Hoppy Thoughts

• Level: Mid Elementary
• Pages: 4 pages, 2 pages of music, cover included!
• Style: Sad and slow, then happy and fast!
• Series: Outback Adventure, Rote and Reading®
• Bonuses: Mp3 performance track (music includes an opportunity to improvise!)
• Format: PDF instant download

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Students will love the silly lyrics from a kangaroo’s perspective in Hoppy Thoughts. The kangaroos feel sorry for us humans who can’t hop everywhere – and the music reflects those sad and melancholy feelings. But then suddenly, the kangaroos just can’t help themselves and need to hop around for a bit! These happy, bouncy reprieves are played all over the piano, with loud staccatos that students will find fun.

While they’re playing with these back and forth moods, a wonderful learning opportunity is created for discussing why and how the music can sound so sad one minute and so happy the next. Is it the dynamics? The staccatos or lack thereof? The chromaticism? There are so many questions that can be asked to get students really understanding how we can communicate through our playing!

What Level is Hoppy Thoughts?

Hoppy Thoughts is piece 3 of the Outback Adventures Rote and Reading® series, and is elementary level. The smallest note value is a quarter note, and there is no pedaling throughout. The piece is in D major, with accidentals written throughout. Helpful fingerings are also indicated. 

The “hoppy” sections use staccatos on every note, giving students a chance for isolated practice of staccatos. Those sections also focus on playing just one note at a time all over the piano. This is a wonderful way to get students comfortable with keyboard topography, white key names of the keyboard, playing in multiple octaves, and learning to “play ahead” by noting where their hand needs to be before actually moving it there, with the ease of just one note. The sad and smooth sections (where the kangaroo is lamenting our inability to hop everywhere) use repeating patterns that are easy for early learners, and also play on several registers.

Bonus Mp3 Included

Your purchase of Hoppy Thoughts includes a bonus mp3 performance track that you can send to students to introduce or help them learn the piece.

Part of the Outback Adventure Series

Hoppy Thoughts is one of four pieces in the Outback Adventure Series featuring piano solos about Australia. This is a fantastic value as the bundle is discounted and these things are included in the bundle:

• Hoppy Thoughts
• Thorny Dragon
• Laughing Kookaburra
• Koala Cuddles
• Mp3s for each piece
• Outback Adventure Bundle Bonus Cover

You can purchase the Outback Adventure Series at a discount here.

The Power of Rote and Reading® Teaching

Piano students are much more excited about their progress when you combine rote teaching with reading. And when you do this, students stay motivated longer. This is because kids know that they can play music that is much more difficult than they can read.

Think of the way kids learn to read. They first learn to “do” the language (i.e. speak it) before they ever learn to read it. In the same way, students best learn when we show them how to “do” the piano before they learn to read the notes. For more thoughts on the value of rote teaching and how long it really takes a child to learn to read music, read: How Long Does It Take to Learn to Read Music?