If you are looking for a flashy recital piece for a Level 1 student, Hal Leonard has just published a new piece of mine called Tangy Tango. This piece is perfect for the showy student or the student who wants to sound more advanced than they are. The teacher duet was particularly fun to compose, so I hope you’ll enjoy the piece just as much as your student.
Here is what Hal Leonard says about this piece,
The first recital will be a smashing success with a performance of this delightfully syncopated solo. The character of the little tango is further enhanced by the clever and stylistic teacher duet.
I’ll be giving away 2 copies of Tangy Tango next Wednesday! To enter your name, simply leave a comment when you do any of these things (no limit as to the number of entries you can have):
- Leave a comment below telling me what kind of pieces your current elementary students like to play.
- Blog, Tweet, or Facebook linking to this giveaway.
- Emailed another teacher about this giveaway post.
Thank you for your interest in this piece! I hope it meets a need in your studio. Don’t forget to read the latest article in the Composition Corner series. It was posted yesterday, so I don’t want you to miss the content because of this new post.
Sounds delightful! Let’s dance! (at the piano) 🙂
I teach elementary students in group piano lessons. They learn to play by ear in the first book. They love “Ode to JOY” “Bim Bam” and “See the Pony”. In book 2 they are introduced to Reading pieces. They love to play The theme from Mozart’s Sonata in A major, The Shoe Maker and “Green Gravel” These pieces are all part of the Musikgarten Music Makers at the Keyboard program.
My current male elementary students like to play anything with a sports theme or a jazzy, rock and roll feel – “Party Cat” in the Hal Leonard book 1 and ” I am Playing Tee Ball” by Susan Paradis, Home Run Harry (faber gold star) are a few specific favorites.
My younger girls tend to like the more dreamy princess themed songs, but the older ones are more intrigued with the more showy upbeat, syncopated, ragtime or Irish sounding pieces like Ragtag Rag, Irish Celebration, Jiggity Jig, etc.
I like the fun illustration on the cover of your new piece!
How wonderful, another new piece by Wendy. My students are still in the Christmas mood. Some still play Christmas songs for me when they come in. They like familiar sounding songs. Disney song is a winner too.
my current elementary students like to play jazzy sounds and bop their head in time to the music
I have emailed a teacher I mentor in Norway about this giveaway. If I win I just might have to send it to her — she is just getting started.
posted it on my facebook!
posted it on my studio facebook 🙂
tweeted it!! 🙂
With Melody Bober coming to Kansas in March, we are playing a lot of her music. Elementary students are especially liking “Sammy the Soccer Star”, “Waltz in the Wind”, “Secret Agent 006” and “A Jazzy Tune”.
Hi- I also teach Musikgarten Musik Makers at the Keyboard curricula and also have student’s who are in Jr. High and High School playing intermediate to advanced music. My young students love jazz, classical, ragtime, and everything else. I try to cover all periods and all styles of music. Many of my older students are playing in their school jazz bands and accompany the choirs. Any new joyful, exciting, reflective, or jazzy is great. I’m always looking for ensemble music for 4 players for my annual Ensemble program that we have in June. I’m working on composing some music for my Musik Makers at the keyboard students because they have asked for more ensemble music. They love playing on the keyboards together. Thanks so much.
I posted it on my Facebook page.
Your music is always popular with my students! This one looks like it will be fun to play, especially with the teacher duet.
I find that children are so excited to get to music with 2 hands together. A first favourite tends to be a song with repeated harmonic 5th’s in the left hand. They especially love the ones that sound like native drums. (maybe because they can play them loud and fast?!)
My students all learn 5-finger scales their first year. So they LOVE playing pieces with parallel moving open 5ths in the LH — the punchier the better, i.e. a tribal sound. They also like playing pieces with their own name in it. They like FAST, so everything is fast regardless of how it’s marked. And they like repetition within a piece. By the way (off the track here), I truly loved playing from your adult Xmas book, Wendy. It’s stellar writing, and the gentle pieces are so mystical; and the fast pieces are full of wonderful catchy rhythms.
My elementary students love familiar music, especially rhythmic things. Not so much into the lyrical style music – fast and loud always wins at this age, unfortunately.
My students love playing pieces that sound harder than they are, and they especially like strong rhythms and repetitive patterns.
Sounds like a really fun piece! Hope to win!
My boy students love rock & roll or loud very upbeat stuff. The older girls love romantic sounds and very sad stuff. My days are full of every type of music, I love it that way, it keeps it interesting for them and for me. Can’t wait to try some of the other teacher ideas for some good playing pieces.
Shared this with another teacher. Sounds fun.
This piece looks like great fun! I’m always looking for easy pieces that sound more difficult. My beginning students always love “Ode to Joy” and other pieces originally composed by well-known composers that they’ve heard about before (in school or at home). They also always love, of course, anything jazzy and funky.
Early level duets are also a big hit for both the students and the parents to listen to at the recital!
Thanks for your music!
Hi Wendy,
I’m not sure if this giveaway applies to Australian teachers, but I put some info up on my website anway.
The pieces my elementary students absolutely love to play are ones that include piano percussion, or something that is unusual, such as Carol Klose’s ‘Ghosts of a Sunken Pirate Ship’ (use of piano harmonics).
They also love duets, pieces they can sing along to, and ones they can put lots of expression into (there is one called ‘A Passing Storm’ in the AMEB Preliminary Grade piano book that they seem to gravitate to).
They also LOVE your ‘Irish Celebration’ and try to play it as fast as they can. They have said it gets stuck in their head and they find themselves humming it 😀
Love your info and ideas, Wendy!
Would love to win. Alot of my students enjoy playing popular music that they have heard, whether Disney or classical.
You’ve got so many exciting ideas for students – and teachers. Thank you!
My students love very rhythmical pieces. They especially enjoy “Swing” and “Latin” styles.
Looks like a great piece–I hope to win it. My recital is just days away–February 12th. We have lots of solos and duets in the works. I have an 8 year little boy who takes lesssons–he loves “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. They all seem to like Ode to Joy, too!!!
My boy elementary students love “Indian Songs” – repetitive LH 5ths, for example, cool sounds RH with some accents. The girls seem to love the beautiful pieces with pedal and simple arrpeggios.
Emailed a fellow teacher – thanks for the chance to win!
Emailed two fellow teachers. Sounds like a great piece! Glad to see another of your compositions published.
I retweeted. This sounds like a really fun piece.
Oh, how fun! Right now my students play hymns, classical pieces, or pieces from their lesson books. I can think of a couple students who would love to play this song! 🙂
This piece sounds like just what I am looking for!! Also am intrigued by the review of your Irish compositions on the blog.
This looks great! I have a small studio and only 2 students at elementary level. One likes best to play simple arrangements of hymns she knows from church. The other likes anything fast!!
Posted on facebook.
I also emailed another teacher.
I am always looking for new pieces for some of my harder to please students (all boys!)
Thanks!
Elizabeth
My elementary students want to play difficult sounding pieces but are easy to learn. they always want to be impressive during recitals.
I just emailed another teacher with a link to your website–you always have interesting ideas. Thanks for all your work!!!
shared it on Facebook:)) sounds interesting, thank you.
My kids like familiar tunes, and pieces that have a cool sound.
I’m a fairly new piano teacher in El Paso, TX. A lot of my elementary students love faster moving pieces with plenty of staccato notes! Sounds like this might fit the bill.
My students like pieces that tell a story, something to make them giggle. They like pieces that remind them of a favorite movie or activity, such as clog dancing, or bears–big and slow, or baby bears, quick nd cute or sneaky kitties. They like to use the cross over hand positions and arpeggio’s from their 5 finger exercises. This includes the older beginner as well. They like fast pieces and church music.
I am always looking for snappy pieces that can be taught by rote. My elementary students love them!
My elementary students love playing anything that has an interesting rhythm and that they can sing/hum along to. They also love playing duets, because of the more complex harmonies that are possible. This piece sounds great and I can’t wait to get my hands on it – either by winning or buying. 🙂
My students love upbeat pieces that are catchy and capture their imagination. Sounds like your piece fits the bill!
I have several elementary students playing out of the Alfred Premier books, and they seem to love almost all of the pieces in them, but especially those that are upbeat with easy to recognize patterns.
My students love songs with jazzy or dance-like rhythms. I especially love it when they figure out “swing” rhythms. I often help them catch on to the rhythms by making up silly words they can say to the beat.
I teach elementary age students and older students. Tangy Tango sounds just like what my younger students would like. (lots of zip)
I teach a lot of young beginners. I’ve been happy since putting a lot of them in Pianimals. The pieces they like to play are familiar ones. A few examples are Take Me Out to the Ball Game, The Star Spangled Banner, and Hokey Pokey. A few years ago, one of my student’s parents specifically asked for a Tango piece. I only found one I liked, so I’m happy you have written one.