Free Printable Sheet Music
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The hardest thing about Irish Wedding is learning the melody's rhythm in the opening bars. Music with 3 beats per measure is harder for most students than Common Time, 4/4. Writing the music in 3/4 time instead of 6/8 (which is what it feels like when it gets going fast) makes it much easier for beginners to conquer.
Free printable sheet music for beginner piano
I like to have younger students count by the method called "unit counting", at least initially, gradually moving into what I call "band counting." (That's the way the band director counts, "One-two-three-four, One-two-three-four," so that the band can stay together.)
Thus, the beginning of Irish Wedding goes "1, 1, 1-2, 1, 1-2, 1, 1-2, 1, 1, 1, 1..." (I hope that makes sense!) Students count it aloud. Sometimes I will have them learn just the right hand the first week, and we'll play it like a duet.
Here is a video of a boy playing Alfred's version of Irish Wedding... super fast! I prefer a little less speed, more expression, and more weight on the open, accented chords. But young boys find this piece irresistable for speed-playing.
My free printable sheet music version is very similar, but not so heavy-sounding, as it uses open chords. The ending of my second version is more challenging and BIG, and there is a section in my music where the LH chords jump an octave, back and forth.
Now, version two of Irish Wedding cannot be played until a student can reach an octave, and not just reach an octave, but play a chord-plus-an-octave with a bit of speed (a-c-e-a).
It is a real accomplishment to be able to play that stretched chord, and it's not very easy. Before I give a student page 2 of the hard version, I assign them the stretched broken chord pattern as an exercise.
Download printable music for Irish Wedding version 2
After that part is learned, the repeat takes you back to the beginning, but up an octave for just 8 measures. This page, page 1, sounds exactly like ALL of version 1 of free printable sheet music Irish Wedding, -- it just looks faster because it is written in 6/8 time.
On page 2, skip through the 1st ending and go right into the left hand octave jumps. Hard for many kids at first, but very fun.
The last line is perhaps the trickiest part. The right hand goes far to the right, and the left hand far to the left -- simultaneously! The best way I have found to teach this section is to insist kids play the right hand with their eyes closed, practicing the runs in short, fast bursts, to nail down the fingering. Then they can swoop left with their eyes on the left hand chords.
I know your students will enjoy this free printable sheet music!
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