Jingle Bells with Rhythm Instruments at a Group Lesson

Jingle Bells with instruments

I bought the electronic version of the new book by Philip Johnston called The Dynamic Studio: How to keep students, dazzle parents, and build the music studio everyone wants to get into. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate because I get questions about where to buy the things I write about. Amazon sends me a few cents if a reader buys something from clicking  the book link.) Philip Johnston writes inspiring books that get me enthused to teach in different ways. One of his main ideas is to be different; don’t always do the same thing. Maybe that was on my mind when I decided to use rhythm instruments in my group lessons.

After an unsuccessful search for an easy piano/rhythm band ensemble I could use in a group lesson without a lot of preparation, I wrote my own.  I arranged this specifically to be easy enough that they could be successful without having to practice, so please keep that in mind.

I  wrote the second piano part for an electric bass, which some students can play. This part can also be played on the piano, so I call it Piano 2 in the score. You can also use bells or any other tuned instrument, and it sounds fine to omit it.

The first group was my youngest students. They absolutely loved the instruments. But if you have ever used rhythm instruments with young children, you know what a challenge they are.  I didn’t mind that some of them could not play the written part and just played the steady beat.  I was surprised that a few of them actually followed the score. I let the little beginner on the bells shake them through the entire song rather than the way I wrote it in the score. No one in that group reads well enough for the piano part. I had to play by ear because I could not find the piano score! That seemed to amuse the young group.

The second group of 9 and 10-year-old students was absolutely the right age for this activity. Without any practice, (except for the Piano 1 part, which I gave to a 5th grader the week before) they were able to read the score and play the correct rhythm. We traded instruments and repeated it a few times. I am only sorry that I didn’t record it, because they did really well. The student playing the piano part was thrilled to be part of an ensemble.

After that, we changed directions and performed on the piano for each other using good performance skills. Everyone had learned a Christmas song or a favorite piece. That did not take too long and we went on to the next activity.

They had all been looking at the electric bass and wondering why it was there. We discussed the history of the electric bass and how it was like the double bass. I also got in some theory with the older groups, as we discussed the root of chords and how that is an easy way to play the bass. This is where taking our state theory exam really helped. I demonstrated with my meager guitar skills (Me on the electric bass, how funny was that!) and then let them all try it.

Our last activity was playing a Thanksgiving board game, with different level cards for each age group. I was relieved my students enjoyed the game because I had not tried it out with a group. Even my older students had fun and reviewed some theory at the same time. Finally, we just had enough time to pass out cookies and candy canes, and they all left happy.

Later I asked what was their favorite activity. Can you guess what it was? The rhythm instruments! So with that in mind, I am sharing my simple score with you. Feel free to change the instruments to whatever you have on hand, even homemade instruments.

Obviously you don’t need a score for this simple rhythm section, but my students found it interesting, and it helped me focus. If one of your students has a family member who can play the Piano 2 part on the electric bass or any other instrument, that would be really fun, especially for a Christmas recital! Please alert me if you find any mistakes in my score, as I don’t have an editor. Have fun and if you have a successful performance, let me know!

Father We Thank Thee and Other Thanksgiving Hymns

Father We Thank Thee For the Night

Have you ever noticed the lack of Thanksgiving music for elementary piano students? Today I am posting an arrangement of one of my favorite hymns for children. I even wrote a teacher duet! I remember as a child singing this in elementary school and in Sunday school, where all the children would get together in a large group and sing before we gathered into our age groups. I think this hymn makes a wonderful Thanksgiving song for your students. Maybe they can sing along while they play! Let me know if you see any mistakes. I usually try to get another teacher to check out my duets for errors, but I was not able to do that for this one.

If you are looking for other Thanksgiving music for beginners, check out my website. All of these are Primer level and written on the staff, unless noted. Some of these use clip art rather than my own art.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

American the Beautiful

All Creatures of Our God and King

Bless Us O Lord, and These Thy Gifts That We Receive  Also, check out the easy duet part for this that can be played by a family member. Click here for a pre-reading version for beginners.

Hurray, Thanksgiving Day – Pre -Reading was written for a beginner who really wanted a Thanksgiving piece. I had many teachers ask me for the same 8 measure song but on-the-staff, so here is the staff version. Hurray, Thanksgiving Day – on the staff

There are also several Thanksgiving seasonal games posted on my website, so check them out if you’re interested.

Do you have a favorite public domain Thanksgiving him you want arranged for Primer level? List it in a comment here and depending on the hymn melody, I’ll work on it for next year.

 

Easter Bunny – An On the Staff Version

Easter Bunny

I promise I will not post anymore versions of Easter Bunny! Fortunately my students aren’t getting tired of it!

This version is really good for a student in Primer or Level 1 who has just learned staccato notes and wants to try them out. And if they can play it right away, that’s even more fun for them. There are skips in this piece, so if your student needs a little help with that, let her find and circle them and practice in the air and on the piano cover.

There are 2 pages to this version and a duet that is very simple. An older sibling or parent can play along. I hope your student will have a hoppy time playing this!

Don’t forget that I have posed an Easter bunny composing printable for beginners that you can do this week, as well as many Easter worksheets. Also, here is a Passover worksheet to learn notes.  PassoverEggNotes

A Fun Pre-Reading Easter Bunny Song

Easter Bunny

I wrote a little song about the Easter Bunny in several different levels of difficulty. This is the first version. It is suitable for young beginners who are comfortable with the thumbs on the white keys. I have an 8-measure version in landscape orientation and I will post that tomorrow. I also have an on-the-staff version for students in their 2nd method book (Level 1 in most methods, Level 2 in Hal Leonard)  that I am working on. This is the reason I like to self publish. I can customize music for different levels.

To help students who get their hands mixed up, I like to highlight the right and left hands with 2 different colored highlighters. If you have never done this in their lesson book you will be surprised how helpful it is. Students enjoy picking out the colors and that adds a little motivation. (Try to find a set with purple. It’s very hard to come by!) We all have students who focus on one hand and need some extra help to get them together. Some students always get the left and right hands mixed up, as well as some adults, such as me! Simple songs like this can really help that problem before they move on to reading on the staff.

Blogging is a spare time activity for me, and I have not had time to post all the spring time material I’ve made. Sometimes things sit in my files for years before I have time to modernize, revise, and post it. Thank you for all your suggestions, and thanks for understanding! I really appreciate and have learned so much from my readers and the blogging community.

Do you find it helpful for me to highlight the hands like this? Leave a comment if you do. You may remain anonymous!

Roses Are Red – a Pre-reading Valentine

Roses Are Red

I have a new little student who just started lessons using the unique and very creative piano method book, My First Piano Adventures, by Nancy and Randall Faber. This wonderful series is has everything you need for young beginners, but I like to make extra material to go along with the book, just for fun or review.

My student was so excited when I asked her if she would like a Valentine’s song! When I checked out my resources, I could not find a Valentine’s piece that was easy enough, so I came up with a Valentine she can play.

If you like using this kind of material for young beginners, get a copy of My First Piano Adventures Book A and study it carefully!

Silent Night Level 2

Silent Night

Each year I buy my students a Christmas book at their level or maybe just a little below their level. I want them to be able to learn them quickly, except for my older students who want to work on something longer.

One of my students had a book without Silent Night, so I made this for him. He was hesitant about the dotted quarter notes, but I told him to play like he sings it, and then it was fine. I have this little ditty that I sing, “The rhythm is the way the words go, yeah.”

Actually, I have plenty of time to teach him how to count, but for now I just want him to enjoy the seasonal music we all love.

When I made the art work, it had interesting textures that didn’t show up when I made it so tiny.  But at least it adds a little color.

I have a Primer/Level 1  version on my website, if this one is too hard.

Enjoy the season!

Hurray, Thanksgiving Day on-the-staff

Hurray, Thanksgiving Day

If you used the pre-reading version of this song last year, you might be interested in my new version. I updated the art, changed the words a little, and added a very easy teacher duet that a family member can play. I wanted a Thanksgiving song that was fun to play, yet was more about the meaning of Thanksgiving.

The following are some hints for new teachers or parents who may want to try it with a beginning student or a student with some reading problems.

Teach the song by singing it to the child while you and the child tap the beat on the piano cover. Use a key higher than F because this song is not written in a child’s vocal range. When the child can sing the song, he or she is ready to learn it on the piano.

Discuss the time signature and point out the upbeat (incomplete measure) before the first measure. Simply show that the last beat from the end of the song is added to the beginning. Students accept that, and usually think it’s rather clever. If they are curious, I *sadly* tell them it can only be done at the beginning. As the child learns the notes, you can work on playing the upbeat softer than the downbeat. This concept can be explained in more detail when the student reaches that part of their method book, so a simple explanation is fine.

Help the child discover that the right hand moves by steps. This is a good piece to get experience starting on a note other than middle C.  They can have some fun by wiggling the thumb and pretending they are dropping it into some mashed potatoes. Parents, resist the temptation to write in all the notes or finger numbers.

They might feel more comfortable with the left hand because the thumb is on middle C. The LH notes are a little more difficult because there are some skips and leaps, so let the child find those places and circle them.  Spot practice difficult spots with fingers in the air, and then on the piano cover. I wonder what food the LH thumb can drop into!

Some young beginners have trouble alternating from right to left hand. I’ve found that a different colored highlighter for each hand can make a big difference. Use a pointer to help students’ eyes track the notes.

While this might seem like a lot to do for a simple 8 measure piece, remember I’m giving instructions for a beginner or a student who has trouble reading new pieces, not for a more experienced student. Taking time in the beginning helps the student become a good reader later down the road.

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)

 

 

Chocolate Valentines and other Valentine Piano Music

Chocolate Valentines pre-reading

Here is a little Valentine’s piece for your beginning students who have learned how to use all 5 fingers. It’s very easy because there are no skipping notes. It is good for sight-reading because the second line is a little harder for them.

I have several students who are beginning readers and I wanted to re-use my graphic, so I made an on-the staff version.

 Chocolate Valentines on-the-staff

If you are looking for more Valentine’s Day material, a few years ago I posted several arrangements of folk songs we sang when I taught school, as well as some Valentine themed activities. The links are below:

Love Somebody Pre-reading

Love Somebody Primer (on-the-staff)

Love Somebody Level 2 (8th notes and some hands together)

There’s a Little Wheel a-Turning in my Heart (late elementary)

Write a Valentine’s Song (a composing activity)

Valentine Notes (a worksheet to write notes on a grand staff)

Valentine Note  worksheet  (draw lines to connect notes to the staff)

Rhythm Heart Beats (for dictation)

More Rhythm Heart Beats

If you want to keep up with other Valentine’s Day material I may post, you can subscribe to this Word Press blog at the top. It is completely private and you can unsubscribe any time.

Enjoy!

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas

I don’t think too many of my students know this carol before I teach it to them. While I was doing research, I discovered it wasn’t in any of the many denominations of hymn books I have around my studio. I remember singing it in school and I always liked it.  But in today’s world, children are not exposed to Chrismas carols as I was growing up, so I like to teach them to my students.

Even though your students may not know it, they  love to hear about the good, kindly king who helped the poor man stay warm during the cold days of winter. It reminds us that not everyone is  as fortunate as most of us are.

This is a song with not very many skips, so you always find it in beginning level Christmas books. I shaded the left hand for the beginning students who have trouble knowing which hand to use. Notice that the left hand thumb is on B in my version, but the fingering  can  easily be changed.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Twelve Days of Christmas

This one took some time. It was hard for me to figure out how to write this  so that an older first year student could play it. (Young children don’t have the attention span for this version. Give them the two-verse pre-reading version I posted several years ago.) I didn’t want eighth notes, so I settled on the rhythm you can see above. When  played at a fast clip, it sounds correct.  All twelve verses are included.  It took forever to draw a partridge in a pear tree, but I managed to finally muster up something to add a little color to the page. My daughter drew the turtledoves on the last page.

I have included some finger numbers that are useful for such a long piece as this. The right hand thumb is on middle D, and the left hand thumb is on middle C.  I realize many beginning students are not comfortable with this hand position, so change it around if you need to.  However, more and more teachers are using method books that do not keep both thumbs on middle C, and finding  it is a lot more comfortable and easier to keep a rounded hand shape.

When my students play The Twelve Days of Christmas,  I  tell them to play only 6 verses, not the entire song if they plan to play it for family or friends. I’ve never listened to all 12 verses at a piano lesson, either. Let’s face it, this is a singing song, not really  piano playing music! But I’m posting it here because I could not find an easy version for a student who asked for it,  and I thought I would share it with you!

A Thanksgiving Pre-reading Piece

Hurray, Thanksgiving Day

There aren’t too many Thanksgiving carols and hymns,  and trying to find a pre-reading one is even harder. With this in mind, I started writing some this summer, but time being in short supply, this is the only one I’ve been able to post.

As I wrote it I thought about all the fun I had when I was a little girl in South Carolina getting together with all my relatives on Thanksgiving on the farm. I had many cousins, and we all played together outside and had a great time.   When I asked one of my beginning students what is the most fun about Thanksgiving, she said it was playing with her cousins, so I guess things have not changed that much after all!

This beginning piece is not in middle C position, so follow the fingering on the tiny keyboard. There is a skip on the first line in the left hand as well as a fourth. That will be a problem, especially the skip,  so practice your “skipping fingers” on the piano cover. I highlighted the left and right hand parts to make it easier for one of my students. I also made an on-the-staff version, and I hope I get it posted before Thanksgiving!

Hey, Mr. Mummy

Hey, Mr. Mummy

I don’t know how these little ditties come in my head, but my students like them and I hope some of yours will, too. If so, let me know. All I have to go by are your emails and comments, and I really appreciate those! Some of you have sent pictures, and that is so much fun for me!

This one was especially challenging because I had never attempted to draw a mummy before. I’ve done frogs, ducks, pumpkins, turkeys, but never a mummy. Except for a few older things still on my website that I keep forgetting to update, I don’t use clip art because I want a consistent look, and also I’m not quite sure about the copyright issues.

I  added a real simple teacher duet to this piece, so you will not have to improvise one.

Last year a student performed this,  and we made it longer by repeating it an octave higher. If you are having a Halloween recital, you might want to try that with this one or some of the pieces I posted earlier.

American Portraits by Wendy Stevens

Wendy Stevens the creative teacher from ComposeCreate has a new book, hot off the press, called American Portraits, Six Character Pieces for Piano Solo. The premise of this book is original. Wendy chose 6 people from American history, unsung heroes as she writes in the preface, and wrote a piece about each of them. I love history and I am actually certified to teach it, so I was immediately intrigued by this book and rushed down to the Hal Leonard booth at TMTA and bought a copy. I am glad that I did, because I have  been enjoying playing through the book and getting to know the pieces.

 The music is late intermediate level. As I played, I tried to imagine the historical figures and what they must have gone through, and the courage and inner strength they must have had. The music expresses this and it is easy to get lost in the music and just enjoy the imagery.

 The music has interesting but beautiful harmonic shifts and some syncopated rhythms that will delight your students. There is a contemporary feel, and the music has lovely melodies that are sometimes haunting, sometimes playful, but always heroic and larger than life, like the heroes she is writing about. Each piece is about 4 pages and can be played by students with small hands on the small side.

 The character sketches include Abigail Adams, Davy Crocket, the artist Thomas Moran, Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad, the midnight riders of revolutionary times, and pioneer women. There is an entire page of a  picture and insightful biography before each piece.

 There is also a page of performance notes that describe each piece. For example, in Frontier Chorus, the piece about Davy Crocket, Wendy begins, “The melody in the A section begins like one I would imagine Davy Crockett whistling on a clear, crisp morning.” These performance notes will help your students capture the spirit of these American heroes and learn something about style and imagery. Hal Leonard is certainly to be commended for including these extra pages that make the pieces come to life. Hal Leonard also has posted some pages from the book.

 In our local schools there is a history fair each year, and I think this book would be a great starting point to choose a project. This would also be a good book for students who are looking for a home school project. I hope some of the teachers and parents reading this will consider working this book into their students’ history curriculum if the student is capable of late intermediate music. Another suggestion would be for a teacher to discuss and perform these as a mini-recital in a history class, a history club, or at a senior center. Teachers could even have a student recital with a “hero”  or historical American  theme. If you have any suggestions for other music with this theme, please post in the comments to share with others.

Canada Day

Canada Day

There are a lot of Canadian teachers who read this blog, and they are all so nice. They email me with such nice comments,  support the site quite out of proportion to their numbers,   and I am so appreciative.  I have visited Canada and the people are good-hearted and friendly.  I am a big fan of your maple syrup and beautiful summer flower gardens.

I remember back in 1976 when I was in a small town in near the Canadian border watching a Bicentennial parade. The town was so small there was no band, so a high school in Canada sent their tiny marching  band to play in the parade. They had learned a bunch of American tunes to play just for the parade and to honor our Bicentennial. It was so sweet and I’ve always wanted to thank them.

Canada Day is July 1, close to our Fourth of July and it is a holiday like our Fourth of July, with picnics, lots of red and white,  and all kinds of summer fun.  I borrowed the format and some other things from my 4th of July pre-reading piece, but I started from scratch with the flag and the border.  I even made a maple leaf brush in Photoshop to draw the border!   

Change the fingering if you wish. Be sure and set your printer to landscape, and I hope your little students enjoy this! Let me know if I captured the feeling of Canada Day for your youngest beginning student.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas — Elementary

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

I arranged this a few years ago for a student who was in-between levels 1 and 2. We wanteds something a little more fancy than just the melody. I am posting it here to share with you. Over the summer I spruced it up a little. I added some color, put Santa on a diet,  and wrote the words to the second verse.

I have a set of jingle bells that I like to play during the introduction and coda while the student plays the song. They won’t miss the rhythm if they think “Jin-gle Bells -rest” as they play the first 3 measures. When the bass has the melody in measure 9, sometimes I’ll sing it as written, and sometimes up an octave with a funny voice. We get really silly and have lots of fun. You can also use it as a learning experience and discuss singing up and down octaves. While it’s old hat to us, it can be a new concept for our young students.

I was on vacation for a while and haven’t posted some of the things I worked on before I left. I have a few more Christmas solos that I hope to get up soon.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all the teachers who have emailed me with comments and suggestions. It means a lot to me to hear from all of you!

Deck the Halls — Late Elementary

Deck the Halls

The other day I was looking for an arrangement of this for one of my students and I couldn’t find the level I needed,  so I wrote one.

Here is a word of advise for non-piano teachers reading this who might want to print it out for themselves or their children. While this looks very easy, playing different melody lines in each hand like I wrote in this piece is a skill that takes a lot of practice for most children.  If they have not done it before, they will probably get frustrated. There are also some finger crossings,  changes of positions, and dotted quarter notes which a lot of first and second year students have not been taught.  I do not suggest giving this to an elementary student in his first year of piano. If a student can play the C Major scale hands together, he is probably ready for this.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas-Pre-reading

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Last year about this time I posted a pre-reading version of this well-known Christmas song. I had no idea that for many months it would be  the most popular download on my site! I’ve always heard that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But since I post for educational purposes and not commercially,  I have removed the one I posted last year and replaced it with a new one, which you can see above.

In an effort to help students with learning problems, specifically visual tracking problems, and also to help very young students, I changed several things in this new version. I made the note heads bigger, which is quite easy to do in Finale, I color coded the notes. I always use a highlighter to do that anyway in the method books I use.  I added a light yellow background to help the student track which line he is on. While our older beginners without visual learning problems do not need this extra help,  we often forget what a challenge this is for most 4 and 5 year olds. I added art drawn by my talented daughter.

As a music educator with years of experience, I’m not going to get into a fight about pre-reading or the age students should start piano. Let me just say that students who start piano early with a good teacher who knows how to teach preschool children, have a much better sense of musicality than if they had started later. And while a lot of teachers despise pre-reading, when used correctly it is a great aid. Certainly we don’t want to use pre-reading when it is not necessary and we want to get to a real staff as soon as possible.  With my own students the rate varies from a week or two up to almost a year. I do not hesitate to take children with learning problems. Many of them have wonderful musicality in aspects of music besides simply learning to read. In the past many of  these children give up  thinking they could read music or become a musician because they were forced into learning just like our other students. Some of them became successful playing guitar by ear but never learned to read a note. One of the reasons I make so much of my own material is because it is designed for specific students. If one way doesn’t work, we try another.

I asked one of my adorable  students who has music reading problems if he has trouble reading a map. He admitted that he cannot read a map. I told him that I can’t either, but I get around just fine and never get lost. I have learned other ways to get around and I have a good sense of direction. Maps just look too confusing but I can tell you what is on the southwest corner of any intersection for miles around.  I can remember obscure history facts, but I don’t do well in visual memory games.   I had a terrible time learning how to read music, even though I was always several grades ahead in my reading group at school and I started first grade a year early because I was already reading books.  In piano I  could never remember which one was B or D, which one was G or F and ledger lines were torture.  I could not tell if the notes repeated. They seemed to jump around all over the page. Teachers constantly wrote that I was not working up to my potential. I have no idea why I have these odd strengths and weaknesses, but it really helps me understand the problems students have.  Fortunately I did master my music reading problems, and I did very well as a music major in college. Certainly ear training and sight singing were easy for me and music history was a breeze! I could remember who wrote everything and what year it was written.

Many piano teachers never had music reading problems, so they really don’t understand those of us who did. I tell my students  that we have to find other ways to learn to play piano because there are many ways to go about it. From the email that I get, there are many teachers who realize there is more than one way to learn to read music and the challenge is to make it enjoyable and musical.  One day we may unlock the secrets to learning. Today the challenge is not to give up OR to obsess about learning to read music, but to come up with different ideas to produce music literacy and give our students some space.

The next time you get a transfer student who can play but can’t read, don’t blame the previous teacher. She probably did the best she could; and some students take longer than others. Thank goodness we now realize that piano can be for everyone!

Away in a Manger, Kirpatrick tune, on the staff

Away in a Manger

I had many teachers email me to ask if I would post this version. It turns out that this tune is used in Canada and also with some of the other churches here in the US.  I also have readers in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand who use this tune! It is a small world when we are all united by music and the goal of sharing our gift of music with others. That is why I started this blog, to share and to get to know teachers from all over who take the time to write and let me know how much they enjoy a community of music teachers who like to share ideas. Thanks so much for your emails. It really means a lot to me!

It was no problem to post this because I was already using it  with one of my students who knew this tune.  He hasn’t learned 8th notes yet, but he came back after one week and could play it perfectly. (Before I sent him home with it, we had clapped and tapped the rhythm using Kodaly syllables, ta, ta, ti-ti and also the words of the song.) He hinted he wanted one that was harder. So this morning, bright and early I was at the computer working on a late elementary level with hands together. I hope it will be “hard” enough, but not too hard! You just don’t find this tune in Christmas books here in the US.

By now, if you are starting to get confused by all the versions, I certainly understand, because I am, too.  In my files, I have about 7 or 8 versions and tunes of Away in a Manger and it is very easy to get mixed up. I am going to start calling this the Kirkpatrick version, because, after all, he wrote the tune and deserves the credit.

Of course, the great majority of my readers want the other version, the one that most of the children here in the US know.  If you want the more popular melody, the one most well known in the US, I posted the pre-reading and elementary levels  last year. Do a search or check  here for the elementary level and here for the pre-reading level.

If you are looking for more difficult arrangements of Christmas music, there are some great Christmas books with wonderful arrangements from all the publishing companies. There are some books with all secular Christmas music, too, if that fits the needs of your students. There are also carefully graded Hanukkah books, too. All of my students who want one get a Christmas or holiday  book and I think it is the highlight of the year for them.

Pre-reading Away in a Manger, Anglican version

Away in  a Manger

There are several tune settings for this well-known Christmas carol. Last year I posted the version that is the most popular version here in the United States.  But there are other versions, including the one I am posting today.   This version is also the one most often used in the UK, according to my friends from England. If you are from the Anglican tradition, this is probably the version you know.  

I did some research on this tune. For some reason I thought maybe it was an old English tune, maybe even a folk song. I was surprised to discover the tune was actually composed by a member of the Methodist church here in the United States. How it became the tune used by the Church of England is probably an interesting story! Maybe it was chosen because it is really a lovely melody and very child friendly. Spanning just over one octave, it is easy to sing and play. The lilting melody has no dotted notes and fits the words perfectly. The harmony is charming and I hope to add a teacher duet one of these days.

I tried very hard not to put this in C position, but it really made no sense to force it into another key when the key of C  works out so well for pre-reading this melody. I did have to add a hand crossing to play the A above middle C, but I don’t think that will be too much of a problem if your student started lessons a few months ago. I hope the diagram at the top will help with that.

For those of you who always ask, yes, I drew the pictures including the manger, the hand, and the keyboard in Photoshop. I  engraved the score in Finale.

I have a traditional  score that I’m using with some of my students that is exactly like this, except the notes are on the grand staff . If there is enough interest from the UK, I will also post it here.