Happy Holiday Season, Piano Friends!
I hope you are enjoying a return to the cozy pleasures of the season: steaming cups of hot chocolate, extra layers of blankets and sweaters, hearth fires, and beautiful music.
This month I am posting late beginner/early intermediate arrangements of the Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High and the Hebrew Chanukah favorite Sevivon.
Angels We Have Heard on High will only be available for free for one year so print today! ( You can always purchase my sheet music on my page at SheetMusicPlus.com)
I demonstrate Angels We Have Heard on High here:
You can print Sevivon here:
I demonstrate Sevivon here:
I originally offered Angels We Have Heard on High and Sevivon to my Sixty and Me Free Piano Lesson subscribers. In case you didn't know, I post free piano lessons which follow page by page through my Upper Hands Piano, BOOK 1, every 2 weeks on Sixty and Me, which is a daily online magazine for adults 60+. They post lots of interesting lifestyle articles including my piano lessons every other Thursday. You can join the lessons any time and work at your own pace. I include demonstrations for every page of my BOOK 1, and discuss many aspects of piano playing in each post. And it's all completely free! If you, or someone you know has wanted to take or re-visit piano lessons, my free video lessons are a great way to get started.
I also want to offer you my latest arrangement of another Christmas favorite (I've gotten many requests for this one this year!) called In the Bleak Midwinter. This is an early intermediate arrangement:
What are your thoughts about your piano practice in 2023? I think that almost no one feels that they practiced "enough," but did you practice fairly consistently throughout the year? If so, good for you! We are all so busy, it is very difficult to maintain a consistent practice with so many demands on our time. If there were weeks when the only time you played was at your lesson, good for you for continuing your lessons, even though you didn't get much practice time in between. I discuss ways to make piano practice a "habit" in my Sixty and Me Lessons 16 and 18.
What works for me: I keep a list of goals in my daily planner, and I find it very satisfying when I am able to check off "Exercise," "Healthy Eating," and "Music Practice" at the end of each day. If I didn't get to complete my practice goal by bedtime I try to get a quick 10 minute session in before I brush my teeth. Then I can go to bed feeling a great sense of accomplishment. What do you do to get yourself to the bench? We all love to hear tips for practice motivation! Leave a comment below to tell us what works for you.
You might also be starting to think about goals for 2024. I love thinking about what I want my new year to look and feel like. Read my thoughts about Goals vs. Intentions here.
Thanks so much for subscribing to my blog. I sure hope you find it helpful and inspiring. Enjoy playing your new holiday music, and please leave a comment to let us know what you are playing this month, or feel free to ask any piano questions you might have. I LOVE to hear from you!
With love and music, Gaili
P.S. If you have just received this post after not receiving any posts from me for a long time, welcome back! I had to change my blog address to UpperHandsPiano.com/blog and redo EVERYTHING in order to make it work again. I hope you still want to receive my posts, but if not, feel free to unsubscribe when you receive my email.
I look forward to practicing and usually manage an hour every day unless away from home. My keyboard sits beside a window, outside of which hangs my hummingbird feeder. While practicing I can watch a ruby-throated whirlybird come and go, defending his territory. Double pleasures for me. Even with less pleasurable goals (such as exercise) I find that pairing them with another habit can help establish a routine and save time by accomplishing two things at once. Thank you, Gaili, for these holidays arrangements! Two of my other seasonal faves are "I Saw Three Ships" and the jazzy "Merry Little Christmas."