1. Using Youtube In
Teaching Piano Accompaniment
Goran Brkovic
Piano Teacher
Music School “Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic”
Uzice, Serbia
@gbrkovic
April 21, 2012

2. The session will include the
following topics:
- Introduction
- The main problem in teaching piano accompaniment
- The old way we used to teach it and the problems it involved
- The new way: how technology can help teachers and students
- About using YouTube
- Class Plan
- Lesson Timing
- How to use Youtube in piano accompaniment class and its
benefits
- Additional info

3. Introduction
About me:
- piano teacher - 21 years, piano accompanist - 10 years
About piano accompaniment:
- to watch and listen to several parts of the score
- to adapt our own playing to the soloist
About piano accompaniment lessons
- two pupils in a group at one lesson
- 35 classes per year, 45 minutes per class, 1 class per week
- no final exam, two obligatory public performances
- program: pieces for flute, violin or voice and piano
- main goal: to educate piano students how to play piano
accompaniment well on public performances.

4. The main problem in teaching
piano accompaniment
How to achieve adaptability while teaching it the old way ?
Solo piano vs. piano accompaniment
- solo: listening skills limited to our own playing
-piano accompaniment: listening to both ourselves and others
Easier:
- not being alone at the podium
- no memorization
More complex:
- more staves, requires greater musical flexibility, listening to
ourselves, listening to others, coordination of both = adapting

5. The old way we used to teach it
and the problems it involved
Limited usability:
- no preparation for the public performance.
The old fashioned class:
- one piano student plays imitating the soloist, the other piano
students plays along piano accompany part
- both piano students playing on the piano, same instrument
color
- too exact tempo, same moment of sound production
- no breathing pauses and agogics
● artificial and unreal
● less adaptation or no adaptation to the real soloist
Solution: the new way of teaching.

6. The new way: how technology can
help teachers and students
New way of teaching brings increased class usability:
- two students, two different pieces, accompanying YT
- 8 - 20 real soloist performances from Youtube
- students in real life situation 100% percent of the time during
the lesson
- never use the same performance on two lessons
- different soloists from YT posses various artistic levels of
performance.
Developing skills:
- listening to various and different instrument colors
- catching constant small tempo variations, including breaths
- adaptability to other performer's musical ideas, dynamics
- "hunting", jumping, listening to false intonation, wrong
rhythm...

7. About using YouTube
Using Youtube (www.youtube.com) requirements:
- PC, broadband Internet connection and speakers
Problems and solutions:
- no PC / speakers > use laptop or portable devices with
headphones
- no Internet connection > download videos and bring to the
class
Teacher's preparation for the lesson
- choosing the pieces, according to student ability, grade
- search YT for pieces, select useful performances
- collect and save the links, keep tracks of what is already
done making notes and reflections about students'
achievements
- allowing some time for students to read and learn the pieces

8. Class plan
Lesson planning and preparation:
- coordination - check with other teacher (flute, violin, etc.)
- variety - mastering pieces of various difficulty and differently
structured pieces
- finding informations about composer and the piece
- links to pdf sheet music, or sending pdf sheet music to
students
- analyzing the score, defining smaller parts / numbers, sheet
printing, writing rehearsal numbers on sheet

9. Example of
Piano accompaniment class
8 flutists playing Saint-Saens Romance op.37, D flat major
- About composer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns
- About Romance: http://bit.ly/IfOsjJ
- Sheet Music: http://bit.ly/I0zscq
YouTube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6gioeVi9f4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg3RMuyLFy0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNusStMhI50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci-jBYNlpP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEMRxrV4Ff8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKCcZGbe7Qs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej3mr4LHjeA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su2UdsMK1lE&feature=related

10. About the Composer

11. About the Piece

12. Sheet Music from IMSLP

13. Video from Youtube

14. 8 flutists playing Rachmaninoff Vocalise
op.34 No.14, G minor
About Rachmaninoff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff
About Vocalise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocalise_(Rachmaninoff)
Sheet Music:
http://www.scorage.ru/view.aspx?id=844C7303DC16CB116838E196B7AF17F2
Youtube links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXS-8NfjNU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Ha_uRF-84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVurqiFHBxQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvpBUitKbsQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAvkcUuUpLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJtbeAC_PQ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVAthVOx2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xZICRj9qY&feature=related

15. Lesson Timing
Lesson duration: 45 minutes
Lesson organization: 3 x 15 minutes
1) warming up, without accompanying the YT recording, every student works on
her / his own part, the most demanding spots
2) one student accompanying YT video recording - 15 minutes
- integral performance, accompanying Saint-Saens Romance, finding what is most
important to listen to, focus on middle section, harmonies played in chords, finding
the logic of harmonies and agogics
- homework: accompanying the YT recording while playing left hand only,
simultaneous harmony changes
3) the other student accompanying YT video - 15 minutes
- integral performance, accompanying Rachmaninoff Vocalise
- without repeated intervals / chords, the basis of the structure, "invisible" repeats,
finger Pedal, obtaining clear Pedaling, playing middle section only, in slower tempo,
agogics
- making synthesis at the end with YT video again
- homework: practice hands separate with YT video, with & without repeated chords.

16. How to use Youtube in piano
accompaniment Class and its benefits
Analyzing : tonalities, form, dividing into parts for practicing
Learning the solo part - better listening, better troubleshooting
Sight reading - always beneficial, less time to learn new pieces
Exercises - rearranging the structure, creating orchestral arrangements in
Concertos
Transposing piano part - gradually increasing the difficulty, transposing in real-
time, accompanying recorded solo
Benefits of this type of teaching piano accompaniment:
- more efficient teaching, more interesting, practicing real life public performance
100% of the class time.

17. Additional info
- I recommend using Ubuntu Linux (www.ubuntu.com) and Puppy
Linux (http://puppylinux.org), free, stable and secure OS
- Use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) to record your
student's progress. You can use podcasts at your lessons, like
shown in presentation created by Maja Dakic-Brkovic: (http:
//www.slideshare.net/kakoto/maja-teach-meet-podcast-in-piano-lessons).
- Rosegarden is score editor used to analyze or explain the
most complex part of the score. My presentaion about
Rosegarden: (http://www.slideshare.net/gbrkovic/rosegarden-notation).

18. Using Youtube In
Teaching Piano Accompaniment
Goran Brkovic
Piano Teacher
Music School “Vojislav-Lale Stefanovic”
Uzice, Serbia
@gbrkovic
April 21, 2012