It isn’t every day that you can get a free piano lesson at your local mall. But that’s precisely what happened when Dr. K, Brendan Kavangh stumbled across a 13-year-old piano girl performing.
The girl performs as people pass by. She attracts the attention of Dr. K, who promptly starts doing a dance with his hands over his knees. She continues playing a piece titled ‘Fairy Tale.’
After the girl finishes her song, Dr. K has her slide over on the piano bench and begins instructing her on what notes to play. Dr. K is trying to show her how to improvise on the piano.
Improvisation is a jazz technique that encourages players to create melodies and rhythms all of their own, pulling from scales. It takes time to learn it, but this girl is off and running, thanks to Dr. K.
Dr. K plays the accompaniment part while showing the girl what range of notes to play during their jam session. With sunglasses and a gold hoop earring, Dr. K looks more like a cool jazz musician than a skilled teacher.
Yet, the girl is playing fantastic improvisation with his quick instruction and encouragement. After about a minute, Dr. K changes the background part and shows her the new notes to play over the top. All the while, he is still playing and even yelling out in rhythm, ‘Hey, Hey, Hey!’
The ending is a big flurry of notes and one final hit. The girl’s name is Star Taylor, and she has been playing piano for six years. Dr. K says, ‘Well, you are a Star!’ Her talent shines in this performance, along with Dr. K’s kindness.
