These programs have been well received at Community Centers and Senior Residences all over the greater Boston area. Some groups prefer less talking and more playing; I am flexible about that. Many groups like to do sing-along as part of the program.

 I CHOPIN NOCTURNES: THE SECRET IS IN THE LEFT HAND

    • Performance of 5 of the Nocturnes by Chopin plus excerpts of others

    • Harmony and emotion

    • Background of the genre, John Field

    • The state of the instrument in Chopin’s time

    • Chopin’s style as pianist and teacher

    • Patterns on the keyboard and sound textures

    • Physics of sound, harmonic series

    • Sonority, pedal

II BASIC HARMONY FOR THE SERIOUS LISTENER: BACH, MOZART, CHOPIN AND DEBUSSY

    • Concepts

    • Triads

    • Folk music

    • Sing along

    • Major scale and chord function

    • Chord progression

    • Bass line

    • Major – minor color contrast

    • Dissonance

    • Chromaticism

    • French Music c 1900

    • Examples

    • Bach

    • Chopin

    • Debussy

    • Mendelssohn

    • Mozart

    • Pachelbel

    • Satie

    • Schubert

III MOZART, BEETHOVEN AND THE SONATA

    • Early classical sonatas

    • Form and Symmetry

    • Process and transformation

    • Examples by Scarlatti, Clementi, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn

    • Emphasis on Beethoven’s 1st Piano Sonata, 4 movements

    • Other forms, Rondo

IV THE WALTZ

    • History

    • Other dances in triple meter

    • Social role of dance

    • Types of waltzes

    • Music by: Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Strauss, Ravel, Lanner

    • Broadway Waltzes

    • Sing along

V RAGTIME, BLUES AND GERSHWIN

    • Beethoven

    • Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag

    • Debussy 1862-1918

    • Blues Definition

    • Blues piano, Leroy Carr

    • The Blues in the Night

    • Professor Longhair

    • Blue Monk

    • Gershwin

    • Gershwin Songs

    • Preludes

    • Rhapsody in Blue- excerpts

    • Ravel

    • Jazz connection to French harmony

    • Satie Gymnopedie

    • Sing along