Heidi’s Piano Studio

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Wunderkeys Streetlamp Solos Christmas for Intermediate Piano

Most people are familiar with Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I love this new book from Teach Piano Today that provides a musical backdrop to the story. I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and have been thoroughly enjoying the pieces the past few weeks.

Click the Image to Buy The Streetlamp Solos on Amazon

Andrea Dow's new Christmas book Streetlamp Solos provides a musical backdrop for the beloved story of "A Christmas Carol". It blends the familiar Christmas melodies together with some pop-infused chords and diversions from the regular tunes. The pieces are easily accessible for early intermediate pianists with many broken chord patterns in the left. The simplicity of playing in the keys of C Major and A minor allows students to peruse through a lot of music during the short Christmas season.

Advanced Arpeggio Playing Tips

December is the month for the arpeggio challenge in my piano studio. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so canva comes in handy to compensate for my lack of artistic skills!

I love to create visuals to post on my bulleting board to make the learning more memorable and pique the interest of students as they come each week.

Simply Sacred Christmas by Marshall McDonald

A few years ago, I discovered Marshall McDonald's Simply Sacred Arrangements of hymns from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which you can hear samples of in my previous post.

Thanksgiving is not here yet, but I've already pulled out his Simply Sacred Christmas book this season. It has some of my favorite arrangements that calm my soul and a few that energize me, too.

(click the image to purchase on Amazon)

Harmonizing Your Music Studio with a Flipped Learning Music Buffet

The Flipped Classroom - A Musical Buffet YouTube presentation for Upper Valley Music Teachers Association

This post includes resources that I mentioned in my presentation at UVMTA about flipped learning in the music studio.

Click the image above to view the slideshow presentation for UVMTA on flipped learning in the music classroom, which includes hyperlinks or browse some of the resources that were mentioned below.

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn."

-Benjamin Franklin

Arranging from Lead Sheets with Sus Chord Colors

What do you do when you see something "sus" in your music????

I'm not talking about a spider crawling across the page or suspicious coloring scribbles from your little brother!

SUS is an abbreviation often written in lead sheet chords and refers to suspended chords.

If you are "suspended" from school you are temporarily removed. In Sus chords, often the 3rd of the chord is temporarily removed and replaced with the note a 2nd or 4th above the root instead of the normal 3rd.

Suspended Chords 101

Watch this Pianote video about Suspended chords (Sus2 or Sus4) to see and hear the effect of Sus chords.

It is Well with my Soul"(free lead sheet on Pianosongdownload.com including Sus chords).

Musical Cadences

Cadences are like the punctuation marks in music. Pairing chords in a certain order can create a feeling of tension, questioning, surprise or peaceful resolution.

Watch this Short-ish Explanation of Cadences to learn more.

Click Teoria.com Cadences to listen to the samples of different types of cadences.

Perfect Authentic: V-I Sounds like the end.

Imperfect Authentic: V-I + inversion Sounds like the end...but less final than perfect.

Accompanist Challenge Videos and Music

Watch the tutorial or sample music videos or print the music below to help you complete the Accompanist Challenge

Lead Sheets

Print some free lead sheets and practice singing along as you play the chords
Free Christmas Lead Sheets from Michael Kravchuk
Free Familiar Tune Lead Sheets from Piano Song Download
This Little Light of Mine Lead Sheet Challenge

Elementary

Following the chord symbols, play the root or chords as you sing or listen to This Little Light of Mine.

Level 1 Play Only Left Hand Root Note

Sing the melody as you play just the root notes with your left hand. Choose the octave you prefer. For example, does High G or Low G sound better? Which is easiest to play? Could you play both at the same time or alternate to make it more lively?

Level 2- Left Hand Root Position Chord

Play the chords in root position (stacked up like a snowman) as you move your hand like a cookie cutter to the different chords.
G=GBD C=CEG Em=EGB D=DF#A

Late Elementary

Level 3- Left Hand Chord Inversion

Jumping around between root chords can be tricky! If you change the order of the notes (invert), it can make it easier to switch between chords. GBD to CEG is a big leap, but if you play GBD and GCE instead you can feel the stretch up without having to look at your fingers.

Level 4-Left Hand Root Notes + Right Hand Melody

Learn the right-hand melody , choosing fingering for legato phrases. Then add the left-hand root notes.

Intermediate

Play the arrangement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of "This Little Light of Mine" as written OR create your own arrangement starting from the simpler Piano Song Download Lead Sheet of This Little Light of Mine and substitute, style, or color the chords.