New Rote Piano Solo with 2 Bonuses!

I’m really excited about releasing this piece! Here’s why…my kids have been singing it for months. All I have to do is play the first 5 notes and they just can’t stop singing it!

So you can see why this might be a great Reading and Rote piano solo since it sticks so well in their heads!

First, what’s the big deal about rote and reading®?

Rote teaching is all the rage in piano teaching, but it comes up short if it is not also combined with teaching students how to read music. When you teach students a more difficult piece by rote, they feel like it is easy, but it makes them sound more advanced. This helps keep them motivated in those early levels when the music they are learning to read sounds pretty boring and empty. If you are in doubt about any of this, please read “How Long Does It Take to Learn to Read Music?”

When you see the motivation that comes from using rote piece, it becomes easy to carve out just a bit of time to teach a Rote and Reading® piece. We call it Rote and Reading® because you can teach them by rote, but then always show them the score to draw connections to reading. Saying things like, “Look what that high C looks like on the staff!” or “How many times does it look like that motive repeats?” can help the brains of students process how to read music.

What are the bonuses?

With “I Want Some Water,” we are giving you 2 bonuses. By popular request, we’re going to experiment with giving you an audio recording of the piece (actually 2) that you can give to any student that’s learning the piece! That way, just in case they forget which part goes where, they can listen and easily figure it out. [Do let us know in the comments if you are excited about this or find it helpful.]

But that’s not all. We’ve also included 2 versions of the piece: one without lyrics and one with lyrics. The lyrics, you’ll see actually tell the student which motive to play where. So there are 3 main motives that you can teach the student with the help of lyrics. When you give them the sheet music with lyrics, that’s an added trigger to help them remember how the piece goes if you are teaching it only by rote.

Watch and Listen:

Read More:

• How Long Does It Take to Learn to Read Music?
• Won’t Rote Teaching Keep Students from Learning to Read?
• Are You Afraid of Rote Teaching? Consider This…