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How to Teach Video Game Music on the Piano
By Tim Topham | Repertoire
If you’ve got young piano students, there’s a fair chance they might play video games.
I know what you’re thinking…why would we encourage our students to engage with video games when they could be playing piano!?
Well, let’s harness the enjoyment they get from playing video games, and teach video game music to our students.
Soundtracks to video games are just as popular as film soundtracks these days.
They’re recognisable and students will get a kick from learning the video game music.
Let’s get into it – here’s how I teach video game music with my students.
There’s a few reasons why it can be hard to teach video game music…
Yep, this is one example of how someone has arranged a piece of music from a video game!
I’ll start off by sharing one of the biggest mistakes I see teachers make when it comes to teaching video game music on piano.
Sometimes, teachers will simplify the music themselves. They will take the music home and spend time rearranging the music and bringing it back to a lesson.
This is a big mistake, and not only because often we don’t have time to do this!
More importantly, you’re losing a big learning opportunity for your students.
Let’s actually break it down into the simple elements with our students in their lessons.
There’s a lot more to teaching video game music, but here’s my three tips to help you start off on the right foot.
Simplifying video game music by finding the chords is a must.
If you’d like to see today’s blog post in a video form, check out my YouTube video on this topic.
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Would you teach video game music to your students? Have you done it before?
Leave your thoughts below!
Tim Topham is the founder and director of TopMusic. Tim hosts the popular TopCast show, blogs regularly at topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as pedagogy, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, California Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.
