Elementary Piano Festival Music Playlists

 

ELEMENTARY LEVEL 1 & 2 PIANO PIECES

Similar in Level to Piano Adventures  Primer/1 or Piano Pronto Prelude/1 or Hal Leonard 1 & 2

Click the image to view the Elem 1 &2  piece choices/booklist  that includes links to the books containing each piece.

Slower/Expressive Piano Festival YouTube Playlist Elem 2  (Elem 2)

Lively Piano Festival YouTube Playlist (Elem 2)

LATE ELEMENTARY LEVEL 3 PIANO PIECES

Similar in Level to Piano Adventures 2A/2B or Piano Pronto 2 or Hal Leonard 3 

Click the image to view the Elem 3 piece choices/booklist  that includes links to the books containing each piece.

LE Baroque/Classical Calm Piano Festival YouTube Playlist 

LE Romantic/Modern/Recent Calm Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

LE Baroque/Classical Lively Piano Festival YouTube Playlist 

LE Romantic Lively Piano Festival YouTube Playlist 

LE Modern/Recent Lively Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

LATER ELEMENTARY/EARLY INTERMEDIATE LEVEL 4 PIANO PIECES

Click the image to view the Later Elementary Level 4 Playlist/books that includes links to the books containing each piece.

Similar in Level to Piano Adventures 3A or Piano Pronto 3 or Hal Leonard 4 

EI Baroque/Classical Calm Piano Festival YouTube Playlist 

EI Romantic/Modern/Recent Calm Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

Baroque Classical Lively Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

EI Lively Modern/Recent Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

EI Jazzy Piano Festival YouTube Playlist

*All pieces on the playlist/books have not yet been added for this level

Music Terms Rap and Games

This month our piano studio focus is theory, terms and signs. I love finding fun ways to teach music terms to piano students!

I have used many engaging activities like Quizlet matching games, music theory art, Musical Headbandz and Split Second, and Piano Cranium. 

Music Dictionary Rap

But this month I'm starting out one of my group lessons  with this Music Dictionary Rap from Piano Adventures Gold Star.

Music Flashcard Game Variation

Typically my students start out lessons with a quick game like music term memory match. Instead of playing this typical memory style with cards face down, to introduce relatively new terms and signs I first play a face up version. I like how this variation combines both skill and an element of chance so that any player can win. If the teacher is playing with the student, I even the playing field a bit by saying the teacher doesn't get to "steal on sixes" because they have an unfair advantage of already knowing all the answers. 

Divide the cards into 2 piles, one pile for the term or symbol and one pile for the matching answer.

Shuffle the cards and place them face up. 

Students then roll a die to determine how many cards they get to collect by guessing the sets of cards that are a match. 

If they roll an odd number (1,3, or 5) they guess just one match. 

If they roll an even number (2 or 4) they guess two matches. 

If they roll a 6 they get to steal a match from the opponent of their choice. 

The winner is the player with the most card matches at the end.

Related Posts

Split Second Music Theory Game

Musical Cranium

Wunderkeys Streetlamp Solos Christmas for Intermediate Piano

Most people are familiar with Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I love this new book from Teach Piano Today that provides a musical backdrop to the story. I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and have been thoroughly enjoying the pieces the past few weeks.

Click the Image to Buy The Streetlamp Solos on Amazon 

Andrea Dow's new Christmas book Streetlamp Solos provides a musical backdrop for the beloved story of  "A Christmas Carol". It blends the familiar Christmas melodies together with some pop-infused chords and diversions from the regular tunes. The pieces are easily accessible for early intermediate pianists with many broken chord patterns in the left. The simplicity of playing in the keys of C Major and A minor allows students to peruse through a lot of music during the short Christmas season.

Advanced Arpeggio Playing Tips

 December is the month for the arpeggio challenge in my piano studio. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so canva comes in handy to compensate for my lack of artistic skills!

 I love to create visuals to post on my bulleting board to make the learning more memorable and pique the interest of students as they come each week.

Simply Sacred Christmas by Marshall McDonald

A few years ago, I discovered  Marshall McDonald's Simply Sacred Arrangements of hymns from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which you can hear samples of in my previous post.

Thanksgiving is not here yet, but I've already pulled out his Simply Sacred Christmas book this season. It has some of my favorite arrangements that calm my soul and a few that energize me, too. 

(click the image to purchase on Amazon)

Harmonizing Your Music Studio with a Flipped Learning Music Buffet

The Flipped Classroom -  A Musical Buffet YouTube presentation for Upper Valley Music Teachers Association

This post includes resources that I mentioned in my presentation at UVMTA about flipped learning in the music studio. 

Click the image above to view the slideshow presentation for UVMTA on flipped learning in the music classroom, which includes hyperlinks or browse some of the resources that were mentioned below.

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn."

-Benjamin Franklin

Arranging from Lead Sheets with Sus Chord Colors

 What do you do when you see something "sus" in your music????

I'm not talking about a spider crawling across the page or suspicious coloring scribbles from your little brother!

SUS is an abbreviation often written in lead sheet chords and refers to suspended chords. 

If you are "suspended" from school you are temporarily removed. In Sus chords, often the 3rd of the chord is temporarily removed and replaced with the note a 2nd or 4th above the root instead of the normal 3rd. 

Suspended Chords 101

Watch this Pianote video about Suspended chords (Sus2 or Sus4) to see and hear the effect of Sus chords.

It is Well with my Soul"(free lead sheet on Pianosongdownload.com including Sus chords).