Sincerely,
Chrissy Ricker
To all who celebrate, wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving! My thanks to you for reading this blog and supporting my music!
Sincerely, Chrissy Ricker
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As you might know, I love writing and arranging music in rock and pop styles. I find these styles to be great motivators for students, and great vehicles for teaching chord theory and rhythm. This year, I have arranged several Christmas pieces in rock and pop styles. If you are looking for some rockin' Christmas tunes, I hope you will take a look! All four pieces are at the easy piano/early intermediate level. "A Rockin' Bell Carol" sheet music is available HERE. "Rock On, Merry Gentlemen!" sheet music is HERE.
"Tidings of Emmanuel" and "Deck the Halls with Joy" are part of the "Medley Magic" songbook, available HERE.
Over the past few years, I have found lots of benefits to incorporating rote teaching into my lessons. (In fact, my blog post HERE features a video of how I introduce one of my own compositions, "Into the Storm," to my students by rote.) Rote teaching is a great way to motivate students, particularly those that struggle with reading traditional notation. It encourages careful listening, and offers students opportunities to focus on technique and creating a beautiful sound at the piano. In addition, rote playing encourages students to be creative and truly make the piece their own.
This holiday season, I will be incorporating seasonal rote pieces with my students. Many holiday tunes are simple enough to teach by rote, but in this post I am going to focus on two of my students' favorites--both of which sound impressive and are non-Christmas specific, so they can be used with students of any age or denomination! When I introduce these pieces, I write a simple guide in the student's assignment book to help them remember the patterns we learn by rote in the lesson. I find that just about any student can be successful with these two fun pieces. Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells," also known as the "Ukranian Bell Carol," is hands-down one of my students' most requested holiday songs. With its many repeated patterns, it is also a great candidate for rote teaching. Here is how to break it down:
Pachelbel's Canon The ubiquitous "Canon" by Johann Pachelbel is another extremely popular piece with my students. Although it is not specifically a holiday piece, it is performed quite often at the holidays. Students are always excited to learn that "Canon" is made up of just a few chords that repeat over and over. Here is how to break it down:
(I draw an arrow between each chord to indicate which direction you move.)
What do you think? Will you be teaching your students any rote holiday pieces this year? Please leave a comment below! See my previous posts on teaching students to play by ear: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
Today's post features a play-by-ear challenge worksheet for students, featuring several familiar Christmas tunes. As with all the play-by-ear worksheets, I encourage my students to do the following steps:
Find my Christmas play-by-ear worksheet HERE. With the Christmas season approaching, it is a perfect time to mix in some holiday themed musicianship activities with your students!
Transposing is a great activity to reinforce intervallic reading, get students playing in a variety of keys, and encourage careful listening. (Read my previous posts on why I teach transposition and how I introduce it to my students here and here.) Today's post will feature three holiday transposing worksheets, all of which can be found in the "Free Stuff" section of my website. Click HERE to see all my transposing challenge worksheets.
What do you think? Will you encourage your students to transpose some of these familiar Christmas tunes this year? |
AuthorChrissy Ricker is a pianist, teacher, and composer from North Carolina. These are her thoughts on teaching, composing, and all things music. Looking for teaching ideas related to a specific topic? Use the "search" feature or scroll down to see blog posts organized by category!
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