Japanese Tasty Tunes, Sneezes, and Black Key Blast Now Available!

I’m a little in shock right now. Yes, I’ve been working with a Japanese publisher for the last few months on this project, but still, seeing it in print and right in front of me is amazing! [And reading the story at the end has me giddy with excitement.]

Wendy Stevens Japanese Music: Japanese Tasty Tunes, Japanese Black Key Blast, Japanese Sneezes Snorts and Sniffles | ComposeCreate.com

How did this happen?

As you know Willis Piano Music publishes a number of my pieces, most of which we sell here in the ComposeCreate store. Several of my Willis books are on the 2016-2020 NFMC list and the William Gillock Association was interested in publishing my books in Japan. Of course, their main emphasis is William Gillock’s music, so I was honored that they would also be interested in mine. But they also introduce many Willis composers as “Gillock’s friends.” How lovely!

At first, they wanted to publish them as one big collection, but then I think they saw the opportunity and the unique nature of each of these books and decided to publish each of these books separately:

We worked together on the translations of the lyrics. Evidently the Japanese Tasty Tunes and Black Key Blast book wasn’t too hard to translate. But a Japanese Sneezes, Snorts, and Sniffles was challenging! Here are some of the funny challenges we had:

Does everyone snort?

We talked a bit about the concept of “snorting” because of the “I’ll Give You a Snort” piece in Sneezes, Snorts, and Sniffles. To be sure I was communicating correctly, I recorded myself snorting and sent the publisher an mp3 so they could hear what it was! I’m sure the publisher came up with a word for it, but it’s a little hard to explain without the sound effect.

I hope they deleted that mp3 file!

How does P’yew translate?

I’m still not exactly sure, but obviously there is no Japanese word that sounds like “P-yew!” That’s a word used in the Stinky Feet song in Sneezes Snorts and Sniffles. I told the publisher to just use whatever word was an expression of disgust for stinky feet. They said that made sense, so evidently all cultures has issues with stinky feet. 🙂

Where can I order Japanese Tasty Tunes, Black Key Blast and Sneezes?

If you live in Japan, I have been told that these three new books are available at many music stores. But here’s where you can purchase them online:

If you want the English editions, you can purchase them from the ComposeCreate store with these links:

You can also follow the William Gillock Association that is a division of the Zen-On publisher here on Facebook.

Wendy Stevens Japanese Music: Japanese Tasty Tunes, Japanese Black Key Blast, Japanese Sneezes Snorts and Sniffles | ComposeCreate.com

How are Japanese teachers and students receiving the music?

These books were just released, so I don’t have a lot of feedback from Japanese yet (please send some if you are using the Japanese edition!), but here’s what one teacher said about the Japanese Tasty Tunes and Sneezes book:

A 9 year old boy was at my place for his lesson.
He found the books of Japanese version on my table.
We first tried Hiccup Song and Crazy for Lemons. Then he started reading all lyrics and practiced Macaroni Pizza.
Usually he is not interested in music books, and his older brother has to clean up after his lesson, but this time, he asked me to have Tasty Tunes and Sneezes, Snorts & Sniffles both.

He promised me that he will practice from two books.
He kept very dear them and put them in his bag by himself and held tight.

I felt like there’s a kind of a magic there.

Magic

Yes, that’s my goal – to create Music Kids Love® and to connect right where kids are, and not just where we want or imagine them to be. I can’t tell you how much this story means to me for that reason.

Thank you to all of you who are so encouraging and tell me to keep composing. I’m so grateful to you this holiday season and my family is grateful to you also.

And to any Japanese teachers who are just learning about my music…thank you for giving it a chance.

I hope you’ll see magic when you use them!

Read More:

13 thoughts on “Japanese Tasty Tunes, Sneezes, and Black Key Blast Now Available!”

  1. Well done Wendy! It’s a really interesting concept to think about how music can perceived by different cultures especially in such a global digital age. Keep up your amazing work regardless of reassurance, you are contributing such wonderful things to the piano teaching community! 🙂

  2. It is indeed interesting to see first hand how music or lyrics can be perceived by different cultures. I find it very interesting! Thank you so much for your kind words, Anastasia. I really appreciate your encouragement to keep up the work “regardless of reassurance.” That means a lot to me!

  3. Thanks for sharing. That’s exciting news! I taught English in Japan for about 8 months and then after I got married we hosted many Japanese high school students in our home during the school year here in California. If I ever get wind that any of our past homestay students are interested in piano, or (now that many are older…they are starting to have their own kids), I can happily let them know about these books.

  4. How cool Wendy!! I have a friend in Japan who teaches piano. I’ll tell her about the books. I love that country and its culture. I’ve been over there 3 times and still hoping to make one more trip while I’m able! Merry Christmas!

  5. Thank you, Anna! I sure appreciate that. How fun that you’ve been there, taught there, and hosted many Japanese students. I love learning about other cultures!

  6. Thank you so much for letting your friend know about them, Nancy! I so appreciate it! Wow. That’s awesome that you’ve been there 3 times. It must be an amazing country to visit! Maybe I’ll make it some day too! Thanks again!

  7. So happy about this! You will bless many little Japanese families and their families with laughter and music!

    Laura Mackey

  8. How exciting! We are happy for you and for all those Japanese piano students.
    I admire you and your constant stream of creativity. It has given me a lot of courage to create my own music. Thanks for everything and Merry Christmas!!!

  9. Wendy, I’m so excited for you — and for those teachers and students who are discovering your music! I can understand how your materials are accepted and loved cross-culturally as well as right here in the US. Besides being great teaching tools, they are fun, catchy, playable, and have such a human interest quality.

    Congratulations!

  10. Congratulations on the cross-culture adventure in publishing! You have much to offer the world, it’s great you’ve been able to start on that global journey! Thanks for sharing your excitement with us, too

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