I love November, the month of Thanksgiving, when things really start to get cozy, and the holidays are near. One of my favorite songs to sing and play for Thanksgiving is Simple Gifts (AKA 'Tis a Gift to be Simple), the Shaker hymn made popular by Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring ballet. If you have used my Upper Hands Piano piano instruction book series, you might remember that I provided an easy arrangement on p.85 in BOOK 1. Today I am giving you an early intermediate arrangement with additional notes, and new harmonies. If you have never heard Simple Gifts you might like this beautiful recording by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.
Note: My arrangement will be available for free for 1 year only (through October 2024) after which you can purchase it at SheetMusicPlus.
If you haven't been receiving my free sheet music posts in the past 12 months you might want to print some of the other free sheet music I've been giving away. In September I gave away 3 arrangements of Happy Birthday, an Easy, an Intermediate, and an Advanced Jazz arrangement. In August I gave away George Gershwin's 'S Wonderful, In June Beethoven's Tempest theme, in January Irving Berlin's Blue Skies, and last December I posted the Ukrainian Carol of the Bells and Rock of Ages, to name a few! Look through my past posts and see if you find anything useful by looking through the categories such as Performance Anxiety, and under the "More" dropdown menu you'll find categories such as Composing, Worksheets, Improvising, Finger Exercises, and so much more. I enjoy giving posting resources that I believe will help and support many people in their piano playing lives!
You also might not know that I have been posting free video piano lessons following through each page of my Upper Hands Piano, BOOK 1, on an online platform called Sixty and Me. You can find my piano lessons here. Join anytime, and move at your own pace. If you subscribe to Sixty and Me, you will get notice of their daily posts (a lot of great content for those of us over 50!) including my lessons.
That's all my news for now. I hope you have a safe and snug November, and manage to play your piano or keyboard at least a few days per week. I am posting links to some of my books on Amazon below, or click on my BOOKS link in the navigation bar at the top of this page to learn more and view sample pages.
