Here is piece that can be played on 2-4 pianos by four pianists called “Dancing Dots”. It emphasized dotted-quarter + eighth notes and dotted-eight + sixteenth note rhythms among other things.
This piece has been played by elementary students as a project piece or by advanced students as a reading piece. It’s intent is to help with 1/16th note subdivisions and counting. It combines popular drum patterns used in a lot of electronic music and breakbeat tracks.
This was written a few years back and several student ensembles have played it over the years at Creative Music Adventures. Since many of you who follow these posts/emails are piano teachers, I thought I would share it for you and your students. We’re all looking for fun summer projects and this may fit the bill. Or if you play, it’s always fun to read through ensembles with friends.
Here is a video version I recorded so you can hear/see the parts (think of this as Jacob Collier Lite):
Here is the audio version:
Here are a couple of different classes of kids playing it (if you have students learn this please post a link to a video in the comments section of the post so we can enjoy their performances!):
This piece was originally written for some friends’ wedding. I believe they walked down the isle to this one – the original was for a horn quartet (or quintet). Here is the solo-piano version.
Here is a piece that was originally written for an electronic project of mine. Then it was recorded and appeared on the jazz trio recording “The Fantastic Adventures of an Amphibian Named Jamal”. Now it has a solo piano version with sheet music if you want to give it a spin.
Download a free pdf of the score here: Circle Song
This is a piece I wrote a while back that never was recorded – just played live a lot with various instrumentation. My favorite was when Aiko Shimada and I would do this one as a duet. She would sing the melody and it was amazing. If you haven’t heard her music, go listen to her records today!