The Silent Night Variations and more

I just finished uploading my last student video to YouTube. Hooray! It was fun though, everyone did a beautiful job with their pieces last week.

Andrée has kindly allowed me to post her video on my blog. Otherwise, I keep my student videos unlisted in YouTube. That way students can share with family and friends, just the people they choose. I always disable comments and ratings on my student videos to keep things safe and friendly.

Andrée did a beautiful job with the "Silent Night Variations", a project that I gave to most of my teens in December. I handed out a sheet with just the melody and lyrics. They learned how to select their own chords to create a lead sheet. I encouraged them to try several options and to go with a nice blend of colorful and traditional chord choices. Then they composed a melodic variation using passing tones, neighboring tones and any other creative inspiration. I was very pleased with the results, doesn't it sound lovely and sophisticated?

The second selection on Andrée's video is a duet arrangement of "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music Piano Duet Play-Along series. I bought this book for two of my older students this year and we are have so much fun learning the pieces. I have several collections from this Play-Along Series from Hal Leonard and this one is by far my favorite. Highly recommended!

look inside

The Sound of Music (Piano Duet Play-Along Volume 10). By Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. For piano duet (1 piano, 4 hands). Piano Duet Play-Along. Play Along. Softcover with CD. 88 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.290557) ...more info