TTTV002: Using piano improv to create a musician for life with Christopher Norton

by Tim Topham in Creativity on March 31, 2015. 9 Comments

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TTTV002: Using piano improv to create a musician for life with Christopher Norton

Ever wondered how the master of contemporary piano music, Christopher Norton, teaches improvising to beginners? Interested in learning the secrets he’s gleamed about teaching improvising over more than 30 years of composing, teaching and presenting? Like the idea of teaching improving by starting with written music rather than thin air?

It’s great to be spending time with one of the piano industry’s most respected and loved composers, presenters and teachers, Christopher Norton, fresh off the plane from London for his Australasian Tour with ANZCA.

In this interview, Chris and I discuss how to get started teaching improvising using his American Popular Piano (APP) series. In this sequenced series of books, Chris introduces improv in a completely accessible manner to teachers and students of all levels.

If you’d like to find out more about APP, click this image:

“Why can’t I play more music like this?” asked a fourteen-year-old piano student. “My friends like to hear me play cool music.”

Why not, indeed? J.S. Bach taught his sons using the music of his time – popular dances, preludes and exercises by living composers. He expected
his boys to thrive in the musical world of their time.

American Popular Piano has been developed on the same principles. Students working in this series will:

• develop traditional pianistic and musical skills through music in contemporary, popular styles;
• be motivated to practise by working on music that is familiar, fun, and that they can’t wait to play;
• nurture their creativity and spontaneity through a user-friendly modular approach to improvisation;
• enjoy regular ensemble playing;
• find pleasure in a lifelong relationship with music!

Starting by learning a simple piece of music, the APP books step both students and teachers through a process of making up music starting with rhythm and then gradually expanding to more and more notes. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never done anything like this before, I guarantee you’ll have success.

This is a really different approach to the improvising tactics we discussed with Daniel McFarlane in Podcast Episode 1 as Chris uses written music as a basis for improvising. So if you find that teaching improvising from scratch, with no music, is a bit of a big leap, then this interview is for you!

What you’ll learn in this episode:

How to teach improvising using written music as a starting point
Why teaching improvising is so important to the musical futures of students
Chris’ 10-step checklist to getting students improvising no matter what their level of experience
How to teach improv using his American Popular Piano books, even if you’ve never tried it before
Why you don’t have to worry about the theory of modes, scales, etc in order to start teaching improv
The theory behind the composition of the APP series
How to incorporate improv into your lessons

Links for this episode:

Get Chris’ free cheat sheet download:

How’s your improvising teaching going?

We’ve been talking about improvising for a few weeks and there has been lots of discussion about it on Facebook, so I’d love to hear your thoughts: How is improvising going in your studio this year? What have you tried? What’s been working? What has been an epic fail!?

I’d also love to hear from any teachers who’ve tried using APP in their studios: How did it go? What are your favourite books/pieces? How has the improvising gone? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and any other questions you might have.

pssst. Did you enjoy this post?

If you enjoyed this interview and are enjoying the new podcast so far, I’d love for you to click this link to find out how to leave a review on iTunes – it only takes about 5 minutes maximum and would mean a lot to me 🙂

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About the author

Tim Topham

Tim Topham is the founder and director of TopMusic. Tim hosts the popular Integrated Music Teaching Podcast, blogs regularly at dev.topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as integrated teaching, creativity, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, California Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.

9 Comments

Janna Williamson says:

05/20/2020 at 9:39 am

Hi Tim – I have been using APP a bit, so I searched my podcast app and was thrilled to find this episode (5 years after you made it!) I’m wondering if there is still a spot that you can find recordings of the repertoire in APP. The website Chris mentions doesn’t have audio files that I can see.

Reply
- Emily Laney says:
  
  05/20/2020 at 2:30 pm
  
  Hi Janna, wow, thanks for checking out this early episode! Love Chris Norton’s music. The best I could find for you is Chris’ youtube channel playlist that has selections from the series. You might post a comment there for him and see if he knows of more recordings that might be available. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqe4eJb6dvp913oqQ3vQ0tpgqEoCti5Wc
  
  Reply
Julie Ingermanson says:

03/13/2016 at 11:03 am

I’m going through previous podcasts & just listened to this one today as I was on a short road trip. I am so excited about the APP series as a starting point to help teach my students how to improvise. I’m still not confident enough with my own improvisation skills to teach without something showing me step-by-step plus I use the Piano Adventure series as my main framework so I love that these match the skill levels in those books. Thanks again for another great resource!

Reply
Vincent Arcega says:

06/17/2015 at 5:22 am

Where is the cheat sheet? I don’t see a link.

Reply
- Tim Topham says:
  
  06/17/2015 at 2:54 pm
  
  Hey Vincent – sorry about the link not showing. I’m having a bit of trouble with Chrome at the moment. I’ll email you the sheet personally. My apologies again.
  
  Reply
Dorothy Bysouth says:

04/06/2015 at 5:19 pm

Thanks, Tim. Great to catch this. Dot

Reply
- Tim Topham says:
  
  04/06/2015 at 5:40 pm
  
  Cheers Dot! Great to have you along 🙂
  
  Reply
jules says:

04/01/2015 at 9:49 pm

Thank you SO much for this podcast Tim! I tried to schedule his workshop into my calendar but just couldn’t fit it so now I feel like I’ve missed nothing!!!! Have been using the lower level APP repertoire books for a few years now and the kids love them, and this year introduced the impro books too. This video is a great demonstration of how to get the most out of that book!! Have been loving trying all these impro ideas – between Chris and Daniel’s ideas my teaching has gained a huge injection of motivation and inspiration – especially for the teens ( I refuse to say boys, as I find my girl’s like it just as much). Thanks for taking the time to do all of this…..

Reply
- Tim Topham says:
  
  04/01/2015 at 10:07 pm
  
  Hey Jules – that’s so awesome to read. Thanks for your kind feedback – comments like these make the time worthwhile. It was great catching up with Chris again – he’s always so happy to share ideas. I’d love it if you could leave a review on iTunes for this too if you get a chance 🙂 https://dev.topmusic.co/topcast-music-teaching-podcast/leave-a-review/ Thanks Jules and keep in touch with how it all goes.
  
  Reply