Yankee Doodle
for Beginning Piano Players
Yankee Doodle is a familiar song with a strong beat -- that's the kind of song most fun to play for beginning piano students.
Here is free sheet music for Yankee Doodle, and lots of ideas for stretching your students' understanding of what chords are all about! (Scroll down the page for the free downloadable PDF link):
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This funny old video, below, has the Yankee Doodle lyrics and a great male singer bringing them to life! Wait for the introduction to be done - it's worth it:
After they play through the melody, you can turn it into a duet by adding simple chords. With you, the piano teacher, on the bottom part (or secondo) and them on the top part, play through together like this:
Then try it, still as a teacher/student duet, like this -- much more energy in the music! (The bass staff shows the left and right hands playing open chords an octave apart.)
Then switch parts: let them be the Secondo or chord part!
First, have them play, with LH only, C chords all the way through the song -- though the song really needs an F chord as well as the G chord, it will sound just fine to a young musician with C chords only!
To help them keep time, try using a conducting gesture -- a downward movement like a bouncing ball -- to compel a rhythmic response from them.
This is far more effective, I have found, than just counting aloud.
Physical movement from the teacher seems to propel their hands to move in time.
After a week or more of playing C chords only while you play the melody, have them play -- again, left hand only -- the F and G chords also, as 4-beat chords.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Last of all -- this is the most fun -- demonstrate how to play "Left, Right, L, R," with each of the chords.
Show them the page with chord and slash symbols (or just write on their original sheet... I write all over my students' music, usually with colored pens).
As for players, the slash symbols make it very plain how many times to play the chords.
They will love playing in this rhythmic fashion with big arm movements, and it is an easy kind of duet for beginners to play together: all chords for one piano player (no note-reading necessary) -- and all melody for the other.
I have put no fingering into this piece. After a discussion about "skips" and "steps" (a talk you need to have again and again), they may not need any fingering at all.
Here is another Yankee Doodle video - same singer as the one above, but with fun pictures (unfortunately there are tiny skips in the sound from time to time):
Have fun with Yankee Doodle!
The links for the music PDFs:
Download free sheet music Yankee Doodle for beginners
Download Yankee Doodle with chord symbols
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!
Cat:
Thank you so much for these resources - I have a small music studio in Johannesburg, South Africa.
My kids love playing these tunes.
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!!
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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!
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...
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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