- Level: Mid Elementary
- Pages: 4 pages, 2 pages of music, cover included!
- Style: Mischievous
- Series: Amazon Adventure, Rote and Reading®
- Bonuses: Mp3 performance track (music includes an opportunity to improvise!)
- Format: PDF instant download
Monkeying Around is a fun, mischievous piece that sounds like a monkey’s antics! A wonderful feature of this piece is that the B section contains an opportunity to “monkey around” (improve) that students will love! Any rhythm or speed can be used, so long as they are using C# and D, making it an easy improvisation for even the most shy of students.
This Rote and Reading® piece contains many patterns that can be taught by rote, reading, or both! These patterns make this piece easy to learn for most mid-elementary students.
What Level is Monkeying Around?
Monkeying Around is a mid-elementary piece. The RH is very simple, playing just two notes all the way through. The LH has fingering written in, and also contains an option for the student to use finger 2 on all notes. The piece is in G Lydian. The notes move around chromatically, but all the accidentals are written in, so no key signature. The smallest note value is a quarter note, and there is no pedaling.
Bonus Mp3 Included
Your purchase of Monkeying Around includes a bonus mp3 performance track that you can send to students to introduce or help them learn the piece.
Part of the Amazon Adventure Series
Monkeying Around is one of three pieces in the Amazon Adventure Series featuring piano solos about South America. This is a fantastic value as the bundle is discounted and these things are included in the bundle:
- Monkeying Around
- Jaguar Jungle
- River Dolphins
- Mp3s for each piece
- Amazon Adventure Bundle Bonus Cover
You can purchase the Amazon 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?
Becky –
My students are already loving Monkeying Around! We’ve had so much fun making up our own lyrics and my students always loving pieces with space to improvise.
Angela –
My June recital was filled with Wendy Stevens music!!! Pedagogically, I found Monkeying Around especially helpful as I teach beginners with “Tales of Magical Journey.” They don’t learn legato nor use #1 and #5 fingers until book two so the piece was especially relevant to me.