Simpedia

Cate R., Australia

Hi Sherri, why not try musicnotes.com.  The original is in G major but can be transposed to C if necessary and introduce them to 7ths.  They/you can print off the first page for free which is practically the whole song.

The Addams Family Theme by Vic Mizzy – Digital Sheet Music (easy piano)

Darla H., Kansas

I love using Elizabeth Gaikwad’s Songs for Children as extra little projects for kids in Level 1. Michael Finnegan is great because it has only 2 chords: C & G, so it’s easy to learn. Then it’s fun to put Jackson Blues left hand to it after they’ve got it down. If that comes easily, you can teach them the LH to Light Blue already and have them play that on Michael Finnegan.

If you haven’t taught “Chinese Dreams” or “Space Dreams”, these could be fun projects to do now. I used to always teach Chinese Dreams to my Level 1 students, but now I use the Playlist Management program, and also because I do so many other things, it gets left as an extra that I throw in when I need it.  Chinese Dreams is played on the black keys with a black note glissando to begin and end.  Space Dreams is played on a whole tone scale (C, D, E, F#, G#) with an ascending and descending whole tone scale played as intro and outro. (These are arrangements that have been made up by students or teachers and shared on the ECL years ago–sorry I can’t give credit to the arrangers.)

In situations like yours, I also sometimes give extra comp/improv assignments similar to what we’ve already been doing. For example, I may just ask them to rearrange a song that I don’t always assign. Or ask them to combine elements of 2 songs (like Fur Elise & Night Storm) to come up with their own piece.

Elisa J.

You can see how well they know where a specific note is on the piano/keyboard. Take the bench away, have them stand a couple of feet away from piano you call out a note and see who finds it first correctly. It’ll show you how much they know….an eye opener on both ends.