
You don't need to learn to create it, but to create for learn. So if you learn something by creating with these ingredients, you're going to understand them in a very much deeper way. So, he has a lot of Patterns where he only improvised with different intervals, for example, with perfect fifths or thirds or with chords, with the scales.
Another influence is MLT, Music Learning Theory. I was discovering such incredible information on the internet and I started to listen to people talk about MLT.
I read a lot about edwin Gordon and other teachers, Marilyn Lowe, and, MLT Concepts. They understand music always in a context with this melodic pattern, tonal patterns, the call, and rhythmic patterns. I am not an MLT Teacher. Maybe someday I want, but I have incorporated a lot of ideas of MLT.
Garreth
It's very cool. I don't know much about MLT, although I'm learning more and the thing that impresses me about it is, well, I think the thing that intimidates me and impresses me about it is that It presents, the learning, it's like everything is completely turned on its head, we're not learning about notation, well we are, but we're learning about sound, sound is the most important thing, you repeat many, many patterns, sound patterns, and then you start to be able to hear them in your head anticipate them and create them in your head, but it's that repetition. This is a very bad summary of MLT, but I'm still learning, find it really exciting, but I also find it quite intimidating because it invites you to rethink how you've been teaching if you've not come across it before. I am cautious about taking on too much of it at once because I don't want to be overwhelmed.
And what I like about your course is that as a novice MLT person, I can see the links between it. And I feel like you've done a lot of the work for me. So I can use your experience and your knowledge to help my students approach their learning of music in a more MLT- like way and I really do see the benefits of it. And I'm incorporating other things that I've picked up from a bit of MLT training, just very light training that I, that I I see real benefits from.
It's a whole new world for me, but I'm excited about it.
Juan
I highly recommend for those of you watching video to want to learn more about MLT. MLT, some, Edwin Gordon's books are very hard, at least for me because of my English, but I think for English speakers, these books are a bit hard to start with, with MLT.
I highly recommend theimprovingmusician.com. I think it's Andy Mullin, an amazing guy and he explained this and he has some books and he explained this theory of learning in such an understandable and logical way that all have sense. If you want to start using MLT, uh,
Garreth
Andy Mullins books is over there.
Juan
Ah, yeah.
Garreth
I've been using that with adult students. One of my students said, "I really want to learn how to audiate" and so we've been doing the tonal acculturation stuff and she's like, "This is brilliant!" And he does make it very clear, doesn't he? So yeah, cool. Sorry, I interrupted you, Juan.
Juan
I was going to say this is the best way, to introduce yourself in MLT if you don't know it. If you want something more focused on piano teaching, you can explore Music Moves for Piano by Marilyn Lowe. With those two series of books, you are going to understand in a very easy way.
But you have to study, it's not an easy method, but if you are interested in this, with these two materials. You are going to learn a lot of MLT.
Garreth
I think what I find very exciting about MLT is that it explains how I approach music. And I just thought I was doing it intuitively, like the way I learned was intuitive and it is intuitive.
I have learned intuitively, but MLT has helped me understand where I am in my learning journey and what steps I need to take next in order to become a better composer and pianist. And that's exciting. And then I can put my own students in that kind of development as well. And that's, that's really useful, I think.
And I don't think I've come across, anything that's done it quite so effectively. Again, with my very limited knowledge of the MLT principle, but it does, it's really helpful. And, yeah, it's very cool.
Juan, why do you think creativity is important in piano lessons? So I think that's a big question.
Juan
Very difficult question. Creativity is everything to me. If you learn something, creating with the elements, you are going to learn these things in a much deeper way and understand in a more holistic way, too. If you can create with something, you are going to learn it better. As I mentioned before, I wasn't a creative pianist and teacher. I changed this 12 years ago or so. So now, creativity activities are on all my activities during the lessons. And I, I think, this must seem a little counter intuitive.
If you teach creativity, the students also are going to learn their piano pieces in their repertoire faster, because if the students has experience with the patterns in the piece and has created with these patterns, and has created their own music using this language in this particular piece they are going to understand the elements they are going to find in the score and they are going to memorize better. They're going to read later and perform better because they understood the music in the score and they are going to play The music much better.
And so creativity is very important. It develops divergent thinking. There are the convergent thinking and the divergent thinking and piano lesson must be, much more creativity because it's an art, but in piano there are not as much creativity during the lessons.
The difference between convergent and divergent maybe with a musical example. If you are playing a Beethoven sonata, the convergent thinking, may be " what do you think is the best way to play this four notes?" "With what kind of movement of your arms?" Or "what kind of expression do you think Beethoven want to express with this phrase?" Or whatever. This is convergent thinking.
And it's very necessary. I am not saying this isn't crucial. But also you can explore other. " do you think we can play this if Beethoven was, angry or sad or happy or hungry or tired?" Okay, "how can you change this phrase of Beethoven and play it in your own way?"
Can you add, some embellishing tones? Can you change this, instead of 3 4, play it in 4 4? Or can you change in a mixolydian, key? Or can you change this rhythm pattern? These two ways of thinking are going to help our students a lot not only in music, but in their lives, because they have to work on these two kinds of thinking. Most of the piano lessons sadly are focused on convergent thinking that it's okay, but we have to incorporate more of this creative thinking.
To improve this in our students is going to help them as musicians as with their lives. Because if you are a creative person, you are going to be able to live your life in a better way. I want you to have more open mind and you can, lift your way to a full life.
Garreth
I think one of the joys of teaching piano is that when you do it well, you are teaching students about how to live their lives and how to approach things, how to solve complicated problems. I actually think piano lessons have a moral component in them, although I never talk about morals with my students, but I am showing them how to approach difficult, complex things and handle it with grace and intelligence. And I think that's a wonderful thing to do for, a child particularly, but for anyone. Just coming back to the convergent and divergent thinking, as you said, it's counterintuitive that because convergent thinking, our question is, how do we get closer to what Beethoven wanted?
When we do divergent thinking, you would think that it leads you away from Beethoven. But my experience is that when I've done divergent thinking on, whatever passage it is of Beethoven's Sonata, and I've thought about how he could have done it differently, I then have a much greater appreciation for why he's done it in the way he has done it.
And then I feel closer to him. And then I want to honor it more. But I also want to do it in a way that feels alive, and I'm not just recreating. I've had a dialogue with him, and he's the strongest voice in that dialogue, but I can also contribute something. It is counterintuitive, but it's extremely powerful.
It's hard for some people to get their heads around, I think, isn't it? Particularly when you've grown up being trained to think convergently, "how do I recreate what Bach wanted?" Although Bach's a great example because very few of us are playing Bach on an instrument that he would have used.
And so that makes convergent thinking quite difficult. Anyway. We're starting to draw to a close.
The last question I wanted to ask you, Juan, was what advice would you give to teachers who are nervous about incorporating creativity into their teaching?
Juan
Yes, this is a very good question because most of the teachers, are scared about incorporating creativity.
I think most of them are scared because they don't know how to improvise. They don't know how to do it. They are afraid to do this kind of work with their students. But everybody can improvise and you don't need to be an expert to teach how to improvise to a student.
I started teaching improvisation when I discovered Forrest Kinney's work. And I didn't know much about improvisation. I improve, at the same time as my students. You don't need to be an expert if you, know how to improvise just black keys, but start using this your students. You can learn, with your students, as I have mentioned.
Another advice I want to say to teachers that it's not difficult to improvise. I used to thought that there were people that that could improvise. There are, there are people as me that couldn't improvise, but I was wrong. Everybody can improvise from the very beginning. I encourage people to do this with their students.
They are going to learn, in a more fun way that you are going to enjoy with your students more. You are going to have more tools for your piano lessons, maybe. And I also encourage if there are something there that wants to incorporate improvisation activities and they're scared, maybe start using with students that are not making a big progress, maybe a student that is at the same level week after week, let's start with those students. Try different ideas with this kind of students. And if you see that it's working with these students, maybe it is going to work with more, students that are making faster progress.
Garreth
That's very wise. Yeah, that's really good advice. Because that's the thing, when we're just getting started, we don't need to be improvising like a great jazz pianist. We can just do little changes, and we don't have to immediately start teaching everybody to improvise, do we?
We can just do it with a few people. I always think starting small is really great advice. In all endeavours, actually. Just dip your toe in, and then try it out. Anyway, Juan, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and to the people who watch this video. it's been really fascinating, and I hope we've done a good job of enthusing people about your course, which I really do think is excellent.
I think it has the power to really Transform the way a lot of people teach. And I think really for the better. I think it's one of the most impressive things I've come across in a long time. And I mean that very sincerely. So I'm very excited to see what happens with it. And, I hope we've encouraged people to check it out.
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