Category Archives: Keyboards

41/60 The “Father Christmas” scale

When I’ve young piano pupils learning their scales at this time of year, I sell them D major as “The Christmas Scale”. Yes, I know, offering a scale as a Christmas Treat might not seem to be totally in the … Continue reading

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35/60 The finger puppets have arrived!

I posted a while ago that I had ordered some finger puppets. It was over a month ago! I’m more used to deliveries taking a matter of days, rather than weeks, or even a month. I had pretty much given … Continue reading

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34/60 Christmas is a time for sudden progess

At this time of year I switch to focussing on Christmas Carols. With careful choice of book, many of the students will make great gains in confidence and motivation. As well as choosing “off-the-shelf” books, I’ve also transposed carols into … Continue reading

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30/60 Happy Birthday to me

It isn’t my birthday just yet, but I am teaching ALL my piano and keyboard students to play “Happy Birthday” at the moment. Preferably from memory, as part of my “Active Repertoire” project. Easy-Peasy, for beginners who know the letter … Continue reading

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14/60 Lead Sheets and Piano Lessons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet At the music service that I work for (when I’m not working for other schools or as a private teacher) we have been revising the piano curriculum that supports and underpins what we teach. For the first time, teaching … Continue reading

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2017/8 More Music for Ensembles

I teach a couple of mixed-age, mixed ability keyboard ensembles. Finding suitable mixed-age, mixed-ability ensemble music is a perennial challenge. The BBC Ten Pieces resources includes several arrangements of classical music for ocarinas, and I have selected the Mozart Horn … Continue reading

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98/100 Lovely Evening – 3-part round

Here’s another round that I will be using with my beginner keyboard ensemble. It works on a similar principle to Nanuma except that the last line is even easier – just repeated Cs. That will be useful for when a new … Continue reading

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97/100 Nanuma – 4-part round

This is a traditional African round – you can find it in all sorts of places and song books. Here is one version – sometimes the top note is a B flat, sometimes it is a B natural. It is … Continue reading

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