Tag Archives: Christmas Carols

42/60 A Surfeit of Christmas Concerts

The joy of working in several different schools is that you experience different school cultures, environments, collect new ideas, meet so many lovely people. But at this time of year I take a rather different view; Tomorrow (Saturday) is the … 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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92/100 Another Christmas Collection for piano

I follow the website www.pianodao.com run by Andrew Earles. He has recently reviewed this collection of Christmas Carols for piano solo;                   by Barbara Arens and Alison Mathews published by Editions Musica … Continue reading

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87/100 Angels from the Realms of Glory

One of my favourite carols, and here’s my favourite version, by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band   Actually, this is one of my favourite Christmas Carols CDs. I’ve had a lot of fun with primary school classes getting them … Continue reading

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80/100 Percussion Band at Christmas

  I’m trying to arrange percussion parts for the Nativity/carol service at the end of term, and I will have NO TIME to practice with the children until the last few days before the event…. notice the state of my … Continue reading

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78/100 Teaching “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came”

This has to be one of my all-time favourite carols, with its haunting, lilting tune. Here’s the choir of King’s College Cambridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pliqObTHxUQ However it’s not a straightforward tune to teach to primary school children. I had a class of 7-8 … Continue reading

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76/100 Carols for cellos – with flats!

I’m teaching several groups of young Grade 2 cellists at the moment, covering for a colleague. All the groups are wrestling with the intricacies of B flat and E flat major scales – the novelty of “first finger back” on … Continue reading

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Issue 145: Go Tell it on the Mountain – Ukulele

image from http://www.familychristmasonline.com/music/african_american_carols/go_tell.htm Here you go – dead easy F and C ukulele Christmas Carol. I’ve been hunting for one for weeks. I’m only doing the chorus, after all the children only started ukulele in September! You can get away … Continue reading

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