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.

Five Little Pumpkins Pre-reading

Five Little Pumpkins

One of my beginning students knows this song, but he hasn’t learned to read on the staff yet. He saw the “on-the-staff” version and I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to play it. To give him a little treat, I wrote this pre-reading version.  Before you print it out for your students, please make sure they are old enough to follow the notes on the page.  This is longer than most pre-reading music and I didn’t want to make two pages, so there are a lot of notes packed into one page.

If  you want to use this with a student, here are my suggestions.

1. Sing the song together for several weeks so that your student knows it. Tap it out on the fall board. Do motions with it. Use rhythm instruments. Trust me, if they don’t know this song, it is going to be difficult to follow on the page. Remember, I wrote this out for a child who can already sing it.

2. When he knows the song, you are ready to teach it on the piano. I broke it into 2 lessons and only worked on the first four lines the first week. 

3. Young students will have LOTS of trouble  following all the repeated notes. All the quarter notes are really supposed to be eighth notes, of course, and there is a reason repeated eighth notes are beamed! So get out your trusty pointer and point to the notes to help the student follow the score.

4. Of course, some of the students are capable of playing this by ear, or partly by ear, so go for it! The days where piano teachers didn’t want students to learn to play by ear are over, thank goodness.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t learn their notes, but nowadays we want a balanced approach.  

This is a pre-school song, so your older elementary students will find it babyish. Go with your instincts. If you want the on-the-staff version I posted last year, here is the link.

For all the teachers who are curious about the artwork, I drew the pumpkins and grass in PhotoShop. I wrote the notes in Finale and imported the score into Photoshop where I changed the color of the notes and added finger numbers.

Three Halloween Pre-reading Sheets

Once a Year On Halloween

 

Halloween Is Almost Here

Halloween, Halloween

A few months ago I took these off my website because I wanted to fix them up, change some things around, and add key names over the rhythm notes. Well, I’ve finished them and here they are! These were a big hit with my students last year. If you have some beginning students who like to play Halloween pieces, try them out! I also have versions of these “on the staff” if your student is past the pre-reading stage. You can get them on my website.

I had every intention of adding teacher duets, but I just have not had time. So this will give you a good chance to improvise, if you’re not inclined to do that. Just play some perfect 5ths in the right key, and before long you will be making up your own teacher duet!

To print these,  click on the titles which will take you to my website. From there click “Download”.  They are free for you to print out  for your students to enjoy.

Fourth of July Composing Activity

Fourth of July Composing Activity

If you have summer students or a summer music camp, you might be interested in this Fourth of July composing activity. This activity may take too long to do in a lesson, so students can do some at home, or you can work on it for several weeks in the lesson. 

As an introduction ask the students what instrument they would like to play in a marching band. Ask what is the difference in a band and an orchestra? Often children have never thought of that.

First learn the rhythm by saying and tapping the words. Find the syncopation and circle it if necessary. For younger students you may want to cross through the tied notes. Ask if they know why there are two notes over the word “band”.

Students can write their music in any key; this does not have to be in middle C position.  Beginning composers can write just a melody and alternate using the right and left hand on each staff system. Older students will want to write a melody with harmony. If they know tonic and dominate chords, even the 2- note variety, they will want to use them. Encourage all students to play a drum pattern in 5ths as an introduction. They can also improvise a coda using the same rhythm with the drum getting softer as the band marches away in the distance. It might be old hat to us, but not to the student. Elementary children think very concretely.

Remember good composing techniques such as repetition or sequence.  I have already built in rhythm repetition. There is nothing wrong with some lines being the same.  It is usually safe to use some sort of question and answer form. Often I will tell them to repeat one line and we decide that before we start to compose. This piece has the same rhythm in the first and last line. Show students how the melody can be the same except for the last few notes. The first line can end on the dominant and the last line on the tonic.  It is OK to set some limits, like only use steps and repeats, or steps, skips and repeats.  This actually helps the students.

Fathers Day Song

Father’s Day is almost here so I’m posting this Father’s Day Song again in case you would like to use it with your summer students and didn’t see it the first time around. This is a good activity to do at a lesson this time of the year,  depending on the age of the student and the time you have. Your student might be able to think of some words to go with the rhythm. I wonder how many students can figure out that quarter, quarter, half is the rhythm to I Love You. To speed things up, you can play some ideas, let the student decide, and you write it in for your student. To print, click on Father’s Day Song and when you get to my web site, click preview. If you have Adobe Reader on your computer you will be able to print it out.

Father’s Day Composing Activity

I didn’t want to leave off Dad, so I wrote a Father’s Day composing activity.  Unless you have real young students, by this time of the year students are now reading notes. However, this piece is a little challenging to students who have just started reading music.  There are several skips which you will need to circle and practice in the air. You will notice that I put the RH thumb on D and not middle C.  That is because I like to use other positions besides  middle C. I think it is easier on the bridge of the hand, and in the long run, helps music reading by intervals.  

This piece is written in the C pentatonic scale. Here is a suggested way to teach this activity. Step one is for beginning  or  problem readers. Skip this step if your student can sight read this section. 

1. Learn the 8 measures that are already composed by tapping the rhythm on the fall board while singing the words. Alternate between singing the words and your favorite way to count the rhythm. Find and circle the skips with a marker. Point out and draw a square around the leap of a 4th in measure 5 with another marker color.  If they haven’t learned about 4ths, call it a leap.  Play measure 6  in the air.  Have the student play one hand while you play the other. Switch sides.  On the fall board tap the rhythm using the correct hands for each staff.  When the student is ready, play both hands.

2. Tap the rhythm of the composing section. Discuss some possible words that will go with the rhythm. If your student has some ideas, write them in. If the student comes up with a different rhythm, change the rhythm notes I wrote above the staff.  

3. On another staff such as a white board or a large staff , show the 5 notes in this piece. Have your student play these notes and only use them in their composition.  Unless they change hand positions, the last note should be  bass clef middle C.

4. Going measure by measure, write in the notes on the staff. The student should play the previous measure before writing a new one so it makes musical sense. When finished, play the new section several times and adjust if necessary.

Sometimes students don’t like to follow suggestions and want to write notes that make no musical sense. There are several reasons for this such as a power play, silliness, a contrary nature, or  genuine musical curiosity.  I stay flexible and if I see a battle coming, I let them write whatever they want, as long as they can play it. Don’t engage your student in an attention seeking power play.  You know what kind of student I am talking about!

Mother’s Day on staff

Mother’s Day on the staff

I wanted a Mother’s Day activity for my students in Level 1,  so I modified the my pre-reading  Mother’s Day activity.  While it may look similar to the one I posted a few days ago,  because I reused  my flowers and graphics,  I wrote a new tune especially for this activity. This time I used steps and skips and two measures of hands together playing that is often a challenge at this level.

I call these measures the “tricky bits” and we learn them first,  hands separate. Then we play measure 3 and 4 hands together, but not on the keys. We play them in  the air, on the fall board, on our arm or leg, and any other way that strikes our fancy. By the time we finally get around to playing it on the piano, it is so firmly in the student’s muscle memory that the tricky bits become the “easy bits”. If they need a little more practice hands together, we start at the bottom of the keyboard and play going up or down in all the octaves. This takes a while, but it pays off when they get home. Students are more likely to practice if they have already worked out the “tricky bits.”

Mother’s Day Pre-reading Activity

This is a Mother’s Day activity for the young beginner. 

I had a lot of fun making it and I hope it’s not over the top with all the pink polka-dots and hearts!

When I wrote this, I decided to make the tune very easy with only one measure containing steps and skips. I didn’t put any instructions on the sheet so students can present it to their Moms as a Mother’s Day present. If you have never used composing activities like this one, email me for instructions.

 If this activity seems too easy for your students and students are familiar with pentascales,  choose a challenging key.  In the white center of the green flowers at the bottom of the page, the student can either fill in finger numbers or note names. Since the composing section  is so short, encourage your student to move up or down octaves and not just stay in one hand position. My students love to try something different, even if it doesn’t make a lot of musical sense and I’m very accepting because that will encourage them to compose more.

If you want a pretty way  for students to present this to their Mother,  trim off the white border, laminate it, and add a pink bow. Or you could print it off on sturdy card stock or glue it to foam board.  If you have any other ideas, let me know!

There’s a Little Wheel A-Turning In My Heart

I have very fond memories of teaching There’s a Little Wheel A-Turning to my elementary music classes in the 70’s.  It is a soothing kind of folk song, and it seemed to calm the children down.  For the second verse we would sing, “There’s a little song a-singing in my heart.” Sometimes the classes would make up more verses and now I don’t know which are part of the folk song, and which ones we made up.

I arranged this for some of my students who wanted a Valentine song that was more challenging. I didn’t want to make it TOO challenging, because there’s only 2 weeks to Valentine’s Day. That’s why I changed the 8th notes to quarter notes in the second measure. Also, I left out the dotted eighth notes in the melody because that just makes it look too hard. However, if you’re students can do it, add them in.

For those of you who use Finale, I had trouble notating the last measure . I wanted the final F to be a tie.  I had to make a different layer to do it. Is it done correctly and clearly? It’s hard to be a one woman publishing  company. When I learned to write music, computers took up entire rooms and there was no such thing as a personal computer, much less one that you could print out your own music. I’m totally self-taught on the computer!

One final note, children now days don’t seem to know folk songs! That’s why I like to arrange them and pass them out to children.

Love Somebody, level 2

I didn’t have plans to post this arrangement of Love Somebody, Yes I Do, because  I have already posted 2 versions, but my students have been enjoying it, so I thought I would share. If you have a young late elementary student, they might want a Valentine’s song. Like Christmas music, I wanted to arrange something they could play and enjoy right away. There isn’t much time left so I didn’t want anything too challenging. I have been using it with students in Level 2B of Piano Adventures.

There are several places in this piece that will test their sight reading skills. Let me know if they enjoy it!

Love Somebody (primer level)

If your young students started in the fall, they may be past the pre-reading version of this folk song that I posted the other day.

Today I am posting a very easy 0n-the-staff version.  I arranged  it with the right hand thumb on D, just like some of the Halloween songs I wrote back in October. You can change that around if you wish. Just white out my finger numbers!

I had fun drawing the legs on the little heart. I hope your students will enjoy it!

Love Somebody, Yes I Do

I made a lot of hearts a while back for teachers to use to work on rhythm. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up in a few weeks, I added some arms, legs, and a face to one of my hearts and put it on Love Somebody, Yes I Do.  This is a song I use to sing with my classes when I taught school. In an effort to post it in time for teachers to actually have time to use it, I haven’t tried it out with a student. So if you see anything wrong, like the time I left out bar lines ;)  please let me know.

I hope there aren’t any mistakes, however, because notating music in pre-reading is harder for me than the normal, on the staff, way. First of all you have to add the tiny keyboard so students know where to put their hands. Most songs are different, so I have to make a new one each time. Then there are all the bar lines and finger numbers that I add, plus the words and the hyphens for the words. It is very time consuming. I can do it all in Finale, and it’s faster, but I don’t like the results so I do it the hard way.  It’s all worth it if it makes a student want to practice.

Twelve Days of Christmas Pre-reading

The Twelve Days of Christmas Pre-reading

Have you ever had a student play all twelve verses of this? Maybe it’s just me, but after a few verses I feel like saying “skip to twelve and let’s move on.” Well, this pre-reading version only has two verses, which I figure is just about right for a pre-reading student. This one has the R.H. thumb on D, so if your students played my Halloween songs, they will be comfortable with this.

I tried to draw a partridge in a pear tree, but I soon realized it was going to take all night, so I just colored some boxes.

If you use this, please let me know how this goes and if you see any mistakes. I made it rather quickly. Thanks!

We Three Kings

We Three Kings was always one of my favorite Christmas carols when I was young, but when I first heard it, I didn’t like the chorus because to my little ears, it didn’t go with the verse. I loved the minor sounds in the verse and I wanted to hear that kind of sound through out the entire piece. The verse was too short, IMO. Of course I was about 5 years old, and at the time I didn’t know there were so many verses.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

I have decided in the next few day to go ahead and post the rest of the music I put in a Christmas book I made several years ago for some young students. Of course I can’t post songs and music that is under copyright, so some of the pre reading and easy versions of familiar songs children love will not be here. However, if the student owns the copy, it is my understanding you may simplify it for your student. We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Silent Night

Silent Night is one of the harder carols because of the shift in position and the dotted rhythms. But a motivated student can get it.

 After the younger student has learned it and If the student has an older sibling waiting, I’ll  show the older student the chords and try a duet.  By the end of Level 2 of most method books student can play the I IV V chords in F.

I  wasted a lot of time trying to write a pre-reading version of Silent Night. Since this carol changes positions and has dotted rhythms, I couldn’t come up with anything that seemed useful for my pre-reading students. If anyone has a suggestion about how to do it, email me  your idea and I’ll write it for you. You will have to tell me in detail what key it should  be in, what hand positions, how to handle the shift in the last section to let the student know how to move, etc.  And rhythm…  How do you write pre-reading dotted quarters?  I was writing it in 6/4.  Looking at my poll, this doesn’t seem too popular with teachers. If you have a great idea, write it out, take a picture of it, and email it to me.

Meanwhile, I gave this version of Silent Night  to a very cute little guy who is a primer student, but knows all his notes. His eyes got real big when he told me he couldn’t play it because the notes had those “weird little things on it” and he maintained this was way too hard for him. Do you remember when music looked way to hard for you?

A bright spot in my lessons this week was another student who wrote a song, complete with words, at his lesson. It was short so I was able to let him watch while I took his notes and put them in Finale.  We put his copyright on it and he thought that was cool. He told me he had rhymes and poems going on in his head all the time. I said I am the same way with melodies and I have bits of paper all over the house with sketches of music and songs.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas Pre-reading version

 

There is a reason We Wish You A Merry Christmas is not found in pre-reading Christmas books very often. First, there is a pick up note, but most students ignore that. A bigger problem is the 8th notes. I could have written this in 6/4 time, and I have done that before for my students. So I am going to insert a poll. If you use pre-reading music with your students, do you think I should revise this and change all the quarters to half notes and all the eighth notes to quarters? In the meantime, I’m not going to count this, or explain the value of 8th notes. I’m not going to get out my hearts and teach two sounds on the beat at this point in their lessons. I’m just going to teach the 8ths by rote.  Since my students learn eights as “ti-ti” in school, I’ll start there, then tap the words in rhythm on the fall board, play in the air, jump up and down (I need the exercise) and finally play on the keys. That should do it! Take a minute to take the poll so I can see how you feel about this.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas Pre-Reading

In this pre-reading version of Jolly Old St. Nicholas I made the the left and right hands notes different colors.  I have a few children who still get their left and right hand mixed up so I hope this helps. The first time I heard Pachelbel’s Canon I noticed it was the same chord progression as Jolly Old St. Nicholas. I love to point that out to my older students. Sometimes I  get them to improvise on that same chord progression. It’s lots of fun if you would like to try it.