Bösendorfer Piano Photo (c) Bösendorfer Piano Co. Image from The Piano Page .

Group Piano Level I Music 122.10 College of Fine Arts Illinois State University Group Piano Coordinator: Dr. Carlyn Morenus Instructors: Kochkarn "Fay" Chalermisrachai, Hsiao-Han Huang, Myoungeun Lee, Yuri Sakiyama email Dr. Carlyn Morenus here email Kochkarn "Fay" Chalermisrachai here email Hsiao-Han Huang here email Myoungeun Lee here email Yuri Sakiyama here email Asako Shimasaki here

Required Materials

Course Objectives

Group Piano Level I will cover materials in the first five units of PDM. This includes repertoire, technique, sight-reading, harmonization in a variety of styles, keyboard theory, improvisation, and transposition. Materials will be based on white-key major keys and black-key pentatonic scale positions; diatonic triads and dominant seventh chords in root position and inversions, including closest-position chords; keyboard-style and chorale-style keyboard theory; and transposition primarily to close keys (up or down a second or a third). Styles include baroque through contemporary art music, folk and popular tunes, and jazz/blues.

Group piano classes are designed to provide you with the keyboard skills you need in order to be functional at the piano as a musician. 

Attendance

Daily attendance in class is expected. There will be no make-ups for missed grades due to absences. If you have more than three unexcused absences during the semester, your participation grade will be affected and this may result in a lowered course grade. Official university business, such as ensemble tours, must be documented in advance in writing in order to be excused. If you must be absent from class because of a university activity or for a personal reason, it is important that you notify your teacher of this in advance. This will enable you to stay informed about class assignments.

Be in class on time. It is discourteous to your teacher and to your fellow students if you arrive late. Excessive tardiness will not be tolerated. If you have special circumstances which prevent your being on time, discuss this with your instructor in the first week of classes. There will be no make-ups for grades missed due to tardiness.

Acceptable excuses do NOT begin with My dog, My roommate, My mother, My alarm clock, My car . . .

Grading

You will be graded regularly in class on assigned materials, through prepared in-class performances, recorded performances on MIDI disk, written quizzes, 'pop' quizzes, written assignments, compositions, and/or other materials. Your midterm and final juries will each result in several grades. Each grade assigned during the semester will be weighted equally in determining your final course grade. Missed grades due to absence or tardiness will be averaged into the final grade as zeros. You may view your grades at any time on WebCT. 

Juries

Midterm and final juries will take place in Dr. Morenus' teaching studio, Cook Hall 204. Each of these juries will consist of several components, which may include repertoire, sight reading, score reading, harmonization, transposition, keyboard theory, technique, and/or improvisation. Both Dr. Morenus and your instructor will be present for these juries and will each assign grades for each portion of the jury. Your grade for each portion of the jury will be determined by averaging the two grades you receive for that portion. You will receive detailed information regarding the content of the jury at least two weeks in advance of the jury dates.

Practicing

Practice rooms are available in Old Union. You may use the upright piano rooms. The grand piano rooms are reserved for those students enrolled in applied piano lessons. You need to check out a key at the Music Department office, which you may keep while you are attending ISU.

Practice rooms are available in the basement of Cook Hall. In order to practice after 7 PM or on weekends, you will need go to the Music Department Office, (Centennial East 230) to have your Student ID card activated for access.

You may also practice in the group piano lab (CE 209) during Open Lab Hours .

Plan on spending a minimum of 30 minutes per day practicing your group piano materials. Many students find that they need to allot 1 hour per day for practice. Do not attempt to 'cram' for your midterm and final juries. It won't work. Daily practice is necessary in order to develop piano skills, just as you need to practice your major instrument on a daily basis. 

Getting Help

If you are having difficulties, or when you have questions, see your instructor right away. We welcome your questions, and are here to help you in any way we can. You may also see Dr. Morenus for assistance: make an appointment (Cook Hall 204), drop her an email cgmoren@ilstu.edu, or leave a phone message at 438-3470. Your instructor will provide you with his/her office location and office hours.

Interactive web-based tutorials are available for all levels of PDM.  You can use these tutorials by clicking here for the tutorial website.  You will need to have Shockwave and QuickTime readers on your computer in order to use these tutorials.  If you do not already have these on your computer, you can download them without cost.  The tutorial website should automatically link you to the needed downloading sites.

MIDI files are also available for selected items from PDM. You can access these here.

To see your grades, as well as other course information, you can also go to Blackboard, also available from icampus.

Don't wait until finals week to ask for help. If you have problems, get help early so that you can have a successful semester.

Last Updated 09/07. Questions? Send email to cgmoren@ilstu.edu