If you are like me, the month of December is “Play Christmas pieces like CRAZY” month in my studio. After all, students only have a limited time that they can learn and enjoy Christmas pieces before it’s back to normal routine. So let’s make full use of it while we can!
Enters in Jazzed About Christmas by Jerald Simon.
This book is chock full of 18 Christmas pieces! All of the pieces are just one page long, all in the Key of C, which makes for a perfect book for students to enjoy and easily sight-read over Christmas break.
Jazzed About Christmas is geared towards the Early Intermediate student. You will find various jazz styles that students will enjoy over and over. If you have a student that loves to improvise, this is a great book to add in improvisations where they would like to. How about having a student arrange a Christmas medley? Many of the pieces in Jazzed About Christmas would work well in a medley especially since they are all in the key of C!
Jazzed About Christmas includes many Christmas favorites and a few we don’t hear often enough:
Jingle Bells Jolly Old Saint Nicholas Up On The Housetop Deck the Halls Joy to the World God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Hark the Herald Angels Sing O Christmas Tree Angels We Have Heard on High Silent Night The First Noel Good King Wenceslas Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella I Saw Three Ships Still, Still, Still Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy The Holly and the Ivy We Wish You a Merry ChristmasYou can view a sample of Jazzed About Christmas (includes 5 free songs!) here. Jazzed About Christmas is available as a pdf download for $4.95 (instant access!) or $12.95 for a spiral bound hard copy. Now until the 25th of December (Christmas Day, anyone (piano teachers, piano students, parents, etc.) can enter the coupon code “Christmas” and receive a 30% discount on ALL of Jerald Simon’s books, albums, or singles when ordering from his online store (when checking out it will ask if you have a coupon or promotional code). He has a lot of good stuff in his store, so take advantage and pass the word on to your friends and piano families!
Now back to Jazzed About Christmas. Jerald has generously offered to give a way 10, yep you read that right 10!!! PDF versions of Jazzed Up For Christmas to FPSResource readers! How fun is that?!!
To enter, leave a comment below by this Monday, November 18th by 10:00pm (Mtn. standard time) what you like to do with your students during the month of December. Do you do group lessons, a Christmas camp, sight-reading, games? Share away! GIVEAWAY HAS EXPIRED
(pssst… Have you liked FPSResources on Facebook yet? If not, you may want to. There is a giveaway only for Facebook fans going on right now.)
For our group lessons we will behaving our 2nd Annual “Caroling with Carol”. Instead of a recital, we are having a Family Christmas Sing-a-Long. The piano students will learn to accompany and my vocal students will direct the singing. Should be fun!
Of course, December is all about Christmas music! Fortunately, there are many pre-staff arrangements of the most popular Christmas songs for the youngest students, but the older ones need something more than the ” same old” pieces! Many of the jazzy versions are a little tricky, but this sounds like a collection that will be perfect for students right in the middle. They’ll all be playing for each other at our Holiday group class the week before Christmas.
I do teach a lot of group lessons (MYC), but I don’t do many for the solo students. I think I’ll hold group lessons the week before Christmas this year. My intermediates would love these arrangements!
Sorry pressed send before completing. I hold a Christmas recital in December . this year Inhave a lotf of older students playinf Christmas duets . And the last week of classes before holidays I do a Christmas theme class with games stations and lots of Christmas music . One year I asked the parents to prepare a Christmas duet with their child for the last,class and they LOVED doing that ( in my MYC classes)..
I’m thinking of doing a Bring-A-Friend Christmas Party.
Lots of Christmas music! We have a Christmas recital and I hope to take the kids to a nursing home this year. We play Christmas games as well.
We’ll have a holiday recital on Dec. 15 and then play Christmas-themed theory games the following week. Jazzed Up Christmas would be a fun addition to my Christmas music collection!
I love Jerald’s music! Jazz and Christmas are a wonderful way to spread the Christmas spirit! My students love his music as well and would love to perform during the holidays!
All of my students are busy preparing for “Family and Friends Christmas Week”. Instead of a big recital, guests are invited to each students regularly scheduled lesson time. We play games, eat food and listen to great music played by the students. It’s really a great way to get to know each students family! Jazz is my favorite so this would be awesome!!!
4 weeks before Christmas break, I start eliminating one assignment activity a week and replacing it with a Christmas piece. So each week the kids get to choose what they want to “eliminate”. By their last week they are playing only Christmas songs. For some reason this seems to be soooo exciting to the kids!!!
I have group lessons the week before Christmas break. Students play music games, eat snacks, and play carols.
I don’t do anything special during December besides have students play mostly Christmas music (still fun). Thanks for having this giveaway!
excited to get a copy of this !! whether I win or not — i will be purchasing!
We are having our Christmas Recital the middle of December at a senior center. My students will perform their pieces while the residents eat lunch. We will have a fun group lesson right before we take our Christmas break (games, treats, fun). Jerald’s music is fun. Would love his Christmas book!
I’m not organised enough to do a camp, but a lot of my students don’t know anything about Christmas, so music, games, etc. are all Christmas themed and I have a recital on Dec. 14!
I absolutely love Jerald Simon’s music. It is very fresh, surprising, rich and best of all for my students, accessible. The “frustration factor” is minimal, just enough stretch for my students to get out of their comfort zone. The reward is a piece that sounds amazing! It’s not just a student saver, but a parent saver, because what they are playing at home sounds so great!
For Christmas, we have a students-only party at our house. No parents, no adult students. We draw names out of a hat for the next player, then a cookie exchange. It’s awesome, and bonds our students as a group.
Thanks Jerald for offering this prize!!
Kelly Koch
Gulf Breeze, FL
I’ll be taking some students to a nursing home to play Christmas music and we are having our recital in December as well. Looks like a great book.
I usually hold a Christmas recital/party with parents and their parents and siblings here in my home (I don’t have a very big studio of students) where every student plays a Christmas carol that we all sing along to. It’s great practice for them to learn to accompany. And afterwards we have Christmas baking and hang out and get to know each other better. Since the students also play other arrangements of Christmas songs, in addition to the sing-along ones, this book would be great to add a little something jazzy in between the traditional arrangements.
I wish I had this a few years ago! I’m making my list and checking it twice – okay, maybe three times… I can see where this would be a fun run through for both me and students!
Love Jerald’s music and have ordered all of his Cool Songs for Cool Kids. This year we are performing our Christmas songs at the local nursing home.
We are doing a Christmas recital this year.
I enjoy playing Christmas duets with students during December.
We have a studio party up at a local restaurant and everyone has to play or sing a Christmas song — including parents.
We are splitting our Christmas recital into 3 mini recitals at the local nursing home/ care centers. They will be short and sweet!
We will be playing at a local nursing home.
We love to play new and old Christmas songs along with fun duets each year at The Atria, home for retired citizens and those with Alzheimer’s disease. We have two separate recitals on two separate weekends (because the full studio cannot fit at one time). Each student brings a homemade ornament to share with a resident after the recital. The students who are young go with their parent to visit a while and give the ornament.
We do a recital and follow-up with pizza.
Thanks for sharing! I’m always looking for Christmas music that can add variety to my recitals. It seems like every year is a battle against Jingle Bells which seems to be the favorite of all my young students. Of course I don’t want to hear 20 performances of Jingle Bells on the recital and neither do the parents!
I use Jerald’s books — used his Jazzed Up for 4th of July for Veteran’s Day. Anyway, would love to win his Christmas music.
Our local music teachers group sponsors a Christmas recital at the mall in December. Students and teachers continuously playing Christmas carols for six hours. Kids feel like rock stars when shoppers stop and listen!
I usually hold a group lesson with fun Christmas themed theory/eartraining games at the beginning of December instead of having lessons during the week of Christmas. I also like to have students sightread Christmas duets at lessons that are a little easier than their current playing ability. They love being able to play familiar Christmas songs and see their improvement from year to year. My Students enjoy Jerald’s Cool Songs for Cool Kids throughout the year… especially the boys!
I would enjoy trying out these arrangements with several students that love to improvise. Anxious to get my own copy!
We have a Christmas Piano Party – a recital featuring favorite holiday music followed by refreshments. Family members are invited to perform with students, and everyone plays an ensemble as well as solo music. Parents bring a plate if goodies to share, and I provide hot cocoa or cider.