Saturday, October 25, 2025

Accompanist Challenge Videos and Music

Watch the tutorial or sample music videos or print the music below to help you complete the Accompanist Challenge

Lead Sheets

Print some free lead sheets and practice singing along as you play the chords

This Little Light of Mine Lead Sheet Challenge

Elementary

Following the chord symbols, play the root or chords as you sing or listen to This Little Light of Mine.

Level 1 Play Only Left Hand Root Note

Sing the melody as you play just the root notes with your left hand. Choose the octave you prefer.  For example, does High G or Low G sound better? Which is easiest to play? Could you play both at the same time or alternate to make it more lively?

Level 2- Left Hand Root Position Chord

Play the chords in root position (stacked up like a snowman) as you move your hand like a cookie cutter to the different chords.
G=GBD    C=CEG    Em=EGB    D=DF#A

Late Elementary

Level 3- Left Hand Chord Inversion

Jumping around between root chords can be tricky! If you change the order of the notes (invert), it can make it easier to switch between chords.  GBD to CEG is a big leap, but if you play GBD and GCE instead you can feel the stretch up without having to look at your fingers.

Level 4-Left Hand Root Notes + Right Hand Melody 

Learn the right-hand melody , choosing fingering for legato phrases. Then add the left-hand root notes.

Intermediate

Play the arrangement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of "This Little Light of Mine" as written OR create your own arrangement starting from the simpler Piano Song Download Lead Sheet of This Little Light of Mine and substitute, style, or color the chords.

Level 5-Left Hand Chord Inversions + RH Melody

Play the right-hand melody along with left-hand chord progressions.  You can substitute minor chords for major chords you are more familiar with playing or add Sus chords.   
Experiment with chords that share some of the same chord tones.  For example, in the key of C, the D minor (ii) chord D-F-A could be replaced with the more familiar F Major (IV) chord F-A-C because both include F and A.
  • Substitutes for Red (I) are Purple (vi) and Orange (iii)
  • Substitutes for Blue (IV) is (ii) Green and Purple (vi)
  • Substitute for Yellow (V) is Orange (iii) or (vii) or (V7)

Ghost Playing.

Watch the tutorial video to Learn How to Ghost Play

Basic Conducting Patterns





Explore Free Printable Duets


Explore the videos of pieces to hear their melodies. The links to duets are piano arrangements that are different versions than the sample videos.

Elementary



Intermediate

https://www.8notes.com/piano_duet/sheet_music/




Come Thou Fount 8 notes.com

Saturday, October 4, 2025

The Girl and Her Bunny - National Composition Contest Winner!

Being a piano teacher makes me happy! My new student Clara, is just one of the delightful children I get to spend time with each week. It made my day today to hear that she was recently featured on the news for winning the National Let's Play Music Composition Contest.



Click the link to hear her perform her piece and learn the storyline that goes with it!

8 Year Old Earns Top Honors at Music Composition Competition

or  Download her free piece "The Girl and Her Bunny"  and other student composition winners.

Friday, October 3, 2025

How can KPop Golden Help Improve Musicality?

 At my last piano group lesson, several of my students were talking about K-Pop. I'm out of the kid movie loop, so at first I thought, "Is this some new kind of candy?"😂

After the lesson, I explored some of the memorable music from this movie that just sticks in your mind after you hear it.  

Writing Effective Melodies

As I teach composing to students, I often start by emphasizing that using more steps and skips than leaps will create more effective melodies. Hopping around on the keys like a ping pong ball bouncing is not likely to create memorable music!

But music is an art, not a science. "Breaking the rules" sometimes is more effective than you think!