On today’s show, I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve been doing with my students to commemorate a few anniversaries and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

U.S. Armed Forces Songs

November 11, 2018, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. With my 4th-grade classes at school, we took one song per week during October and learned a bit about the history of the song and how important music was for rallying the troops and even sending messages with bugle calls.

Listen to U.S. Armed Forces Songs here.

Disney Songs

November 18 is Mickey Mouse’s birthday, the date his first animated short was released in 1928. Happy 90th birthday, Mickey!!

My students have really enjoyed playing all the amazing music produced by the Disney company.

Watch Mickey Mouse’s debut film, “Steamboat Willie” below.

Recently, I hosted a giveaway of the new Piano Adventures Disney books. (Congratulations to Ally in Las Vegas, Nevada for winning the set of four books for your students!)

Take a closer look at the new Piano Adventures Disney piano books.

Thanksgiving Holiday Tunes

With all the attention Christmas gets, and it seems to start earlier every year, I want to give Thanksgiving it’s proper due.

Jingle Bells – This song, sung mostly during the Christmas season was written to be a Thanksgiving Song.

Over the River and Through the Wood – I like this song for piano players because, even if they don’t know all the lyrics, they are familiar with the melody and rhythm pattern. It is set in 6/8 time which makes it a great piece to use when learning the concept of compound meter.

Simple Gifts – I truly love the message of this little tune. In researching for this podcast, I discovered that it was originally a dance tune for the Shakers to use during their worship.  I’ve been singing this song with my students at school and I found a little lead sheet to use with my piano students. Simple Gifts lead sheet for piano students

Another thing I love about this song is that Aaron Copeland used it in his music for the ballet, “Appalachian Spring”. I don’t know what I learned first, the orchestral music or the song lyrics but I love them both and enjoy sharing them with my students.

Here is an interesting article about Copeland meeting the Shakers.

I love this video excerpt of Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring.

Shout Out and PIANOVEMBER Update

I mentioned the Disney Giveaway earlier in the show, which Ally from Nevada won the set. Thanks to Laura Tabler with Mundt Music, Tyler for partnering with me on the giveaway. She and I agreed that we should deliver the next giveaway in person if it’s going someplace fun like Nevada!!

We are also in the throws of PIANOVEMBER and I have had the most fun watching the names change on the leaderboard! Currently, our frontrunner is Gayaneh (I’m sorry if I mispronounce your name) who has set the bar high with 300 practice tallies! Way to go!

PIANOVEMBER runs through the last day of November so...