Barbie Rapunzel Theme Piano Music

Today at lessons I asked a few students if they had any requests for pieces they'd love to learn. One teen mentioned they love the classical-sounding Barbie music... not from the new movie but from her childhood favorite animated videos. 

I'd never heard it.

So with a quick YouTube search, we found this beautiful piece posted by Emilie's Piano! I printed it immediately, and it was an instant hit. 

 I love it when my students introduce me to new music that I enjoy as well. 😎 The link to the free sheet music is beneath her post on YouTube. 

When a student is eager to learn a piece, their practice tends to increase dramatically and I love how this particular piece has a classical/pop sound and includes some unusual rhythmic patterns and key shifts based on familiar chords that will stretch her skills to new levels. 💪💓

The style of the music reminds me of a music book I purchased years ago for my own playing enjoyment called "Jane Austen's World."

Click the image to purchase Jane Austen's World on amazon or preview some of my favorite pieces from this intermediate level book that are played by various pianists.

The simplest piece is End Titles from Emma.  It includes repetitive broken chords and gives students practice playing cantabile in the easy key of G Major.

Frank Churchhill Arrives is the opening piece in the key of G Major, 6/8 Time. It includes a lot of repetitive, broken arpeggios in the left hand (what I call 1-5-8-5-8-5 based on scale degrees). The rallentandos and temporary swap to 9/8 time may be new for some students.

Excellent Notion is in 6/8 time, G Major with mostly harmonic 3rds and 2nds in the left hand giving good practice with legato 3rds and syncopated pedaling

My Father's Favourite is a bit trickier, written in the key of A flat major with a few dotted eighth + sixteenths. I love the slow, expressive style of this piece! It's my favorite to play in this book.

For more Intermediate Piano Music that students love, check out these reviews!

Wunderkeys Stolen Roses Review and Practice Tips

Wunderkeys Pop Performance 2 Review

Some of the products linked in my posts may be affiliate links, earning me a small commission on any products purchased with no extra cost to you.

Wunderkeys The Stoles Rose Solos Review with Practice Tips

 I have subscribed to a lot of piano teaching related emails for the past 20 years, but one that brings me the most value and joy is Teach Piano Today blog by Trevor and Andrea Dow. They have so many free games and song samplers that my students love to learn with. Clicking this free song sampler for the Stolen Roses led me to dive in and buy the book.

But their teen piano library is what has recently captured my interest. I previously shared thoughts about their Performance Pop 2 Book that my intermediate students are enjoying more than their method books.

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.

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)

Wunderkeys Intermediate Pop Piano Performance 2 Review

(click the book image to purchase on amazon.com)

Have you ever had any teen piano students that feel "stuck" in their method book? While some students really love the classics, I've found that branching out to other genres of their choice can really up their excitement and practice. I recently purchased Wunderkeys Intermediate Pop 2 Performance Book after one of my teen students was eager to learn more music like Nik Day's "Trust in the Lord" that I had assigned her as a supplementary choice piece. 

She was enthralled with the lyrical pop sound of the repetitive chordal accompaniment with intriguing syncopation and it boosted her rhythmic accuracy to a whole new level as she practiced over and over as an accompanist to the soundtrack. I had difficulty finding many pieces with a similar style in my collection of classical and supplementary music.

Review of "I Want to do What Jesus Taught" by Jerald Simon

"I Want to Do What Jesus Taught" by Jerald Simon

I was first introduced to Jerald Simon's music over ten years ago when I reviewed his "Cool Songs for Cools Kids" books.   This energetic series has a lot of appeal for the teens and boys in my studio because of the video game, new age and fast-paced songs with repeating patterns. 

He recently released a book of Christian primary songs, "I Want to do What Jesus Taught".  This is definitely a different genre and style compared to the "Cool Songs" series.  

I love that the central theme of the song lyrics focuses on basic Christian principles and values of prayer, kindness, and reliance on God and family. 

 It includes a good mix of slower calm songs and more upbeat energetic styles.  Some songs are very short with just one or two lines that children could learn to sing easily in just a few minutes.  Most songs are about 1 page in length with a single verse although a few include multiple pages and verses.

 The melodies are easy to sing and I like that he chose lyrics that are understandable to children without complicated vocabulary words that would need explanations. 

What pianist level is the book suitable for?

The difficulty level of the accompaniment of the majority of the songs is intermediate level.  As a piano teacher, I like the wide variety of left-hand patterns found in the music including alberti bass, 2 8va arpeggios with finger crossings, 7th chords,  and some simple intervals or chords.  

Some of the large leaps and finger crossings may be more difficult for students with small hands to play, but I love that chord symbols are included in the music so accompaniments could be adapted if needed.  The songs could also be played as lead sheets for additional chord variation practice. 

There are a few songs limited to 5 finger position that a late elementary piano student could play, and others that are more advanced with 7 sharps or 4 flats that typical piano students wouldn't encounter until at an advanced level in method books.

If you are interested in learning more about how to improvise or compose using a variety of left hand patterns, check out this free YouTube video of Jerald's workshop "100 Left Hand Patterns Every Piano Player Should Know."  

It definitely inspired me to want to experiment more with arranging!

Jerald Simon is the founder of Music Motivation® and focuses on helping piano students and piano teachers learn music theory, improvisation, and composition. He refers to these areas as: Theory Therapy, Innovative Improvisation, and Creative Composition. Simon is an author and composer and has written 28 music books featuring almost 300 original compositions, 14 albums, three motivational poetry books featuring over 400 original poems (https://www.poetrythatmotivates.com), and is the creator of the best-selling Cool Songs Series (https://musicmotivation.com/coolsongs), the best-selling Essential Piano Exercises Series (https://www.essentialpianoexercises.com) and Essential Piano Lessons for piano students (https://www.essentialpianolessons.com) and also Essential Piano Teachers for piano teachers (https://www.essentialpianoteachers.com). You can watch Jerald’s videos on his YouTube channel at this link: https://www.youtube.com/jeraldsimon. Listen to Jerald’s music on all streaming sites and his podcast, Music, Motivation, and More – The Positivity Podcast with Jerald Simon on all podcast platforms.

 

Tonic Tutor Review and Discount Code

How can TonicTutor boost your music student's skills?

I've been using TonicTutor.com for several years as part of the curriculum my piano students complete during piano lab in addition to other apps and online activities. The game platform is comprehensive, customizable, developmentally appropriate, affordable and accessible and my students find it fun and motivating.

Tonic Tutor Discount: To receive 50% off your first month of Tonic Tutor enter this code when you subscribe at Tonictutor.com

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Creative Keys Workshop Inspiration with Leila Viss: Apps

After attending several music workshops hosted by UVMTA and IMTA this month presented by Leila Viss, author of 88pianokeys.me blog, my mind is humming with new creative ideas to try out with the students in my studio.   I thoroughly enjoyed her engaging style of teaching!

The handouts for each session

Review of Piano Boot Camp: Special Ops

What can you expect at Piano Boot Camp???....

Marshmallows, ping pongs, prayer stretches, thumb prints, Disney drama and procrastination pets in training, but PLEASE No Whack-a Moles!

I love the power of analogies in piano teaching, and these are a few of my favorites that stood out in Laura Lowe's new Piano Boot Camp plans designed for students aged 10-15 in a small group piano camp setting.


Laura's approach of structuring a small group piano camp for tweens is especially effective.  The small student teacher ratio allows for effective correction/attention to precise technical skills, but also provides the synergism and peer motivation that increase excitement and productivity at this age.  The plans for each day include a fun entrance activity, physical and technical training exercises, specific practice strategies, hands on student practicums and sightreading, as well as tools for developing mental strength and artistry.

User Friendly
The content of piano boot camp is very thorough including a very detailed, easy to follow teacher handbook along with a reproducible student handbook with worksheets and technical drills.

The teacher handbook is thorough, clearly organized, and full of helpful internet links for teachers and students that clearly illustrate the concepts.  I like how the piano camp is organized using the same order of activities each day making it easy for the teacher to implement, and yet the activities include a good variety of creative engagement elements to make learning memorable and fun for students.

As a visual learner, I appreciate the fact that the student handbook includes informative handouts outlining the main principles presented in the course so that students have something to refer to and review on a regular basis at home.  These include

• Physical training-stretching exercises to strengthen and maintain flexibility
• Steps to setting SMART practice goals
• Rubric for evaluating practice prep/performances
• Fingering principles

Other pages are "workbook" style that require the student to analyze their pieces, think introspectively regarding their own piano learning process and progress. The technical and sightreading exercises have clear directions for home review and effectively address some of the challenges students encounter at this level such as fingering changes, accidentals and balance between hands.

Adaptable
I found the material in the teacher handbook inspiring and came away with new ideas to incorporate in my traditional private lessons as well, for students who may not attend boot camp.   Many portions of the lesson plans could easily be used as off the bench activities to reinforce concepts of phrasing, dynamics, artistry and performance preparation.

I like the flexibility of allowing students to choose their own focus piece to master during Boot Camp, and thought it also might be an opportune setting for learning a simple duet or trio, either by rote, as sightreading,  or as their focus piece.  The Boot Camp Theme reminded me of one of my favorite supplementary books for this level -ChordTime Ragtime & Marches: Level 2B by Faber and Faber, which includes many fun pieces that contain the technical elements addressed in Boot Camp and match the theme as well.  It includes some great selections student's could use as their focus piece, or they can select from music they already have that suits their taste and ability.

 

When I tried out some of the boot camp activities with my teenager daughter who plans to teach piano in the future, not only was it an excellent way to review important piano pedagogy concepts, but she also recognized some fine-tuning she needed to do to improve her technique when playing slurs.  She suggested that it might be fun to have a few more games or competitive elements as part of the boot camp experience.

Creative and Engaging 
I was intrigued by the idea of doing a physical training warmup routine each day to warm up small muscles, increase body awareness and reduce risks of injury down the road.  I thought the "physical training" could be even more fun with some background music like The Marine's Hymn, Anchors Away The Caisson Song or other military-themed music. One of my favorite elements of piano boot camp is the focus on technical skills. The analogies described in the teacher handbook are effective and memorable for students such as transferring arm weight energy from heavy bricks to light ping pongs and avoiding "whack-a-mole" attacks and the internet links to specific examples provide great visual samples for the students to internalize the concepts.

Boot camp mixes in a great variety of fun engaging activities that have student appeal  - Disney Monologue in Dynamic Style, Marshmallows and Motivation, Procrastination Puppies.  But the unique content of this camp also offers an extra boost addressing life skill concepts that there typically isn't time to thoroughly address in typical private lesson settings.  The specific strategies for delaying gratification, prioritizing practice time and tackling performance anxiety are presented in an engaging medium suitable to this age group.

If you would like a user-friendly, creative and adaptable plan to intensify the learning in your music studio, head over to Laura Lowe's blog "The Piano Studio"  and check out her links to the camp introduction and blog posts  to purchase or learn more about Piano Boot Camp: Special Ops!

Favorite Piano Teaching Tips from Helen Marlais Workshop

I love picking up fresh ideas and important reminders from any piano teaching workshop I have the privilege of attending.  Following are a few ideas from my notes at Dr. Marlais seminar:

Technique

• Remember to focus on the entire playing mechanism (fingers, wrists, forearm, shoulders).  Just as a runner uses more than just their feet to run, a pianist plays with more than just their fingers. Continually reiterate the importance of arm weight (relaxed shoulders) weight transfer (flexible wrists).
• Prescription for fixing 'finger dents' - Tap rhythms with a curved hand instead of clapping or do finger pushups against the wall for warmups.
• For  appropriate balance  in pieces with Left Hand melody stand behind the student and ghost-play on their shoulders with exaggerated arm weight in the left hand so they can FEEL the weight emphasis as they play.
• To teach 2-note slurs wrist motion analogy- pull a tissue from a tissue box.
• To help students focus on wrist motion at phrase endings (2 note slurs or "rainbows" across several octaves) add a pony tail holder with a ball on top & have them watch the bunny tail hop up at the end of each phrase.  I thought some of my girl students would like this better than my airplane wings wrist movement tool
• To focus on arm leading while playing ascending scales imagine a string attached to your right elbow pulling it slightly ahead of your hand.
• Variations of Staccato - For a crisper sound use  a "kick-off" wrist where arm and wrist stay as one unit.  Rebound staccato is more like a bouncing a basketball with a flexible "push-off" wrist.

Theory

• Tonic (I) is Home where "I" live, Dominant (V) is a "V" for vacation, Leading Tone (visualize a road) leading back to Home (I)
• Intervallic Reading + Rhythmic Awareness - Line up interval flashcards and have students name them to the beat of the metromone (Up- 2nd, Down-4th, Down-3rd, Up-5th, etc.)

Rhythm

• When introducing 6/8 time have student sway on the strong beats while chanting the words to the song (1,2,3,   4,5,6,)

Performance Anxiety

• To reduce perfectionistic tendencies, don't focus too closely or get anxious over small imperfections.  Even a garden that looks great from afar may have small holes in the leaves from bugs but it still leaves a beautiful impression :)

Dr. Marlais showcased her new method series "Succeeding at the Piano." Following are a few of my favorite aspects of this new series.

• Emphasis on intervallic reading & guide notes
• Technique concepts introduced through multiple analogies
• Books come with accompanying CD's including practice tips, performance speeds and orchestration 

A few of her other publications that I enjoy are:

In Recital with Jazz, Blues & Rags  - The pieces in the early level books are so fun for students and make a great introduction to jazz styles.  I also love the accompanying CDs.
Succeeding with the Masters Series  (Baroque, Classical, Romantic affiliate links). I find the Practice Strategies & Historical & stylistic information accompanying each piece to be very helpful which sets them apart from some other collections of classical repertoire I was instructed with.  The supporting CD helps to clarify concepts so the student can hear examples of the skills applying to each piece. It's like bringing your piano teacher home with you to demonstrate appropriate practice :)
Currently one of the most viewed post on my blog is the Lab Assignment I created to go with In Recital with Classical Themes Volume 1, so obviously some other teachers are a fan of this series as well.


Some of the products linked in my posts may be affiliate links, earning me a small commission on any products purchased via that link.

Good Things:

Adding new teaching tricks to my bag
Browsing through new music
My Amazing Husband who took the day off and took our 6 kids to the zoo I could attend this!
Sunny Summer Days

Great Online Music Game Resource - Tonic Tutor

Don't miss out on the opportunity this month to check out Tonic Tutor's September full free access. My students are loving the fun games on tonic tutor. For the month of September they are running a promotion where you can access all the features of the site for free. Some of the elements of this site that I really appreciate are:

• The games are short... great for younger students with shorter attention spans who need a lot of variety during labtime.
• The game rewards provide a lot of consistent positive reinforcement. Students earn "achievements" for things like time efficiency, 5 answers in a row correct, limiting listens, etc. Currently there is some friendly sibling rivalry going on at our house to get the most time in so they can win our Fall Fiesta Contest :) I never thought my kids would be fighting to play piano games! I appreciate that you can even customize the contests to motivate your students in different areas and give different students the chance to shine.
  
• There is a short tutorial for each game so most students can figure out how to play them on their own.
• Along with preset levels, teachers can change settings specific to their student's particular needs.
  
• Students can access the site from home for extra practice in addition to games I assign them during studio labtime.
  
• The games cover a variety of elements including auditory, visual, keyboard, notereading and rhythm skills.
  
• The game difficulty ranges from early elementary skills to advanced skills.
  

Initially it took a while to set up all of my student's accounts and familiarize myself with all of the games to give appropriately leveled assignments, but I think the effort was well worth it.

Cool Songs for Cool Kids 2 Review

The "cool" songs in this intermediate level book by Gerald Simon have a sort of "Jon Schmidt style", but are a little more accessible to earlier piano grade students for those students who want to impress their friends with "hard-sounding" songs and have some fun in the process.
The first few pages of the book include a helpful theory overview of intervals (including augmented and diminished), swing style 8ths, the blues pentascale & L.H. barrelhouse blues, polka and rocking 5th patterns. Although the explanations might be a bit wordy for younger students, I like the framework provided that could act as a great springboard for further improv and composition for creative students.
As a teacher one of the things I find appealing are the relatively short length of the songs. The songs are just 1 or 2 pages with repetitive themes in different octaves and many repeating rhythm patterns. Most songs could easily be mastered in just 1 week. They would make a great "energizer" for busy teens if interspersed between regular lesson assignments.
The rhythm patterns are easily understood and the counts are written in for the first few measures of each song. Most songs include syncopated eighth note rhythms.
The book includes a good variety of pop moods/styles, from energized boogie, pop rock and polka songs like"Gigabyte Guru" and "Chillaxing" to relaxing new age, dreamy songs like "Wishful Thinking" and "Sweet Serenity." The music motivation site includes a full recording of nearly every song which is useful for both previewing to determine students level of interest in the book or listening prep activities to enable more successful mastery of the songs.

I mainly use this as a supplementary book, because the songs are fun to play and and can make great motivators, especially for the teenage students and boys. The songs in Book 2 are just a bit more challenging than Book 1 and require a comfortable octave hand stretch. Several include bass 1 8va ostinato patterns, walking bass, key signatures up to 2 sharps and 4 flats, triplets, syncopated accents, grace notes and glissandos.

Review of "Cool Songs for Cool Kids"

“PLAY IT AGAIN!” That was my daughter’s first reaction after hearing me play some of the songs from" Cool Songs for Cool Kids " by Jerald Simon. This fun spiral bound book contains 21 original piano solos that are very appealing because of their use of syncopation, engaging rhythms and repeating patterns. Many of the songs sound a lot more challenging than they are to play and would make nice showy recital selections. The book includes a nice variety of upbeat styles including jazzy, bluesy, rock, “New-ageish” with a few mellow songs added in as well.

 

What level is this book suitable for?

Although a motivated “beginner” may be able to play some of the songs after some dedicated practice I think this book is more suitable for early intermediate/ intermediate students. The syncopated rhythms and frequent hand shifts in many of the songs may pose a challenge for the typical beginner student.

Do the songs have kid appeal?

Go listen and you be the judge! (Cool Songs for Cool Kids) As a teacher I found it especially helpful that the music motivation website includes a full recording of all of the songs in this book on his website as well an excerpt of the sheet music from the first lines of each song. When I first listened to the song samples I knew this would be an especially great book for the boys and teens in my studio but the girls like it too.

What about pedagogical elements?

Theory

The beginning of the book includes a 5 page overview of theoretical concepts contained in the book including a basic introduction/ review of rhythm, pentascales, melodic and harmonic intervals, triads, swing 8ths, blues pentascale. I think the explanations are oriented more towards a teen or adult student as a child might find them a bit wordy and need extra clarification from their teacher.

Transposition

I like using the first song “Five, Four, Three, Two,One… BLAST OFF!” as a transposition exercise. It’s definitely more exciting to play than Hanon or scales and is a great aid to helping students get the “feel” all of the different 5 finger patterns in a fun way.

Feeling the Beat

Even my preschooler loves the way the songs sound in this book. When she heard me previewing the book, she was begging me to play some of them again so she could dance to the steady beat. I decided to have her join me on the bench for some steady beat “duets.” “Beat-cha to it” and “Deep Sea Diving” with repeating C’s in the bass throughout were the perfect avenue for her to practice playing a steady beat while I played the melody.

Improvisation

“Lefty” which is written entirely for the left hand, provides a nice springboard for a lesson on jazz improvisation where the student can add their own right hand part.

Rhythm Skills

Often I find that after my students have been introduced to a new rhythm concept they could benefit from more practice than just passing off the lesson/technique book songs. The songs in Cool Songs for Cool Kids are full of interesting and challenging rhythm patterns including dotted notes, eighth rests, accents to help students better refine their rhythm skills.

Free Scales and Drills pdfs
The free downloadable pdf files available on the music motivation site are an extra bonus. They include "Knee Slappers" (Rhythm Drills), Pentascales, Barrel House Blues Patterns, Chord Progressions, etc.

I definitely feel lucky to have been chosen as a winner of the giveaway for this book a few months ago. It's been a great addition in my studio!
Next on my wish list from the music motivation site is "Variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb." It sounds like an entertaining way to teach about music styles!