Free Lead Sheets

Free lead sheets are an excellent way to not only stretch your music budget and your students' repertoire, but also to stretch their musical skills.  Lead sheets require an understanding of chords!

Lead sheet Amazing Grace

What's so useful about a lead sheet?

Ae Fond Kiss lead sheet in treble clef, key of G, with chords.  A Scottish song with lyrics by Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Ae Fond Kiss vocal score, piano & other instruments

A lovely Scottish poem and song which works well with guitar or piano.

Using their understanding of chords and chording patterns, music students will learn how to take a simple melody and make their own arrangement.

Lullaby guitar music

All the Pretty Little Horses

A pretty lullaby, useful for learning different kinds of strums and chord patterns, piano and guitar.

Chord practice!  And chord relationships!

Lullaby song sheet

All Through the Night, a lullaby

A pretty melody with easy chords.  The lyrics are beautiful - like poetry!

Christmas carol music

All You That in This House

An unusual Christmas carol, set in a minor key.

Piano students in particular may start with very simple melodies and chords.

Eventually, they will be able to employ flowing or powerfully rhythmic left hand parts, and add harmony in the right hand.

Lead sheet Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

The wonderful song with words by a former slave trader, turned repentant.

Many students love the autonomy of devising their own arrangements

Besides doing away with the complication of reading notes for two hands at once, the use of a lead sheet lets kids experiment with different styles.

Patriotic music sheet

America

"My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing."

With melody in bass clef, treble clef, guitar tablature, and viola clef too.

So... what IS a lead sheet?

Whether for guitar or piano, music lead sheets are simply the melody of a song, with chord symbols added above the notes.

The right hand (of a piano player) plays the melody while the left hand plays a chord in the left hand.

For a guitar player, usually the guitarist sings the melody and strums or picks the notes of the chord.

Patriotic music

America the Beautiful

"O beautiful for spacious skies" - this song is frequently used as a test for singing auditions, in high schools in the United States.

Lead sheets are easier to read!  

And for some students, much less intimidating. 

Navy song

Anchors Aweigh

An energetic song for the Navy!

Check out all the free lead sheets (many of them will also be found on the Free Vocal Sheet Music, and Beginner Piano Music, and Beginner Guitar pages) and you will see that the majority of them are just a few lines of melody in the treble staff.

Angels We Have Heard On High

Angels We Have Heard on High

The lovely Christmas carol with the "Glo-o-o-o-ri-a!" section.

A favorite.

Use lead sheets to make progressively harder arrangements.

Ants Go Marching sheet music

Ants Go Marching lyrics & sheet music

This is a fun song! And your students likely know it already.

Play it for them and see if they don't start to sing along with you!

Fiddle music Arkansas Traveler

Arkansas Traveler

A great fiddle & guitar song.

In the key of C (shown here) and also the key of G.

With a few of my free lead sheets, I have left a blank bass staff for piano players.

That way, sample chord patterns for the left hand can be written out in the empty measures, to give students ideas, or to jog their memory when they get home from their lesson.

Caisson song, Army song

Army Theme Song (Caisson Song)

"Over hill, over dale, we will hit the dusty trail"!

A fun, energetic song.

Ash Grove sheet music

Ash Grove

A pretty old-fashioned song from Wales - "Down yonder green valley..."

You will sometimes hear this song in movies about bygone days, such as "Pride and Prejudice."

The tune is also used as a hymn melody: "Let All Things Now Living."

Some of the leads have guitar tabs for the melody as well.

Auld Lang Syne sheet music

Auld Lang Syne sheet music

Lead sheets in multiple keys!  Several versions of leads - with simpler chords, with extra chords, and also in bass clef.

Ave Maria lead sheet

Ave Maria - this is the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria

The lyrics are Latin, but alternate lyrics in English are offered as well. ("Father Almighty")

Further down the page, see my performance suggestions if you need ideas for how to use my free lead sheets.

Away in a Manger sheet music

Away in a Manger

Another pretty Christmas song, this one about Baby Jesus.

Question from a Reader:

Hello! First of all, I love your site! 

I wanted to ask you about lead sheets. I learned piano when I was young for few years, but only the classics. Now they're a bit difficult for me, and I want to play easier and more enjoyable pieces.

I saw an infomercial before mentioning lead sheets, how it makes playing piano easier, and I want to ask you, how do I use it? I'm really bad at chords, does that mean I need to know all my chords before playing a lead sheet music?

Thanks so much!

R---, India

Be Thou My Vision sheet music

Be Thou My Vision

 A beautiful and quite old hymn

My reply:

Dana:  Hello, R ---

You are correct that you need to understand chords to make use of lead sheets.  But you can start with the basics & go on from there...

Easiest of all:

Even if you don't understand how to make chords yet, you can still get a decent, though plain, accompaniment by just using the chord symbol itself as your left hand note.  Is the chord "C?"  Then press a "C" with your left hand.  As I tell my students, you will have the sound of a bass guitarist.

There is instruction on this page, Free Lead Sheets, regarding chord construction and use.

Also, my piano pages "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and "Twinkle", and "Water is Wide" all have information about chord patterns and uses.  Those are EASY BEGINNER pages, but very useful if you are unfamiliar with chords! 

Also, take a peek at https://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/printable-piano-chord-chart.html - this page is a graphic showing what the most common chords (major & minor chords) look like.

Blow the Candles Out minor melody

Blow the Candles Out

This minor melody is unforgettable.

Some of the words are risque, so I omitted them - sorry!

Guitar tabs Boil'em Cabbage Down

Boil'em Cabbage Down beginner guitar song

This is a beginner arrangement for fiddle & guitar of this bluegrass favorite.  

Very easy, with lots of repetition.

This is the song I use to get kids started flatpicking guitar.

Why use lead sheets in your studio?

It's good to shake up your music lessons with activity changes!

Bluegrass sheet music Bonaparte

Bonaparte Crossing the Rocky Mountains bluegrass guitar tabs

This is a great bluegrass tune you may never have heard before!

Sheet music The Butterfly

The Butterfly free Irish Fiddle sheet music

A melody without words that was popularized by the group Celtic Woman, this tune lends itself to "swoops" of sound.

Very dramatic, and fun!

Caisson Song

Same as the Army Song, shown above!


I suggest setting aside a portion of each music lesson for a rotation of activities, different every week.

Camptown Races lead sheet

Camptown Races

An older song that has a definite American feeling

Along with games that stretch and reinforce understanding of music theory, give kids lead sheets (and if you can, free lead sheets such as I have here!).

Cat Came Back sheet music

Cat Came Back

This fun song with silly lyrics can be simplified to just 5 notes.  

Kids like this song.

Several different versions here...

Starting very simply, students will gradually hone their arranging skills and feel "cut loose" from the written page.


Chopsticks music with chords

Chopsticks music

Several solos and duets on this page.  

The G7 chord in this popular old music is a good reason to have your students study it.

A cowboy love song, Colorado Trail, lead sheets and guitar tabs, piano sheet music and vocal duet.

Colorado Trail song

This is a sweet love song, with a surprisingly pretty melody.

Also find on this page a piano version,  and a vocal duet

Especially for pianists, this is an entirely different way to make music, and will gradually lead to playing by ear (which I personally believe every adept musician ought to be able to do).

Come By the Hills Gaelic tune, lead sheets for all instruments

Come By the Hills

Lead sheets in F and G - and sheets for guitar and piano as well.

A traditional Gaelic tune, but with newer English lyrics.

Come Ye Sinners sheet music with the Beach Spring melody

Come Ye Sinners, one of the old gospel hymns

This beautiful hymn from  an earlier time is known as the Beach Spring melody, from The Sacred Harp tradition.

This an excellent melody with an old-fashioned American hymn sound, nearly but not quite pentatonic.

What KINDS of lead sheets?

In addition to using older, public domain songs, one kind of lead sheet I've had some success with among my students is contemporary Christian lead sheets such as "Be Unto Your Name," "Shout to the Lord," "Give Thanks," etc.

Gospel song sheet music

Come Ye Sinners

I Will Arise and Go to Jesus, from Southern Harmony.

This hymn has the same words as the previous one, plus a chorus with additional lyrics, but the hymn has a very different melody, minor and stirringly beautiful.



But those ones aren't FREE, are they?

Of course, those ones are NOT free lead sheets, being under copyright.  

So I go looking for these songs on SheetMusicPlus.com or Musicnotes.com. 



Deck the Halls sheet music

Deck the Halls

A very popular Christmas carol that kids love to play!

After buying the version I like, I loan students page 1, with instructions to give the music back to me and buy their own copy if they want the whole thing. 

OR - EVEN BETTER - print out a sample from Musicnotes.com (a newer feature at Musicnotes - you can print out page 1 of the music for free!) and see how your students like the arrangement.

Fiddle and guitar song Devil's Dream

Devil's Dream

A great favorite among both fiddle and flat-picking guitar players

Singing round sheet music

Dona nobis pacem

 A beautiful but CHALLENGING vocal round.

The words mean "Give us peace."

Down in the Valley guitar tabs

Down in the Valley

A sweet old-fashioned song from the mountains of Appalachia.

This is a very good first finger-picking song for young guitar players, because there are only two chords (which can be the "little" chords), and there are only three beats per measure!

Thumb, index, middle; thumb, index, middle - as easy as it gets.

Down to the River hymn lead sheet

Down to the River to Pray sheet music

A 2-page lead sheet of this popular spiritual, with all the Down to the River to Pray lyrics.

Doxology music

Doxology

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow."


Erie Canal sheet music

The Erie Canal Song

A still-popular song about driving a mule and a barge along the Erie Canal.

Gospel hymn Farther On

Farther On

A truly lovely hymn I never tire of, about looking beyond the troubles of today to the "field of endless day."

On this page are a vocal ensemble, guitar tabs in 2 keys, lead sheets in several keys, and a beginner piano version.

Sheet music Found a Peanut

Found a Peanut

A goofy song for a "certain age bracket" that uses only 2 chords!  

Great for beginners.

Song for Thanksgiving

For Health & Strength, a prayer for Thanksgiving

A round.

This melody progresses in easy steps downward, after the initial octave leap.

Pretty!

Thanksgiving song "For the Beauty of the Earth," lead sheets for instruments using treble, bass, and viola clefs

For the Beauty of the Earth, a Thanksgiving song

An old-fashioned hymn giving thanks to God for what he has created

Christmas sheet music

God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

A Christmas carol from England, with an arresting minor melody, and sophisticated lyrics ("let nothing you dismay") celebrating the arrival of the SAVIOUR


Goober Peas song

Goober Peas

A fun song about soldiers and eating peanuts that comes from Civil War times.

Though kids may initially be reluctant to try this unfamiliar song, it quickly becomes a favorite!

Greensleeves sheet music

Greensleeves Christmas sheet music

One of the loveliest and oldest of melodies.

Originally, the words were addressed to a Lady Greensleeves.

Later, the meaningful lyrics "What Child is This" were attached to this melody.


English folk song sheet music

The Grenadier and the Lady - loveliest of sad songs

From England comes this unforgettable song about impossible love.

Happy Birthday sheet music

Happy Birthday

Several different arrangements!

The one shown to the right may seem impossibly high for the average singer, but fear not, I have the lead sheet in many keys, from A to Z! 

Just kidding.  From A to G.

Christmas sheet music

He is Born (Il est ne) free Christmas sheet music

From France, a pretty Christmas carol


Singing round Heigh Ho

Heigh Ho, Nobody Home

A good beginning round for singers, with words sung by a "hobo"

I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls

An opera song about a girl who dreams she is not really a gypsy, but a princess. 

With the vocal line in several keys, or with the standard piano accompaniment, also in several keys.  This is very easy, for an opera aria.

Lead sheet I Gave My Love a Cherry

I Gave My Love a Cherry - also known as The Riddle Song

This is a very pretty love song with a bit of a puzzle in the lyrics.

In the keys of G and F.

Guitar lead sheet I Love the Mountains

I Love the Mountains

For guitar or piano, this is a fun song with opportunities to improve chord technique

Guitar music I'll Fly Away

I'll Fly Away

A song about flying away joyfully to heaven when the day comes "when I die".

Irish Wedding piano sheet music

Irish Wedding free printable sheet music

This is a REALLY FUN piece of music. 

Tricky rhythm for beginners, at first, because of the 3/4 time signature, but kids will work and work to polish this music!

Jingle Bells guitar tabs

Jingle Bells

One of the Christmas songs everyone knows - and it only has 5 notes in the chorus, shown here.

joy to the world tablature

Joy to the World lyrics, chords, & tabs

With all the hymn verses, here is Joy to the World as a lead sheet.

Visit the page to see more arrangements, and to download the lyrics pdf.

Fiddle song June Apple

June Apple

A fun melody for fiddle or guitar

Keegan's Waltz Irish music

Keegan's Waltz

A very pretty Irish song

Lavender's Blue sheet music

Lavender's Blue, Cinderella song lyrics

An old song that still seems fresh & sweet.

Several versions, including a fancy piano accompaniment for vocalists.  Shown here is the key of D (especially easy for beginning guitarists & violinists), but a key of C arrangement with "AlphaNotes" makes this song approachable for brand-new beginning pianists!

Loch Lomond sheet music

Loch Lomond

A Scottish song about the sad parting that comes to lovers, with war and battle

Mari's Wedding

A brisk tune great for fiddle & guitar, from Scotland.

Lyrics can be found on this page as well.

Mary Had a Little Lamb guitar

A handy song for beginners!

Mary Had a Little Lamb, piano

My students all master this song in order to learn to use chords well!


Minstrel Boy, free Irish sheet music

- another sad but lovely patriotic song about love for one's country - and a harp.


Check out a fancy version of the Pachelbel Canon that even elementary students can play!


Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics and melody, Modern Major General, the vocal line

Modern Major-General, with the usual silly Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics

Often called a "patter  song," this particular solo-with-optional chorus from Gilbert & Sullivan is a tongue-twister!

For that reason, even students who initially balk at classical music and light opera will take pride in being able to sing this song FAST.

Morning Has Broken

Very beautiful chords in this song.

My Country 'Tis of Thee (America)

This song is offered in numerous keys, and for different clefs.

O Holy Night

This is a famous and beloved Christmas song.

O Come Emmanuel sheet music

O Come, O Come Emmanuel chords & lyrics

This beautiful old Christmas carol has several lead sheets in different keys, as well as guitar tabs!

O Susannah music

O Susanna

Just three chords make "O Susannah" an easy song for guitar beginners!

Lead sheet music

Oh, How Lovely is the Evening

No chord symbols? Visit the page to find out what they are - though this harmony will be very easy for most musicians to figure out!

Old Joe Clark guitar tabs

Old Joe Clark

A super-cute song that mostly moves step-wise.

Very fun lyrics, and easy chords and tabs for beginning guitar.

On Top of Old Smokey

This is the song I sang as a kid that went "On Top of Spaghetti!"

Redhaired Boy guitar tabs

Redhaired Boy free fiddle sheet music

Also known as "The Little Beggarman".

This is a very fun & popular flat-picking song for young guitarists!

The Riddle Song sheet music

The Riddle Song

A sweet song with a lovely "answer" to the riddle.

Very pretty.

Irish guitar tabs Road to Lisdoonvarna

Road to Lisdoonvarna

A swingy, energetic, pretty piece, especially nice for fiddle and other melody instruments.

Guitar tabs Scarborough Fair

Scarborough Fair guitar tabs and chords

A couple different versions - one showing a finger-picking chord pattern with walking bass.

Scarborough Fair sheet music

Scarborough Fair

Lead sheets in many keys.

The most famous of the Scarborough Fair melodies.

Shalom Chaverim sheet music

Shalom chaverim

A Hebrew round.

Very pretty.

Celtic sheet music She Moved Through the Fair

She Moved Through the Fair/ She Went Through the Fair Celtic sheet music

An unusual folk piece:  Part love song, and part ghost story!

Shenandoah guitar tabs & sheet music

Shenandoah

A love song? or a song about travelling "across the wide Missouri"?

Either way, it is a lovely American song that your students will love.

In several keys.

Shortnin' Bread, an American bluegrass song, given here as a lead sheet with guitar tabs

Shortnin' Bread

- an adorable American folk song (bluegrass?) with repeating lines

Silent Night sheet music

Silent Night sheet music

Perhaps the most beloved of Christmas songs, this is the famous German carol "Stille Nacht."

This page has: lead sheets in many keys, plus several versions for piano

Silent Night sheet music

Silent Night chords & tabs

This page includes a duet for treble instruments, and solos for guitar & other stringed instruments


Sing We Noel lead sheet

Sing We Noel free Christmas songs

A little-known French carol in a minor key.

Very pretty!

Skye Boat Song from Scotland, with lead sheet chords and easy guitar tabs

Skye Boat Song

- from Scotland; a song about the escape after a devastating battle by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Very pretty and very singable.

Sleepsong lead sheet

Sleepsong

This is an amazingly lovely "lullaby wish" from the group "Secret Garden."  

Your students will compete with each other to perform this song at recitals - ask me how I know!

Slumber My Darling music Stephen Foster

Slumber, My Darling

This is another lullaby, but this one is American, by Stephen Foster.  

Very sweet, with potential to be a nice first recital song for a young girl.

With lead sheets and also guitar tabs.

Softly and Tenderly free hymn sheet music

"Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling... calling for you and for me.  Come home..." - a moving hymn, quite old-fashioned.

Spanish Ladies

A favorite of my guitar-playing boys, who will even sing the swash-buckling sailors' lyrics!

Several keys and arrangements.


Spanish Lady

A different song entirely from "Spanish LADIES", this one describes the winsome ways of a pretty lady from Spain.  

From Ireland.  Several different arrangements, for singers, guitarists, and piano.


Give your students the joy of learning Beethoven's famous Für Elise in an easy-to-read format... every note from the ORIGINAL piece is here  in this beautiful new setting


Star of the County Down

This  may be THE FAVORITE MUSIC in my studio!

A very fun song from Ireland, arranged in multiple keys for piano, violin, and guitar.

Star-Spangled Banner

The national anthem of the United States of America.

Streets of Laredo

Arrangements for guitar and piano.

I loved this cowboy song as a child.

Sweet Betsy from Pike free lead piano sheet

This great old song tells a story and uses fun nonsense syllables!

Guitar tabs Sweet Hour of Prayer

Sweet Hour of Prayer hymn lead sheet

Versions for guitar & other lead instruments, and beginning piano too!

Taps Trumpet Music

And piano music... and lead sheets for any instrument.

Ten-Penny Bit free fiddle music, with guitar tabs too

This song is eminently suited to violin!  

There is a tricky bowing pattern discussed on this page that makes this melody flow better.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star music

This page features arrangements for guitar and violin, as well as duet.

Una furtiva lagrima

This is a song for a male singer.  

An opera aria, it is slow and SO BEAUTIFUL, with a cadenza at the end.

Check out the page to learn what the seemingly-sad melody is truly about.

Though the vocal line is offered in several keys with chords - a lead sheet version - the standard arrangement with piano accompaniment is also available on this page.

Up on the Housetop easy kids Christmas piano sheet music

This is a favorite old Christmas song with a bouncy feeling.

Vieni, vieni o mio diletto

This is a beautiful minor song with a complex-sounding melody that builds with soaring intervals.

Much repetition makes learning the melody line easier than you'd think. 

Wabash Cannonball

This is a fun song.



Waltzing Matilda

Arrangements for guitar and piano, and lead sheets in many keys.

Such a lovely song, from Australia.

Water is Wide easy guitar songs

A very pretty old song with vague but poetic lyrics about love gone cold.

Water is Wide beginner keyboard music sheets

This page has several versions of a Middle C arrangement, for beginner piano.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Several arrangements plus lead sheets of this energetic Christmas carol.

The Wellerman sheet music

The Wellerman sheet music

A sea chanty (shanty!) with an irresistible melody and rhythm.

What Child is This Christmas sheet music

The name of this melody is "Greensleeves", named for a woman named Lady Greensleeves. 

But the Christmas lyrics about the new-born baby Jesus are the words most people are familiar with.

Several different arrangements.

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor guitar tabs & treble staff melodies

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor chords & melody for guitar & fiddle

There is also a 3-page DUET on this page for guitars or fiddles - very fun!

What Wondrous Love

This is the well-known evocative and older hymn speaking about the love of God, so great that He sent his only Son to rescue us.

When He Cometh

This is a sweet and musically satisfying hymn, describing in an oblique way how God treasures children.

When the Saints music

When the Saints Go Marching In

Download a jazzy but easy piano arrangement as well as lead sheets in several keys!

This arrangement is handy for piano, because the melody uses just the five fingers with no shifting necessary!

Irish song

White, Orange and Green free Irish sheet music

A song about the courage of a young girl and her love for her country.

She carries a banner with the forbidden colors of Ireland, and a young English soldier wants to take it away from her!

Best of all, this song is lovely and singable.



FLASH UPDATE, 5-1-2018: Musicnotes dot com is now offering a free sample of the first page of at least some of their music! (I found that out while looking over music from The Greatest Showman.)


Will students' parents really buy the sheet music for them?

Yes! This process has worked very well for us; many of the students do indeed talk their parents into purchasing their own copies, and others simply memorize the main theme (if it is on page one, the free page) and figure out the rest.

Whatever is currently popular is a good bet

Some of my students will ask for current popular pieces - generally from movies - even older ones like the Harry Potter series - and as long as that first sample page has chord symbols on it, you will be good to go!

Church, gospel, & worship music is appreciated by many kids

I have a lot of church-going families among my students, and these songs are ones that are special to them already; they are thrilled to be able to play them at home!

Well... how do I USE these free lead sheets?

Follow the diagrams below to see the "evolution" of lead sheet playing...

Start with the lead sheet:

Mary Had a Little Lamb with chord symbols


Here, the most basic way to play and understand a lead sheet:


Mary Had a Little Lamb with single bass notes


Next, try substituting triads (full 3-note chords):


Solid triads for Mary Had a Little Lamb


Even easier - using "open" chords (also called "open fifths" or "shells").  This will come easier than you would think, if students know the piano keys well, and also if they have conquered beginner pentatonic piano scales and chords:


Open chords in the left hand


Once piano students understand how to add the left-hand chords this way, teach them how to do inversions of the I - IV - V chords. 

Here is the way the chords would look with the closest regular G and F inversions (closest to the root position C chord):

Cadences of the I,IV & V chords

Do you recognize the F and G7 chord inversions?  

Your students don't need to wait until they encounter them in their method books to begin using them and developing an understanding of the relationship of the 3 main chords.

Easier and prettier, too

These forms of the most-used chords (the I, the IV, and the V) are not only prettier, but also ultimately EASIER than jumping back and forth, since the left hand hardly has to move.

With very young beginners, I like to start with the "pinch" chord (which is actually a G7, and not just a G chord) and the "baby" or "little F" chord.

Here's how the open C and pinch G would look with Mary Had a Little Lamb... 

Chords for left hand of Mary Had a Little Lamb, for beginner piano

What about the IV (four) chord?

Now it is time to change songs, because Mary Had a Little Lamb only uses two chords. Let's change to "Twinkle" to demonstrate the use of the IV chord (which will be "F" if we play it in the key of C, as I usually do with beginners).

Here is the beginning of "Twinkle" using the C chord in root position, and F and G inversions: 

Twinkle Twinkle with chords

Here is the beginning of "Twinkle" with C, pinch G, and little F chords: 

Twinkle Twinkle with block chords on piano

Here is Twinkle with pretty broken chords, MUCH more difficult for young students (but where you are heading):

Twinkle Twinkle with broken chords

Along the way to playing it like that, is an in-between version:

Twinkle with broken chord pattern on the piano

These are only a few ideas, the beginnings of where you can go with these free lead sheets.  See other pages, such as Mary Had a Little Lamb, for more ideas.  Have fun!

Taylor Swift sheet music Love Story

Audrey: 
I just wanted to tell you that I have found your website EXTREMELY helpful!  

I have a young group of children that I have started a youth choir with and I was searching for music ideas and I came across your  website. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Lead Sheets Best Christmas Songs Ever

Mike:

Hi Dana,
I have been looking for some suitable beginner piano sheet music for some time before I found your website.
One of my students has just started to use notation. Previously we were using shapes stuck to the keyboard and on the music as the student was struggling with reading and writing in general.
My biggest struggle was finding easy and fun pieces that weren’t too difficult for a complete beginner.
We have started learning Pizza Please and A,B,C. These pieces have been absolutely perfect as an introduction to reading notes whilst learning a fun piece of music at the same time.
Many Thanks

Flute and Guitar Early American Music

Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church?  Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!

SingTheBibleStory.com clickable logo link

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All the first-year material I give my beginner students. 

Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!

The Story of Esther - a Bible opera!

Queen Esther in the Bible

This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This",  available as a digital downloadtells the riveting story of the time when  Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a  brave young queen risked her life to save her people.

A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!

This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.


Just the Black Keys, a piano song book for young beginners.

Just the Black Keys

This book is available as a digital download  from this site.  Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.

It is also available 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.

The Adventures of Tonsta, Volume 1, is a book about a young boy travelling over mountains and fjords from village to village, encountering trolls and helping folk in distress.

The Adventures of Tonsta

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!

Available at Amazon

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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...

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

THANK YOU SO MUCH Not rated yet
I want to express my appreciation for all of the free resources you have posted, with an unimaginable amount of time spent on your part. This is a …

US Air Force Song Not rated yet
I love your site! The lead sheets are a great help, as I just really want to have a simple melody that my students can follow. I was wondering if you …

Click here to write your own.


About the Author

Dana Thynes

Hi, I'm Dana!  (Say that like "Anna".)  I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.

Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have 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.