That Magic Piece

For several years, I was a piano teacher under a wonderful director.  She instilled in me the value of finding "That Magic Piece" for each student.  There are times when students get bored, or distracted, or discouraged.  I find this can happen right after something, such as a Christmas recital.  The student has been preparing fun, familiar songs for the season, and all of a sudden, January hits, and they are unceremoniously dumped back into the *gasp* lesson book.

It is important for teachers to watch for this.  Personally I'm not a huge fan of using popular books for everyone, mostly because everyone ends up playing the same songs.  If a student is interested in playing a fun and fast song, then I'm happy to connect them to something that hasn't been in a movie.

One of the pieces that my previous director, Denise,  recommended was Fireflies by Carolyn Miller.

This piece is classified as Elementary I by the NFMC and was chosen by them for the 1995-1997 bulletin.  I would classify it as Late Elementary as compared to other pieces.  It is published by the Willis Music Company.

The description on SheetMusicPlus states:
"Triplet figures and broken chord patterns abound in this quick, exciting piece. Interesting fact: In 1993, Regis Philbin performed Fireflies live on national TV! NFMC Choice 1995-1997. Key: D Minor."

This piece does sound quite impressive.  However, broken down in pieces, it is not as hard as it looks.  
The A section is 8 measures long and only 4 measures worth of new material because the student repeats the measures in a different octave.  The B section is 9 measures of arpeggios with the pedal.  Then the A section returns, with the addition of an 8va portion.  Then there is a C section of arpeggios. 4 measures of the A theme returns before the C theme is used to close out the piece.  

The above paragraph may be confusing or boring.  However, that's what excites me about studying pieces.  It lets me know that my students don't really have to learn 40 unique measures, or 3 pages, but only several themes.  This is part of the "magic" of the piece; it is easier to learn than expected.  

Quick Look:
Level: Late Elementary
Note Values: Triplet, quarter, half
Accidentals: yes
Hand movement: several, including octave leaps
Right hand triplets, left hand chords.

This is available at Sheetmusicplus, as well as other music stores.

This piece will be played by a student of mine in a regional recital in April 2013.