What You Need to Know about Sheet Music

Posted by MaryO on August 28, 2019

A helpful guide to reading sheet music created by an unqualified individual.

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🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath
The final movement is the best known part of the symphony, thanks to its use in the Julia Roberts movie, Sleeping With The Enemy. It features a four-part structure, which Hector Berlioz described in his own program notes from 1845 as follows: “He sees himself at a witches’ Sabbath, in the midst of a hideous […]
🎂 It’s Franz Liszt’s Birthday!
…Liszt was wildly handsome and hugely talented. He was extremely popular in Paris during the 1830’s. It is said that women actually fainted at his piano recitals. He was the first to position the piano so that its lid reflected the sound and the audience could see his profile as he performed….
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: The Purple People Eater
Parents might remember this one – or their grandparents! No one else has captured a monster quite so groovy as the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater.
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: Dies Irae
Although not technically a “halloween piece” this very old Gregorian Chant (from the 300s!) is used in a lot of music that sounds spooky. Dies Irae is a Latin term that means “Day of Wrath”.
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: “Catacombs”
Modest Mussorgsky composed this multi-movement work in memory of his friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. Each movement corresponds to a picture in Hartmann’s gallery, with one pairing with Hartmann’s Paris catacombs.
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: The Skeleton Dance
The Skeleton Dance’ comes from a 1929 Disney short film called Silly Symphony, and it’s a perfect example of classical music at its most creative. The light-hearted music scores the dancing skeletons’ movements with various percussion instruments – and one of the skeletons themselves even gets used as a glockenspiel.
🖤 Today is the Anniversary of Chopin’s Death
Frederic Chopin died at the age of 39 on this date in 1849. Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose “poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was […]
🎬 Movie Night!
Free! Two movies will be offered on this date; one directed to young children and their families and the second movie directed to teenagers.
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: The Addams Family
Students always find this piece fun with its finger snaps. There are three versions in Piano Maestro and it’s in several piano books including Halloween Songbook (Easy Piano). There was a a new Addams Family animated movie out in 2019, so your students are going to be snapping all over the place when this Halloween […]
🎃 Halloween Music: Ghostbusters
Students always find this piece fun with its finger snaps. There are three versions in Piano Maestro and it’s in several piano books including Halloween Songbook (Easy Piano).
🎃 Halloween Songbook (Easy Piano)
This popular easy piano collection features 16 spooky tunes of the season, including: The Addams Family Theme * Little Shop of Horrors * Monster Mash * The Thing * Funeral March * Casper the Friendly Ghost * Purple People Eater * and more. Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
🎃 Halloween Music: Ghostbusters
Another student favorite, Ghostbusters, has 2 versions in Piano Maestro.
🐿 Nuts For Alpha Notes, V. U. Level C: Pre-Reading Songs and Activities for Early Primer Piano Students
Brand new - I've just ordered a couple of copies for students and the studio. Nuts For Alpha Notes is a pre-reading resource. Children using this book will build keyboard awareness while playing alpha notes in middle C position. Inside you will discover 7 loveable piano pieces with lyrics and teacher duets, keyboard awareness games, […]
🎃 Halloween Music: The Monster Mash
The Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett is in Piano Maestro with 3 different levels to play. The song was released as a single in August 1962 and it has been a perennial Halloween favorite ever since.
📘 The 40 Most-Streamed Disney Songs: Easy Piano Songbook
Beginning pianists will love learning to play the Disney songs they stream most frequently! This impressive 264-page collection features 40 songs in accessible easy piano arrangements with lyrics, including: Beauty and the Beast * Hakuna Matata * How Far I'll Go * I See the Light * Let It Go * Love Is an Open […]
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: Jaws
Students always find this piece fun with its finger snaps. There are three versions in Piano Maestro and it’s in several piano books including Halloween Songbook (Easy Piano). There was a a new Addams Family animated movie out in 2019, so your students are going to be snapping all over the place when this Halloween […]
🎃 Blog Posts Halloween Music: Jaws
Students always find this piece fun with its finger snaps. There are three versions in Piano Maestro and it’s in several piano books including Halloween Songbook (Easy Piano). There was a a new Addams Family animated movie out in 2019, so your students are going to be snapping all over the place when this Halloween […]
📘 Czerny -- Selected Piano Studies, Vol 1
As there are several hundred piano studies by Czerny, it might become confusing to attempt to pick out the most effective exercises. To overcome this problem, Heinrich Germer, the original editor, chose those he thought were best. Willard A. Palmer has made several changes to metronome markings, fingerings and pedal indications where he felt certain […]
⛴ About Columbus Day Holiday!
Video on the history of Columbus Day
🎂 Happy Birthday, Jelly Roll Morton!
Jelly Roll Morton, born Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe in 1885, was one of the most influential composers of the jazz era, bridging an important gap between ragtime, blues, and jazz. In a sense, he was the first great jazz composer. His career began in New Orleans, where he began to experiment with a unique blend […]

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What You Need to Know about Sheet Music

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