Function-based accompaniment on keyboards (FUBAK)

The new curriculum for music in Swedish compulsory school puts strong emphasis on singing and ensemble-playing. Each child is expected to learn basic keyboard, guitar, bass and percussion skills. This puts great demands both on schools’ equipment and on teaching methods. In this workshop, a method for whole-class teaching of fundamental keyboard skills is presented.  The method has been tested with teacher students that have no earlier experience with playing piano or keyboard. The results are promising: within nine weeks, all participant students could accompany childrens’ songs with three to six chords without looking at their fingers and they could transpose these songs into a new key with no more than fine minutes of practice.

The FUBAK-metod is based on some simple principles:

• Each function (Tonic, Dominant etc.) has its dedicated fingering that is kept during transpositions

• When changing between functions (chords) each voice is moving as short a distance as possible

• Each chord is in three part harmony with the left hand playing the root of the chord and the right hand playing two other chord notes.

• The main focus is on aural and kinaesthetic perception of the playing – visual and tactile aspects are actively ignored aside in order to focus on sound and movements.

This function-based method for learning basic accompaniment on keyboard seems promising on the following grounds:

1: For teachers with little or no experience of piano-playing, it provides a quick way of learning to accompany while keeping contact with the class instead of focusing on the fingers and chords.

2: For music teachers it provides a quick method to teach chord-playing to children

3: The function-based approach inculcates, through playing, a theoretical understanding of the relation between chords within a key. It also gives a  hands-on, or rather “in-hand”-experience of  voicing and does to a large extent facilitate accompaniment by ear.

4: The same technique can be used for different musical roles: a) bass-line in left hand and chords (two notes) in right, b) chords (two notes) in left hand and melody or improvisation in right hand, c)  the bass is left to another instrument and the keyboardist plays only the two notes that constitute the chord.

In summary,  this  method for Function Based Accompaniment on Keyboards provides music teachers with a simple and effective way to teach playing and theoretical understanding simultaneously.