Spice Up Your Piano with Duets

Now that most of my lessons are back to face to face I’m managing to slowly get back in to one of the biggest things I missed about them. Playing duets.

Don’t get me wrong. I love solo works but I often find myself taking things too seriously. Playing duets is a great thing to do if you’re in a position to do so.

In the early stages of learning, there are often teacher parts that can be played. They definitely help to make things more fun. There’s never a smile on a students face quite the same as when the teacher makes a mistake. Obviously not talking about myself. Must be some other teacher.

Duets don’t always have to be student and teacher parts. There is a lot of repertoire available that allows people to play similar level parts. An area worth exploring.

For example, a student who has sadly left because of uni commitments was interested in some challenging repertoire. We chose a movement from the Faure Dolly Suite. It was great for her to push herself and it gave me a slightly different focus for my practice sessions.

If you’re not in a position to take advantage of duets then you can always look for music with backing tracks. Lots of methods books have them but you can also take a look at Trinity Rock and Pop for Keyboards. These come in different graded levels for you to choose from.

With today’s technology it’s also great to find a recording partner. You can both decide on a duet piece to play, one person records and sends the music over. Then the other person records their part while playing along and you put it together.

There are plenty of options out there if you’re looking to diversify what you’re working on

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