Developing Keyboard Skills Through Composition Inspired by Dances from Around the World

Developing Keyboard Skills Through Composition Inspired by Dances from Around the World merges pedagogy with improvisation to help students achieve piano proficiency while actively engaging in the creative process. Unlike conventional piano methods, this approach empowers learners through composition and improvisation, making students' learning journey both practical and artistically fulfilling. The book includes twenty carefully crafted dances and etudes inspired by folk traditions from around the world. Each piece serves as both a technical study and a window into diverse musical cultures-from Balkan rhythms to Latin American patterns, Asian pentatonic explorations to African polyrhythms. This international suite expands musical vocabulary beyond Western idioms while building essential keyboard skills. Developing Keyboard Skills Through Composition Inspired by Dances from Around the World will be of particular appeal to music students in universities who are looking to attain their piano proficiency requirements, but also may be of interest to pianists outside the academy who are either self-taught or wish to expand their creative process through improvisation.

Michalis Andronikou is a composer and musicologist currently residing in Calgary, AB. He holds a PhD in composition from the University of Calgary. He received his Bachelor's and Integrated Master's degrees in musicology from the Department of Music Studies, University of Athens, Greece. He has a Diploma in Classical Guitar, Clarinet and Music Theory from the Trinity College and the Royal Academy of Music, and a Diploma in Byzantine Music from the Argyroupolis Municipal Conservatory. Katrina Estok is a pianist, piano teacher, and writer from Calgary, AB. She studied piano under Edwin Gnandt for four years and received her undergraduate degrees in music (BMus) and English (BA) in 2018. In 2020, she obtained her Master's degree in musicology from the University of Oxford, where she received a distinction for her dissertation on Béla Bartók's one-act opera Bluebeard's Castle.

Introduction Introductory Notes on Composition and Improvisation Approaching Composition through Improvisation on a Given Theme Preparing a Composition Plan Practicing your Compositions What Is Progress in this Approach Is your Composition Original? Introductory Notes on Pedagogy Playing Position: Sitting at the Piano Playing Position: Wrists, Hands, and Fingers Economical Playing: Finger Activation and Wrist Movement Dances: Balkan Dance Arabesque Vals Venezolano Tarantella Dance from the Greeks Islands Serbian Dance Cypriot Dance Hungarian Dance Minimal Tango Chinese Dance Jamaican Dance Romantic Samba Kabuki Cha-cha-cha Dissonant Polka Tinikling Remembering the Irish Washerwoman Charleston Indlamu: South African Dance Polynesian Dance Appendix: Articulations and Pedaling Technique Bibliography