Do you ever feel badly for your youngest students who have to play “methody” pieces for the recital because there’s not a lot of great early beginner piano music out there? Well, feel badly no more! Black Key Blast is a new book with 6 exciting solos for your students on black keys. AND the bonus is that there are some really fun teacher duets to play with each of them!
Have a Blast on the Black Keys!
Here’s what the publisher says about it:
Presented especially for the youngest beginner, these easy, fun and motivating pieces using only the black keys will perk up any lesson, especially because students will be able to learn them almost immediately! With appealing titles such as “My Imaginary Friend,” “I Am the Princess” and “Ninja Power” this collection (which come with lyrics and accompaniments) should be a sure-fire hit in any studio.
Imagine my surprise and delight when Sam Holland, director of the piano department at Southern Methodist University commented on “Ninja Power!” on the ComposeCreate YouTube channel (you can subscribe to get updates!):
Very cool, Wendy! Love this piece and it would work so well with MusicTree. We need all the music like this we can find.
What’s in Black Key Blast?
My two favorite pieces in the book are “Ninja Power!” and “I Am the Princess.” Here are the titles of all 6 pieces:
- Ninja Power!
- I Am the Princess
- Click Clock Click
- Movin’ and Groovin’
- My Imaginary Friend
- Round in Circles
Watch Black Key Blast:
You can also watch this short video with just the popular “Ninja Power!”
Where Can I Get Black Key Blast?
You can order Black Key Blast straight from ComposeCreate!
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Black Key Blast – Printed Book$9.99 -
Black Key Jingle Bells – Rote and Reading®$10.99 -
Product on sale
Bundle: Black Key Short Sheets®Original price was: $44.97.$37.99Current price is: $37.99.
I am so excited that your music is going to be made available in India, Wendy! My students will be super excited, too!
This book looks GREAT! I’m always looking for songs that will motivate my beginner students to practice more and stick with piano! If I won I would share about it on my facebook page and twitter account 🙂
This looks like a great collection of motivating pieces for young beginners!
Love the Black Key Blast. I would be sure to share the book with teachers at all opportunities as I always encourage other teachers to check out ComposeCreate. You are an inspiration to me with your enthusiasm and wonderful activities and music.
I would LOVE to receive this book! I run the Facebook page for DVMTA and would be able to share this with almost 500 people that have liked our page, most are teachers. I also will be able to share it with the local association I belong to as I write an article each month for our newsletter. I am always looking for new pieces for my students to keep things fun for them.
I would love to win this book. I would share with my personal piano teacher friends and also on my studio facebook page.
I’ve been hoping for more inspiring black-key solos and am quite excited to check these out. My sisters are both piano teachers, so I will pass this announcement to them and all of my recent piano major friends that are beginning their teaching career! Having beautiful solos that are attainable for beginners are rare but are critical!
What a great idea!!! I love this! I just started a pre-piano class and have been wrestling with what to have them play in our spring recital. Can’t wait to get this book! Thanks, Wendy!
I was very excited to hear these songs & to see how much fun your student was having playing & singing along! I would bring this book to the next meeting of the Merrimack Valley Music Teachers Association where we will be sharing ” newly discovered gems”
I’d love to share this with the NCKMTL! We’ll meet in late August or early September and, while we’re in a very rural area with only a few teachers, everyone is always excited to learn about new and creative ways of teaching!
I love this idea and am always looking for better songs for my beginners. I would share this with the other teachers in my studio, with my local teachers association and on our studio Facebook!
I would share it with the local piano teachers any way I could, probably by phone. I love chatting with the other piano teachers in my area to share great ideas and teaching techniques!
This is awesome! I am always running short of black key pieces for my beginners. These are really good! Thanks!
I am going to be giving some sessions for pedagogy students at a local university and also doing a presentation at our MTAC convention this coming summer. Those sessions, plus the frequent meetings with our local piano teaching branch, will give me plenty of opportunities to share this wonderful book.
Sounds like a fun book! I can share it on my teacher blog, studio blog, Facebook, Google + and Twitter. 🙂
I just shared this on facebook. And I already ordered a couple for two new students!! Great idea. I LOVE your video too because it shows just how much fun teaching can be. Thanks.
How do you enter?? Did I miss something? I often do:)
I love the rhythms in the books! I have several teenage students with special needs. While taking note reading slowly, these guys are still teenagers and like other teenagers,they only like to play “cool” music. I think this fits the bill. I am also a member of a monthly piano teachers forum and would share it with them.
This looks like a great book for students who like the “security” of playing on the black keys! I would share this with my local music teachers’ association at an upcoming meeting.
I absolutely LOVE finding new music for my students! If I won, I would share this fun book on Facebook and Twitter, as well as on my website The Church Accompanist, at my local music teachers’ association, and with my students (of course)! Thanks for sharing such a fun and innovative piano book!
If I won I would share about it on Facebook! “I Am A Princess” would be perfect for my spring recital because we’re doing a medieval theme and all the girls are dressing as princesses!
Oh, I would love to win this! I am going to be on a technology panel at our state MTA this summer, and one of my topics will be teacher resource blogs. Believe me, Wendy, yours is already on my top 5 list, and it would be fun to demo this book. Cool pre-reading solos are pretty scarce anywhere — it is so wonderful that we teachers can find them online!
I would love to win this. I have a few piano teaching friends from college, who are now all spread out over the state and more. I know I’m always looking for fun pieces for beginners.
I would love to win. I will pin this on my piano board on pinterest, so that my piano teacher followers will also see it.
Thanks for these great black key solos with such a fun edge! I look forward to trying your book out in my studio and would have opportunity to share it with other piano teachers at our Piano Teacher’s Guild meeting.
It would be wonderful to have a book of “special” pieces for my beginners. They would be so EXCITED!!
Love it! I’m particularly fond of boy students since I only have boys of my own. All my little boys would love the ninja power! I would gladly share this at our local music teachers association meeting in March, email or post on web or Facebook, share with a few out of state friends too!
I would love a copy of this. I have many boy students who are into ninjas, etc. They would love this! I could probably even get them to memorize them. I am a private teacher, but have friends around the States that teach. I would totally share this with them! What an inspiration you are! Keep providing us with fun, energetic music! Thanks!
These look awesome! I’ll share it with the piano teachers at my local arts academy. I know what my 5-year old son will be playing this spring…
Thanks for including the videos. The piece do sound like fun! If I were the the lucky winner I would try the book out with some of my students and post a review on my piano blog/pinterest about Black Key Blast and other ways to teach using the Brilliant Beautiful Black Keys.
I want my students to have as much fun as the boy in the video. When we have our annual teachers pot luck lunch I will have everyone playing and singing the black keys blast songs.
Debbie
I am part of a rural area and would love to have the opportunity to share with the other small group of teachers who normally don’t make it to conferences etc. We are always looking for ways to help each other.
Thanks for all the great work that you do.
This looks great, Wendy! We would love to review it and/or do a giveaway on Music Matters Blog!
I teach in a setting where I run into teachers before, after, and even during lessons (“I just need to get this off the shelf real quick!”), so I would have plenty of opportunities to share this book with others. It looks and sounds like so much fun!!
Always need music for young beginners! This sounds like lots of fun! I have 6 friends who teach piano lessons and we share ideas with each other often.
This looks like so much fun!
Great idea! It’s always tough when I have new beginners who are gung-ho and ready to go on the first recital, but are only playing on the black keys in their method books. I would love to have this to use with my students and would also enjoy sharing about it on my blog – 4dpianoteaching.com
This book looks great! I teach at a studio with 10 other teachers and over 350 students. We have monthly staff meetings and I would be happy to present this book at one of them.
This looks like so much fun! I’m always looking for fun songs for beginning students, especially ones who really want to play at the recital but may not know the staff notes. The teacher duets sound so fun! (sometimes the duet makes the piece so much interesting!) I would definitely tell my piano teacher friends I see in person, the ones I email to vent, brainstorm, and create with, and the ones I only see on Facebook.
Hi Wendy! Yay, more fun and engaging pieces on black keys for beginners! I would love to share it with a group of teachers I meet up with monthly where we focus on an area of teaching or music to learn from either from a speaker, discussions or other formats. Next month we are doing beginning and intermediate duets repertoire. I can even share this there! This sounds like a younger student can play with an older student~
I am in awe of musicians like yourself who so generously share their talents. You deserve to have as much advertising as possible. I certainly will share with my teaching community here in Australia. The pieces sound great fun. Thanks for the opportunity.
I have a precocious 5 year old student who would love to learn these. I would record him and share on Facebook/YouTube (with parent permission of course). This sounds like an awesome book!
These look great – thanks for expanding the amount of early beginner music out there! I could share with other teacher friends for sure.
I have a younger student starting next week. What great pieces to have available. Thanks for the videos. I will share this on FB! I also have MTNA teachers that I visit with about new music.
Sounds like another great teaching tool, Wendy! Fun songs on the black keys for beginners are always needed. We need more of them. Thanks! I would love to share this book with the teachers at our monthly music teachers’ meeting.
Our local chapter of MTNA is always looking for new resources to share with each other – I bet they’d love this as much as I hope I will 🙂
This book appeals to me for sure! I always love those black key songs for new beginners. I could share it with a couple friends by emailing them……or I could stop procrastinating and kick-off the posting on my [currently unpublished] piano studio blog by writing a review!
Sounds super fun! I appreciate your generosity. We have several locally-run music stories that carry festival music, etc., and they are willing to carry items highly recommended by local teachers. One of the stores is the regional Steinway dealership with a music store in the front. I love your beginner hymn books by the way. The best on the market because the tunes have a little bit of styling. Several of my younger students have been very motivated and one is playing your arrangement of “Amazing Grace” at our March recital.
I would share the book in several Facebook groups and share with several of my piano teacher friends who are not on Facebook.
Here is a comment from Laura DeVries that she emailed: I’d love to be entered in your Black Key Blast Giveaway! I’m a part of the Registered Music Teacher’s Association in Brantford and I’d so love to introduce the teachers there to your book. It looks really exciting!
Here is a comment from Esther Chung Marks: Please enter me in the giveaway for the Black Key Blast. I am VP AND librarian of Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation in Long Island, NY http://www.suffolkpianoteachers.org. Our membership of about 50 teachers borrow books and music from our library at our monthly meetings and I’m sure teachers would love to peruse this wonderful book and perhaps purchase it. They would love to know about your resources, too.
Black Key Blast sounds perfect for even for my 10 year old very beginning student. After a month’s lessons I’m supplementing Music Tree Time to Begin with Music Tree B and one of Keven Olson’s books. The Black Key Blast would be just plan wonderful fun. And … our Grays Harbor Music Teachers Association in western Washington State is having a potluck of books at our April meeting. We have young beginning teachers who need to know about books that work with the Music Tree.
I also have a seven-year-old MusicLink student who absolutely loves your Scatterbrained Scarecrow. She is playing it at tomorrow’s Student Play Day. It is an autographed copy you sent me which I don’t REALLY want to give up so I will be ordering a copy for her! It will be an adjudication piece for her this year.
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I always have problems locating interesting pieces especially for young boys that can keep their interest up during piano lessons weekly. This book will be an amazing discovery for them!
I’m not the member of any organized group, but I have 2 apprentice teachers working with me and three friends who are all on the same page: make music, make fun, use everything that works. Together we probably teach 180 people.
I’m ALWAYS looking for pieces to teach by rote, or rote/note, especially on the black keys and especially with duet parts. The ones I currently use I probably teach to 10 people every year or more and have for the last 15 years or so. They really get used a lot. I think Black Key Blast will be a winner for years to come and will help me a lot. The words are good and will help teach the rhythm.
How fantastic! My first thought is being grateful that this is just the thing to spark the imagination of two brothers, ages 5 & 7 that I teach as a “duo” lesson. They just started in January, so we’re in that “all about the black keys” phase.
I would be very happy to share Black Key Blast by email with my local MTNA group, as well as the other teachers that I work with at the small music school where I teach. My MTNA group usually has an “in the round” meeting to share new things like this in January; however, my school is in a different city, and although I do not belong to a group there, I would be willing to figure out how to get some information to them as well. (My director “has connections!”)
Thank you for this opportunity. I really appreciate you sharing your musical gifts, knowledge, and enthusiasm.
I do not belong to an organized group of piano teachers but I would be very excited to try using this book on my many younger students!
F…U…N!!! Thanks to you and teachers like you, we are turning music lessons into a FUN experience. How wonderful! Would love to win a copy and have a BLAST with my students like YOU!!
I have 4 students who will need black key pieces for this year’s recital. Oh, would this book be a lifesaver for them!
I am a member of a music club that sponsors our local piano festival. So many of our teachers share my need for supplementary black key music. They would be delighted to take a look at this book!
Looks like fun! I can share it with my local piano teachers forum, and certainly would!
This sounds so exciting. I’m like a kid.in.candy.shop with new and interesting piano materials! I would share this would not only my eager new students but every music teacher I know!
Oh, how can I spread the word… let me count the ways!
Through my studio Facebook page.
Though my a review on my blog!
Through my studio with 40 students.
Through piano forums on facebook!
And through my local music store, which I know would love to order copies of this – they have over 10 piano teachers that teach hundreds of students there every week.
… and I’m also willing to shout it from the rooftops! 🙂
These sound really fun. No early beginners currently, but likely will next year, and you are right that there is a void of really interesting music at this level. I will mention this to the Newton Music Teachers next meeting.
I am excited to use “Black Key Blast” with my young beginners. I have one in particular in mind. He is the middle of 3 sibling students. He doesn’t want to take piano, he wants to learn drums. Parents insist so I am working with him on rhythm and note recognition and general “music” making. Something interesting for him would be very exciting. I will share this book with our local music teacher association via email as well as our next general meeting.
Thanks!
Hello! I’m excite about using this with some of ore-K and Kindergarten students. I’ll also share this at the Northwest Suburban Music Teacher’s Association the next time we meet 🙂
Hi Wendy!
I would love to win a copy of Black Key Blast! I have a circle of 4 piano teaching friends that I love to share new ideas, books, and thoughts with. I do this mainly through fb messaging and emails. I would especially love to introduce this book to my 6 yr old grandson who I hope to have in lessons this fall.
BTW, I recently ordered 3 copies of your American Portraits piano book. I originally ordered 1 copy. Once I received the book and played through it I decided to keep that copy for myself:) I’ve just ordered 2 more copies to introduce to 2 of my students. I absolutely love how beautifully the music portrays the stories.There is such a need for some solid and interesting music for intermediates and this collection fits the bill! Thanks!
I live in a rural area half way between Dallas and Abilene, TX. I attend music “continuing education” meetings in both areas. Would love to have the book to show off at the next two meetings.
I love having some good pre-reading solos for students who are taking slowly to the staff. If long enough, they can even be used for our state MTA auditions.
I will be sharing this already with our local teachers group (by email) and on my Facebook page. I will also post it on a forum.
The members of my local Music Teachers Association are always interested in sharing ideas for great teaching literature. These song sound like fun for children as well as pedagogically sound. Looking forward to using this book with my beginners and passing on the good word about Black Keyu Blast to my fellow piano teachers.
I LOVED your performance videos of music from this book, and I will definitely let others know about it! My Facebook page is my go-to sharing place, so I’d definitely share about it there, but I’d be very happy to blog about it as well! My students love your materials, and they think it’s so great that you’re a young composer (and not from the 1700’s) 🙂 Thanks for all you do!
I would love to receive a copy of this! My beginners would have a “Blast” playing these! I would share on my Facebook account and tell local teacher friends about these fun pieces.
Our teachers’ group is hosting their annual student competition, and they are always looking for new pieces to include.
I teach piano with a couple of other piano teachers at our local YMCA. I would love to share this with them. We frequently have beginning piano students that need something to play for recitals other than pieces from their lesson books. The year I began teaching at the Y, I needed around 8 pre-reading piano pieces for recital. It was hard to find enough different pieces for all of my students. This would have been an amazing resource to have used.
Next month, my local music teacher’s association is having a discussion session on the early beginner, and everyone is invited to share music, methods, and ideas. I would definitely share the “Black Key Blast” as something that would be perfect to inspire the early beginning student!
It’s such a fun collection of music. Thank for writing them!
They are such a wonderful collection of fun pieces for students. Thanks for writing them.
Please enter me to win the Black Key Blast. I am on the Executive Board of Olathe Music Teachers Association, and I am Program Director. I train on many aspects of teaching at our meetings. I can bring this book and train/share the book and these concepts with the other teachers in our association. The book sounds amazing, and the teachers would love it!!!
Such exciting titles and I would love to win this for my beginning students! Thank you so much.
Nothing is more exciting or motivating for a student than being able to play music. What a fun opportunity for our beginners to have a genuine musical experience!
Oh my goodness—this is exactly the kind of music I want to see and hear! Even if I don’t win, I’m calling my local music store to order a few copies. I have a few new boys that would adore the Ninja song. I could also share with my local organization at our next meeting. Thank you for the inspiration as always!
Wendy, I’ve been looking for something like this! I can’t wait to try these with a couple young boys. Also, in case our local MTA teachers haven’t heard about the book, I plan to show it to them at an upcoming meeting. Thanks for filling a repertoire gap for us!
Dear Wendy, Your music have never failed to bring big smile on my students !! The opportunity for me to use Black Key Blast! finally came to me!! I can’t wait for winning the book give away so, I have purchased books anyway! Please keep composing. Lots of Love