Tag Archives: piano note-reading

teaching

Christmas Songbooks and Two Hanukkah Songs

Leave a comment

Over the past two months, I was preparing my Christmas Songbook Book 1 for publishing, and it is now live on MyScore! There are seven different versions of the book, so please make sure to chose the one that fits the best. These books were originally intended for guitar and ukulele students with treble voice, but I’ve adapted them so that they can also be used for piano, bass guitar, bass voice, mallet instruments, and melodic band/orchestra instruments (flute, trombone, violin, etc.), including transposing instruments (clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, etc.). The 24 songs included in these books are: Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, The First Noel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I Saw Three Ships, In the Bleak Midwinter, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Joy to the World, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Come O Come Emmanuel, O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, Up on the Housetop, The Wassail Song (Here We Come A-Caroling), We Three Kings, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and What Child is This?

Here are the descriptions of the various versions:

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning ukulele students and intermediate guitar students (who can play an FM chord). Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in treble clef (flute, oboe, mallet instruments, violin, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for beginning guitar students and intermediate ukulele students (who can play DM and Em chords). Also great for transposing instruments in the key of F who read in treble clef (horn, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book. Beginning guitar students who want to play with other students using the C Major book can also use the G Major book if they use a capo at the 5th fret.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies for Piano, Book 1 in C Major and G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major or G Major (and a few in A minor or E minor). Perfect for beginning to intermediate piano students who want to play melodies using both hands, mostly in Middle C Position (some songs use a few alterations). Also great for piano students who want to play with other students who are using the C Major and/or G Major books.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning bass guitar students. Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in bass clef (bassoon, trombone, tuba, cello, string bass, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for intermediate bass guitar students. Also great for bass guitar students who want to play with beginning guitar students who are using the G Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in D Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of D Major (and a few in B minor). Perfect for intermediate-advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of B-Flat who read in treble clef (clarinet, tenor saxophone, trumpet, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in A Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of A Major (and a few in F-Sharp minor). Perfect for advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of E-Flat who read in treble clef (alto or baritone saxophone, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Links to purchase my Christmas Songbook Book 1, as well as free PDFs of Two Hanukkah Songs, can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the BASS GUITAR, GUITAR, MALLET INSTRUMENTS, PIANO, SONGS, and UKULELE pages. As always, please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

teaching

August Lesson Materials

Leave a comment

In my Ukulele Chord-Strumming Method Book I changed the order in which the initial chords are introduced. Originally I introduced CM and FM in Lesson 1, then GM in Lesson 2, Am in Lesson 3, and Dm in Lesson 4 (before introducing G7 in Lesson 5). I liked the idea that the students would learn CM, FM, and GM right away so that they could potentially play a number of songs after only two lessons. I have noticed however, that many students struggle with GM (it requires three fingers), so I decided to introduce the chords starting with the easiest ones instead, even though they might not be able to play as many real songs until after Lesson 4. Now, I introduce CM and Am (both only use one finger) in Lesson 1, FM (uses two fingers) in Lesson 2, Dm (three fingers) in Lesson 3, then finally GM in Lesson 4. I’ve seen some other books and teachers introduce AM early on because it also uses only two fingers, which I don’t do because I still wanted to keep Unit 1 in the key of C Major (CM, Am, and FM, are much more likely to be used in songs with Dm and GM than with AM).

I wanted do create still more Supplemental Piano Exercises to use with my piano students, so I did Unit 7: Reading Notes on the Staff in C Position, and Unit 8: The Grand Staff in C Position and Slurs.

In my Drum Set Method Book I added three units dealing with compound meters (6/8, 12/8, and 9/8). Unit 5 deals with how to play beats in those meters, and Unit 6 shows how to play four-measure phrases with fills in those meters. Unit 7 brings back the Four-Measure Phrase Song Form to practice a variety of beats and fills in those compound meters. I also added an additional page at the end of Unit 4 and Unit 7 that has drum beats with the bass drum playing either on all the downbeats or playing constant 8th notes (in most of the drum beats I use in the book, I don’t have the bass drum playing at the same time as the snare drum).

For my Guitar Chord-Strumming Book, I was looking forward to taking a break from bar chords, so I worked on Unit 11: Dominant 7 Chords. After I finished it, I was on a roll, so I went ahead and did Unit 12: Major 7 Chords and minor 7 Chords.

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.