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.

Back to School

Back to School

I wrote another piece for my beginning pre-school student. I haven’t actually used it yet. Does anyone want to check it out for me and see if there are any errors? I usually like to use something before I post it.

This time I wrote a simple duet. My student is getting really good at playing with me. He always reminds me to play an introduction!

Soon, he is going to be using his thumb and pinkie. But I don’t want to go on until I am really sure he can follow 3 notes. I hope it is soon because I’ve just about written all the 3 note tunes I can think of!

Lizzy’s Cat — a pre-reading piece

Lizzy’s Cat

Young students often get the 4th and 2nd fingers mixed up. This is because the  child under 6 or 7 does not understands mirror image fingers like an older child. Even some older children get this mixed up when they first start lessons. And then there is me. I still get mixed up and will often write the opposite finger when I am putting finger numbers in my music.

With that in mind, I tried to come up with a way for students to see which finger to start with in each phrase. This is what I finally designed. Let me know if it helps one of your students.

If you have ever tried to write a song using only 3 fingers, you know that it is not as easy as it might seem, especially if you want all steps and no skipping fingers. My little student hasn’t learned to use the thumb yet.

For this piece, I was inspired by folk songs in the mixolydian mode,  with the flatted 7th tone in the melody.  According to my poll, most of you want me to write a teacher duet,  so I added one here. I couldn’t decide if I wanted the  8th notes to be swung jazz style or not, so I’ll leave that to you.

Continue to have the child drop into the keys. Don’t worry about legato playing at this point. Be sure and learn the rhythm well before trying to play the piece.

T-Ball

T-Ball

When I found out one of my beginning students has signed up for T-Ball, I wrote this. If you don’t live in the US and are not familiar with T-Ball, tell your students it is a beginning baseball game for 4-6 year old children where the ball is placed on a stand rather than using a pitcher.

You will notice I only used 3 notes in this piece. At this point these are the only fingers he is using. This will help him learn a good hand position because as soon as they use the thumb their hand may fall down and there goes their beautiful knuckle arch. Also, try to have your student drop into the keys rather than try to play legato. Even worse is lifting each finger individually.  If they drop into the keys with strong finger tips, it will really help strengthen the fingers and avoid the dreaded spaghetti (straight) fingers, the last finger joint caving out,  a puny little sound, and even hand injuries in the future.  A lot of future hand problems start right at this level.

I have started adding teacher duets to my pieces. I usually improvise a teacher duet to easy pieces. Sometimes I play one that I really like and then promptly forget it the next time. I have decided  that if I write one down I can use it over and over.

Well,  writing a teacher duet is more difficult than I expected. I’m not a professional composer, just a teacher who composes on the side. I want something easy that a teacher can sight read while she watches her student play, and yet still sounds half way decent. Then there is the problem of writing it in Finale and importing it into the student part. If you use these my pre-reading pieces, is it worth it for you? Please let me know what you think.

Wiggly Worm

Wiggly Worm

I wrote this pre-reading piece a few days ago for my new student who is almost 5. Since he is so young, I was interested in knowing just how much reading he is able to do on his own so far. I wrote this to be a beginning *sight reading* exercise, so to speak. Sight reading is so much more successful if you prepare the rhythm, so we did that by first learning the rhyme, tapping it on our knees, and then the fall board using the correct hands. It worked very well, and he was able to play it with the correct fingers without any prompting from me.  Now I know he has learned the basics of pre-reading. He is a very visual learner and I think he’s going to be an excellent music reader one of these days.  

Because of my background in Kodaly, I always prepare the student for what is coming up. That is one of the many reasons I like My First Piano Adventures, because this preparation is built into the lessons.  At this lesson we continued our preparation of playing on the white keys by identifying the names of the white keys. Last week he learned C D E.  This week I  made a paper keyboard and he put chips on the correct keyboard names. (I will post that keyboard soon.) Also, he drew lines to the correct keys on a fun worksheet. Finally, we played  the “how fast can you run up and play the correct key” game. I was  amazed that he knew every one of them!  Next week he is going to learn his very first song on the white keys and he is very excited about that.  

We also worked on rhythm, steady beat, hand position, singing,  and some Kodaly hand signs. I try to do a little bit of everything at his lessons, even if it is just briefly and  not  spend too much time sitting at the piano. Teaching this age is quite different than starting an average age beginner and the teacher has to really feel comfortable with young children and moving around the room. A lot of teachers had bad experiences with pre-school children because they tried to teach them like a 7 year old.

I hope you like my new banner and also the redesign of my website. Now my website has tabs that organizes everything into categories. If you like my new website design, send me an email! I really love hearing from other teachers.

Right Hand, Left Hand

Right Hand, Left Hand

I tend to write things in a series, because as I’ve said before, I make this material for actual students. My new student loves the things I make for him and always looks forward to what I’ve made each week.

This “piece” is very practical. It is his first piece with both hands and it was so rewarding to see the look in his eyes when he realized he was going to use both hands!  I made Right Hand, Left Hand so he would be very successful on the first try, and the color coding did just that. I had prepared him well for stems going up and down. He uses My First Piano Adventures, and so he has done a lot of preparation in both the lesson and the writing book.

If you have a very young student or one with some learning differences, try this color method and I think you will find it to be very successful. I want to mention that the more we can do to help students be successful in piano, the more educated musicians we will have in the future. No, it’s not “dumbing down” teaching piano. It is opening the door to more students. Of course, we could teach the old way where most students drop out of piano, and only the most naturally gifted or extremely dedicated students take, but is that really our goal as teachers?

I am attending the National Piano Teachers Institute at SMU this week. I met one teacher from another state who knew me from my web site. She was a teacher who had suggested one of the ideas I posted. That was so cool!  I hope to post more about the workshop when I have some free time.  Let me just say that if you ever have a chance to see Dennis Alexander in person, please go!

What the Robin Said for beginners

What the Robin Said to the Worm

If your little student never mixes up his 2nd and 4th fingers on at least one hand, you have a very special preschooler. I find that about 100% of my preschoolers have trouble with the 2nd and 4th finger, but most of them eventually get it right. I also get my 2nd and 4th fingers mixed up so I certainly can understand the problems a pre-school child might have. In fact, when I first printed this I noticed that I had reversed those fingers on the little keyboard and I had to do it over again. Because of this reversal problem, I added little blocks to write in finger numbers. If your student is old enough, she can write it in herself. If will also be fine and save some time to discuss it and play various finger games, but you write it in for the student. It depends on the student.

If this is the first time you have seen this kind of music notation, take a look at my Fourth of July blog posting from  a few days ago. There I explain how to teach this kind of graphic. One other thing, be sure to encourage students to drop into the keys. They often have trouble doing that on the black keys, but don’t dwell on it.

I have posted several quick worksheets to help students with finger numbers if they continue to have trouble, even after all the activities in their method book.  Take a look at Colorful Fingers and Writing Finger Numbers if they need extra help.

To print this sheet, click on the title below the picture above. Do not click on the picture because there is no link there.  This will take you to my website where you click “preview” to print out a color PDF copy. Be sure to set your printer on landscape.

Fourth of July for beginners

Fourth of July

I have a preschool beginning student who is very enthused about taking piano. He’s only had a couple of lessons,  but each week I write  an easy little piece for him to play and he really likes them. We put them in a 3-ring binder that has a cute cover with his name on it that I made and printed out for him.  I print these  on 32 pound paper so they will hold up well.

This week I’m giving him this Fourth of July chant. It’s kind of hard to sing since the melody note is just a repeating E flat. If you are familiar with the beginning of the newer method books, this is the same kind of thing.  Teach your student to chant or sing the words in the correct rhythm keeping a steady beat.  Have your student “play” and chant on his lap until he memorizes the words before he tries to play it.  I hope the American flags will help the students’ eyes  track the finger numbers getting higher on the page.

If you don’t understand this page, here is how it works. The student plays right hand fingers 2 and 3 together on the black keys starting on D flat and E flat going up 3 octaves. The rhythm is 3 quarter notes and a dotted half note and repeats. At the end the student can improvise on the black keys while you play some sort of ostinato in the bass.

Triple meter can be challenging for young students. The more they beat these rhythms out on their knees or the fall board, the better they will be down the road. For those of you who may wonder why teach young children, the answer for me is that when they get older they have no rhythm problems, among other benefits.

One thing I wanted to do was encourage my student to improvise at the end. I don’t know if he’s ever seen fireworks, but I hope he has so we can play some shimmery sounds on the black keys. Of course, being a boy he might want to go down to the bass keys and play booms and crashes, and that’s ok, too. You never know who will turn out to be a composer!

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!

He Is Risen, a pre-reading Easter carol

He Is Risen  is a beautiful Easter carol in a pre-reading version. The words were written by the same woman who wrote the words to All Things Bright And Beautiful, a hymn I have arranged for elementary level and posted on my web site.

The hand position might be a little different since the 3rd finger of the RH is on middle C. There are several skips in this hymn, so see if your student can find and circle them. Practice playing them in the air. This will be good practice for when they are reading notes on the staff.  

If you have a beginning student who would like to play sacred Easter hymn, try out this one. Your students might not know it,  but I think they will like it after they learn the melody.  If you would like to play a duet with your student,  look this up in your hymnal and play along.

Come Christians, Join to Sing (Pre-Reading)

Come Christians, Join to Sing

It seems to be hard to find pre-reading hymns for Easter, so I arranged this one for one of my students. This is a good hymn for beginners because of the simple rhythm and it has long been a favorite of children.

I’m posting this before I actually try it out with a student, which I don’t like to do, but Easter will be here very soon so I thought I’d better post it at the beginning of the week. If If there are any mistakes or trouble spots, I’ll fix them and re-post the music.

Write a Valentine’s Song

Write a Valentine’s Song is is a composing activity in 3/4 time for young beginners. I didn’t write in directions on this so that you may use it in different ways.  Students can write in finger numbers or note notes. They can use left hand, right hand, or both. They can draw in bar lines if you wish and a double bar line at the end. In fact, you can use this as a rhythmic activity and not even bother to compose a tune.

If you use this to compose with a slightly older beginner, the next step would be to notate it on staff paper. I have some large size staff paper on my web site.

I have found that students often cannot complete both lines in the lesson. Sometimes I send it home to complete, or finish  the next week.

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 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.

Deck the Hall Pre-reading

Deck the Hall, a simple version with just the first part of the song,  is one of the carols I put in the Christmas book I made for a student a few years ago. I went back and forth about the rest of the carol. Several factors caused me to leave it off. First, it has an F# which is problematic in a pre-reading manuscript. Second, it would give the student 2 pages which is hard for a 5 year old to keep with, and third, my little ones can only do one page at a time at this point. I hope that if they can play the first part of the song they will be happy.

I am planning on posting the entire first verse in 5 finger position this week.  This version will also have the easy rhythm without dotted quarters and eighth notes. It will be in Middle C position, but it will keep the *interesting* division of the melody between the hands. I did this for a student who is struggling with note reading.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t copy these arrangements from another book. I come up with all these crazy ideas myself at the piano, and I write them on the computer with words I learned as a child.

Jingle Bells Pre-Reading

I have a few students who need some pre-reading Christmas music, so here is Jingle Bells. I want to  put each pre-reading sheet in a binder for my students to keep them all together as I pass them out each week. One year I made a student an early level Christmas book with her name on the cover. I had it made into spiral book just for her, but that can get expensive if you have it made at an office supply store. I found that Staples has the best prices for that.

I drew the bells myself, so it’s not clip art. You will see mistakes if you look at it too closely, but I notice that art looks a lot better when you shrink it down.

Depending on their age, your student might try to put 8th notes in measure 6 and 14. I suggest you Just go ahead and let them do it.  I have some very young beginners so I notated this  in quarter notes because they are comfortable with them. And I think 8th notes look odd in pre-reading.  Also, I really debated if I should put this in middle C position, and I finally did. I think more teachers prefer it that way.

Tomorrow I hope to post another Turkey worksheet, this one in color.