Kansas Music Standard #2: The teacher of music has skills in improvising melodies, variations and accompaniments.

Knowledge

• The teacher understands how to perform written accompaniments on the music keyboard or chord instrument and how to transpose accompaniments to appropriate keys.

Performance

• The teacher improvises accompaniments that are stylistically appropriate.
• The teacher improvises original melodies in a variety of styles, over given harmonic progression each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality.
• The teacher uses resources to illustrate and teach improvisation.
• The teacher performs simple accompaniments appropriate for classroom use.
• The teacher transposes on musical instruments at sight.

    

As a Music Education major, we are all required to pass Piano Proficiency. The list of requirements to pass this test includes:

        Technical/Theoretical Scales
        Cadences
        Harmonization to a traditional folk song melody
        Reading Lead Sheet
        Transposition
        Reading Simple Accompaniments/Literature
        Four-Part Open Score Reading

    An example of a simple folk melody can be found here. I also have gone through all five instrumental technical courses to be a better music educator. As an accompanist, I feel I am using this skill nearly every day. When a sight reading piece arises and is quite difficult for many reasons, I can simplify chords and harmonies as I play by always looking forward. I am continuously improving these skills and my general knowledge of all instruments allows me to draw conclusions and create quick solutions. The following is an example of an improvisation lesson I used in a general grade school music class to allow students an opportunity to hear sounds and put actions to them. As a result, the students remember every action better because they have created themselves and use visual cues versus verbal. In a classroom of twenty-plus students, removing extraneous noise and increasing focus is always the better option.