Michael Ippolito
Dr. Veblen
Introduction to Music Education
November 6, 2016
Readings Thibeault
Thibeault, M. D. (2012). The power of limits and the pleasure of games: An easy and fun piano duo improvisation. General Music Today, 1048371311435523.
I found the topic of this reading to be very interesting. The idea of a game that promotes improv sounds like a great idea to me. One thing that I feel is not covered enough in school is improv. This game sounds like a great way of helping students to learn how to improv. My teacher in high school would sometimes do exercises involving my class improving. He would only do these for a couple of minutes and they were rather small and simple exercises. Not to say they didn’t help though. As someone who didn’t know a lot about improv at the time it was a very welcome change. That is what I am trying to say about this game. It seems like a great starting point to help students learn improv. Also, much like the exercises my teacher did, it seems like a fun way to keep practicing improv with your friends. Even though the exercises are not as useful now seeing as though there are better methods of practicing improv as you progress, they were what got me started on enjoying improv and wanting to learn more about it. The exercises were quite like this game. My teacher would play a constant bass line that involved the notes B flat to the B flat up the octave to the A flat below that to the F below that and then he would repeat. He would play these as quarter notes. The class would then take turns improving using the B flat blues scale. You can probably see the similarity between the game and the exercise. The students would improv over the teacher’s bass line. The only differences are the bass line that was used and the scale that was used to improv. Instead of a major scale it was a blues scale. Therefore, I feel like this game is a great way to get students involved in improv. It has many similarities to the exercise my teacher did with us and it seems like it would inspire students in the same way that my teacher’s exercises inspired me. If I had to ask the Author one question it would be “What would you do to make this exercise more challenging to prevent students from getting bored of it?” Those are my thoughts on this article and the topic it discusses.
Dr. Veblen
Introduction to Music Education
November 6, 2016
Readings Thibeault
Thibeault, M. D. (2012). The power of limits and the pleasure of games: An easy and fun piano duo improvisation. General Music Today, 1048371311435523.
I found the topic of this reading to be very interesting. The idea of a game that promotes improv sounds like a great idea to me. One thing that I feel is not covered enough in school is improv. This game sounds like a great way of helping students to learn how to improv. My teacher in high school would sometimes do exercises involving my class improving. He would only do these for a couple of minutes and they were rather small and simple exercises. Not to say they didn’t help though. As someone who didn’t know a lot about improv at the time it was a very welcome change. That is what I am trying to say about this game. It seems like a great starting point to help students learn improv. Also, much like the exercises my teacher did, it seems like a fun way to keep practicing improv with your friends. Even though the exercises are not as useful now seeing as though there are better methods of practicing improv as you progress, they were what got me started on enjoying improv and wanting to learn more about it. The exercises were quite like this game. My teacher would play a constant bass line that involved the notes B flat to the B flat up the octave to the A flat below that to the F below that and then he would repeat. He would play these as quarter notes. The class would then take turns improving using the B flat blues scale. You can probably see the similarity between the game and the exercise. The students would improv over the teacher’s bass line. The only differences are the bass line that was used and the scale that was used to improv. Instead of a major scale it was a blues scale. Therefore, I feel like this game is a great way to get students involved in improv. It has many similarities to the exercise my teacher did with us and it seems like it would inspire students in the same way that my teacher’s exercises inspired me. If I had to ask the Author one question it would be “What would you do to make this exercise more challenging to prevent students from getting bored of it?” Those are my thoughts on this article and the topic it discusses.