Such lovely Bach music as the Prelude in C is music every piano student should eventually have in their repertoire. Fortunately, it is not very hard, even in its original form, offered here as a free printable download.
This beautiful and famous piano music by Johann Sebastian Bach makes great wedding music. It makes great church worship prelude music. It makes great piano student recital music!
Here's a fellow on a harpsichord playing this popular Bach piece:
Although it may sound -- and look! -- complicated to your students at first, they will likely be enchanted when you point out to them that every measure is just a repeating broken chord pattern, which changes by only a few notes from one measure to the next, and that the hands take turns playing, one at a time. Perfect for younger students.
When your students' hands can reach an octave, and they are beginning to recognize chord inversions, they will be able to learn this piece easily.
For piano students whose hands are too small for the octaves, or who aren't ready or willing to take on the entire piece, there is a different way to sneak some original classical piano music onto their plate...
In an effort to press more classical music upon my students, I started something new last year which I call "Classical Samplers," or "Classical Soundbites."
These are short excerpts from longer, mostly very famous piano pieces, that capture the flavor of the whole piece, but may be as short as 4 measures. In this way, my students can get exposure to many more pieces in their original, not arranged form.
Along with their regular lesson material, they will be working on a small segment of a longer classical work. Do they want to keep going and learn the whole piece? Some of them will, but others are satisfied with just an introduction. Okay...we all know what an investment of time -- months! -- it can be to commit to a whole piece of classical music. If and when they do come back to it, they will be PRIMED.
So here is one of those Classical Samplers...students whose hands are too small for the octaves, or who aren't ready for such a long piece, won't be overwhelmed by this large-note version of the first 4 measures of the Bach C Prelude. It is exactly the same as the original, but seems easier with the big notes, even though they are still sixteenth notes. (It can be very liberating for young piano students to realize that sixteenth notes can actually be played slowly, as they are in this piece.)
Elania: THANK YOU! This website is a God-send! :D I took piano lessons as a kid, a little music theory, and now I'm a homeschooling mom hoping to pass on anything I can to my kids about music. It is such a gift, for so many reasons!
I have been slowly giving my oldest daughter whatever my memory can dredge up, scouring the internet for free music she can do, but your website with its instructions AND tips on how to teach pieces are going to help me SO much in this endeavor. I just wanted to tell you thank you. Really really! THANK YOU!
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Mary: Hi! Your website is just perfect for me, a beginning piano teacher, and just now responding to a request for guitar lessons...
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Kim in Washington: My son is hooked...I've been introducing piano to my son on and off for a year or so, but he's not had much interest. Then I gave him "Monsters Everywhere". He loved playing it with the organ sound on our piano. He memorized it that week and I'm printing off the other Halloween songs to keep him going. I love the detailed instructions on teaching since he is my first student! Thanks so much. Dana:That is so neat that your son has experienced the magic and mystery of music through this little song. That is so exciting to me. Thanks for writing, Kim!
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Joy: Thank you. Just wanted to say I found your website by mistake but what a blessing it has been. I am a missionary wife living in Spain (for many, many years) and I teach piano to Spanish children and adults. I have the barrier of very few usable things in Spanish, and can so identify with the need to write things suitable for the student...
California Student: Hi,I want to thank you for such a wonderful and educational website. I have found all the information you have posted and your comments immensely helpful, and I am grateful for your posting it. I am sure you are an awesome teacher and person. I am a beginner piano student, so many thanks and Happy New Year! Lori, homeschool mom, songwriter/musician and private music teacher: Just wanted to say "thank you" for this site and for allof your dedication and hard work! I have literally combed the internet for months on end to find free and "doable" resources for my young students and for my own children, whom I have homeschooled for nine years. I will be returning to this site over and over again from here on out and am excited to presentsome of the tools I found today on here to my voice and piano students later this week! My thirteen-year old son is happily, as I type, working with the guitar chord sheets I just printed for him! Wish I'd found you earlier! Thanks a million, and God bless--
Kelli: I am so relieved to have found this site!! I have been struggling as a music student, not having any previous instruction in high school. I am starting from scratch and this is a wonderful tool!! Kudos to you!! God Bless you!
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Marta: Thank you for the free downloads! I'm a private teacher and I teach piano and beginner voice as well. :) I've been running my studio for about a year and I've come across the same issue; I don't want my students to have to purchase an entire supplemental book for only a couple of songs. So thank you for this site...some great downloads!!
Yolanda: I used to teach piano lessons, and then did not for anumber of years. Now, suddenly, I have 3 beginning students and I am thrilled. I was looking for printable scales and found your wonderful website.
Thank you so much. I know this will be a big help to me and my students.
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Susie: Wow! I cannot thank you enough for the free collection of piano sheet music that you created here. My daughter and I are following everything you wrote and we LOVE it. It is super fun!!! She loves to play because of your website. We have a small binder now that is slowly growing! THANK YOU!!!!
Anna Lee: What a fabulous website! I've been a keen amateur piano player since I first learnt 56 years ago at the age of 8. I now have a three year old granddaughter and am hoping fervently that she'll want to learn - at which point I'll teach her. This is just the kind of resource I'll need to make it comprehensible. Thank you very much.
Stasi: AH!!!!! I am so happy to find a helpful site like this. I started to give piano lessons to one little girl from church and two girls requested voice lessons this spring. Since then, word got out and going into the fall I have 18 students. I am so excited, but I'm running out of materials that they can borrow, and I, like you hate telling the parents to buy morebooks. Because I have such a diverse group of students I spend SO much time making supplemental material and I feel like I have to pick through other websites, to only find one or two useful things. I am so thankful for the wealth of supplement that you have offered here! And it's all SO user friendly!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
Marybeth: I love your site! It has been an incredible resource forme as a Music teacher. I love your ideas and the music you share...
Rossana: Greetings from Perú, South America. I like your blog, I teach piano to children, and it isgood for all the piano teachers.
Carrie,Voice and Piano Teacher: This site is FABULOUS. For all the reasons you explain on the site itself--this is exactly what piano teachers need! (I still need to go look at the vocal music). Wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH!