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There is a natural order of language learning - listening, imitating, speaking, reading then writing. We believe music is most successfully taught the same way and this is why we begin our youngest students with folk songs. Folk songs contain the phonemes of musical language. We start with “Hot Cross, Buns.” It’s a simple melody of only three notes but those notes are presented as descending, ascending and repeating. With three notes, all possible musical movement is realized. Those three notes are an essential piece of musical vocabulary. You’ll find them in “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Amazing Grace,” and nearly every other song in our folk song book. Our goal is for our students to hear these bits of musical vocabulary, to recognize them and then to play them at will, from any key. Learning folk songs lays the foundation for a strong musical vocabulary. We’ve put together a list of ten folk songs that build on each other. New piano players should start with the second finger only , moving the whole hand to each note. Click on the links for tutorials!
Hot Cross Buns Mary Had a Little Lamb Old MacDonald Amazing Grace Ring Around the Rosie Rain, Rain, Go Away Row, Row, Row Your Boat Muffin Man I’m a Little Teapot Itsy Bitsy Spider Comments are closed.
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AuthorWill Armstrong is the founder of WillYouLearn. He's a professional pianist with over 20 years of teaching experience. Archives
May 2025
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