The Spanish Lady
The Spanish Lady is a fun, pretty, and fast-moving song from Ireland. And vigorous! Download the free fiddle music and easy acoustic guitar tabs for it here! Also, a piano arrangement to use with singers.
A lead sheet with bouncy chords
Here is an easy Middle C shared-hands melody arrangement, which has (farther down the page) a duet secondo with energetic chords to accompany it!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
A great song for singers
This song was introduced to me by one of my students, who asked if she could sing it. Browsing through her favorite singers on YouTube, she had encountered the group Celtic Woman singing this song.
This free vocal sheet music is very pretty, bouncy, and great fun to sing with a group of other singers.
Turn Spanish Lady into a piano duet
This easy-to-understand duet secondo goes with the Middle C melody shown at the top of the page. For a duet secondo, it is relatively easy for young pianists.
As you can see, it is just root position chords, jumping back and forth.
Despite its simplicity, this is a very effective accompaniment to the Spanish Lady melody, and there are a few small challenges for your students with the timing!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
A great piece for fiddle and guitar
No sooner had I begun giving this song to my vocal students, than my guitar players and fiddlers also wanted to play it, so I added guitar tabs to the sheet music.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Several of my vocal students have and enjoy the Celtic Woman Songbook, which has not just vocal pieces, but also instrumentals such as "The Butterfly" for violin. However, the book does not have Spanish Lady in it!
The key of G seems to be best
This song is easier both for guitar and violin players in the key of G, I think.
For fiddlers who play it in G, it is very fun and not too hard to execute double stop notes - a drone - at the bottom of page 1, where the melody goes, "First she washed them..."
Just use the open D string as harmony for the notes of the A string, until you reach the melody change again at "Whack fol the too-rah..."
(This will seem terribly obvious to all you fiddlers of many years' experience, but to me, a pianist who first held a real violin in her hands as a music major in college in String Methods I, playing the violin is still a learning adventure!)
A lead sheet all on one page - now with fingering
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Giving this song to young pianists
Lately I've been giving this melody to motivated younger pianists who already know and like the song, from recitals, or from playing the duet version at the top of the page. We're talking seven and eight-year-olds.
When I give it to them, I tell them that if they can master "the fingering secret," then they will be able to play this song! And they all do it.
The secret is the "sneaking" section, where finger 4 hops off, to be replaced by the thumb. That puts the hand where it needs to be for the next section, until the descent back down to E and D, where crossing over and landing on finger 2 is necessary. Very fun.
Then it happens all over again, until the third line, where the hand must actually lift to land finger 3 on B - and then the hand gets to stay THERE for a bit, then back down again. The pattern of line one actually occurs four times, so they don't have to learn any new fingering!
Pretty soon, they will be wanting to add LH open chords.
Singing it as a choir
I like the way the Celtic Woman version starts with a soloist, then bursts into harmony, so I wrote parts for the middle and end of each verse. The bottom voices are pretty simple, so less-experienced, younger singers can pick them up quickly.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Don't make the accompaniment heavy
Unless you're real handy with fast-moving piano chords, I wouldn't treat the top staff of this version as a piano part -- playing those parallel sixths on the piano could really slow the piece down!
The single line of version one would be preferable, so that the piano could skip along. (Unless playing fast parallel sixths is easy for you, of course. I still think it would weigh the song down.)
The Spanish Lady has become a fast favorite among my students, and I'm betting it will be with yours, too!
The links to the easy piano melody & duet secondo:
Download the Spanish Lady melody arranged at Middle C
Download the secondo duet part accompaniment for the Middle C melody
The links to the guitar music:
Download free Celtic sheet music and easy acoustic guitar tabs in key of G
Download free guitar tabs and free fiddle music in key of A
The links to the lead sheets:
Download Spanish Lady lead sheet in the key of A
Download printable lead sheet in the key of G
The links to the vocal harmonies:
Download Celtic Woman song with vocal harmony in the key of A
Download Celtic Woman song with vocal harmony in the key of G
More Folk Songs to Sing:
Ae Fond Kiss - a love song about saying goodbye, from Scotland
All the Pretty Little Horses - a soft and repetitious lullaby, quite pretty
Ash Grove - a famous and lovely song from Wales
Auld Lang Syne - the New Year's Eve song!
Colorado Trail Song - an American tune written by a real cowboy
Come By the Hills - another popular Irish melody
Down By the Salley Gardens - a famous and pretty song, very sweet
Green Bushes - a brisk little song that is pretty while being good for breath control training
Grenadier and the Lady - my favorite folk song of all. Find out why
I Gave My Love a Cherry - the "Riddle Song" is very pretty
Loch Lomond - the famous and sad song about never meeting again
Mari's Wedding - a singable tune with bouncy chords that is fun to play or sing
Minstrel Boy - a lovely and patriotic song about a warrior-poet
Molly Bawn - a sad story of a young hunter who thought he was shooting at a swan
Morning Has Broken - a beautiful melody made famous again by Cat Stevens
Once I Had a Sweetheart - "but now I have none!" Very pretty, and little-known.
Parting Glass - a well-known Irish tune which my singers always love
Raggle-Taggle Gypsies - a story about a young bride who abandons her wealthy new husband to go off with the gypsies. A catchy melody!
Scarborough Fair - an old and famous tune of lost love
Shenandoah - a famous and lovely American tune with ambiguous lyrics
Skye Boat Song - a pretty song from Scotland about the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie over the sea
Spanish Ladies - a minor key sea chanty that swings energetically along - BOYS like singing it too!
The Spanish Lady - Upbeat and energetic, this Irish song is fun to perform with a group
Star of the County Down - LOTS of fun to sing and play! An excellent ensemble piece
The Wellerman - a sea chanty that is very singable, and very fun!
Wild Mountain Thyme - beautiful, sweet, and a delight to sing.
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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Thank you so much for the rounds!
Hi Dana, I am just writing to thank you for the free rounds for singing -- I have put up my hand to lead folk songs and hymns for my Christian homeschool -
Teacher
I stumbled upon this site by accident, and am very glad I did. As a bumbling untrained music teacher, I like your hints about how to teach - although I
Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church? Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!
All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!
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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.
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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.
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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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Carrie,Voice and Piano Teacher:
This site is FABULOUS.
For all the reasons you explain on the site itself--this is exactly what piano teachers need! (I still need to go look at the vocal music). Wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Marianne:
You are awesome. Thank you. I'm a voice and piano teacher and to have so many pieces in one place- for many different levels- is a Godsend. Thank you for the time and effort you have put in to make this so easily available to all of us stressed music teachers!!!
Deb:
... I watched your video "Wondrous Love" with your eight gals - Magnificent! So refreshing to see good harmonies sung a capella these days; it seems to be rare!
Ruth:
Thanks, Dana, for your excellent customer service.
Amber:
Thank you! THANK YOU!!! For keeping the beautiful art of Opera alive! I stumbled upon this site and I'm so happy I did!
Comments
Do you have a funny story about this music, or does it remind you of something you'd like to share with other readers? Do you have a question? I'd love to hear it!
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Vocal Exercises for Teachers of Singing?
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Dear Dana,
Your music web site is very useful. For the teachers and students, very interesting to read.I am one of your web-site fans living …
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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