Morning Song by Grieg
Morning Song is one of those famous pieces from the world of classical music that your students will certainly encounter eventually, perhaps in band!
*Listen to a recording of the sheet music*
Pedaling
I have not placed any pedal marks in the music (I almost never do), but if you listen closely to the recording, you may be able to detect that I am not lifting the pedal at all until there is a different chord.
Even though the C chord goes on for 5 measures, through lots of non-chord passing tones, I don't change the pedal until the Am chord shows up.
Then, right back to the long-pedal approach with the C chord as the hands lift and shift down an octave. This is very atmospheric (in my opinion!) and creates a pleasant "ringiness," especially going into the E major chord.
Your students, however, (if they are anything like mine) may have developed a foot with an autopilot control that lifts once a measure no matter what's happening.
You can't really blame them; it's so hard to have the equivalent of three hands going on! Eventually, they will begin to pedal when rests and dissonance alert them, but for now they will likely need lots of input. Broken piano chord patterns practice is an excellent background for this.
A shorter and easier arrangement
Even though the arrangement above is easier than the one at the top of the page, care will need to be taken not to rush your student through the music, unless their treble clef notes are pretty solid. There's nothing very intuitive about the fingering necessary to navigate this melody.
A lead sheet approach
Some music works very well with the lead sheet approach, and so does Morning Song, with its open chords in the left hand.
The story of "Morning Song"
You music teachers probably all are aware that this music is the first piece in the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg, the most famous of Norwegian composers, who sought to incorporate the folk music sounds of Norway into his compositions.
He wrote lovely and lilting melodies, Solveig's Song among them, and stormy and exciting pieces as well, such as In the Hall of the Mountain King!
The links to the sheet music:
Download longest arrangement of Grieg's song
Download the short version of Morning Song
Download the lead sheet Morning Song with some helper notes
Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church? Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!
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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!
This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells 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.
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.
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!
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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, 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.
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