It's February, the month of love and the season for love songs. This year the song I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby came into the public domain! This fun song was recorded by Billie Holliday, Diana Krall, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, and so many other great artists. I have arranged I Can't Give You... for intermediate piano, and I also simplified it for beginners.
Click to print: I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby,
(Only available Feb 2024 - January 2025)
The SIMPLIFIED sheet music for LATE BEGINNERS will always be available here:
Advanced piano players, you can take my free intermediate sheet music and "jazz it up" a little. Notice I often repeat the top note of the left hand chords to add some extra rhythm. I am also a little freer with the right hand notes - sometimes delaying them, sometimes syncopating the rhythms, sometimes playing some notes a half beat early, etc. Watch my demonstration then play around with the rhythms in the right hand and enjoy a jazzier, bouncier rhythm.
How is your practice going? Are you able to get to your keyboard at least a few days per week? You might want to reread my post on Habits and Routines to institute a structure for your practice time. I use a sheet of paper in my planner each week to check off daily the habits I want to maintain or establish such as Cardio Exercise, Weight Training, and Piano Practice. It really helps motivate me, just wanting to check off those little boxes ✅ 😇 ✅
I also want to remind you to think about your posture as you are playing. Keep your back straight, shoulders relaxed (pull them down!), wrists horizontal, feet flat on the floor, sit on the front half of your bench with your elbows slightly in front of the midline of your body (move your bench back, you need elbow room!) If you are curving your back to get closer to see your music, you need some new glasses for about a one-and-a-half to two foot distance. Reading glasses don't work for piano playing. Temporarily you can use low numbered reading glasses (1.5 or 2.0 perhaps) but save your eyes by getting prescription lenses set to your piano needs. Optometrists think of these glasses as "computer glasses," as the distance is similar to reading piano sheet music. Measure the distance from your sheet music to your eyes as you sit up straight, before going to your optometrist, and tell the optometrist what your distance number is. This is super important for your healthy posture, healthy eyes and your ability to see and play your music clearly, so please don't wait!
What are you playing this month? Leave a comment and tell us what you are playing and how it's going for you. I sure love to hear from you - writing these posts I often wonder, is anyone reading this? Who is playing my arrangements? Also, your comments help my posts appear in searches, so please, won't you offer us a few words below?
By the way, if you got my Mozart post multiple times last week, I'm so sorry! I'm still learning how to use this new blog site. Technology is not my forte!
Be well, stay cozy, and play your piano. Music makes everything better 😍 With love and music, Gaili
P.S.
Please visit my website to view the many piano instruction and song books I have written. There is Upper Hands Piano: A Method for Adults 50+ to Spark the Mind, Heart and Soul, BOOKS 1- 4. Then I wrote a companion series for teens and young adults called Piano Powered: An Innovative New Piano Method to Power the Brain and Feed the Soul. For the beginning to intermediate piano player I have written collections of songs and pieces to celebrate the seasons, called: Song of the Seasons. Most recently I put together songbooks for intermediate to advanced piano/guitar/vocals called The Music Remedy: Sheet Music Collections to Retore and Revitalize. Please check them out!