Harold B. Rhodes

The human ear is a complex machine. It routinely performs feats beyond the capacity of the most sophisticated computers. This is most apparent when the musician improvises at the piano. The interaction between the ear, brain, and the hands is almost too complex to comprehend.

Trained or not, the ear is consistantly exposed to vast variety of sounds thanks to TV, radio, CD’s etc. Today’s kids are regularly hearing close harmonies, intricate rhythums, and dynamic instrumentation. This poses a problem for today’s music educators. Can we sustain the interest and enthusiasm if we discuss “Tonic, Dominant, Sub Dominant” as applied to nursery tunes and 19th Century classics?

Improvising is a term frequently used in discussion on music study today. The message is that students must be “given wings,”freeing them to chart their own musical direction. When traditional methods of instructions are used, they find themselves enmeshed in a labyrinth of “dos,” “don’ts,” and “no-nos” as they plow through the dead sea of standard procedures.

Training should begin with the student’s first indroduction to the keyboard. To insure success, we must radically overhall the sequential presentation of harmony and theory. The highest priority must be given to maintaining student enthusiasm and early sense of accomplishment. This is our objective.

Improvisation is now as vital as any other area of music study. When, where and how does such training begin? What are the ground rules?

With our method, performance is simplified, melody is single line. Chords are building blocks in support of melody. We will study
the interplay of the individual voices in these chords as they progress. The student will learn his first songs as though he were
with the composer, and together, they were building the melody and chord structure. Everything is reduced to the basic elements
of melody, harmony and rhythum. The student is encouraged to experiment. As each new tool is added, it is on the basis that it
pleases the ear.