In my last article, I talked about the misgivings that I had about adding pop music to private lessons. Instrumental and Vocal teachers alike deal with adding “popular” music to lessons on a pretty regular basis. The student that only likes to play/sing Disney songs, the student with an upcoming talent show, the student that dreams of being on American Idol. I’ve seen all of these things and more. They hear these songs on a daily basis and they love them. They sing them all the time. You might as well capitalize on all of that passion and put it to some good uses. Here are a few ideas.
1. Work on style. Listen to a recording of the song you are learning and a contrasting song (maybe a classical piece that you are working on) discuss the things that the artist did on the popular song that are different than the classical song. You could also do the same thing with another version of the song that you are working on. If you are teaching a singer, you can talk about the ways that those sounds could have been created in a recording studio and how duplicating those things without the technology can be harmful to your voice. If you are teaching an instrumentalist, try to find ways to recreate some of the vocal sounds with the instrument.
2. Talk about swing style. Most pop pieces use some form of swing style. Explain how to swing a piece. Then have the student play a part of the song exactly as written and then have them play it swung. I find that it helps to snap my fingers in time with the music to emphasize the swing feel.
3. Talk about how to change the classical style to keep good technique but create the correct sound for the style (ex. the twang for country or bending pitches.)
4. Work on learning syncopated rhythms. Talk about syncopation and how it sounds and then learn some rhythm patterns with syncopation. Take a section out of a piece of popular music that has those patterns in it and learn it. This is useful if a piece that a student really loves is not within their grasp musically. They still get to learn a little bit of it. It’ll encourage them to work harder so that they can learn more of it.
5. Because popular music is usually heard first and then learned and played (as opposed to most classical music which is learned first and then played) it is a good thing to use to work on ear training. Play a simple piece and ask the student to try to recreate what they hear. (I usually use something like Lean on Me because of the scale motion in the beginning.) Then pull out the sheet music and see how close they were able to get. (Most of it can be downloaded and printed at home using either Music Notes or Sheet Music Plus if you have an internet connection.
Pop music is not going to go away any time soon. It is always going to be something that your students will have an interest in. Use their energy and excitement to help them improve in other areas and it is a win win for both of you. Plus it’ll keep you up to date on what is THE hit song of the moment. HINT its not “Everything I Do” which was popular when I was a freshman in High School.
