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.

I like how the medleys are not just two pieces copied and pasted next to each other, but actually have some back-and-forth musical conversation switching between familiar melodies in a fresh new way.

Teach Piano Today Free Christmas Arrangements

Andrea and Trevor have so many beautiful pieces available for free (if you subscribe to their emails). These are just a few Christmas-themed ones my students are loving in the Christmas music folders I have compiled for them.  

Mountain Song

Midnight Song

Skyline Carol

First Noel

Endless Winter

Holly and Ivy Classical Pop Fusion

Greensleeves Holiday Pop Solo

Streetlamp Solos Playlist

Here are the YouTube performance videos from the playlist for their newest Streetlamp Solos, available for purchase on Amazon.

More Teaching Tips to Come Soon!

Christmas Coming

Christmas Morn

Goodwill

Present

Spirit

Christmas Eve

Rhythm Duets

In addition to the regular pieces, this book also features some scale warmups, note naming sheets, and a one rhythm page where students can be the "percussionist" as they tap and clap along as their teacher plays a piece. This could also be used with siblings as a duet where one performs the rhythm and the other plays the piece.

I used this in my most recent group lesson and loved how the up-down, tap clap rhythms add to the piece, but add a new level of difficulty than just clapping a rhythm. It includes some dotted eighth notes and rest notes to master syncopation and contrasts a bit with what the teacher plays, so students can't just mimic what they hear but get a bit of practice being an "accompanist."

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens

It is a family tradition for us to read the story of Christ's birth directly from the Bible in  Luke 2 every Christmas Eve, and we usually end up watching some version of A Christmas Carol in December. 

But a few years ago, I was introduced to another work of Charles Dicken's that I had not heard of. 

Someone suggested reading "The Life of Our Lord" by Charles Dickens at my neighborhood book club. Its not musical in any way, but is definitely something I love!

 I love how this makes the Christmas story even more accessible to children and can be read over many days leading up to Christmas.

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