We’re excited here at the 40 Piece Challenge! The best place to come together as teachers and share ideas and connect! Here’s Nathan Rippon from Hal Leonard Australia talking about the Hal Leonard Solutions Stream as part of the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference – http://www.appca.com.au
Piano teachers across the USA are travelling to Chicago this week to attend the NCKP. As a special treat this year in the exhibitor hall there is an Australian Music Booth! If you are one of our US readers attending the NCKP, go along and check out Australian composer, Sonny Chua’s music.
If you are not lucky enough to be in Chicago this week, here is a sneak peak inside Sonny Chua’s collection: Piano Music of Sonny Chua. This collection would be fabulous for 40 Piece Challenge students as it includes pieces at a range of levels, so some quick wins as well as some pieces to work towards.
Sonny Chua writes of his Piano Music Collection…
These miniatures were created to taunt, tickle and teach. I wrote these pieces to amuse myself, as much as for the student to perform, and for the audience to participate as our unsuspecting victims.
Even though these works are preceded by descriptive titles, I hope the music itself is just as evocative without its extra-musical references. I believe music is a unique language and can perhaps communicate more richly and mightily than words.
These pieces were great fun to write as they allowed me to explore many aspects of pianistic technique and timbre. It was also immensely enjoyable to dabble as a “sonic character actor” with a range of musical concepts and styles. I hope you will enjoy the craft and the bluff in this quirky collection of piano music.
Piano Music of Sonny Chua (order number 0101340976) is available through these great stores in Australia and available from all good stores in the US via Hal Leonard. The collection includes:
You Dirty Rat (from a Gangster Suite)
Angel (intermezzo from Sonatina)
No. 3 (from Waltz it All About?)
No. 12 (from Waltz it All About?)
Hoonmobile (from Bogus Boogies)
Headache Crawl (from Bogus Bogies)
TV Zombie (from Bogus Boogies)
T-Rex Hungry (from a Day in the Life of T-Rex)
Jamaican Fumble (from Red Hot Rhapsodies)
Theme & 12 Deviations
Getting to Grade Three New Mix
The newest member of the Getting to…series is: Getting to Grade Three NEW MIX
The New Mix books are a collection of compositions and arrangements that explore some of the genres and styles that emerged in the 20th Century, and also includes arrangements of classic pieces from the past 300 years that have become part of popular culture.
Ideal for 21st Century piano students they contain ‘Net Generation’ new classics written for film, television, musical theatre, radio and MTV.
Getting to Grade Three New Mix would be ideal easy win/learn one piece a week pieces for 40 Piece Challenge piano students who are studying at a grade 4 or 5 level.
Could you imagine a more fabulous collection of 27 pieces?
Getting to Grade Three New Mix: Contents
Juggler 7 from Gaukler by Luis Zett
Let the Good Times Roll by James Bastien
Small Talk by John Kember
Theme from Symphony No. 40 by Mozart. Arr by Nancy and Randall Faber
The Sad Dancer
No. 4 from Six Wayside Sketches by Edgar Moy
Funky Chicken from In a Jazz Groove by Arletta O’Hearn
The Secrets of My Heart by Elissa Milne
Mamma Mia by Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus. Arr by Elissa Milne
The Elfin Harp from Forest Fantasies by Walter Carroll
St Thomas by Sonny Rollins. Arr by Elissa Milne
Midnight Snack by Sonny Chua
Sea Chant by Peter Sculthorpe
Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Henry Mancini. Arr Elissa Milne
Promise! by Roderick Skeaping
Finale from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. Arr by Hans Gunter Heumann
Fascinating Rhythm by George and Ira Gershwin. Arr by Stephen Duro
Soldiers in the Distance by Arthur Benjamin
See You Later Alligator by Robert Charles Guidry. Arr by Elissa Milne
Waltzing with Dinosaurs by Elissa Milne
Trepak from Russian Festival Dance by Mark Nevin
You and Me No 16 from Rhythm & Rag by Alan Houghton
She’s Always a Woman by Billy Joel. Arr by Elissa Milne
Petite Reverie: A Little Daydream by Alexandre Tansman
Sunny Side Up from Microstyles Collection by Christopher Norton
Get Smart by Irving Szathmary. Arr by Elissa Milne
Tango 1 from Easy Dances 1 by Maytas Seiber
Clocks (Coldplay) by Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin. Arr by Elissa Milne
Preparing for your exam
Don’t forget about the Preparing for your exam section, which contains all the technical work required for your Grade Three level exams.
Getting to Grade Three New Mix is available from all Australian and New Zealand retail music stores!
