Black Cat Capers, by Lisa Donovan Lukas — Digital Download
Cool Cat Boogie, by Chrissy Ricker — Digital Download
Scaredy Cat, by Jennifer Eklund (solo piano version) — Digital Download
Scaredy Cat, by Jennifer Eklund (backing track with improv solo) — Digital Download
Cats take center stage this week as I play three feline focused pieces for late-elementary through intermediate level piano students. The composers are Lisa Donovan Lukas, Chrissy Ricker, and Scaredy Cat. Mischief, swing, and spooky fun— with a little improv mixed in as well. Perfect repertoire picks for October.
— Transcript —
After facing my fear of spiders in last week’s episode, I thought we would turn to another creature that is often associated with Halloween, and one that I’m a lot more comfortable with, and that would be cats. I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but it seems like any piece about cats is fair game for a Halloween-themed recital. I mean, really, not all cats are black cats, are they?But it’s been my experience that any song with cat in the title is a hit with my students during the month of October, whether they choose to celebrate Halloween or not. My name is Luke Bartolomeo, and I’d like to welcome you back to the Piano Pedagogy Playlist. I’m a pianist, a teacher, and also the developer of apps that assist younger students with their music study, including Flashnote Derby.
Each Monday I play some of my current favorites taken from the repertoire of music for piano students written by living composers. We’re going to start out today with a late elementary level piece that actually once again is in 6-8 time, just like three out of our four pieces were last week. It’s called Black Cat Capers.But honestly, if you didn’t know the title, you might guess it was another Tarantella. So, why am I including this piece in today’s roster? Well, I see this piece as a good opportunity to work on developing fast finger technique in younger students, and also letting them have the rush of playing something that to them will seem very flashy and impressive.
In addition to the speedy triplet eighth note passages, there are some spots that require quick shifts in hand position to different octaves. But all of this excitement is balanced with several fermatas. It gives the performer a chance to breathe and regroup.
And it also fits in perfectly with the somewhat neurotic personalities of a lot of cats that I’ve known. Here is Black Cat Capers by Lisa Donovan Lukas.
Black Cat Capers
Now, Black Cat Capers is a piece that I would strongly consider teaching by rote. This would allow the student to focus solely on the technique and the focused listening that it takes to ensure the evenness of all the fast notes. As I say to my students, fast and sloppy is never exciting.All of the usual rules of practicing with a metronome, mastering slower tempos before gradually, gradually, trying faster ones would definitely apply here. And if you happen to decide to teach this piece by rote, have the student still purchase a download anyway. It helps support the composer who created it.
And it’s also nice to look at the notation after the piece has been learned. And the cover artwork is pretty cool too. So last week, we talked about the connection between spiders and the dance of the tarantella.
Cats also seem to have a particular genre of music that they are associated with. And that, of course, would be jazz, because cats are cool, right? And if there’s one form of jazz that’s the epitome of piano jazz cool, it’s gotta be boogie woogie.
And that’s what we’ve got up next. It’s Cool Cat Boogie by Chrissy Ricker. This one’s more of a solid intermediate level piece.There are lots of four note chords, and some seventh chords as well, so the physical development of the student is something to consider. As per all boogie woogie pieces, it’s a good workout for the left hand. And also in keeping with the style, the eighth notes are all swing eighth notes.
But I think I’d take the opportunity to have the student also try out the piece with straight eighth notes, just to see how it feels different. When you remove the swing, it transforms into a straight ahead 50s piano driven rock song, cool in its own way, but nothing matches the coolness of swing.
Cool Cat Boogie
You can always tell when a composer is also an active teacher. There’s a certain awareness of little tweaks that can be made to accommodate the needs of developing pianists. In this case, there are several places where an eighth note is omitted in the left-hand boogie pattern, and I think this was done to give the student a little more time to prepare for a change in hand position or to make the upcoming passage just a little easier.Or maybe it was just for a little rhythmic variation. Regardless, it’s a blast to play, and would certainly be enjoyed by just about any intermediate level student. Cool Cat Boogie by Chrissy Ricker.
We’re going to wrap up with an early intermediate level piece written in the key of F minor. Technically, it’s probably an easier piece than Black Cat Capers, the one I played first on the podcast today, but the challenge of playing in four flats probably pushes it into early intermediate territory. This piece is just slightly spooky, definitely sneaky, and as the composer’s tempo marking indicates, considerably sassy.
It’s another piece with swing rhythms. This is Scaredy Cat by Jennifer Eklund.Scaredy Cat (solo version)
Now, Scaredy Cat is somewhat unique in that when you purchase the digital download of the score, you also get a backing track included. And this comes in the form of an audio file, as well as a MIDI file, if you have a playback system on a digital keyboard or a computer for those type of files. So I’m actually gonna play Scaredy Cat one more time with the audio backing track.
And I’m gonna make one other change too. If I were teaching this piece to a student, I’d probably use it to have them explore a little bit of improvisation. So in place of the middle eight bar section, I’m going to demonstrate how a student might improvise a very simple solo consisting just of the notes found in the five finger F minor position.
Limiting their choices to just those five notes allows them to concentrate on the rhythms and the feel of jazz. Something which can feel like a foreign language to many kids these days. Here’s Scaredy Cat one more time with the backing track and a very simple improvised solo inserted into the middle of the piece.Scaredy Cat – with backing track
Eat your heart out, Oscar Peterson. Now, even if improvisation is something you consider to be a little outside of your wheelhouse, I’d really consider sneaking it into your lessons where you can. Start with the younger students and you can explore right along with them.
It’s a completely different way of approaching music where there are no wrong notes. Just some that maybe we were a little more fond of than others. It can be very freeing, and some students will eat it right up.
And that reminds me, I’m going to have to wrap up here because I haven’t fed my dog yet today, who is sitting here staring at me, wondering why I’ve dedicated a whole episode to cats of all things. Don’t worry Luna, your time will come. And with that, it’s time to close the lid on this episode of the Piano Pedagogy Playlist.We heard three songs about cats today that would be great for your students during the month of October, or really any time during the year. They can all be purchased very reasonably, I might add, from pianopronto.com. And I’ll include a link to them directly in the description.
Or visit me at pianopedagogyplaylist.com. I’ll look forward to next week when we continue this exploration of all the good stuff there is to play out there, for piano students in the 21st century. Until then, keep nurturing the music, and have a great week!
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