Piano Safari Duets for the online era

One of my favorite parts of beginner lessons is playing duets together after a student has mastered a new piece. A duet means two people play together at the same time, and most beginning piano songs have an accompanying teacher duet. 

Duets are great for several reasons.

• They transform early beginner pieces from simple to awesome

• Reinforce the concept of steady beat and help students learn to hear and feel strong rhythmic playing

• Fill in interesting harmonies and develop an ear for new musical styles and sounds

But, in the era of online-only lessons and Covid-19, playing duets becomes a bit more tricky. Latency issues over zoom and other video chat services mean there's always a slight delay between each side of the call, making it difficult to play and hear both parts at the same time. 

Enter duet videos! The authors of Piano Safari, our primary curriculum for most beginning students, recorded mp3s of all the teacher duets for all three books of the series. 

Current students at Music con Brio will have access to the recorded duet parts in the online resources section of your MyMusicStaff student portal. After you've mastered a song, you can download the teacher duet part and try playing along at home. Ms. Valerie is also creating videos of both parts together, so if you're having trouble getting your part to line up, you can watch and listen and try playing along to both parts. To access video links, log in to MyMusicStaff, go to online resources, download the pdf file for your level, and click the link for the song you're working on (Currently available for level 1 and 2 duets; level 3 and older beginner books coming soon!)

As we master new songs this fall, we'll take some time practicing with duet recordings so you can show off your new, bigger sound to your family at home!