Tom Rudolph, Lee Whitmore

Alfred's Music Tech Series, Book 1: Playing Keyboard

Alfred's Music Tech Series is designed for late elementary to high school students who are learning the piano in a group-lab setting. No previous keyboard-playing experience is required! Playing Keyboard is specifically designed for use in a keyboard lab setting, integrating a variety of performance activities to enhance the learning process and including challenging activities for students who have more advanced playing experience. The method has been designed and field tested over the past ten years by Dr. Tom Rudolph with students at both middle school and high school levels.

Playing Keyboard is organized into five units, each including progressive and supplemental activities for practice and reinforcement. Topics include:
Unit 1: Left- and right-hand melody in C position; percussion accompaniment
Unit 2: Two-hand melody with C chord; percussion accompaniment; enrichment songs
Unit 3: C and G7 chords with the left hand; improvise percussion parts; enrichment songs
Unit 4: C, F, and G7 chords with the left hand; percussion accompaniment; Theme and Variations form
Unit 5: Variations of the 12-bar blues progression in C; improvise melodies using the blues scale.