piano sheet music and music lesson resources for the elementary pianist
The Piano Student is a music resource directory for teachers and beginning-intermediate level piano students. Below are a few of the most popular posts and the most active posts. I hope you enjoy the resources you find. If you are having trouble finding a particular resource, please let me know.
Updated on Jan 3, 2018
Top Posts (with all-time views)
Want to play the Christmas piano sheet music featured in Fortnite? Below are links to printable arrangements Christmas carols featured in the game. I’ll also include the lyrics if your family and friends would like to sing along.
Jingle Bells | Beginner Piano Sheet Music
Jingle Bells | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Twelve Days of Christmas for Easy Piano
Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bobtails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, hey
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh
Lyrics for Twelve Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Subsequent verses for Twelve Days of Christmas are as follows:
4 calling birds
5 gold rings
6 geese a-laying
7 swans a-swimming
8 maids a-milking
9 ladies dancing
10 lords a-leaping
11 pipers piping
12 drummers drumming
Fortnite is an action building game using the Unreal Engine 4 from game publisher, Epic Games. You and your friends guide a group of Heroes to claim and rebuild a homeland that has been destroyed by the darkness only known as “The Storm.”
Join with your friends online to build amazing forts, collect and/or build radical weapons and traps, and protect the communities that you build from the strange creatures that emerge. Unite to battle the “Storm” and save the world.
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Fum, Fum, Fum | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Christmas Time Is Here | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy | Big Note Piano Sheet Music
All Through The Night | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music (PDF)
Coventry Carol | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music (PDF)
Somewhere In My Memory is the official soundtrack of the 1990 box office hit American Christmas comedy film Home Alone. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as the protagonist Kevin McCallister who was accidentally left behind by his family as they were about to fly to Paris for their Christmas vacation. All alone in their huge home in Chicago, Kevin has to fend for himself as he tries to protect their home from burglars trying to take advantage of families leaving their houses for vacations. It was the highest-grossing live action comedy film in the United States as well as worldwide until another movie broke its way and got into the spot in 2011.
With over $400 million as its gross earnings, it is no wonder that the film garnered several awards and nominations including one for the film’s soundtrack. Its nominations include the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
The soundtrack was composed by John Williams and was released by Sony Classical in cassette on December 4,1990. The film’s director, Chris Columbus, originally wanted Bruce Broughton to score the film’s soundtrack however due to Broughton’s prior commitment with another movie, he had to cancel at the last minute. Several posters of the film even had Broughton’s name written on it as the composer. Columbus then employed the help of Steven Spielberg who helped him contact Williams to produce the final score instead. The song is played throughout the length of the movie, either in full lengths or fragments. It was also used for the sequel of the movie, Home Alone 2 Lost In New York (1992). Somewhere In My Memory proved to be popular all over the world as several schools, professional choirs and orchestras performed it as a piece for Christmas concerts.
Somewhere In My Memory | Easy Piano Sheet Music
John Williams is an American composer renowned for his works in cinematic history creating film scores for several box office hit movies, including those of the Home Alone series, Jaws, Close Encounters, Indiana Jones series, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has been a constant collaborator with Steven Spielberg and has been the composer of all Spielberg’s films except three of his feature films. His partnership with Spielberg has helped him land the film scoring of the first two Home Alone films.
Under his name, Williams has won 24 Grammy awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. He is also the second most nominated individual following behind Walt Disney. In 2000, Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame. Of the top 20 highest grossing films of all time, Williams was the composer for eight of those movies.
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My Favorite Things is a show tune performed by the character Maria in Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music (1959).
The song is quite popular that it finished at number 64 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Songs. Numerous stage productions have been made of the musical but the most notable one was of a 1965 film adaptation of the musical where actress Julie Andrews sang the song during a scene in her bedroom where she was surrounded by kids listening to her sing.
In the original Broadway musical, the song was sung in Mother Abbess’ office just before she sends Maria off to become a governess to Captain Von Trapp’s children. However, the film’s screenwriter Ernest Lehman made a shift in the film adaptation and ended up with “My Favorite Things” being played in the now iconic thunderstorm scene. It replaced the “The Lonely Goatherd” in the scene, which became a precedent for other productions to do the same as well.
My Favorite Things | Easy Piano Sheet Music
The song was written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, collectively known as the Rogers and Hammerstein duo. Rogers was a renowned American composer and was considered the most significant composer of the 20th century. With over 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals, he was the first person to win an EGOT, which stands for an Emmy, Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award. He also received a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of only two people to receive all five awards.
Oscar Hammerstein II was an American theater director and producer. He also had his fair share of accomplishments with eight (8) Tony Awards and two (2) Academy Awards for Best Original Songs under his name. Rodgers and Hammerstein started collaborating when Rodger’s previous partner Lorenz Hart began having health problems. The duo’s first ever work was the groundbreaking musical titled Oklahoma! (1943). The team then went on to produce four more hits which were later on made into film adaptations. These include Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959).
With the duo’s collaboration, they were able to earn a total of 35 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy, and two Emmy Awards.
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10 Piano Games for Kids | Note Names, Rhythms & More
Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music | Level 1
Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music | Level 2
10 Beginner Piano Pieces Kids Love to Play
MMF All-In-One Piano Book | Level 1A
Boil Them Cabbage Down is a classic American folk song played with a fiddle. Also known as Bile ‘Em Cabbage Down as the word “bile” is a phonetic writing of the word “boil”, the song has been played and sung throughout the South. According to Ralph Rinzler, the song can be traced back to an early English country dance titled “Smiling Polly”, which was first printed in 1765.
Some historians, like that of Alan Lomax, say that the origins of this song can be traced back to when African slaves from Niger were brought to the southern states. He also described the song as, “a negro reel tune which has become universally popular among white square dance musicians.” This theory is supported by the fact that the tune is played with a fiddle and it was believed that Africans in Niger used primitive instruments that resembled the fiddle, guitar, and banjo. Thus, the song has a combination of banjo and fiddle, which are African and European musical elements.
The song is about a hoecake, which is a thin, flat cake made from cornmeal and is baked over a fire on the blade of a hoe. It was very popular that several artists have notable versions of the song. Uncle Dave Macon, a Tennessee banjoist and entertainer, recorded one of the first versions of the song in 1924. Clayton McMichen also used this song and put together a virtuoso version of it to use as a piece for various major fiddle competitions. The popularity of the song can be attested by the various versions of the tune and the lyrics that have been made and were sung in square dances, frolics, and back porch sessions.
Boil Them Cabbage Down | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Went up on the mountain,
And I give my horn a blow,
Thought I heard my true love say,
“Yonder comes my beau!”
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
Took my gal to the blacksmith shop,
To have her mouth made small,
She turned around a time or two,
And swallowed shop and all.
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
Possum in a ‘simmon tree,
Raccoon on the ground,
Raccoon says, “You son-of-a-gun,
Shake some ‘simmons down!”
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
Someone stole my hunting dog,
Wish they’d bring him back,
He chased the big hogs through the fence,
And the little ones through the crack.
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
Met a possum in the road,
Blind as he could be,
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog,
And bristled up at me.
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
Once I had an old gray mule,
His name was Simon Slick,
He’d roll his eyes and back his ears,
And how that mule would kick!
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
There’s gold up in them there hills,
I know it for the truth,
For my gal fell up there,
And lost her new front tooth.
Bile dat cabbage down,
Bake dat hoe-cake brown,
Craziest song I ever heard,
Bile dat cabbage down.
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Toccata in D Minor (Bach) | Two Free Piano Sheet Music Arrangements
Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride) | Free Piano Sheet Music
Ready, Set, Go! Note Name Speed Tests | Free Music Worksheets
Monster-Themed Musical Spelling Bee – Free Note Name Worksheet
Carnegie Hall Park (Matchbox Parking) | Music Theory Board Game
Here’s an arrangement of easy piano sheet music that younger students might enjoy playing. It also includes the words if you want to sing along.
Madalina Catalina | Easy Piano Sheet Music
There was a funny girl, she had a funny name
She got it from her pappy just the same, same, same.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina [or Ooka Sonna Donna Wanna]
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
She had two hairs on the top of her head
One was alive and the other was dead.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
She had two eyes in the front of her head
One was green and the other was red.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
She had two teeth in the front of her mouth
One pointed north and the other pointed south.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
She had two lips, two beautiful lips,
Shaped just like two battleships.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
Her nose was so long that when she sneezed
It got caught in between her knees.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
Her ears stuck out like the sails of a boat
Her Adam’s apple wandered up and down her throat.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
She loved to polish her fingernails
She bought her polish in ten gallon pails.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
The language that she spoke was an awful joke
Her head was made out of solid oak
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
Her feet were flat as bathroom mats
I forgot to ask how they got like that.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
A ten ton truck hit our Madalina
That was the end of that machine.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Oaka, Poka, Loka was her name.
[Alternate lyrics]
She had a funny name,
but she wasn’t much to blame;
Her mother gave it to her just the same, same, same.
Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner
Hogan Logan Bogan was her name.
Well, she had two peculiar hairs on her head;
One was black and one was red.
Catalina Magdalena…
She had two eyes that were quite a sight;
One looked left and the other looked right.
Catalina Magdalena…
She had two arms that flopped all around;
When she walked, they would drag on the ground.
Catalina Magdalena…
She had two feet that were wide and flat –
Each one bigger than a bathroom mat.
Catalina Magdalena…
She had two holes in the bottom of her nose –
One for her fingers ….and one for her toes.
Catalina Magdalena…
She had two teeth inside her mouth;
One went north and the other south.
Catalina Magdalena…
Some folks say her breath smells sweet;
But me, I’d rather smell her feet.
Catalina Magdalena…
If rain makes flowers sweet and clean,
There oughta be a downpour on Magdaleen!
Catalina Magdalena…
Madalina Catalina is one of those children’s songs that people used to learn at summer camp. It was a popular campfire song that kids seem to enjoy a lot because the lyrics are made up of fun and silly words.
The song is about a woman who had a funny-sounding name and a unique appearance. Each stanza goes on to describe the different parts of her body and sometimes uses gibberish words to rhyme with her name.
The origin and composer of the song is unknown, but many versions have been released which had been under different titles and lyrics but still with the same interpretation and melody.
Other titles of the song include: “Maggalina Haggalina”, “Magdalena Hagdalena”, “Catalina Madelina”, “Madelina Catelina”, “Adelina Madelina”, “Agaleena Bagaleena”, “Macalina Packalina”, “Magdelina Hagdelina”, and possibly many more others. It continues to be sung in various parts of the world with different versions of the song.
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The song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was first performed by Judy Garland as her character Esther in the 1944 musical film Meet Me in St. Louis. The film follows the life of the Smith family over the course of a year from the Spring of 1903 up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair) in April 1904. In the story, Esther (Garland) sings the song to her younger sister Tootie on Christmas Eve to try and cheer her up after they heard the devastating news from their father that they’ll be leaving their beloved hometown of St. Louis and moving to New York because of a job promotion.
The musical score for this song and many of the other songs in the movie were provided by American musical theater and film composer, vocal coach and playwright Hugh Martin while the lyrics were first credited to American composer and lyricist Ralph Blane. However, in later years there was some controversy surrounding the said songwriting collaboration. Martin, in his autobiography Hugh Martin – The Boy Next Door, revealed that all of the music and lyrics were solely written by him without any contribution from Blane.
Martin was said to have written the first draft of the lyrics while he was staying for a vacation in the house which was originally meant to be a honeymoon cottage that his father designed for his mother. Some of the lines written by Martin were changed, however, prior to filming because Garland along with her director Vincente Minnelli and co-star Tom Drake felt that the entire song felt too depressing. Some of the revisions that were made include taking the line “It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past” and turning it into something more positive and hopeful like “Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight”.
Over time, the song became a Christmas season standard all over the world, especially in English-speaking countries. Garland released the song as a single through Decca Records and became a big hit, especially among soldiers who were serving in World War II. Frank Sinatra also included the song in his 1957 album A Jolly Christmas, with a few more alterations to the lyrics to make it sound more upbeat and festive. Aside from Sinatra, other notable artists who have sung their own cover of the song include Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, The Pretenders, Luther Vandross, James Taylor and (more recently) Sam Smith.
Here’s a wonderful arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from MusicNotes.com. It’s arranged for the advancing piano student and is available for digital download in PDF format.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Piano Sheet Music
Well-known musical theater and film composer, vocal coach, arranger, and playwright Hugh Martin was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He studied music at the private liberal arts school of Birmingham-Southern College. He wrote music and lyrics for several Broadway musicals such as “Best Foot Forward”, “High Spirits”, “Look Ma, I’m Dancin’!”, “Make a Wish”, and the stage version of “Meet Me In St. Louis”. He also worked on West End musical productions like “Love from Judy”.
He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score for his work in the stage production of Meet Me in St. Louis. He also received Tony nominations for Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Book Author of a Musical, and Best Musical for High Spirits.
Martin partnered with Ralph Blane on many projects throughout his career. The two even recorded an album 1956 which included all of their collaborations and called it Martin and Blane Sing Martin and Blane. They’ve received Academy Award nominations for Best Song for “The Trolley Song” in 1944, and for “Pass That Peace Pipe” in 1947.
Fum, Fum, Fum | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Christmas Time Is Here | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy | Big Note Piano Sheet Music
All Through The Night | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music (PDF)
Coventry Carol | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music (PDF)
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is a dance from Russian Romantic Era composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker. This selection is from the third movement in The Nutcracker, and is danced by the principal female dancer. The original choreography was conceived by Lev Ivanovich Ivanov (1834-1901) for the ballet.
The primary choreographer, Marius Petipa, expressed his interest in having the Sugar Plum Fairy’s music sound like “drops of water”. Tchaikovsky’a search for the perfect instrument led him to the newly invented celesta. The celesta has the appearance of a small piano, though sounds like small bells. Tchaikovsky wrote, “The celesta is midway between a tiny piano and a Glockenspiel, with a divinely wonderful sound.” In 1892, when The Nutcracker was introduced to Russian audiences, they were not only introduced to a work that would become a Christmas time staple, but to a musical instrument that would soon become a favorite to music composers everywhere.
This arrangement of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker is perfect for piano students with at least one year of instruction. It is two pages in length and in the key of E minor. No fingerings are provided, but your piano teacher should be able to offer a few suggestions.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy | Big Note Piano Sheet Music
The ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ Play and Learn™ Edition helps you do just that.
You’ll learn about the life and music of Russian composer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, get a premium piano arrangement, a Hey Kid’s Meet the Composer biography, and two activity worksheets.
Contents
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Nutcracker) for Easy/Level 4 Piano Solo (2 Pages)
Hey Kid’s, Meet Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Biography
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Word Search Worksheet
Meet the Composer Job Application
The Play and Learn™ edition makes the music come alive for young music students in a way that playing only the music can’t. Click the link below to listen to the arrangement and learn more about this wonderful resource.
‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ Play and Learn™ Edition
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Charlie Brown Christmas | Beginner and Easy Piano Sheet Music (Book)
Coventry Carol | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music
Toyland March | Easy Piano Sheet Music
Pat-a-Pan | Free Sheet Music for Easy Piano
All Through The Night | Free Beginner Piano Sheet Music
