What a delight and a surprise to see the melodic counterpart to Daniel Ward’s first book “Arpeggio Meditations” — six of which serve as accompaniment to the pieces in his new book “Melodic Meditations.” Like the previous book, each piece is carefully noted and represented in both notation, tablature, chord name (diagram), fingerings for right and left hands.
Continue reading “Review: Melodic Meditations by Daniel Ward”
Beginners want to learn a complete piece quickly and have fun with it. Yankee Doodle is such a piece for easy piano. There are many things you can do with it.
One of the earliest songs a beginner can learn to play on the piano is the sticky tune of “Yankee Doodle.”
The easiest way is to use both hands to split up the melody, starting with the right hand.
Next is to let the right hand play the melody and the left hand do very simple bass or interval accompaniment.
Chicago’s Colour My World has a hypnotizing effect with a distinct bass line and slow changing broken chords. Anne Ku rewrites it for easier reading.
“What is the song that goes like this?” asked one of my piano students out of the blue, playing a distinct major 7th chord followed by minor chords on his right hand.
After some thought, I said, “Chicago’s Colour My World. That’s Colour with a U in it.”
It’s one of those songs that you never forget.
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