School Is Starting Back – a pre-reading piece with duet
[Pre-reading bundle one in the store]
I composed this little solo for a beginning student who has taken long enough to play on the white keys. In order to avoid skipping fingers I tried to make all the notes seconds. Sometimes that leaves a little to be desired when it comes to melody. Although Beethoven was able to produce the greatest 5-finger melody ever written using only seconds and a couple of skips, I don’t have that ability by any means! However, I added a teacher duet you can play along to spice this up.
The most difficult spot may be the fourth finger in the right hand of the last phrase. That is not a strong finger so I plan to do a little spot practicing there.
As usual, my teaching suggestion is to teach the song first without piano (transpose, because it is in a register too low for children), tap out the rhythm like a drum on the fall board, repeat using the correct hands, practice playing in the air with the correct fingers, play using fingers on the fall board, and finally try it on the piano. Usually if I do all that, the student is successful and very proud of himself! Of course, older students won’t need all those steps, usually.
I love this piece and everything about it! Unfortunately, it seems that the third note in the third measure is incorrect, as it reads, “E,” but is actually a “B.”
Would you believe I fixed the top line this morning and reposted it. Now I’ve fixed the bottom line. Thank you for letting me know about this one!