Decorating Your Musical Trees

Make believe each song is a Christmas tree and think of decorating the melody with ornaments. We can add a beautiful grace note, a trill, a lovely turn or a mordent.

THE TRILL
may indicate:
THE TURN
may indicate:
THE MORDENT
may indicate:
APPOGGIATURAS

a.    may indicate:
b. may indicate:
or
c. may indicate:

December is the busiest month of the year for pianists. Seasonal music hardly changes from year to year. However, the way you p1ay the old familiar carols can change. I find that people want to hear their favorite carols such as Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful and Jingle Bells. If you decorate your favorite carols with different ornaments you will bring a fresh touch to your old favorites.

Besides using the musical ornaments, another easy way to play your favorite carols is to "chime" them. It is best to chime Joy to the World and The First Noel first because these two carols use the scale in their melodies. This makes for easy chiming. Here is the secret formula to chime ANY song:

The right hand plays the melody note and the note a fourth lower. The left hand plays the melody note and a note a sixth lower. So if you were going to chime a C Scale descending, the right hand plays g-c while the left hand plays e-c an octave lower than the right hand Both hands should play up on the highest notes of the piano and hold the pedal down throughout.

Try playing the C major scale in chimes. Next, try the carol, Joy to the World. The melody moves step wise and makes it easy to chime. Use the same fingering in each hand throughout the whole chime song. The right hand wi11 use 2-5, the left hand using 5-1.

Beethoven's Ode to Joy is another easy song to chime. Beethoven was born December 16, 1770. He deserves to be called the Shakespeare of music. Beethoven's ability to imagine melodies and harmonies, composing even when he became deaf, underscores his genius.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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