I’ve recently had some deliveries of new music to try out in my studio and I wanted to highlight some of the recent additions to my teaching repertoire.
Play Mormon Hymns
I ordered all 3 books in this series. I have quite a few mormon students and they all like to work on hymns. I’ve come to really enjoy teaching their collection of hymns, but pedagogically, there can be some challenges moving from method book music to 4-part harmony reading in a hymn book.
The arrangements in these books are the perfect segue into hymn playing. It gives them experience working with their hymns, but offers it in a more manageable way for students who aren’t quite ready to play straight from the hymn book.
Book 1 is mostly melodies split between the 2 hands, Book 2 has right hand melodies with simple harmonies and Book 3 has lovely arrangements that are very pianistic.
Piano Safari
I’ve been curious about the Piano Safari method for years and I can’t believe it took me so long to finally order it!
Lately, I’ve been more and more drawn to teaching by rote. I believe that rote playing is crucial for beginners, especially very young students.
I often find myself frustrated with many other method books that there is so much emphasis on reading music early on. I already tend to supplement a lot with rote pieces, so I was really intrigued by a method that shifted the emphasis from reading to playing music.
I’ve only had a chance to flip through a couple of the books so far, but I can tell that it is a really sound and effective approach.
One drawback is that I think it will take a bit more time for me to learn the approach before I introduce it to a student. But, I think it will be well worth it for me to feel confident in what I am teaching.
Stay tuned, because I’m sure I’ll have more to report about Piano Safari as I become more acquainted with it.
Beginning Piano For Adults
I can’t talk about new music in 2018 with out mentioning all of the awesome music that I’m teaching in my online class, Beginning Piano For Adults. I’ve teamed up with Will Baily of willbailypianotunes.com to make this course happen. It’s been a really exciting project for both of us.
I approached Will with all of my favorite concepts and skills that I love teaching to adults and together we came up with 28 brand new tunes for adult students. Will is the mastermind behind the composing and arranging of the music and we collaborated on the pedagogical approach to each song.
I’m currently working on creating all of the video and print content that makes up the actual class. I have to admit that the amount of video work that I got myself into seemed a little intimidating at first, but it turns out it’s super easy and these songs really are fun to teach, even to a camera! The class is in presale right now for just $42 for 8 weeks of lessons. It goes live on February 1, and at that point the price will go up to $57. You can learn more about it here.
In addition to these new selections, you can still find a healthy dose of all of my old favorites in the studio:
- Piano Adventures
- Way Cool Keyboarding
- Musical Moments
- Returning To The Piano
- David Carr Glover Solos
- Martha Mier Solos
- Applause Series
- And of course, Hot Cross Buns
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