Summary: <br> On today’s show, I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve been doing with my students to commemorate a few anniversaries and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.<br> U.S. Armed Forces Songs<br> November 11, 2018, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. With my 4th-grade classes at school, we took one song per week during October and learned a bit about the history of the song and how important music was for rallying the troops and even sending messages with bugle calls.<br> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/features/salute-to-services/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen to U.S. Armed Forces Songs here.</a><br> Disney Songs<br> November 18 is Mickey Mouse’s birthday, the date his first animated short was released in 1928. Happy 90th birthday, Mickey!!<br> My students have really enjoyed playing all the amazing music produced by the Disney company.<br> Watch Mickey Mouse’s debut film, “Steamboat Willie” below.<br> <br> Recently, I hosted a giveaway of the new Piano Adventures Disney books. (Congratulations to Ally in Las Vegas, Nevada for winning the set of four books for your students!)<br> <a href="https://pianoadventures.com/browse/genres/genres-disney/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Take a closer look at the new Piano Adventures Disney piano books.</a><br> Thanksgiving Holiday Tunes<br> With all the attention Christmas gets, and it seems to start earlier every year, I want to give Thanksgiving it’s proper due.<br> <br> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/24/jingle-bells-written-for-thanksgiving/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e10a1243704">Jingle Bells</a> – This song, sung mostly during the Christmas season was written to be a Thanksgiving Song.<br> <a href="https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/over-the-river-and-through-the-wood.html">Over the River and Through the Wood</a> – I like this song for piano players because, even if they don’t know all the lyrics, they are familiar with the melody and rhythm pattern. It is set in 6/8 time which makes it a great piece to use when learning the concept of compound meter.<br> <a href="http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/JosephBrackettSimpleGifts.htm#factsfiction">Simple Gifts</a> – I truly love the message of this little tune. In researching for this podcast, I discovered that it was originally a dance tune for the Shakers to use during their worship. I’ve been singing this song with my students at school and I found a little lead sheet to use with my piano students. <a href="https://makingmusicfun.net/pdf/sheet_music/simple-gifts-lead-sheet.pdf">Simple Gifts lead sheet for piano students</a><br> <br> Another thing I love about this song is that Aaron Copeland used it in his music for the ballet, “Appalachian Spring”. I don’t know what I learned first, the orchestral music or the song lyrics but I love them both and enjoy sharing them with my students.<br> Here is an interesting article about <a href="http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/CoplandMeetsTheShakers.htm">Copeland meeting the Shakers.</a><br> I love this video excerpt of Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring.<br> <br> Shout Out and PIANOVEMBER Update<br> I mentioned the Disney Giveaway earlier in the show, which Ally from Nevada won the set. Thanks to Laura Tabler with <a href="https://www.mundtmusictyler.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mundt Music, Tyler</a> for partnering with me on the giveaway. She and I agreed that we should deliver the next giveaway in person if it’s going someplace fun like Nevada!!<br> We are also in the throws of PIANOVEMBER and I have had the most fun watching the names change on the leaderboard! Currently, our frontrunner is Gayaneh (I’m sorry if I mispronounce your name) who has set the bar high with 300 practice tallies! Way to go!<br> PIANOVEMBER runs through the last day of November so...
