What are some fun musical activities for two adult piano students?

March 11, 2014 9:07 PM

My friend and I are both adult intermediate piano students. Until recently we got together once a month and we would play a duet that we would learn by ourselves beforehand. But now my schedule doesn't allow me to learn duets. We'd still like to have our get-togethers though! What kind of fun musical exercises or activities could we do at the piano that doesn't require (much) prior practice?
posted by storybored to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

How's your sightreading? Good enough to learn a little of the new duet when you get together? Bang out the easy bits and laugh through the hard bits!

Keep playing the duets you've previously learnt.

Play Heart & Soul, swap parts, improvise like crazy. Or just have one person play a standard chord progression, the other improvises over it. Swap, change up the rhythm etc. Do it blues style and make up some ridiculous lyrics.

Play alternate bars/lines/phrases of solo pieces you both know. Make a big effort to match the volume and phrasing.

Play pop songs you both like. One of you can play the bass line and vocals, the other can be chords and fills. Really think about how to arrange the song for 2 pianos and then play it that way. Sing!
posted by pianissimo at 1:16 AM on March 12, 2014

Sightread solo pieces with one of you doing the right hand, the other left hand.

Play "question and answer": one person plays out a musical question (as simple or elaborate as you'd like), the other improvises a musical answer through to a cadence.
posted by Bardolph at 5:42 AM on March 12, 2014

Improvise.

One person comes up with a chord progression while the other plays a melody over it. You don't even have to worry about any theory (just use your ears) unless you want "homework", in which case you can pick a key and research the notes to play and the most useful chords from that key.
posted by TinWhistle at 12:21 PM on March 12, 2014