Welcome to the MaxMusic Piano eSheet Club! It’s a monthly surprise package designed specifically to bring more joy to you and your students!
“Thank you so much for sharing your creative experience, I admire it.” ~ Jelena, Italy
2024 eSheets by Level
Click on the titles below to access teaching resources:
- The listing by Level makes it easy to choose the best pieces for your students.
- Quick Links to the eSheet Downloads.
- Watch YouTube videos for examples of the music.
- Get helpful teaching hints.
Elementary Prep A
Elementary Prep B
Late Elementary Level 1
Late Elementary Level 2
Early Intermediate Level 3
Intermediate Level 4
Intermediate Level 5
Late Intermediate Level 6
December 2024 – Starry Night Waltz
Levels: US, Late Elementary. AMEB, Level 1. ABRSM, Level 1. RCM, Level 1.
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Teaching hints
- This tragically delicate waltz seems to float away like a daydream that reaches the starry night’s sky.
- As I wrote it, I was reminded of Valse de noël, a piece I composed when I was 13 and released in an updated form in our 2022 MaxMusicClub. Kabalevsky’s Slow Waltz also comes to mind when the right hand plays the upper staccato notes. But this waltz is for younger students, and they will thank you for it because they’ll love the mature and sophisticated sound.
- There are two big takeaways with this piece: how to play delicate slurs and how to play light staccatos.
- First let’s zone in on the left hand (LH) patterns. Notice that the harmonies are all I and V (or V7) chords in D minor. This is a great chance to cover or review this chord progression. To seasoned musicians, tonic-to-dominant chords seem like old beans, but remember that children are experiencing everything for the first time. The I-V harmonic progression is a great way to start understanding harmony.
- The best way to learn the LH is on its own, so that the wrist can get used to a down-up float. This wrist motion isn’t just for show! The “down” wrist puts more weight into the key, giving the downbeat note more emphasis. The “up” wrist on beats two and three removes some of the energy from the keys and hammers, helping those beats sound lighter. This difference in weight helps the music dance!
- The right hand has many slur groups, three and four notes each. These would also be best learned on their own with little down-up wrist movements. Several of these slurred groups build together like little pieces of Lego into longer lines or phrases, starting on A in measure 4 all the way to the G in measure 7. The tiny little staccatos after that are like a little afterthought, and should be played very sneakily. It’s like there are dancers who think someone is following them in the shadows while they’re swirling and dancing, so they stop to look, but then the little impish one tiptoes away to hide so they don’t get caught. To tell this story, play the staccato phrase-endings with very light fingers.
- The RH in measures 13 to 18 travels in sequential three-note slurs, with finger 2 moving down one key for each slur. This keeps the music in the best fingers (Chopin often wrote his music around the comfort of the hand). In this section it’s like the dancers are no longer paying any attention to the little one who is following them, so they just swirl and dance.
- Notice in measure 20 where the RH goes up, that it’s an exact copy of the prior music, only an octave higher. Children who have no experience reading in this upper range are encouraged to learn the piece. Don’t wait! I call this a “challenge piece” where something new is presented that you don’t expect the child to completely understand, but through experience they learn not to fear the new thing. Teach this section by rote (“You already know this part! See? It’s exactly what you were playing before, only higher!”) It is written loco to help your students get used to the upper treble clef without actually reading it.
- The piece ends with a dramatic emphasis of the three closing notes. Enjoy!
November 2024 – Rite of Janus
Levels: US, Early Intermediate. AMEB, Level 2. ABRSM, Level 2. RCM, Level 3.
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Teaching hints
- Sometimes names come easily and at other times it takes me longer to find just the right title for my piece. This one took longer than usual. I wanted something that captures the feeling of majesty, like pomp and circumstance, words that speak to a grand occasion like a graduation march.
- I wanted to use the name Janus (pronounced JAY-nus) somehow, because he was the Roman god of gates and progressing through a transition.
- While Janus might not sound familiar, we use the name each year, as the month of January is named after him. As January is the first month of a new year, it’s rather like passing through a gate.
- In our society, one of the most significant rites of passage in a person’s life is their graduation. So, ‘Rite of Janus’ it is. I hope this literary and cultural reference will help students and listeners connect with the universal feeling of accomplishment when there’s a big event that requires a march or procession.
- I’m glad I was able to reference Rome, because the parallel first inversion chords in the right hand remind me of the sound of trumpets announcing a procession. The pedal point fifths in the left hand sound like beating drums or maybe even the drone of a hurdy-gurdy.
- As I composed this piece I felt like I was channeling the artistic essences of several composers: Grieg (think Peer Gynt) or Bartók (think Mikrokosmos) or maybe even Kabalevsky (think some of his studies that develop parallel intervals).
- There’s a big challenge to this piece, though, and that is to play the chords and repeated fifths with energy, but to resist the temptation to play them too heavily.
- Notice that it’s impossible to play the right hand parallel chords legato, yet there are slur marks. This is because we want the arm to play and glide in a smooth movement through the chords and shape the sound into phrases, rather than play down into each chord. It may take slow practice to hone this skill.
- The tenuto marks indicate that the performer should play fully and warmly into each note, yet without accent.
- Also, with the left hand fifths, play richly but again without accents. As the low strings on the piano are also the longest, they are naturally louder than the strings in the upper ranges of the piano. This means that the fifth by its very nature is already going to sound accented without even trying, so it will not be necessary to play with much arm weight into those notes. You may achieve this rich and unaccented sound by starting with your fingers touching the keys, and descending down into the keybed staying in contact with the surface, never lifting away from the keys or dropping from the air into them.
- Through the middle section imagine that the orchestration has changed from brass to woodwinds like flutes, clarinets and oboes. Play these contrasting phrases with a more airy feel.
- The flourish up the piano in the end will require spot practice to secure the distances of the movements up the piano.
October 2024 – Wagon Ride
Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep A.
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Teaching hints
- In the fall it’s time to get busy gathering in all the goodness Earth has to offer. It’s a season of collecting, preserving and storing away. Sometimes we humans feel like squirrels as we plan ahead for winter. It’s fun!
- Wagon Ride is inspired by Ross Farm Museum in Nova Scotia, a working farm that still operates with the historic, traditional farming practices of the 19th century. Families and school children learn how life was “back then” by watching farmers and farm animals at work. Crops are planted and harvested by a team of oxen. A highlight of any visit is a wagon ride around the farm, pulled by a team of “Canadian” horses — a hardy, old breed.
- It’s a scene that has been repeated over the centuries in communities around the world. Just think about how much children still love the idea of “Jingle Bells” at Christmas — riding in a sleigh pulled by a horse. This piece offers a similar nostalgia for harvest time, when we enjoy bounty with a heart full of thanks, and experience all the fun on a wagon hitched to a team of horses.
- In the lyrics there’s a wagon, corn, apples, pumpkins and all the rest. This is perfect music for fall!
- Singing. Speaking of Jingle Bells, have you ever wondered why children love learning it on the piano? It’s because it’s already familiar. How can you recreate this effect with Wagon Ride? By singing it first! If your students are hesitant to sing, from this moment on try to encourage singing from the very first lesson. Not only is it good for aural skills, it’s great as a teaching strategy and for developing a sense of phrasing with playing the piano.
- Tapping. The second step is singing and tapping the rhythm of the lyrics. The music comes from the syllables of the lyrics, so singing and tapping the words helps the music get into your student’s body.
- Noodling. Before your student reads a note, show them the first five keys of each phrase and allow them to noodle around with them: up, down and all around. This noodling will help them get familiar with the steps, skips and overall feel of the tunes in their fingers.
- Rests. The quarter rests tell the story of the bumpy wagon ride. Remember to lift to create silences.
- Syncopations. In measures 13 and 31 “Let’s take a wagon ride!” comes with a syncopation with a half note on beats two and three. Elementary students will learn this better through singing, tapping and experiencing the rhythm through movement (perhaps away from the piano) more so than counting aloud. With enough experience and preparation before playing, you may avoid remedial work.
- Hand moves. Both hands have small moves, with reminders in the music. Map out these moves and try them hands separately first.
September 2024 – The Lopsided Opera
Levels: US, Intermediate. AMEB, Level 3. ABRSM, 3. RCM, Level 4.
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Teaching hints
- If you’ve ever heard a soprano sing an opera number, you’ll know how dramatic and showy it can be. Based on arias by Mozart and Rossini, this parody explores scales and scalar shapes in C major, all on the piano’s white keys.
- The point of this piece is to be light-hearted. As an opera parody, it’s almost like the main character is a know-it-all, and has so much to say that the other character is barely able to speak.
- Which character does the right hand represent? What are they trying to say with all of the showy scale runs?
- Which character does the left hand represent? When do they finally get to say something? What do you think they’re saying? [Hint for teacher: measures 17-20]
- There’s one passage that sounds like the orchestra is playing without singing. Where is this? [Hint for teacher: measures 21-28]
- Learn hands separately. Throughout the piece both hands play very distinctive roles which require very different techniques. Only once they are mastered separately is it wise to put hands together.
- Shaping scales in music. When playing scale passages, the music wants to “go somewhere.” If we were to play each note in a scale with the same finger motion, it simply wouldn’t sound as interesting. Aim to shape each passage with this general guide: scales lines that go up usually crescendo, that go down, diminuendo. There may be an exception in the first two measures, as these seem to gravitate to beat one of measure two. Experiment to see what you like. I’ve left this one up to the performer.
- No matter the written dynamic, if you have a hairpin crescendo, the simple rule is “start quieter” then gradually play louder. Think, “Less to more.”
- Similarly, if you have a hairpin decrescendo, start louder and gradually play softer. Think, “More to less.”
- To help shape the sound, lean your whole torso towards the piano (getting louder) or away from it (getting softer). This helps with more or less touch into the keys. In this way your larger muscle groups help play the piano rather than leaving your entire sound up to your fingers alone.
- Shaping the Left Hand slurs and staccatos. Throughout much of the piece, the left hand plays a supporting chordal part. Normally, finger five will slur up to a harmonic staccato interval.
- When practicing the left hand separately, play deeper into the lower note with finger five. Think, “Down.” Then slur by shifting the angle of your wrist into the upper interval while changing the weight of your hand, so by the time you play the upper two notes staccato, your hand feels very light and weightless. Think, “Up.” After the quarter rest play the staccato on beat four with the same “Up” feeling and lighter sound. The only way to master this changing weight is to practice the left hand separately for quite some time, until the physical weight difference is automatic and you can hear “Down/louder” and “Up/softer.”
- Putting hands together. Try short passages first, listening carefully for the shaping in the scales and the down-up (more-less) sound in the left hand. Even after you have put hands together, it is valuable to continue practicing hands separately each day to preserve the individual techniques and sounds of each hand.
- When I first composed this piece, the first scale was ascending, not descending. Then I happened upon a video in which the music resembled the first two measures so closely that I worried it sounded like I had copied and that I’d have to scrap the project. But then I realized that if I reversed the first scale to be descending instead, I’d end up with a unique piece. This is a lesson in how difficult it is to create something new, and also that it is possible to tweak music during the composition process. I hope you like this light-hearted piece that helps develop scale technique!
August 2024 – Follow the Wind
Levels: US, Late Intermediate. AMEB, Level 5. ABRSM, 5. RCM, Level 6.
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Teaching hints
- Sometimes in life we wish we could just float away on the wind. Maybe we’re daydreaming of imaginary worlds. Sometimes those imaginary worlds help us cope with things in life that are too difficult to face head-on. With Anne of Green Gables, her imagination served a purpose: for a lonely and abused orphan girl, her imagination helped her escape her difficult reality into beautiful and poetic thoughts.
- Originally, I wrote this piece with a 19th century Nova Scotian legend in mind. In 1879 Sophia McLachlan, then 14 years of age, lived in Lunenburg. She was a young dressmaker’s apprentice. Her employer accused her of stealing $10 and the whole town turned against her, including her own mother, even though she insisted that she was innocent. She withdrew from everyone and lay on her sister’s grave for comfort. Tragically, she passed away and the doctors could only explain it that she had died of a broken heart. The dressmaker’s son later admitted to the theft. The grave stone marking Sophia’s grave is very special, with an iron heart decorating it. Her story has not been forgotten.
- This piece is in the lyrical style, meaning like a song. The words “lyrical” and “lyrics” all come from the ancient stringed instrument the lyre, first designed in Babylonia and made popular in Greece. It looked like a small harp and was held and strummed to accompany poetry. The broken chords in the left hand are kept simple, like a lyre plucking and strumming along.
- Play the long right hand phrases with singing lines, shaping the music with slight crescendos as the phrases grow, and slight diminuendos to close the phrases. Remember to follow the phrase marks with small lifts. Technically, an instrument like the piano doesn’t need to breathe to make music (not the same way the human voice does). But to play with expression, we create “breaths” by lifting out of phrases, creating an impression of a breath, then playing again. Therefore the phrases help the music to “sing.”
- Follow the Wind is about being kind to yourself, about releasing fears and doubts and just surrendering to the beauty of this world. Music can be very healing. I wrote this piece to sound like Nova Scotia’s folk music. I wanted to keep the tune simple and the accompaniment uncomplicated. I hope your teens and adults will find peace playing it—and maybe you, too!
July 2024 – Sneak Attack
Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep B.
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Teaching hints
- Each year in the months leading up to Halloween I always try to release one piece that makes fun of spooky sounds. But because this is a group club and some teachers or students don’t “do” Halloween, I make the music about frightful surprises, with titles that could be spooky or not. This also means that the music is useful at any time of the year, right when your student is ready for it.
- When I composed this piece, we had new kittens in the house and they were becoming playful. As their skills improved, they started to launch sneak attacks on each other. Planning surprises is fun, and so is being surprised.
- This piece is all about developing storytelling and helping students learn how to play with imagination.
- The structure of the music is AB (rounded), which ties in with the story. Through questions about staccatos and the dynamics, you might guide your student in the creation of characters and what’s happening to them at various points in the music.
- STACCATOS
- In introducing the staccato to your student, you might ask this line of questions, or even act it out:
- “When you are planning to surprise someone, how do you walk as you get closer to them, so they won’t hear you?” The answer: you tiptoe.
- “How does it feel to tiptoe?” Light. Short.
- “What in this piece sounds like tiptoeing?” The staccatos! The little dots even look like tiptoeing!
- Let’s play the notes so they feel and sound like tiptoeing.
- DYNAMICS (Crescendo and diminuendo)
- The dynamics are a key part of the storytelling in this piece.
- You might ask: “When you’re planning a surprise, do you rush in or do you take time to plan?”
- Measures 1-16 seem to be all about sneaking about.
- Measures 17-33 seem to tell the story of the sneak attack, itself.
- You might ask: “What is the loudest moment in the piece? What do you think is happening in the measures leading to this forte, and what happens with the forte?”
- Levels: US, Late Elementary. AMEB, Level 1. ABRSM, 1. RCM, Level 2.
June 2024 – Hotshot
Levels: US, Late Elementary. AMEB, Level 1. ABRSM, 1. RCM, Level 2.
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Teaching hints
- Here’s a Late Elementary piece for showing off at the piano, good for students who are ready for music that sounds more difficult than it is.
- I composed this piece with one of my own tween students in mind, who has been in piano for about a year. He likes to play piano in his school cafeteria and “show off” at lunch. I wanted to give him something showy to play that’s slightly challenging with the hands together, but with repeated licks that make it somewhat quicker to learn.
- The right hand broken intervals are good for developing wrist rotation. Prior to teaching wrist rotation to my students we always mime turning a door knob (or actually turn a door knob!). When you act out this motion, you can see wrist rotation in motion. This turning motion simplifies the theme of Hotshot’s broken intervals, to put the bulk of the work into the macro movements of the wrist and arm rather than stressing the fingers with busy work that may eventually cause injury. The playing of the notes is actually activated by the rocking of the hand and the fingers remain quite still.
- The bass notes drive the energy. The amazing thing about the piano is that it can imitate other instruments and in this piece it’s imitating an entire band! In the bass line imagine a string bass and the percussion section.
- When keys or chords are repeated, aim to keep them on the light side, because if they get too heavy they’ll steal the show. To help them stay bright and not too heavy, play each keystroke with a slight “up” motion in the wrist and arm.
- Because the right hand focuses on rotation for much of the piece and the left hand focuses on the technique of an “up” motion for repeated keys, it’s best to first learn hands separately for quite a while, just like two different instruments learning their parts.
- I had a lot of fun recording this number, choosing my Yamaha Clavinova rather than my acoustic piano. I picked E.Piano, church organ, hall 2, tremolo and medium. Notice the change in timbre with the velocity. So much fun! Totally inspired by Daft Punk!
May 2024 – The Clockmaker’s Shop
Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep B.
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Teaching hints
- This piece is a soundscape adventure of the imagination! It’s four o’ clock in the clockmaker’s shop and you get to hear the different clocks all chime the hour: a mantel clock, a cuckoo clock and a grandfather clock. The tolls imitate the harmonics of bells and chimes.
- It may be insightful to introduce the sounds of real clocks through these videos!
- The Westminster Chime Mantel Clock
- The Carved Wooden Cuckoo Clock
- The Wise Old Grandfather Clock
- Main theme. The piece begins and ends with a cheery tune in F major with accidental flats, appropriate for this level. The lyrics introduce the story and help with the rhythm of the music. Notice the alliteration with the letter “t”: “They tell their tunes at the top of the hour, they take turns telling time,” which has a tick-tock effect.
- The tune is shared between the hands, so perhaps start with this alone and add the LH fifths later. Be sure not to clip the non-legato quarter notes or make them too short. To get a detached singing sound, touch the key first, then sink down and hold for a moment prior to releasing. Shape the three-note slurs elegantly with a slight pivot of the hand. It feels like gliding through the three notes.
- Here are some of the special musical elements Elementary students get to hone through this piece:
- Dynamics. Prior to the tolling of each clock, there is a quiet tick-tock. Played “p” and staccato, students can play these with imagination to develop a delicate touch on the piano. Then, each clock has its own dynamic when it tolls: mp, mf and f.
- Accents. Students get to try accents at different dynamic levels. Playing the accents on the repeated chime sound will help them get into the deep-key “feel” of the accents. To get a warm “bell” sound with your accents (and not a harsh sound), touch the keys first, then descend into the keybed with extra energy (just right for each dynamic level). It’s a great chance to have fun experimenting with touch!
- Fermatas. Each fourth toll continues to ring longer. To show this ringing (which stretches the beats), there’s a fermata over the last note of each pattern. Because it makes sense in the story and because it happens three different times, students have a great chance of learning to recognize the symbol and remembering what it stands for. As the pedal can help to extend the ring a little, the fermatas can also help to give some time to move the hands to the next position.
- Double barlines. Each clock’s turn is outlined with an extra barline to show that there’s an important change of section.
- Sign post notes on the staff. Besides developing expressive playing, this piece is also specially designed to develop a student’s understanding of the grand staff. The majority of the reading is between the space C’s, with some notable exceptions. Highlighted throughout are sign post notes: Bass clef C’s and F’s, and Treble clef C’s and high G. These “expander” notes have optional cues to help the student widen their comfort zone with reading and show visually the depth of sound on the grand staff. There’s also a section where the upper staff changes to bass clef, so be sure to highlight this change.
- Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep B.
April 2024 – Serendipity in Blue
Levels: US, Intermediate. AMEB, 3. ABRSM, 3. RCM, 4.
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Teaching hints
- At first the title of this piece was simply Serendipity, but with the bluesy twists and turns (which reminded me of certain sections of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue), I expanded the title to “Serendipity in Blue”. We have a bit of a bird theme this year, and as I chose my outfit for the video and the blue items for the background, I kept thinking about crows and how they love to collect blue objects. Each one must be a serendipity to them — a surprise discovery. That’s how each phrase feels to me in Serendipity in Blue.
- By the time the Intermediate, Level 4, student is ready for this piece, they’ll be up for the tonal twists and turns. Serendipity in Blue weaves in and out between different keys and modes, making each phrase feel like a new discovery. It glides seamlessly between D Major and several related modes: D Phrygian, D Locrian, and G Harmonic Minor (sometimes it may feel like B-flat Major, but on consideration, I’m not so sure). As the subtle changes happen, there’s a bluesy feel to the music, so shape carefully.
- The hairpin shaping (crescendos and decrescendos) suggest the push and pull between notes.
- The B section features the left hand, so bring it out, perhaps imagining the rich sound of a cello.
- I was asked recently by a teacher how I compose my music. I compared my writing process to a plant nursery or greenhouse. I come up with seeds of ideas in the same way they germinate their new plants. Then, closer to the date that my piece is needed, I ramp up the production similar to bringing a flower into bloom with extra light and warmth. Serendipity in Blue is a great example on how I normally work.
- This piece was mostly composed in January 2023, after I felt inspired. I created it in the D tonal centre, improvised around a little on it and I wrote most of it in pencil in my sketchbook for later consideration for the club. This March, I knew I didn’t want to be crunched for creating April’s eSheet after the Atlanta conference, so I finished the final eight measures before I went. I only tweaked a couple of notes and harmonies in the past week as I prepared it for printing and recording. Now, on the 1st, we’ve recorded it and it’s a new bloom ready for you!
March 2024 – Robin’s Rainy Day
Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep A.
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Teaching hints
- The North American robin is in his glory on a rainy day. A spring rain brings many ‘opportunities’ to the robin, namely tasty little worms. A rainy day is when a robin gets busy out on the lawn, hopping and cocking his head to listen for those little telltale sounds that mean his dinner is ready.
- This piece captures the energy, sounds and motions of the robin’s story. Before suggesting what pictures the various musical elements paint, here are some questions you might ask your student from time to time while learning the piece to develop their own imaginations and creativity:
- Question: Have you ever watched a robin? (Here’s a video if they’ve never seen one.)
- Question: Have you noticed on rainy spring days that robins hop around on your lawn?
- Question: What are they doing?
- Question: In this piece there are staccatos. What part of the story do you think these short sounds imitate? (Perhaps the pitter-patter of rain?)
- Question: The two note slurs encourage an up-down motion in your wrist to shape the sound of the two notes (the down wrist brings out MORE sound on the first note, the up wrist brings out less sound on the second, so the music sounds like MORE-less). What part of the story do you think these movements and sounds are telling? (Perhaps the hopping robin?)
- Question: From measures 9-16 there are longer slurs in the right hand. What picture does this music paint? (Perhaps the robin taking wing to a tree or a different part of the lawn?)
- Question: How does the robin feel by the end of the piece? (Happy and full?)
- Not only does Robin’s Rainy Day encourage imaginative playing, it helps you develop your young student’s technical skills. Crisp staccatos, gliding legatos and cheeky little two-note slurs can all be practiced in this piece. Every teacher knows that musical elements are easier to master when the child has a story in mind.
- To keep up interest and develop the hands equally, staccatos, legato phrases and two-note slurs are played by both the right and left hands.
- Students at this level love when music has harmonic progression. The left hand plays open broken fifths to outline the chord progression of I (F), vi (d minor), V7 (C7) and IV (B-flat). Because the melodic fifth intervals are always played with the same pattern, the left hand part is simplified despite the small moves.
- The majority of the reading is done in the middle of the staff, with the range eventually expanding to include some notes in the upper and lower registers, Low F to High G. Because these latter notes copy patterns from the middle (and therefore may be learned with a few cue letters* and predicting), this piece is ideal for early Prep A.
- *Note: Cue letters wouldn’t be written on every note in a passage, but only on the first note, with the student predicting the rest based on the pattern and direction of the notes.
February 2024 – Little Lost Bird
Levels: US, Elementary. AMEB, Preliminary. ABRSM Initial. RCM, Prep B.
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Teaching hints
- This is a very adaptable piece. Don’t let the notation fool you! It’s VERY easy to teach by pattern and rote. Find out how I used it with two Primer students. For your Late Elementary students, teach it by note!
- This tender little piece taps into one of a child’s deepest-felt emotions, the worry one feels being lost. When you introduce the music, you could ask if the child has ever felt lost (at a shopping mall, for example). Then ask them to play their music with the emotion a little bird would feel if it were lost. This is the kind of music that helps a child learn to understand their own emotions (and to feel empathy) and learn how to put these feelings into music to play expressively.
- While it is levelled at “Elementary,” keep in mind that it is a pattern piece and can be taught to students in the Early Elementary (Primer) stage, as with my students (keep reading). If you teach the longer version (three pages) by note, it would likely fall into the “Late Elementary” (RCM Levels 1-2) category. This makes it a highly versatile piece and I hope that many teachers will be able to find it motivating and useful with a number of students.
- Little Lost Bird was inspired by Carol of the Bells, which I was teaching to a beginner piano student before Christmas. This student is in the early stages of reading the middle staff notes. But I wanted to inspire her with music that would touch her heart. She had recently come with her family from Ukraine and it was the Carol of the Bells (Faber 3A) that really grabbed her attention. You may notice that this is several levels above her current level, so I taught it by rote.
- After Christmas I wanted to hook her with a similar rote piece, so before her lesson I quickly created the beginning of Little Lost Bird. You will notice similarities with Carol of the Bells. It has bell-like sustained notes in the left hand and repeated rhythmic figures in the right hand. This makes it highly memorable and easy to teach just by showing which keys to play.
- I’ve now taught it to two beginner students. As I said before, I taught it to them after I’d only created the beginning, but said they might want to add more on their own. They both loved it and brought it back to their following lesson with their own endings, both different. This gave me the idea to make an optional version in which students can learn the beginning by rote but make up their own ending, with the composer’s blessing. I composed the second version’s ending inspired by the young girl’s long ending which descended down the piano and then finished in the higher register. Every child would create a different ending.
- About the notation: Don’t worry about whether or not your student has learned eighth notes, quarter rests or eighth rests. You may print off the music sheets as “reminder” notation but teach the music by rote.
- A note about technique: Finger 3 is chosen for many of the left hand’s repeated notes, as this is the most balanced finger in the hand. The right hand’s three-note repeated figure develops lovely down-up wrist movements with the three slurred keys. The right hand in the second section is based on a natural finger motion similar to “drumming one’s fingers,” a motion which even non-pianists can do with their fingers, 4-3-2-1. This is excellent for helping the hand play the way it is designed to move.
January 2024 – Mystery Bay
Levels: US, Intermediate. AMEB, 4. ABRSM, 4. RCM, 5.
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Teaching hints
- If Mystery Bay could be compared to a piece of literature, it would be in the same genre as Sherlock Holmes or an Agatha Christie novel. While there isn’t a lot of “mystery” piano music out there (not the same way that there’s “love” music), I think it’s important for our mental health to engage in a little fantasy once in a while. There’s so much going on in our world right now that it would be counterproductive to ruminate on it without a break. Consider this piece of music to be permission to take your mind off things for a while and escape into a world of imagination.
- Imagine a mysterious tree-covered island shrouded in mist. On the surface all might appear to be safe and normal, but lurking beneath is a gut feeling that you just can’t shake – a foreboding sense that something is wrong. What happens next is limited only by your imagination. What kind of secret does Mystery Bay hold?
- Mystery Bay is inspired by mystery movie soundtracks. My goal was to create a soundscape that sounds mostly normal, conventional and comfortable, the same way every mystery movie creates a sense of normalcy in the first scene.
- But something is off. Through slight dissonances, there’s an uncomfortable unease in every phrase. But it’s so slight that you’re not sure whether or not you’re imagining things.
- The essence of the piece is the ascending minor second. This is the germ of the mystery. Every phrase is built on this one interval, with other patterns emerging at times, like clues on the trail. Shape the repeated minor seconds in long phrases, always with a crescendo or diminuendo. Think of waves, with the water moving forward.
- Notice that there’s a return to the main theme at measure 17, yet it’s slightly altered. In measure 1, the main theme is a minor second from D#-E. In measure 17, it returns but from A#-B. I think of Measure 30 as another iteration, perhaps a variation. Notice that this time it’s from F#-G. Each one plays upon the semitone that leads to a chord tone of the e minor tonic chord.
- The left hand plays a steady eighth Alberti waltz pattern. Learn this on its own so that it may stay softer than the right hand. The two hands together remind me of the interplay Bach sometimes achieved in his preludes. It’s almost a counterpoint, so each “voice” should be developed independently and practiced separately, just as two musicians in a duo would do before coming together to play in a rehearsal.
- Revel in the long lines and dynamic surprises that create delicious suspense. The most important turning point, or plot twist, is from the crescendo through to measure 16, to the sudden subP at measure 17. Your goal here is to make the hair on the backs of the necks of your listeners stand on end.
- The whole piece builds to a peak in emotion and musical range to the phrase in measures 21-25, after which the line descends slowly and steadily until the final sustained octaves in the lower register. At measure 30 the plot thickens as the range drops into the lower octaves and while the dynamics swell. There is a slow withdraw until the last foreboding octaves conclude the story, leaving you with the feeling that you should watch your back.
- When the first phrases came out of my fingers, I knew I wanted a title that reflected the music. I grew up learning about the maritime history of Nova Scotia with shipwrecks off Sable Island, stories of treasure on Oak Island, and about the lore that surrounded the Bermuda Triangle, so I wanted a seafaring-based title. I came up with “Mystery Bay,” then googled it to see if a real one existed. It does! Mystery Bay is a small seaside town in New South Wales, Australia. Even though I’ve never been there, I kept the title because it captures how I feel about this music.
- This piece took many sittings at the piano to complete. I’m busy with a lot of things, so only worked on it in quiet moments some evenings when I caught sight of it in my sketchbook. Sometimes I added measures, only to discard them the next time I sat to play it through. At times, only one measure would stick, with the others being tossed and replaced. Composing it was like the waves of the ocean on a beach. Sometimes new material would be brought in, while other parts would be carried back out to the sea. What remained was the work of building and eroding over time.
There’s nothing better than engaging your students with music they love to play, at the MaxMusic Club price!
“Can’t wait for my monthly surprise! Super excited about this, Rebekah! :)” ~ Jennifer Foxx
“This is so pretty! I’ll be looking forward to new music from you every month. ~ Adrienne Alton-Gust
“Thanks for offering this again!” ~ Andrew Sims
Invite your friends! They’ll get the savings, too!
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