What Will I Say On Halloween? a beginning piece

What Will I Say On Halloween?

I wrote this for a new student right after her first lesson. She saw the all the Halloween sheet music around my studio,  and wistfully asked me if she could play a Halloween piece.  Of course I had to draw one before her next lesson because she is so darling and wanted one so badly!

Since this student is on the first pages of her book, I wrote it without notes, just finger numbers. I am sharing it with other teachers because it was too much work for just one student! She was having a little trouble with finger numbers, so I’m going to put an pumpkin ring on her 4th finger.

It is intended to be in 3 meter, played on the black keys with the left hand. The last note in each line is a dotted half note. If you tap out the rhythm on your piano cover, students will get a feel for how it goes.

So if you have a beginner or a preschool child of your own,  please feel free to use it. Maybe the ending will encourage your  students to compose their own song! What will they say at the end?

Speeding Underground – Level One

Speeding Underground

I asked one of my students if he would like me to write a piece for him. He was excited and quickly game me a title, Speeding Underground.

I don’t know exactly what he was thinking, but in my head I thought of an underground space ship zipping through all the levels of the earth. I think it was because I had just visited the fantastic Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh where I saw very interesting exhibits  of the geology of the ground underneath Pittsburgh.

This paragraph is for new teachers.  The non-staccato notes should be played legato. For example, the student should connect the right and left hand broken chords such as the ones in the first and second measures.  I didn’t mark it, but that’s the way we play it. Let your student draw the legato slurs and they will remember them better.

I decided to write this in C minor because my young student was playing the C minor 5-finger scale at the time. It can easily be transposed to another key. All my students who have finished their Primer level book and have moved on the next book (Level 1 in most method books, but Level 2 in Hal Leonard) have  enjoyed this because it sounds harder than it is, and who can resist C minor?

See the Scarecrow – Primer Level

See the Scarecrow

It’s time for my yearly Halloween post,  where I post a new a Halloween song as well as remind new readers of my old Halloween material.

I wrote See the Scarecrow last year for a beginning student who was just starting to read on the staff.  The only thing that might be a little tricky is the RH thumb on D. This is a good piece to read something simple that is not in middle C position.

I had never drawn a scarecrow before and  it took forever, but it was fun and my students were happy with the way it turned out. There are a lot of noisy crows around the house this time of year, and  that’s what inspired me to jot down the song. It was interesting that some of my students did not know the purpose of a  scarecrow!

If you are looking for more beginning Halloween music, check out some of the pieces I have posted over the years. Most of them are written in both pre-reading and on-the-staff notation, so they are perfect for beginning  students. The last one is 2 pages and a little more difficult.

It’s October (finger numbers only for the first week of lessons)

Hey Mr. Mummy  (on staff with teacher duet)

Halloween is Almost Here (pre-reading)

Halloween is Almost Here (on  staff)

Halloween, Halloween (pre-reading)

(Halloween Halloween on the staff)

Once A year On Halloween (pre-reading)

Once a Year On Halloween (on staff)

Spooky Spiders (on the staff)

Five Little Pumpkins (pre-reading, but long for a young beginner)

Five Little Pumpkins (on the staff)

Sneaky Sneakers (Level 1)

 

 

Cute Certificate for Completing Fishy Scales

Fishy Scales Certificate

When your younger students learn their 5-finger scale patterns, reward them with this colorful certificate!

I made this last year when a teacher asked me if I had a certificate for my Fishy Scales. I didn’t have one, but I thought it was a good idea, so I made one!

I’m not quite sure why I never got around to posting this when I made it, but here it is now.

The nice thing about this certificate is that you can not only use it to go along with the Fishy Scales,  but really for anything, since it is blank.

If you are looking for something for your older students, check out this different technique certificate I posted several years ago for older students.

Be sure to set your printer to landscape mode. Try setting your printer to 2-up, which will print 2 on a page and save some paper and ink.

I hope your students enjoy the fishy scales certificate!

Rhythm Menagerie™ – a Review

Rhythm Menagerie™ Book 1 by Wendy Stevens

How would you like your music students to be proficient in playing and counting rhythm patterns, and have fun doing it?

Wendy Stevens has written and recently published the resource Rhythm Menagerie™, Reproducible Rhythm Explorations, a book to sequentially learn how to be an independent rhythm reader. Recently she sent me the book to give it a look-over and try out with my students.

I think as music teachers we want our students to be able to work out rhythms on their own and not rely on copying or learning by rote. Not only is this book very attractive with an easy to follow layout, but it is so comprehensive that students who use it diligently will certainly become independent rhythmically.

Rhythm Menagerie is 92 pages long, with 8 chapters. Each chapter features a new rhythm problem, starting with quarter and half notes and going all the way to dotted quarter notes. The book will have students enjoying themselves as they play rhythms in a fun and imaginative way. Students will also like the attractive graphics of unusual animals, with interesting information about each one. The graphics are suitable for all ages of piano students, good news for those of use with older beginners.

Have you ever noticed that some students are so concerned about the notes that their rhythm and steady beat is all over the place, and not in a good way? Wendy says that students will learn to read rhythms easier and be more successful if they are not also trying to play notes at the same time.

Rhythm Menagerie is an excellent resource to use along with a regular lesson book at a private lesson, but it can also be adapted for groups, such as a summer music camp. Home school families who want to introduce some music into their curriculum might also find this book useful.

After downloading the book, Wendy suggests printing out one page a week to use at the lesson and gradually work on rhythm skills throughout the year. I think that if you use the book with an older beginner, you can speed up the pace considerably.

Wendy’s book can be purchased and printed directly from her website. Once you have purchased the book, you can print it on your computer to use with your students again and again, and of course adapt it for your needs.

If you order the book before Sept. 20, you will receive a discount. Take a look at her the inside of her book here, and don’t forget to watch the cute video she made showing some of her students having fun with Rhythm Menagerie.

Fishy Scales Revised with a Very Sad Minor Fish!

Minor                                 Major

Fishy Scales

If you’re not using Fishy Scales to motivate your students to practice 5-finger scales, cross-overs, or octave scales, you might want to try this out for the new teaching year with your elementary age students.  They are recently revised after a suggestion from one of my students to draw the minor fish “sad-looking.” I’m sharing the new design with you. (The major fish is the same.)

Now it is easier to identify minor sounds because students can relate it to the fish. Younger students are always asking me why some of the fish are a different color, and this is a good opportunity to let them hear the difference in major and minor chords.

After I started using Fishy Scales my students practice their scales with more enthusiasm. I make a fish for each student, and as they learn a scale they are very excited to write the name in the “scale” on their fish. When they complete a scale set, I give them their fish to keep and we post a new one for the next set.

I keep them on my wall with  reusable lightweight mounting strips, which come in all sizes. They are very easy to remove when I don’t want “fish” on my piano room wall, and easy to replace.

Print them out on card stock for best results, and cut each page on the lines. There is no need to cut out each fish individually. My students also write on the card what they are working on, such as Octave Scales or 5-Finger Scales.

Thanks to Arlene Steffen for the idea for Fishy Scales. It really is a lot of fun, good motivation, and is very easy for a teacher to implement.

Pumpkin Keyboard Race

Pumpkin Keyboard Race

If you are looking for a quick way for your beginning students to identify the names of the piano keys, look no further. There is nothing like a little friendly competition for students to quickly learn a concept. This game is quick, easy to set up, and fun for students of all ages.

This is the same game as  Shamrock Keyboard Race, which I use all year round. But since most students start piano lessons this time of the year, I decided it would be fun to have one with pumpkins and autumn leaves to get in the spirit of the season. I also made this same game with snowflakes to use in the winter.

Game Instructions

The teacher and student sit on the bench at each end of the piano. Each player has one set of cards and one token. The first player draws a card and moves his token to that piano key, the closest to the end of the piano. The second player does the same. Play continues with each player drawing a card and moving his token toward the middle of the keyboard. The game is over when one player passes the middle of the keyboard.

I like to use colored erasers as tokens for games on the piano keys. The ones that fit on the ends of pencils make great tokens for this game, come in lots of colors and you can buy a large assortment for about $1.00 this time of year.

Have fun!

The teacher and student sit on the bench at each end of the piano. Each player has one set of cards and one token. The first player draws a card and moves his token to that piano key, the closest to the end of the piano. The second player does the same. Play continues with each player drawing a card and moving his token toward the middle of the keyboard. The game is over when one player passes the middle of the keyboard.

Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats Revised

Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats, the worksheets that I made several years ago, are great to help students who are having trouble writing key signatures. Sometimes students are confused or have trouble putting the accidentals on the correct line or space.  Last year I changed some of the graphics in my old versions  for a cleaner, more updated look, and I am just now posting them.

I laminate these and use them as helpful posters when I am showing how to write key signatures.  They can also be printed and put in the  student’s binder for reference. The blank staff at the bottom can be used for practice. If you print multiple copies, try using the “fast” or “economy” setting to save ink. I do that and they look fine, just not as vibrant.

The large staves and spaced apart sharps and flats really do make writing key signatures simple and fearless, especially if I use them with 2 other helpful posters on a giant staff, Down a Fourth and Up a Fourth. Many students have told me they didn’t understand how to write key signatures until we used Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats. With fall testing coming around, I hope they will be useful.

Want to Draw Your Own Clip Art on Your Computer?

Photoshop Elements 8 for Digital Art, Illustration & Cartoons

Today I am going to share with you how I started drawing my art on the computer. As you may have guessed, I am completely self-taught.

Some years ago I found myself the owner of  Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, which came free with a digital camera. This program is the “baby” version of the expensive Photoshop, at about 1/10 the price. It is easier to learn than Photoshop, which is the program I use now.

I wasn’t getting very far in drawing on the computer until I bought a book called Art and Cartoons in Photoshop Elements 3 by Christopher Madden. The new edition of this book (for the latest version of Photoshop Elements) is Photoshop Elements 8 for Digital Art, Illustration & Cartoons, pictured above.

Written in language that is easy to understand, the book will take you step by step into the world of drawing on the computer.

Many of the available books  for Photoshop Elements are really for photographers, and most of the chapters are tutorials on how to retouch photographs. This book, however, is for beginners who want to know how to draw cartoons and clip art on the computer.

It starts very simply and in a few hours you will learn how to draw on the computer. You will learn how to make your own brushes of music symbols, such as treble clefs and quarter notes. Later chapters expand on this basic knowledge in more detail.

Save your drawings in layers and over time as your skills improve, you can refine them and use them repeatedly. You can paste your images on music you have written for your students in Finale, draw clip art for your worksheets, or import music into Elements and color it.

It is hard to draw with a mouse, but not impossible. If you find that drawing on the computer is something you really like, you might want to invest in a computer drawing tablet. Even this small, affordable drawing tablet ($69) will be easier than a mouse.  Wacom, the leader in digital tablets,  also makes more expensive models for serious graphic artists.

If you like to draw but have never tried drawing on the computer, you will be amazed at what you can create digitally and have fun, too!