Many students requested to learn this song after the movie was out during Easter holiday. To make it easy for beginner students, I arranged the song into C major so students can easily play all the notes in Middle C position. This is not the full version, but it has shown the main structure of the song: Introduction - Verse - Pre-Chorus - Chorus - Coda. 

The hardest things about learning this song are the frequent tied notes and syncopated rhythm. For beginner students who have very little concepts of counting quavers or syncopated rhythm, I tried to get them to learn the song aurally first. We would sing the songs several times and clap the rhythm together. Then I would get them to focus on reading the notes, and sometimes cross out the second tied notes to help young students to read better.

​Feel free to download the file from below and enjoy learning/teaching this lovely song! :)

Sharing with you all the piano sheet music of 
"Do you want to build a snowman? (from Movie 'Frozen')" that I arranged earlier for my young beginner piano students. 

"Frozen" was so popular that I got some requests from students who wanted to learn the songs from this movie. "Do you want to build a snowman" is a good start for beginners for its small melodic range. 

I transposed the song to C major and arranged it to be played in the middle C position, and more details can be found on the score. Feel free to share the link with your children, friends or students! Enjoy! :-)

Piano student Kylie has just recorded her playing of Beethoven's Sonata Op.79 (2nd movement) for the first time at home. Our students are always encouraged to video-record themselves during practicing, because video recording our playing is not only a way to capture the special moment when we play our favorite piece, but also a great way to LEARN and IMPROVE as we’ll never know how good or bad we are until we watch and listen back to ourselves in the third person. Things to be improved through watching our playing include accuracy of notes & rhythm, evenness of sound, dynamics, articulations, posture, expression, etc. Video-recording our own performance will definitely give us new insight into how to play the piece differently, in a better and desirable way.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! Let me share with you the new lyrics of the song "Twinkle twinkle little star" I wrote with a group of children in a music therapy session this week.

Here are the words, let's sing this in the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle little star" -
'Dad, dad, I love you! Thank you for your presents and help. You are kind, smart and happy! You are kind, smart and happy! Dad, dad, I love you! Happy Father's Day to you!' How cute is it!

Through this song parody activity, students were provided opportunities to develop their expressive language and academic/cognitive skills. This is a good example of music therapy which can achieve more than one goal simultaneously in a fun and musical way!

Father's Day is coming up this Sunday, have you got any plans or a gift for your awesome dad? Sowing Music has prepared a 'Father's day' song writing activity for young piano beginners.

This simple yet comprehensive activity helps develop students' creativity and provides them opportunity to practice note reading, note writing, rhythm and aural skill. All students love this activity and it will make a very special gift for the Father's Day! 

A printable PDF file of this activity sheet is available for free download, click 'Download file' to begin.

"Practice! Practice! Practice!" Yes you will hear this word a lot if you are a music student/musician. In fact, no matter you are a beginner or a renowned performer, practising is always a key factor for success in music. It is not simply playing through a piece of music over and over again; practising is actually a process of problem solving. It involves identifying the problem, focusing on that particular passage where the problem is, finding solution for the problem, repeating the passage in slow motion until the ideal outcome is achieved, working up to the right speed, etc. At Sowing Music, our piano students will learn the skills and tactics to practice, because a strategic practice plan will make the time and effort more effective, and the result more rewarding! So have you done your practice today?

Have you played/listened to music today? Do you know how powerful music can be? Music is not simply an art, when you are actively listening to music, playing a musical instrument, singing, reading music notes, or dancing to music, several areas of your brain will be activated and that will bring positive influence on our health, such as improving speech, promoting emotional expression, reducing anxiety and pain, etc. I strongly encourage you to get involved in music (either listening or playing or singing) if you have not yet begun doing!

Source:
http://www.onlinephdprograms.com/15-studied-effects-of-classical-music-on-your-brain/