Music I Give My Beginners In The First Year Of Note Reading
Primarily, this music on this page is made up of Middle C songs with shared-between-the-hands melodies. Many will be familiar to your students. These are the same songs that are found in my book Songs Old & Songs New.
Additionally, there are some pieces that make use of left hand chords or very simple accompaniments.
Most of the Middle C melodies have chord suggestions or illustrative graphics for an enterprising accompanist to devise his or her own backup. A few also have written-out secondo parts, for easy duet playing.
Some of the songs duplicate songs for Beginners & also music with lettered notes, but this is because I tend to make songs with multiple levels of difficulty for my students.
All the Pretty Little Horses
Amazing Grace
Ash Grove, a Welsh folk song
Away in a Manger
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The Threshold Of The Larger World Of Piano Music
Leaving more predictable patterns behind makes left hand chords trickier. Good reading skills definitely required!
These pieces stretch pianists’ abilities.
More technique is required, with the use of chord inversions, thicker textures in the melodies, and stretched hand positions.
Additionally, note reading strays far outside the two octaves around Middle C.
Go here to see the “Year Three and After” sheet music!
Ae Fond Kiss, vocal score & piano music – A tender love song, saying farewell.
Black Beauty movie sheet music – a beautiful, energetic piece of music, with a soaring, singable melody. From the movie.
Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair – a very beautiful love song, with a slow start, and an energetic follow-up. Some lyrics.
Brian Boru’s March – an mesmerizing Irish melody that pulls you along in a theme & variation style.
Cat Came Back lyrics and music – easy versions and harder arrangements mix up the descending single-note bass line with triad chords.
Colorado Trail song – this is a cowboy song! It is very short, but very pretty.
De Boself – a simplified arrangement of the original piece by T. Van Oesten brisk and charming.
Down to the River to Pray – a fun song to sing & play. This is a spiritual, with energy & lots of verses.
Emma, a Jane Austen “Emma” movie tribute – This is very lovely, and parents love it.
Esther: For Such a Time as This – both original & EASY PIANO editions
Funeral March by Chopin – A famous and ominous melody.
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How To Read Piano Tabs
Video Summary
- 1. Read letters from top to the bottom of the page.
- 2. Middle C on the keyboard template can be red or blue & references where to start.
- 3. Rhythm count is located on the left column along with each measure number.
- 4. Notes played are colored blue and red which corresponds to left and right hand.
- 5. Fingering numbers are next to the note letters.
- 6. When two or more notes are played together itâs indicated by a dotted line.
- 7. A blue or red bold vertical line under a note letter represents a sustained count.
What Happens When Students Start To Master Chord Patterns Beautiful Music I Call This Level After Year Two
Free easy piano sheet music for your students who are past level one.
Now students start using moving chords in the left hand, requiring more hand coordination.
Also, the range of notes is greater than in The First Year and After Year One.
Some, like Harp Ballad, are more appropriate in Year 3 or 4, but for older students, such as students who start as beginners in their teen years, they may reach this level very quickly, with a strong understanding of chords.
America
Happy Birthday â several arrangements, from very easy to very full-sounding
Harp Ballad âa beautiful piece that will spur your student to new skills!
Hava Nagilah â well-known Hebrew folk song
House of the Rising Sun âwith exciting left hand chords
How Doth the Little Crocodile -a creepy-sounding song with lyrics from Alice in Wonderland
Hungarian Dance âBrahmsâ #5, a duet version
In the Hall of the Mountain King âa one-page arrangement of the main theme
In the Mood â the famous Big Band song, still popular!
Irish Washerwomanâ this is NEW! Pretty and full of energy.
Irish Wedding âThis is the most advanced arrangement of this popular piece that even my beginners play
Kookaburra â A good arrangement for classroom singing.
Lake Pirates â modeled after The Hobbit Soundtrack, Hobbit 3!
Largo, from the New World Symphony âA famous and beautiful theme.
Lavenderâs Blue â the âCinderella song lyricsâ!
Louie Louie âa set of chords used as an exercise, that sounds like real music.
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Notes Of The Right Hand
To play the right hand notes of the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, you must follow the following letter sequence:
C C G G A A G F F E E D D C G G F F E E D G G F F E E D C G G A G F F E E D C.
When you play this sequence of notes on the piano, you are actually playing the entire right hand of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Practice playing all of these notes one after the other in a loop. After a while, your playing will become fluid.
Now lets see how to play the left hand notes.
The Abcs Of Piano Notes
Hopefully, if youre reading this, its safe to assume you know your alphabet. All we need are the first seven letters of the alphabet to name the piano notes. Its that easy.
As we go from one letter to the next in the alphabet, each note is higher than the one before. On the other hand, if we go in the reverse direction , then each note is lower than the one before.
The next note after G goes back to A, and the pattern starts again. So just remember, there is no letter H on the piano!
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A Little History Behind Reading Music Notes
Sheet music with notes is read from left to right. The reasoning behind this is that music began as an exercise most focused on the progression of notes in a scale or mode in a horizontal fashion. When more than one voice was sounded together, they usually sang in unison it was not until the 9th century that musicians became increasingly concerned with vertical harmony and polyphony.
Keyboard instruments, such as the organ, the harpsichord, and ultimately the piano, were instruments developed to satisfy this changing aesthetic and the increased importance of vertical harmonies. They were adapted into a notation that had been developed to address primarily horizontal concerns . This means beginner piano students must learn to think about the music on the page differently from the words on a page.
So How Do You Choose Instructional Materials For Them
So how do you choose beginner piano music? Well, all kids love to play what is familiar to them.
You will have to stretch them, expanding their tastes, but you must still satisfy their desire to play what sounds like music to them or risk losing them as students.
Never will I forget an account by the late John Holt in his book, Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story, about meeting another adult cello student.
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What Are Augmented Piano Chords
Like diminished chords, augmented chords are most often used to transition between more stable sounds in rock and pop music. One example of this is the song Crying performed by Roy Orbison, where an augmented chord is used in the prechorus.
Common augmented piano chords include:
Row Row Row Your Boat
This fun, dreamy tune is one of the most popular songs for those just starting their journey toward playing the piano. The melody is especially great for kids because it starts out with quarter notes and moves into eighth notes, so its great for improving right-hand speed and mobility.
Though this is a simple song, music star Bing Crosby included a recording of it in his 1961 album101 Gang Songs. Row, Row, Row Your Boat was traditionally sung as a round, and Crosby sang it in a round with his family members in a 1976 live show.
You can find the sheet music with letters for Row, Row, Row Your Boat here. This video tutorial uses a labeled piano keyboard to show you how to play it.
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Virtual Piano Sheets A
Search for your favourite songs in the A-Z of virtual piano sheets. Choose the letter that the song starts with to perform a search. Alternatively, click on the letters to browse music sheets until you see one that you like. When you find the song you want to play, open the music sheet and click on Play This Song to load the music sheet into the piano.
Introduction: Notes And Letters On A Piano Keyboard
Before we learn how to play the easiest piano songs with letters, we need to go back to the notes they are attached to on a piano keyboard.
The idea here is to show you the location of each note in an octave so that you can easily find your way around your own piano and play the songs listed below.
Here is the diagram showing the piano keys chart:
Take the time to read this diagram carefully so that you can understand the location of all the notes on the piano. Once you have them well in mind, you can easily follow the piano song tutorials below showing all the note letters for each of the hands to play.
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All Of Me John Legend
All of Me is a song by artist John Legend, released in 2014 on the album Love in the Future.
The track has been very popular since its release. The emotion it gives off and its romanticism was able to seduce a very large part of the population fan of this type of song.
The piano version of All of Me is very easy to play. It is mainly for this reason that it is very famous among beginner pianists.
Here we will learn how to play the piano chords of the song All of Me easily.
Note: if you like this type of song, you will certainly like our ranking of the most beautiful sad piano music.
Go The Distance Movie Name: Hercules
Many obstacles hinder the journey of Hercules in the movie Hercules. King Eurystheus captured him and sentenced him to 12 labors, which was the most difficult part of his journey. Hercules completed all 12 labors with Athenas help and the help of other gods.
Hercules killed the Nemean Lion as his first labor. Despite its tough skin, the lion could not be killed with a sword or any other weapon used by mortals.
As a result, Hercules had to strangle the Beast to death, which took him 11 days. Hercules realized how challenging the task would be only after this labor. However, he kept going.
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What Is Piano Tab
Piano Tab created by Play Piano by Letters was founded in 2016 and has become an enjoyable and alternative method for reading piano music. This Piano Tab functions by replacing note symbols with letters. Piano Tab is perfect for guitar players who are familiar with guitar tab and is interested in learning how to play piano. Piano Tab provides an unconventional and innovative hybrid method of reading sheet music. In much of the same way Guitar Tab decodes sheet music for guitar players, Piano Tab translates regular sheet music into a color-coded, easy to interpret custom piano music sheet. Piano Tab displays right-hand fingering numbers with red note letters and left-hand fingering numbers blue note letters.
Piano Tab is a perfect method for visual learners and the most remarkable feature of Piano Tab is the conversion of standard sheet music to letters. It is particularly helpful for beginner piano players, and for those who are looking to learn new songs every once in a while. Even someone with minimal music knowledge can figure out how to use Piano Tab with ease. The complexities of sheet music are easily tackled with Piano Tab due to how it is laid out and structured.
Most students tend to struggle with playing hands together, deciphering key signatures and understanding rhythm counting. With Piano Tab, all these issues are solved/reduced by showing less information on each page. This allows a more open look when trying to understand what is going on.
When I Was Your Man Bruno Mars
When I Was Your Man is a song written by the American pop artist Bruno Mars.
It was released in 2013 in the album Unorthodox Jukebox.
Upon its release, the song was a hit and reached 4,000,000 sales in the United States alone.
It is a nostalgic yet dynamic track, which is very appealing to todays piano players.
You can also read our selection of the best piano pop songs if you are interested in this genre.
When I Was Your Man is a piano song with chords that are fairly easy to play.
We will now learn how to play them.
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Bachs Prelude In C Major
If you want to take a leap into more classical music then Prelude in C Major by Bach is probably the best place for you to start as a beginner. The song is a step up in terms of difficulty than the other songs we have mentioned to you in this list. You will be using both hands again but they will be moving up and down the keyboard more than the previous entries weve given you. The song has to be played with two hands to get the right feel and sound. However, its on the easier side of things because you dont play two notes at the same time so they can still move almost separately from each other, even though youre using both hands.
Take a listen to the piece and because some notes are sustained and held down, you dont really even notice that the music notes arent played at the same time. Another thing that makes this an ideal piano song for a beginner is that the note patterns happen twice over. Once you understand the pattern for each measure of the song and you can play through it smoothly, you can repeat the same notes over again to form the same pattern for the next section of the song.
RH: G C E G C E G C E G C E A D F A D F
LH: C E C E C D
______________________________________
RH: A D F A D F G D F G D F G D F G D F
LH: C D B D B D
______________________________________
RH: G C E G C E G C E G C E A E A A E A
LH: C E C E C E
______________________________________
RH: A E A A E A F# A D F# A D F# A D F# A D
LH: C E C D C D
______________________________________
From The Piano To The Page
As we now know, each white key on the piano corresponds with one of the 7 alphabet letter names.
However, its important to realize that these note names arent just for piano notes. In fact, nearly all instruments use the same 7 letter names . Not only that, written music uses these same 7 notes. Each of the piano notes is represented by a corresponding note on the piece of paper.
Amazingly, almost all the music in the world is made with just these 7 letter names! A, B, C, D, E, F, and G thats it.
Now, thats a whole lot better than having to memorize all 80,000+ characters in the Chinese language, isnt it?
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