Piano lovers have been given a special gift by artists John Legend and Common who teamed up to create the song “Glory” for the movie SELMA which opens in theaters nationwide THIS FRIDAY January 9th. This powerful song has received the Golden Globe Nomination for Best New Song and I for one believe they got it right! Piano students are often asking to learn the latest hit song but because not many of today’s radio songs feature piano it can be difficult to come up with an arrangement that a student can play as a piano solo. Thanks to John Legend, who himself is a pianist, we have the perfect song for the upcoming holiday.
“Glory” is a powerful anthem that will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled in any way and anyone who has faced adversity or opposition. That’s most of us, right? The lyrics video above features scenes from the movie which has received a total of 4 Golden Globe Nominations including Best Director, Best Picture, Best New Song, and Best Actor.
It’s a new year and the perfect time for a piano studio challenge! With the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday just around the corner on January 19th, you have just enough time for this quick 2 week challenge. So here is the challenge:
1.Listen to the song with your students.
2.Challenge your students to use their listening skills to determine how many chords are used in the song.
3.Challenge younger students to count the number of beats in each measure – or how many beats each chord lasts.
4.Challenge more advanced students to play the melody by ear.
5.Challenge more advanced students to play the chords by ear.
(Perhaps some of these might even be good challenges for yourself as the teacher, especially if you usually use sheet music to learn new songs like I do.You just might surprise yourself!)
Sheet music for “Glory” is available at http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0144617
Remind your students that in order to continue making great music, artists must be compensated. Remind them that as growing musicians themselves they may one day need people to purchase their music. Challenge your students to support their fellow musicians by purchasing the song at https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/glory-from-motion-picture/id951104551?i=951104561
To find out what my connection to SELMA is check out the following posts:
Kids & Keys 