Musical Inspirations at Christmas

One of my favorite parts of Christmas time is listening to the inspiring music that reminds me of the true reason for the season - the Savior. I love the power that music adds to each of these messages. Several of my friends and family shared them on their blogs and it was like getting a little "Christmas Present" from them so I thought I'd pass that "present" along.

Encouraging Improv.. with Jingle Bells Variations

Jerald Simon at Music Motivation.com is having a great cd/piano book giveaway every day until December 18th. I enjoyed checking out all of the recordings of his "giveaways" and was especially excited about the "Cool Songs for Cool Kids" (which I'll be posting a review of soon) and "Variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb."
After being inspired by Wendy Stevens post about Creativity at Christmas Time with a great video of her students in action, I decided to encourage my students to compose their own Jingle Bells variations this Christmas.
To help my students learn a little more about music styles and launch them off to a good start on their variations, I had them listen to these fun variations on the Music Motivation site while completing a little listening worksheet describing the elements of each style (dynamics, articulation, tempo, mode (major/minor), range (high or low), rhythm, texture/chord style (thick/thin, broken/blocked). I love the variety of styles Jerald Simon included in this book of variations.

Preparing a Child for Piano

I could probably write a hundred pages on this topic:)...... but at my sister's recent request I'll just start with a few pointers. The task of playing the piano involves so many different elements it may seem a daunting task to know where to begin when teaching a young child. Yet there are so many things that a parent can do to prepare their child for success at the piano before beginning to pay for formal lessons.
I enjoyed Natalie Wickham's recent interview about fun music activities for children on Music Matters Blog on this subject. She includes some great ideas for instilling rhythm, music appreciation and understanding basic piano topography.
During the first few sessions of piano preschool I did several activities that could easily be done at home to help parents introduce their little ones to the piano. Following are just a few... but if you go to the oldest posts on my blog and read "backwards" you can find more ideas in the general order that I introduce them.

Feel the beat: Steady Beat Elephants or Head Shoulder's Knees & Toes (you can listen to and print this song here if you aren't familiar with it).
Right & Left Hands & High and Low on Piano: "Piano Pokey"
Finger #s : "Where is One"
Find and play the groups of 2 & 3 black keys on the piano.

If you have some basic piano training yourself including knowledge of proper piano technique, it might be fun to "jumpstart" your child's learning by actually purchasing a beginning method book and teaching your child their first piano lessons.
My FAVORITE piano book for young beginners is "My First Piano Adventures" by Nancy & Randall Faber. It costs about $10 and has a fun CD to go with it. It introduces the concepts very slowly for young beginners. I think I would pay $10 just for the CD because I like it so much :) There are also some really cute "pre-reading" songs you can print off from Susan Paradis's site that my children have enjoyed to help them to learn finger #s, left & right hand.
Try... What the Robin Said to the Worm, It's October & Wiggly Worm -
For the first week I also encourage them to "play around" on the black keys with fingers 2&3 or 23&4 and make up their songs for fun.

Free Resource for Christmas piano/choral music

As I've been going through Christmas music for my students I remembered this excellent site with free printable songs arranged by Sally Deford.
She has a large amount of beautiful arrangements of traditional Christmas (and other sacred) songs as well as a few of her own compositions -including both church choral music and many piano solos. Just click on the "sheet music" tab on her site.
Following are a few of my favorites:
Guard Him Joseph - I think part of why I love this original Christmas composition of hers so much is that it is based on the harmonic progressions in Pachebel's Canon in D . I loved playing Canon in D in the middle school orchestra! This Christmas composition is so soothing that I like playing & singing it throughout the year. I also like how the lyrics focus on the role of the Savior's earthly father in his life.

Silent Night/Still Still Still - This piano solo combines 2 of my favorite soothing Christmas songs into one & I love how it makes me feel contemplative.

How Can I Keep From Singing I appreciate how Sally Deford has kept the accompaniment on this arrangement simple so it doesn't detract from the beautiful message in the words. I absolutely LOVE the moving lyrics to this song (attributed to Pauline T.)

"No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Refuge clinging
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?"

Don't miss out on the recording of this song by James Loynes on her site. Just hearing it makes me think of Thanksgiving and how much I have to be grateful for in my life.
I'd love to highlight more of my favorites like:
My Heavenly Father Loves Me
I Stand All Amazed
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
I Need Thee Every Hour............... and so much more...............
but Iguess this will have to do because my sweet little one is letting me know she's ready for her dinner :0) !

Learning Skips with "Skip Frog"

While teaching my daughter this fun song from Susan Paradis's site I came up with a creative way of reviewing the concept of skips on the keys. We played "skip-frog" (a spin-off of leap frog) with our fingers on the keys. I had her place her finger on any key on the piano. Then I put my finger a step up or down from hers and she practiced "skipping" her frog (finger) over my frog (finger). Maybe I will add a little felt frog finger puppet to my bag of piano things for her to slip over her finger the next time we encounter skips.
Then she identified the skips in her song and colored a little "skip-frog" above them.
Isn't piano fun!

Clever Piano Music Storage Idea

I stumbled upon this totally creative idea for piano music storage while perusing my sister's craft and cooking blog.
April at Home Hinges transformed an old TV into a functional and beautiful piano music storage shelf.
I love how it is both functional and beautiful- and best of all... it was free!
Click on her blog link above to see the step by step transformation. Isn't it amazing to see how some people have a knack at visualizing the potential in things that others may view as junk.

Don't Miss out on this Suzuki CD Giveaway

Natalie at Music Matters Blog is hosting another great giveaway this week. By commenting on this link on her blog you can be entered into the drawing to receive a series of Suzuki violin CDs.
I enjoyed playing many of these tasteful pieces on my violin as a youth even though I didn't learn the "Suzuki way." They would make a great addition to any listening library!