Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Resources for Teaching Piano Arpeggios

This month my piano students will be completing an Arpeggio Challenge to boost their skills and understanding of this fundamental pattern that comes up in music over and over. 

While prepping for our piano arpeggio-themed group lesson I discovered some new arpeggio resources and revisited some of my favorites from the past.


Elementary

Hand over Hand Arpeggio Video

The Piano Safari's rote pieces are favorites for my beginners because they can play by rote much more than they can read in those first months of lessons.

 "Rainbow Colors" is a beautiful piece that combines the hand-over-hand arpeggio motions with 4 chords. 


Piano Safari Rainbow Colors Reminder Video


Piano Safari Rainbow Colors Performance Video

The middle note of  each chord is omitted so when I introduce it, I sing "Open Fifths then crossing over, open 5ths then step up" to solidify the pattern or similar lyrics that reflect the patterns played.

Intermediate

I love how Lisa Witt demonstrates how to combine arpeggios and chord progressions for some super-satisfying piano improvisation in this video.

This Blank Keyboard Printable is a great resource to help students solidify finger patterns as they write  arpeggio fingering groups.  

Instead of having to memorize arpeggio fingering for every single key, I love how Joy Morin has grouped keys based on their arpeggio fingering in this helpful Scale and Arpeggio Fingering Reference Sheet. I call them Vanilla's, Hamburger's and Oreos.

I use those same groups when introducing 5 finger patterns to beginners with D'net Layton's Keyboard Pentascale Free Printable.


2 Octave Arpeggio Sample Video


Pianote Intro to 2 Octave Arpeggios Tutorial









Advanced

Watch this video to learn some excellent specific technical tips for arpeggio playing.

See how adding accents or changing rhythms can improve your arpeggio skills in difficult passages.

Explore the pitter-patter, mind bender and dreamscape variations based off of arpeggio patterns that create different moods and sound impressive without being difficult to play once you see and feel the groupings.

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