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Piano Solos: Instrumental Accompaniments, revised
American Music Teacher, April-May, 2008 by Michelle Sisler
Piano Solos: Instrumental Accompaniments, revised, orchestrated by Phillip Keveren. Hal Leonard Corporation (www.halleonard.com, www.musicdispatch.com, (800) 637-2852), $9.95.
MIDI accompaniments can provide teachers and students with another way to learn and practice music. These files can help you teach rhythms or keep a steady rhythm, ensemble playing and will make lessons and practice enjoyable and rewarding. The Hal Leonard Corporation has revised their Piano Solos book and instrumental accompaniments, levels 1-5. Barbara Kreader, Fred Kern, Phillip Keveren, and Mona Rejino and have done an amazing job. Although the songs are great alone, adding the accompaniments makes this a valuable teaching tool.
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The orchestrations are very well done; instrumentation used fits the music well. For example, you hear a banjo in "The Banjo Picker" or tap dancing in "Tap Dance." I enjoyed listening to and playing along, especially "Baroque Boogie," and could not wait to show my students, whose comments included "Cool" and "That is awesome!" It added variety and pizzazz to our lessons and motivated students. The backgrounds can be used in the studio or at home to practice with during the week. They add excitement to for both the performer and listener and parents will enjoy listening to students practicing with the accompaniments as well.
One of the main benefits of using MIDI files is you can easily control the tempo, which allows practice at a slower tempo while still enjoying the accompaniment. Another advantage is you can play with the piano part on, or you can turn it off by simply turning off MIDI channels 3 and 4. You can also practice left-hand or right-hand alone by turning off either 3 or 4.
The MIDI files come on a 3.5-inch floppy disk. If you do not have a digital piano with a floppy disk drive or want to use a computer with score-following software such as Home Concert Xtreme you may find the disk to be a disadvantage. However, you can copy the files from the floppy disk to your computer or other media, or purchase the MIDI files on USB flash drives to use files in your computer or USB drive of your digital piano.
Other titles available with MIDI files in the supplementary series include Broadway and Movie Hits, More Popular Solos, Christmas, & Classical Themes and Traditional Hymns.--Reviewed by Michelle Sisler, Keys to Imagination, Owatonna, Minnesota
COPYRIGHT 2008 Music Teachers National Association, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
