Category: Practicing

Backing Track 101: Part Two

9/22/2018

In my last post on backing tracks HERE, I discussed the benefits to using backing tracks and the technology you will need to get them up and running in your studio.

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing where to purchase backing tracks and the different formats you will find available.

What kinds of backing tracks are available?

There are a few different formats you will find for backing tracks:

Mp3 tracks: these are what you will find if you use a play-along accompaniment CD. You may also find this option if you purchase and download backing tracks from a website.
MIDI tracks: these are backing tracks designed to be used in high-end digital pianos such as Clavinovas. If you have an acoustic piano, like me, this is probably not the best option for you.
Apps that have built-in backing track technology: many method books now have dedicated apps that allow you to buy digital copies of the music as well as backing track packages that you can play directly in the app. Often these apps have other features, such as built-in metronomes, video demonstrations, or flashcard games.

Where do I go to purchase backing tracks?

There are tons of backing track options out there—however, they can sometimes be difficult to find unless you know where to look. They are often sold separately from method books, and some are available only online or as in-app purchases. Here are some good places to start looking for backing tracks:

First, check your preferred method series and see if it offers optional backing tracks or has an available app with backing track technology. You will find a range of options depending on the method, including digital downloads, physical accompaniment CDs, and online audio players. The popular Piano Maestro app also offers backing tracks for many different method and supplemental books as part of their subscription fee—I have made a note of the ones available at this time next to each method series below.

Here are a few of the most popular methods that I have found that offer backing tracks:

Alfred: backing tracks for Alfred Basic, Alfred Premier, and Music for Little Mozarts are available through the Piano Maestro app.
Bastien New Traditions: Kjos has a dedicated app for many of its products (including band and orchestra books, too). The Kjos Interactive Practice Studio (IPS) app is free, and features backing tracks, video demonstrations, flashcards, and more. You can purchase digital copies of your books in the app, or enter the code found on your hard copy book to access the app’s content.
Faber Piano Adventures: the Piano Adventures Player App has backing tracks and a built-in metronome. The app is free; backing tracks for each level can be purchased for $4.99. Digital sheet music at a variety of levels is also available.
Hal Leonard: backing tracks are available online as audio files or accompaniment CDs. Backing tracks are also available in the Piano Maestro app.
Piano Pronto: mp3 and MIDI backing tracks are available for many of the method books and supplemental books on the website. Backing tracks are also available in the Piano Maestro app.
Supersonics: backing tracks are available for the method books and supplemental material as part of the Supersonics Plus subscription. A dedicated Supersonics app is also in development. Backing tracks are also available in the Piano Maestro app.

Next, look for supplemental books that come with backing tracks and/or accompaniment CDs. (Remember, if you are using a CD, you can upload the tracks to your computer’s music library and then access them from your other devices, as well as change the tempo of the tracks using an app like AudioStretch.)

For example, I recently used Mike Springer’s “Not Just Another Praise Book” series with one of my students who wanted to play contemporary praise music. This series has 3 volumes, and each book comes with a CD that contains both recordings of the songs as well as a praise band-style accompaniment for students to practice along with.

In researching this article, I also found a few other play along series that I was unfamiliar with and wanted to share:

The Alfred Play-Along series (HERE) features music from The Doors, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and more.
The Alfred "Sitting In" series (HERE) features backing tracks and improv lessons for blues, jazz, and rock styles.
The Hal Leonard Beginning Solo Piano Play Along Series (HERE) features music from Disney, The Beatles, Christmas, and Pop Standards.

Also, don’t forget about the demo recordings that are packaged with many method and supplemental books, too! Although these aren’t orchestrated backing tracks, it can still be helpful for your students to play along with these recordings for practice.

Finally, YouTube can also be a great resource! If you are like me, you probably already use YouTube to find demo videos of pieces your students may be learning. But you can also have students play along with the recordings, backing track-style!

A great tip I recently learned at a piano workshop—you can slow down the playback speed of YouTube videos without changing the pitch. If you are using the YouTube app on your phone or tablet, click on the 3 dots at the top right of your screen, then select “playback speed.” The teacher who shared this tip finds recordings of duets her students are working on and has her students practice their parts at home along with the YouTube video of the full piece. Isn’t that a great idea?

So, you have the technology ready to go in your studio, and you’ve purchased your first set of backing tracks. What next?

In my last blog post, I mentioned several ways I use backing tracks in my studio—for sight-reading practice, to gain ensemble experience, as a reward for mastering a piece. However, I would like to share one caveat I have found while implementing backing tracks in my studio: there may be a learning curve for your students. Since playing along with backing tracks requires listening to not only the beat, but other instruments as well, it might take a bit of time for your students to get the hang of playing along with backing tracks.

Here are a few tips I found helpful when incorporating backing tracks into my studio:

Start with simpler pieces that your students can play really well (with excellent rhythm) for their first backing track experience.
Have students start by first listening to the backing track and clapping along to the beat. If there is a demo of the piano part along with the backing track for students to listen to, that can be very helpful too.
Have students play hands separately with the backing track. This is a great way to ease into the full backing track experience.
Slow down the tempo of the backing track for students that struggle with rhythm. If you are using an app, there should be a way to slow down the tempo under the app settings. If you are using mp3 backing tracks, you can import tracks into an app like AudioStretch (which I mentioned in my previous blog post) or Amazing Slow Downer. If you are on a computer, a program such as Audacity can slow down mp3s without affecting pitch.

At the end of the day, I find that backing tracks are worth the extra effort! I tell my students that if they ever hope to play in a band or accompany other instruments, being able to play along with backing tracks is a great first step.

In my next post, "Backing Track 101: Part Three," I will be sharing some of the backing tracks I have created for my own compositions!

So, what do you think? Any tips or other resources you have found helpful for using backing tracks? I’d love to hear your comments!

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Backing Track 101: Part One

9/13/2018

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I must admit, I was slow to jump on the backing track train. Not because I thought backing tracks weren’t a great idea, but because I was a bit intimidated by the technology, and I wasn’t sure how I could make them work in my studio.

However, once I tried backing tracks with my students, I was kicking myself for not using them sooner! If you have been thinking about using backing tracks in your studio, but aren’t sure how to get started, this post is for you!

In today's post, I will be discussing the benefits to using backing tracks and the equipment you will need to get your studio backing track-ready.

Why use backing tracks?

So what is the big deal with backing tracks? Here are a few reasons I have found backing tracks to be so helpful in my studio:

They are a great alternative to using the metronome. Most of my students aren’t super-enthusiastic about the metronome, but they love playing with backing tracks.
They make even simple pieces sound “big.” Backing tracks are perfect for beginning students that want to play sophisticated-sounding music right away.
They provide valuable ensemble experience. Listening for introductions, playing along with a drum beat, not being distracting by other instrumental parts—these are all valuable skills your students can learn by using backing tracks.
They are extremely helpful for practicing sight-reading. Much like sight-reading duets, backing tracks encourage students not to stop, no matter what!
They provide a “carrot” to encourage students to learn a piece proficiently. Use the backing track experience as a reward for learning a piece well and up to tempo.
Did I mention they are fun?

What set-up is needed for backing tracks?

So, how do you incorporate backing tracks into your studio? The technology isn’t as intimidating as you might think! Many method books now offer backing track technology through dedicated apps (more on that in my next blog post). However, today I will focus on incorporating mp3 backing tracks, such as those found on an accompaniment CD or purchased online as a digital download.

To use mp3 backing tracks in your studio, you will need:

A device to play back your tracks. If you have a physical CD, of course you can use a stereo to play backing tracks. However, you can also use your laptop, phone, iPad or tablet—whatever works best for you. If you are using a phone, iPad, or tablet to play your tracks, you will want to download your tracks first onto your computer and import them into iTunes (or another music library) so you can access them easily from your other devices.
An external speaker. If you are using a phone, iPad, or tablet to play your tracks, you'll need an external speaker so your students can hear the tracks over the piano while they play. You can get a simple speaker that plugs into your device via an audio cable, or a Bluetooth speaker that you can connect to wirelessly (mine is shown in the picture above). You can find a decent quality Bluetooth speaker these days for around $25, and they are a great investment. I also use mine to listen to streaming music during the day when I am home and not teaching.
An app to slow down tracks (optional but very helpful). If you are using your phone, iPad, or tablet to play your tracks, there are several great apps out there that will allow you to slow down an mp3 backing track without affecting the pitch. This is helpful if you want to use your backing tracks as a practice tool and work at different tempos with your students. I use AudioStretch for iPad (the Lite version is free and works with tracks less than 3 minutes long; the full version is $9.99 and can play tracks up to 3 hours long). If you are playing backing tracks from your laptop, you can use Audacity, a free audio editing and recording software program, to slow down your mp3s without affecting the pitch.

Still have questions about the technology? HERE is a great FAQ from the Piano Pronto website, along with a link to a video tutorial about how to import mp3 backing tracks into iTunes.

In my next post,"Backing Track 101: Part Two," we will go shopping for backing tracks and look at the options that are available: from apps, to MIDI, to mp3s. (Spoiler: there are a ton of options!)

What do you think? Do you use backing tracks in your studio? What is your set-up? Any questions about using backing tracks? I'd love to hear from you!

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You're on Your Own!

11/22/2017

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I recently read an insightful article by Bruce Berr in the latest issue of American Music Teacher magazine about his experiences with assigning “OYO” pieces to his students. “OYO” is short for “on your own,” and these pieces are assigned to assess how well a student can practice new material without teacher assistance.

I have also found it helpful to assign independent study pieces to my students, for many of the same reasons listed in Bruce Berr’s article. I focus on instilling good practice habits in my students, but assigning these independent study pieces really helps me to know how well students are remembering and applying these practice techniques at home. Are my students really breaking a piece into small sections, or practicing hands separately, or counting carefully without being prompted?

Independent study pieces also help me to see if there are any gaps in a student’s understanding of concepts like note reading or rhythm. I might think that I have done a good job teaching a student to count eighth note patterns (for example), but sometimes the results of an independent study piece say differently! It is helpful to know which concepts need extra drilling in our weekly lessons.

The article also makes an important point about the value of building a student’s self-confidence through “OYO” pieces. It is possible for students to become so reliant upon their teachers’ guidance that they become paralyzed with indecision when presented with a new piece of music. At the elementary level, this might present itself with questions such as “where do my hands go?” or “what is that note?” At the intermediate and advanced levels, this might present itself as a lack of artistry; students might be waiting to be told by their teacher where to shape a phrase, or exactly how to pedal a section of music, instead of asking those important musical questions on their own. It is important that students learn to develop strategies for problem solving, as well as their own ideas for interpreting music artistically. Independent study pieces are a great way to help students do just that.

So how do you assign an independent study piece? Here are a few guidelines:

Choose a short piece that is slightly above a student’s sight-reading level.
Choose a piece that doesn’t introduce any new concepts or unfamiliar artistic challenges.
Remind students of the practice techniques they have learned (slow practice, section practice, hands separately practice, using the "practice cake" as a checklist) so they will have strategies to apply to this new piece at home. I also tell my students that they are allowed to look for recordings of their independent study pieces if they would like.

This is a perfect time of year to incorporate a few independent study pieces into your lessons. Perhaps you have students preparing to take an extended holiday break and you want to keep their skills sharp? Or maybe you need some “easy wins” that students can work on during the busy holiday season when their time is limited? As a bonus, there are plenty of free, public domain holiday pieces available online that would make great independent study pieces (two of my favorite websites for free public domain sheet music are G Major Music Theory and Making Music Fun).

What do you think? Will you be assigning “OYO” pieces to your students this season?

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Backing Track 101: Part Two

Backing Track 101: Part One

You're on Your Own!

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