Finding easy pop music arrangements can be tough!
There’s been a fair bit of discussion over at the PianoFlix discussion threads regarding how hard it is to find pop music arrangements that are not only playable by beginners, but actually sound like the real versions.
This is one of the hardest things about introducing pop music into your studio, but I’m happy to say that Hal Leonard have recently brought out a new series to solve this exact problem.
The difficulty lies most often in rhythm which I talked about in a previous post, Teaching Rhythm in Pop Music. While you can approach pop in ways that avoid having to play these tricky rhythms whilst still maintaining interest for the student (eg. playing by ear, using chords and playing with backing tracks), sometimes it’s easiest to just use a well-written arrangement, particularly if you’re new to teaching pop.
But finding good arrangements is always a challenge.
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Enter “Pop Piano Hits”
A relatively new series called Pop Piano Hits is regularly-updated group of books featuring five current songs written for early intermediate students, around grade 1-2 level. The arrangements are cleverly written to reduce complexity whilst still maintaining the feel of the original and most of them live up to this challenge.
Hal Leonard Pop Piano Hits are simple and easy-to-read arrangements of the most current popular songs. Lyrics, fingering, and chord symbols are included to make the most of each authentic sounding arrangement. Students with 2-3 years of piano study can play these right away, and more experienced students can enjoy them as sight-reading material, or the basis for improvisation and arranging.
Here are three of the recent Pop Piano Hits releases (click to view more info):
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As you can see from the above, all the books feature up-to-the-minute releases. In my opinion, this is vital when using pop music in your studio as students enjoy playing the songs they are listening to at that moment. Of course, there will always be students keen to learn older songs by the Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, etc., but to be able to offer new release music to your students will be a huge benefit in your studio.
Have you found any good pop arrangements recently?
Please share the title below.
5 Piano Experts Share Their Pop Teaching Tips
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The Best Ways to Teach Pop Music Welcome to May’s Expert Roundup post. I am so excited to share with you this month’s experts and their pop teaching tips and insights. For May, I asked our experts what traditional pedagogical piano teaching methods they had to throw out in order to have success teaching pop ... Easy pop music arrangements that actually sound good!
It’s sad that so many teachers stick only to the AMEB grade books when there is so much great music out there, and quite a few gems are already listed in the syllabus under the “Manual List” for each grade. The only problem is, unless you learned those pieces when you were a kid, it’s ... Easy pop music arrangements that actually sound good!
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As you already know, I’m a huge advocate for having my students learn as many pieces as possible each year, with a studio benchmark of 40 pieces for all students. In fact, I have no hesitation in saying that playing LOTS of repertoire is probably the most crucial element in a music student’s development and I’m ... Easy pop music arrangements that actually sound good!
With a firm belief that instrumental teachers should spend at least an hour a week listening to and playing through new repertoire, I thought it worth sharing with you the music of Sonny Chua as definitely worth your research time. Sonny Chua is a Malaysian-born, Melbourne-based piano teacher and composer who writes music that will appeal ... Easy pop music arrangements that actually sound good!
CPTP107: How to Simplify and Teach a Pop Song by Ear
by Tim Topham
When it comes to teaching pop, sometimes the best approach is to learn it aurally. Working out a pop song by ear gives you more opportunities to teach your students theory, and creates a much more musical experience. In this episode I take you through step-by-step how you can teach your students a pop song ... CPTP107: How to Simplify and Teach a Pop Song by Ear
Tim Topham is the founder and director of TopMusic. Tim hosts the popular TopCast show, blogs regularly at dev.topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as pedagogy, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, California Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.
The best arrangements of pop, Broadway, and film music that I’ve found are by Dan Coates. They are consistently pianistic, scaled-down enough to be accessible, while retaining harmonic and rhythmic interest. A large selection of Coates’s arrangements is available from Alfred Publishing. Teen students especially appreciate the arrangements of Jim Brickman songs and the film music medleys (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars…). There’s also a good collection of standards from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s (“Simply Big Band”) that older adults really enjoy. (It can be challenging finding repertory that is relevant and sophisticated for this generation, while remaining within their playing level.)
Thanks; I’ll check those out. I also like Dennis Alexander’s excellent 3-volume collection, graded Early to Late Intermediate, called “Especially for Adults.” These pieces are very attractive to teens as well.
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There’s been a fair bit of discussion over at the PianoFlix discussion threads regarding how hard it is to find pop music arrangements that are not only playable by begi
nners, but actually sound like the real versions.
 Counting Stars (One Republic) • Demons (Imagine Dragons) • Let Her Go (Passenger) • Say Something (A Great Big World) • Story of My Life (One Direction).
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The best arrangements of pop, Broadway, and film music that I’ve found are by Dan Coates. They are consistently pianistic, scaled-down enough to be accessible, while retaining harmonic and rhythmic interest. A large selection of Coates’s arrangements is available from Alfred Publishing. Teen students especially appreciate the arrangements of Jim Brickman songs and the film music medleys (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars…). There’s also a good collection of standards from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s (“Simply Big Band”) that older adults really enjoy. (It can be challenging finding repertory that is relevant and sophisticated for this generation, while remaining within their playing level.)
Thanks Debra. Dan Coates does have great arrangements – thanks for the reminder. His books like Something For the Boys also feature great arrangements of contemporary stuff incl some great film tunes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739039970/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0739039970&linkCode=as2&tag=timtophamco05-20&linkId=QY4AZD3BSZT7KBNU. Re the adults – I also find it difficult to find music for them, but some of the more contemporary composers – Jennifer Eklund and Diane Hidy spring to mind – are writing really engaging music for adults. Thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks; I’ll check those out. I also like Dennis Alexander’s excellent 3-volume collection, graded Early to Late Intermediate, called “Especially for Adults.” These pieces are very attractive to teens as well.
Great recommendation – I’ll have to check them out 🙂