Today, I’m heading to the OhioMTA Conference (affiliated with MTNA), which will be occurring over the next few days! The topic this year is Health and Wellness, with speakers Kathleen Riley, Lynn Singleton, Peter Jutras and Carole Leone. The conference artist is Adam Golka. I am looking forward to this!
I’ll be back to blogging next week. See you then!
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”
— Charlie Parker
Every Wednesday brings Words of Wisdom here at the Color in my Piano blog in the form of a musical quote or joke, intended to bring inspiration or humor to the middle of your week. Have suggestions? Send me a message here.
With my piano students, I love to introduce classical music as soon as possible. It gives them a head-start in getting used to the contrapuntal reading that classical music requires, as well as the kinds of technical and musical challenges that classical music requires. Early exposure also means that they in most cases they grow to love and appreciate the music!
Anthologies are perfect for students who are just being introduced to classical music. They allow you to expose students a variety of styles and composers at a great value. Even if the student does not study all of the pieces in the anthology, they can use the others for sight-reading practice or play them just-for-fun later in their piano study.
In most cases, I give my students their first classical anthology soon after they complete the Primer and Level 1 of their method book. I have tried out a variety of different anthologies in order to determine which ones work best for students at that early level. It is nice to have a few options to chose from, so that your students are not all playing the same repertoire.
Below is a list of some excellent anthologies I have evaluated for their suitability as an early elementary level student’s first introduction to classical music. I’ve also included comments about each book’s value, length, variety of selections, clarity of the score, quality of the editing, etc. I hope you can find my list and comments useful!
Contains 12 selections, and comes with a CD. The scores are clean and clear, and the editing is good. This is an excellent book to use as a student’s first classical anthology. It includes two pieces with teacher duets, which is a nice bonus. My students have enjoyed learning those duets, and I’ve often had older siblings accompany them instead of me.
After completing this books, students can continue to books 1, 2, 3, and 4 — or jump over into the set of Piano Sonatina books, Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4. I love the 20th/21st century selections included in the Piano Literature books (there is not much in the Prep level, but there is more in the upper levels) — in particular, I love Hansi Alt’s “On the Ocean Floor” from Level 1. Continue reading “9 First Classical Anthologies for Piano Students”
Below are the 20 randomly-chosen winners of the Rhythm Cat Pro giveaway:
#14: RebeccaWinners, please watch your inbox — I’ll send out the emails with the promo codes later on today!
If you didn’t win, you can still purchase the Rhythm Cat app here. It’s worth it!
Happy Halloween!
This is me in my costume. 🙂 ————>
Just a quick reminder:
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you may want to enter the current giveaway for the Rhythm Cat app! Today is the last day to enter — the winner will be announced tomorrow. Click here for details.
I hope you are all having a good week! Thoughts and prayers go to those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
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