Free Beginner Sheet Music
Cowboy Song
Free beginner sheet music "Cowboy Song" has a repeating left hand boogie chord, and solid right hand chords for a full sound. Especially popular with boys!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This printable piano music is most appropriate in the second year of piano playing, for most students. It takes a bit of coordination to execute the two hands together.
I never give them this piece until they have become very familiar with the "boogie" left hand open chords that accompany a simple 12-bar-blues pattern, in my studio.
That open chord pattern looks like this:
If piano students have not gotten used to stretching the LH thumb for this pattern, I find that they can't seem to remember to break out of the 5-finger-scale habit to stretch the thumb in Cowboy Song...
They'll come back Week 2 playing "c, f, g, f", instead of "c, g, a, g" as written!
Separately, each hand is very easy.
Together, students MAY have trouble, initially, bringing left and right hands together on beat 3 of measure 3.
I let them try to put it HT (hands together) right away, but if they have trouble coordinating the hands, I tell them to just go to the end of line 1, or even just to the end of measure 4, for all of the 1st or even 2nd week.
And if they have a little trouble, I say, "Can you pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time?"
I demonstrate, and watch them do the same. It's very fun!
Of course, not all can perform this feat of coordination very gracefully, and I tell them that over time it will improve! Just like Cowboy Song will improve.
One suggestion for actual lesson time: as you play along with them, tell them to slow the notes down as they approach the tricky part to SUPER SLOW, "freezing" the hands as they meet. This will help the hands memorize the feeling they must have as they come together.
Note that this free beginner sheet music is to be performed with a swing; a LONG-short, LONG-short rhythm.
This really does, somehow, suggest the motion of a horse and cowboy moving along. Must be all the Western movies soundtracks with the same loping kind of rhythm our ears have come to identify as the "cowboy" sound!
The song really has more of a cut-time rhythm (2/2), but I wrote it 4/4 to make it easier to read.
This piece is especially popular with boys; for some students, it marks a new milestone as they struggle with the challenge of two-hand coordination... and they feel rewarded when they can play it with ease!
The download link for the piano song:
Free beginner sheet music Cowboy Song
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This book is available as a digital download from this site, and also from Amazon as a paperback!
This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!" They will be spending more time at the piano.
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Comments: Do you have a story or a question about music teaching? Share it!
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...
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About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
