I’ve written about her before, but her fabulous site has helped me once again, so here I am singing her praises one more time! (but probably not the last time!)

Susan Paradis’ Piano Teacher Resources is a site filled to the brim with great ideas and printables.  Susan also writes her own music, which you can print from her site.

Most recently, I have printed her Elementary level Halloween pieces for one of my new beginners!

If you haven’t visited her site, now is the time!

Have you heard of Philip Wesley?  You need to hear of him.  Better yet, you need to not just hear OF him, but hear him!

From his website:

With a piano style somewhere between David Lanz and Jim Brickman, Philip Wesley brings solace and a spiritual depth to the music world with his tender romantic playing.

Philip Wesley’s music is soothing and completely gorgeous.  But it’s more than just soothing.  Rich and full, it grabs you right from the first few notes!  You want to listen, not just play it as background music.

What’s even better is that, in addition to purchasing one of his CDs, you can also buy the sheet music to his beautiful pieces!  Are you the same as me?  I love to listen to gorgeous piano music, but I itch to play it on the keys myself!  So I love an artist who will share sheet music!

Stop by www.philipwesley.com to preview his audio recordings AND sheet music!

I just got my copy of George Skaroulis‘ new CD, Imagine.

Imagine this:  You just finished teaching a particularly difficult student- you know the one I’m talking about.  You start making dinner while trying to keep your toddler happy.  Your toddler is most definitely not happy.  You feel your stress levels rising while you still try to shake off the effects of your difficult lesson amidst whining and screaming and your own attempts to accomplish a task.

You walk over to your CD player, pop in George Skaroulis‘ gorgeous music, and take a step back.  You begin to feel calm.  Your unhappy toddler begins to perk up while she sways and hums to the music.  All is well.

This CD is filled with The. Most. Relaxing. Music.  The songs include “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “You Raise Me Up,” “Unchained Melody,” and my favorite- the one that is wearing my Repeat button out-”Hallelujah.”

George Skaroulis truly has a gift for composing beautiful arrangements.  His music makes you stop,listen, and truly enjoy.  And you would never know by listening that he is self taught and unable to read music!  Read his amazing bio here.

You can learn more about his music, order this CD, or any of his many other CDs at his site, www.evzonemusic.com.

I am teaching a 5 year old who is still learning to read.  We use “My First Piano Adventures for the Young Beginner” by Nancy and Randall Faber.  It’s a great introduction to piano for that age group.  In the beginning, several characters are introduced as piano friends.  They then show up on each page to teach new concepts.  It’s very easy for my student to learn this way.  Plus, the pictures are fun and colorful.  And bonus: there’s a fun CD to go along with the book.  Each new concept has a fun (and sometimes silly) song to listen to on the CD.  The book also strongly encourages exploration and discovery of the piano, which I really like.  It helps my student be creative.

What books do you like to use for your young beginners?

Do you ever have those lessons where you feel you aren’t able to cover everything needed? For me, sight reading seems to always take a back seat on these types of days.

I have been using Schaum’s Fingerpower books for quick sight reading during lessons. Each piece is short and simple, so not only is it a good way to fit sight reading into an already full lesson, it also gives my students a much needed boost when they realize they can do a good job on sight reading!

I ADORE these two pieces: Brahm’s Intermezzo in A Major and Chopin’s Nocturne from Op. 55, No. 1. I only have time to learn ONE to perfection before our spring recital. Please help me choose! Listen to each, and tell me which is your favorite! Pretty please!

Brahm’s Intermezzo (not the best sound quality, but still FABULOUS!):

Chopin’s Nocturne

At what point do you introduce classical repertoire into your student’s curriculum? I have been throwing in some little pieces every now and then, but I have been trying to decide when to begin with actual books of classical music.

I have a student moving on the level 2 of Piano Adventures today, so I am going to start her in Keith Snell’s “Essential Piano Repertoire of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries” preparatory level along with Level 2 of Piano Adventures.

What do you do?

One of the things I love about living in a city is all the free events you can find if you just look!  Around Christmas, pianist John Schmidt was playing for free downtown (outside in the freezing cold!).  If you haven’t heard of John Schmidt, you should look him up.  His songs are full of energy- just lots of fun to listen to.  He’s also really fun to watch.  Sometimes he uses his head or elbows.  Waterfall is one of his most famous songs.  I was searching through my sheet music the other day and found a copy of Waterfall I didn’t know I had!  I’ve been having a lot of fun playing this piece.  Here is the only Youtube video I could find of John Schmidt playing this piece.  (There are plenty of other videos of other people playing it).  It’s horrible visual quality, but at least you can hear the song wonderfully.

And here is another song, All of Me where he uses his forearms. Fun to watch!

Don’t forget to use the special Piano Teacher’s Retreat reader’s discount on a hands free wireless page turner from Airturn.  Click here to read about the special discount.

I found some good websites for free sheet music as I searched for all the songs the bride wants me to play at her reception/luncheon. FYI: searching for free sheet music is NOT fun. Every site seems to promise free sheet music, but when you arrive, you have to pay a membership fee or something like that. Or the really promising site turns out to be just a site of links to other sheet music sites you must then sift through. There are a gazillion links to sheet music sites everywhere, and here are the ones I found after hours of sifting. Mental note: Build up my pop music repertoire so I don’t have to do this again.

My Piano is a blog that has oodles of pop music, arranged alphabetically.  That little alphabetic detail, my friend, is pure joy.  You would think that would be the most obvious way to arrange such a site, but let me tell you…it’s not obvious to everyone.

Free Piano Music is one of those pages that has a list of links to sheet music sites.  It was the best page of it’s kind that I ran into.

Piano Sheet Music is a blog that is updated frequently with new lists of pop songs.  I couldn’t find a search box, so it made it a little difficult to find specific songs, but if you’re in the mood for browsing, there’s a great selection.

Virtual Sheet Music has oodles of classical sheet music.  You have to pay for most of it, but there is a lot of free stuff too.

My search was mostly focused on pop music this time around.  Do you know of any great pop and/or classical free sheet music sites?

Yay!  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving. 

I am thankful for websites with free Christmas music!  I’ve posted some of these before, but I’ve recently found some new sites with Christmas piano music.  I haven’t had much time to explore them, so if you find yourself absolutely adoring one of these sites, please come back and leave a comment about it!  Most of these sites do have simple arrangements that beginner students would be able to play.  An Online Christmas Songbook, G Major Music Theory, Noel Noel Noel, and my personal favorite for really stunning arrangements of Christmas music: Sally Deford Music. 

Have fun searching!