What's New at

Music-for-Music-Teachers?

Dear Fellow Teachers and music-lovers of the world,

In the last month:

Two easier-in-the-left-hand versions of The First Noel for piano have been added to an already-existing page, both in the key of C. I really like using this song with late beginner students, because it employs a full C or D major scale in the right hand that just falls naturally into the hand, so to speak, using correct scale fingering with the tucked-under thumb on the way up, and the crossed-over finger 3 on the way down! Kids think it's fun.

For voice, melody instruments or as a lead sheet for accompanists, All You That in This House is a lovely and unfamiliar Christmas song with some of that minor English melancholic sound.

The Doxology is surely familiar to most musicians; I have provided both lead sheets in four keys, and a choral or choral/piano arrangement also in four keys. Both kinds of sheets have 10 verses of lyrics in addition to the familiar one, "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow." This page of music also includes a kind of mini-course chord theory from me!

One reader asked me for my own suggestions on Non-Traditional Piano Method Courses, and I gave her a long list of suggestions -- not for method books, but for music theory, technique, lead sheet playing, and other ideas to use.

Another reader asked for help since she had been asked to teach for the first time, and I recommended The First Piano Lesson, a 14-page blow-by-blow description of my favorite approach to a new piano student.

Readers frequently write about students or family members with autism, and a grandmother wrote to ask about a course in tuning pianos.

A young girl wrote to ask what music writing program I use,

And last, I finally put O Holy Night up on my site with 3 verses and 2 keys. Included are lengthy instructions as to how to use this song for a music theory lesson which focuses on chord progressions and recognizing chords in inversions. O Holy Night has been a big favorite at my studio!

Please keep your eyes "peeled" for more Christmas sheet music coming up in the next few weeks...