Simplified Piano "Come Follow Me" Songs for February

Playing Chords Lead Sheet Style

As I've watched my son progress each year in his Let's Play Music class, I've been surprised at how even 5 year old students can learn to play their primary chords with ease as an accompaniment to their own singing.  I encourage my students to learn chords much earlier than they are introduced in most method books and use this process to help them play songs they are familiar with "lead sheet style."  

Teaching Piano Keyboard Skills Creatively

For this month keyboard skills is the focus in my music studio so I've rounded up a lot of games and activities relating to chords and scales to share in this post.

4 Types of Scales Video and Free Printable

Teaching Piano Major and Minor Scales in a Memorable Way

I've been telling the Story of the Scale Sisters for several years to introduce my students to the 4 types of scales (major, natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor), but I recently compiled this video to illustrate the concept and my students had a great time wearing wigs and mimicking moods as we watched it at group lessons.

I also prepared this printable for them to color as they watched each segment of the video to solidify their knowledge of the scale patterns and encouraged them to improvise melodies using the notes from each scale to form their own melodies. Sometimes it takes silly to make things stick!
 4 Types of Scales Free Printable

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