Category: Fall Sheet Music

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November Free Sheet Music: Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1

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Happy November!

For my monthly free sheet music I wanted to give you a sneak preview from my forthcoming new piano songbook called The Music Remedy, No. 3: 12 Pieces to Move You from Discouraged to Hopeful. I am finishing my arrangements and am working with the graphic artist on the artwork for the book. I’m so excited to share it with you, that I want to give you one piece from the book now, even though it doesn’t include the artwork yet.

Gymnopedie No. 1 was composed by the French composer Erik Satie, as part of his set of pieces called Trois Gymnopedies. I have simplified it a bit to make it easier to read and play for the intermediate pianist. The piece might sound familiar to you, as it has been frequently featured in films and television shows. I love it for its tranquil, pensive quality, which feels appropriate to the season, and the end of Daylight Savings Time (in my state, this Sunday!) To shorten my video a little, I went straight to the CODA without taking the D.C. in my demonstration video:

Remember, my sheet music is only available free for 1 year, so print today if you think you might like to play this piece sometime in the future! You can print it from my website:

PRINT: GYMNOPEDIE NO. 1

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving however you choose to celebrate. This month I plan to write in my Gratitude Journal every day, at least 2 or 3 things for which I am grateful. If you have never kept a gratitude journal you might consider it, as research shows that thinking about what you appreciate in your life can elevate mood and calm the spirit. Sometimes you might write a small simple thing such as gratitude for the light shining through your window in the morning, beautiful leaves on a tree, or the delicious taste of your morning coffee. Other times you might be grateful for finding time to practice, for the beauty of your piece, or your ability to play a difficult passage in your music a little bit better than the last time you played it. You might be grateful for help from a family member, for your good health (even if it’s not perfect, it could be worse!), your friends, your food, your opportunities, your home, your life. This is the journal I have, but there are many – look for them at your local bookstore, or create your own from a notebook!

Try keeping a gratitude journal this month with me, and see how you feel. Everyone I know that has taken the time to write a few grateful observations each night, reported feeling happier. When you are looking for things to be grateful for, you notice more beauty in the world, and more of what is good, and working well, instead of focusing on what is not working well. Anyway, just a thought! Leave a comment below and tell us what you are grateful for and what you might be playing on your piano for loved ones at your Thanksgiving celebration!

Today, I am especially grateful for my job as a piano teacher, for my love of music, and for you, my readers who follow my blog, play from my sheet music, and make me feel useful. I hope you enjoy playing Gymnopedie No. 1, and enjoy this month of Gratitude!

With love and Music, Gaili

P.S. Here are some of my books!

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October Free Sheet Music: Autumn from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Hope Lake, Courtland, NY

Hi Piano Friends near and far

One of my favorite pieces of all times is The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. Autumn from The Four Seasons is particularly melodic and uplifting, and the first Allegro movement includes a lot of repetition which makes it easier to learn.

My Easy arrangement of Autumn first appeared in my Upper Hands Piano book, Songs of the Seasons: AUTUMN; Fun, easy arrangements of seasonal songs and pieces. Today I am offering an expanded arrangement to include the entire main theme; it is appropriate for Early Intermediate pianists. It will only be available on my website for free for a year (through Sept. 2023) so print today!

Print Vivaldi’s AUTUMN Intermediate

Here is my demonstration video for Autumn, without the repeat:

For experienced pianists, here is an Advanced arrangement:

Autumn ADV.Download

I hope you are enjoying the first fruits of fall in your part of the world. Here in Los Angeles we are still experiencing a long drought with hot, humid weather. Later this month my husband and I will be taking a trip to New York to visit our daughter and her fiancé, and to enjoy the fall foliage. I can’t wait to have soups and put on sweaters! Fall is my favorite season and I just love being on the east coast, seeing the pumpkins and the fall harvest at farm stands on Long Island. I took the photo at the top of this post several years ago when I was visiting my daughter for a Cornell University Parents Weekend event. Since then I try to visit the east coast every October. We got our Omicron BA.4 & 5 vaccine update which gives me extra confidence to fly. Have you taken any flights recently? I’m a little nervous about it, but am plunging forward nevertheless.

Leave us a comment below and tell us what you will be practicing this Autumn. I am learning some Django Reinhardt tunes on the accordion– they are very challenging for me, (I’m not a great accordion player) but fun!

With love and music, Gaili

P.S. If you are new to this blog, welcome! I am a veteran piano teacher of 35 years! I post free sheet music every month, arranged for beginning to intermediate piano students, plus worksheets, practice tips and information on music and the brain. I have written piano instruction books for older adults (UpperHandsPiano.com), younger adults and teens (PianoPowered.com), Songs of the Seasons piano sheet music books for seasonal classical and popular favorites, and my latest piano/guitar/vocals books called The Music Remedy – sheet music collections to restore and revitalize the spirit. I am working on The Music Remedy No. 3: 12 Passionate Pieces to Move You from Discouraged to Hopeful, right now and hope to have it available soon! Check out my books on the websites above, or click below to view a few of them on Amazon.com.

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Sept Free Sheet Music: Bye Bye Blackbird: Easy, Int, & Adv

Happy September Piano Friends! Lately I have been posting a lot of classical sheet music, so today I thought I would offer something popular. I watched Sleepless in Seattle lately and was reminded of how much I like the song Bye Bye Blackbird. In the movie, the little boy Jonah’s mother used to sing it to him when he had nightmares, and the song is featured throughout the movie.

I have arranged Bye Bye Blackbird for Advanced, Intermediate and Easier-to-Play (not exactly for the earliest beginners, but will be a comfortable challenge for those who have been playing for 6 months or more.)

ADVANCED

The Advanced arrangement is available for only a year, so print it now!

Print BYE BYE BLACKBIRD Adv.

I have made a demonstration video of how an advanced player might approach my arrangement. Notice that I am keeping strict time with my left hand accompaniment, but I play the right hand melody with a rubato jazzy feel. With popular music, especially jazz, you don’t necessarily have to play the melody exactly as written, but you do want to keep a constant beat with your left hand.

Bye Bye Blackbird, Advanced

INTERMEDIATE

For Intermediate players, both hands stay in time, and there are fewer notes and chords:

Bye Bye Blackbird INTERMEDIATEDownload

Bye Bye Blackbird, Intermediate

EASIER to PLAY

Beginners might like to try this arrangement I call “Easier to Play” because nothing is EASY when you are first learning to play the piano. There are so many notes to learn when you are a beginner! Just take it slowly, learning a few measures at a time.

Bye Bye Blackbird – Easier-to-Play Download

Bye Bye Blackbird, Easier-to-Play

I hope you or your students enjoy playing one (or all!) of these arrangements. Bye Bye Blackbird has been recorded by Joe Cocker [excerpt from Sleepless In Seattle], Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Miles Davis and so many other artists!

September has always been the time for new beginnings: new classes, new clothes, new school supplies, new projects, the bountiful Fall harvest, and the gradual drawing back within our homes and ourselves as the climate cools. Besides loving the stunning colors of Fall I enjoy the quiet time between the busy summer and holiday seasons because it can be an optimal time for focus and intention. If you are like me, “more piano” has always been at the top of my Autumn to-do list. Remember that cognitive science shows that short daily exposure to a challenging skill reaps better rewards than one long practice session per week. Try to play for at least 10 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week, to keep progressing.

What are you playing now? Leave us a comment below so that we can support your practice! Are there any pieces you plan to study this Fall? Hope you are staying safe and cool wherever you are. With love and Music, Gaili

P.S. If you are new to this blog, welcome! I am a veteran piano teacher of 35 years! I post free sheet music every month, arranged for beginning to intermediate piano students, plus posts to motivate and inform. I have written piano instruction books specifically for adults 50+ (UpperHandsPiano.com), younger adults and teens (PianoPowered.com), Songs of the Seasons piano sheet music books for seasonal classical and popular favorites, and my latest piano/guitar/vocals books called The Music Remedy – sheet music collections to restore and revitalize the spirit. Check out my books on the websites above, or click below to view them on Amazon.com. Thanks for your support!

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August Free Sheet Music: Chopin Nocturne (intermediate arrangement) PART 2

Today, as promised, I have posted the full arrangement of Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2, transposed to F. You can find the original sheet music plus my demonstration video for the first two pages in last month’s post. Here is my demonstration video for the third and fourth pages:

Have you been playing the first two pages of the Nocturne in the last month? How is it going? I hope you have been enjoying learning this beautiful piece; it is not easy, so take it slow, and be patient with the process. This link contains all four pages, but you can print just pages 3-4 if you already have pages 1-2:

PRINT Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2

Happy August! I hope you are taking some time to be with family or friends this summer. I just visited a friend who lives on the Central Coast of California, and enjoyed a pastoral vacation watching hawks, deer, sea otters, seals and many other animals. It was cool and quiet, and getting away from the city felt rejuvenating!

This is your last chance to print my free arrangement of the Maple Leaf Rag before it disappears on September 1st. The link above contains demonstration videos in two tempos! It’s a great piece but very difficult to play in its original key of A-flat; I transposed it to C, so print today!

Enjoy the rest of your summer! With love and music, Gaili

P.S. Here are some of my books – thanks for supporting my blog!

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November Free Sheet Music: We Have Much to Be Thankful For, by Irving Berlin

It is November at last, and having enjoyed a nearly normal Halloween, I think many of us are looking forward to gathering in-person with loved ones for Thanksgiving. I usually post one of the two Thanksgiving favorites in November — Over The River and Through the Wood, or We Gather Together — because the holiday seems to demand these festive traditional songs! But there is another (somewhat obscure) Thanksgiving song written by the great Irving Berlin in 1912 called We Have Much to Be Thankful For that you might enjoy playing for your Thanksgiving guests this year. I love this song it because it is about gratitude, and being thankful for being alive. Click to print my simplified arrangement:

We Have Much to Be Thankful For (simplified)

If you would like to play the original sheet music CLICK HERE (pages 3-5)

I also wanted to let you know that next month I will have some exciting news about a new songbook series I will be releasing before the holidays. My editors are taking their final look at all of the sheet music, making sure I have the lyrics, chord symbols, fingering and notes all as they should be. I can’t wait to tell you about my new books! But I will wait until they are completely ready, when I am sure that all of the songs and pieces are just right.

To celebrate a month of thanksgiving, I am going to keep a gratitude journal, and I want to invite you to join me! Some people find that when they keep a gratitude journal they feel happier and less stressed in their daily lives. If you’re interested in keeping a gratitude journal, just write down 3-5 things that you’re grateful for each day, for the month of November (or even just a week or two). It can be something as basic as being grateful for having a home or a piano, or for your eyesight or hearing, as in our Irving Berlin song. Or you might write a sentence about something someone said to you that made you feel good, or the color of the leaves on the trees you see on your morning walk…. Sometimes just noticing the beauty around us can evoke feelings of joy and deep appreciation. Leave a comment with any observations you would be willing to share about how keeping a gratitude journal is affecting you this month.

I want to wish you a beautiful Thanksgiving, and I hope you stay healthy and happy throughout the season. I am deeply grateful to all of you for following my blog, and for the kind comments and questions you put forth. It’s a wonderful feeling for me to see that so many of you are clicking on and printing my arrangements; it gives my life meaning and elevates my sense of purpose. Thanks so much for meeting me here each month.

With love, music and gratitude, Gaili

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October Free Sheet Music: Chopin’s Prelude 20

📷 by Ehud Neuhaus

A thousand pardons for my late posting this month. I have been on a long working/vacation, and wasn’t able to post my music remotely. I hope that Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 was worth your wait! It’s the perfect spooky music for Halloween, and at only 🦇13🦇 measures you’ll have time to learn it before the zombies💀 rise!

You might remember this prelude as the opening to Barry Manilow’s Could It Be Magic, and it was Rachmaninoff’s inspiration for his Variations on a Theme of Chopin. It is beautiful and dark, and fun to play!

Chopin wrote his Prelude No. 20 in the key of C minor. I transposed it to A minor and deleted some of the less influential notes to help it fit under your fingers more easily. You can print my arrangement here:

Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 (simplified)

Demonstration of Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 simplified

You can print Chopin’s original sheet music for Prelude No. 20 in C minor here:

Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 in C minorDownload

I hope you are enjoying Autumn wherever you are! I have been learning more about helping my students to overcome obstacles to joyful music making. I will be sharing more about that in future posts. For now, be sure to print the sheet music for We Gather Together on my FREE SHEET MUSIC page before it disappears on October 31st! We Gather Together is a classic Thanksgiving hymn about gratitude that you might want to play for your family celebration.

Hope your Halloween’s a scream! With love and music, Gaili

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September Free Sheet Music: Maple Leaf Rag

As we inch closer to the turning of the seasons, I thought I would share my early -intermediate arrangement of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag with you! My Maple Leaf Rag arrangement is my #1 selling sheet music on Sheet Music Plus, so I thought you might like to play it too! Remember it will only be available for free through August 2022, so print it today! The arrangement is two pages long, and covers Joplin’s main theme:

PRINT Maple Leaf Rag

The arrangement is from my Songs of the Seasons: AUTUMN sheet music book series, available on Amazon. Here are demonstrations of this arrangement in two tempos:

Maple Leaf Rag- SLOW TEMPO (play at this tempo as you are learning the notes and rhythms)
Maple Leaf Rag- FAST TEMPO (reach for this tempo after you feel comfortable with the notes and rhythms)

For advanced pianists who would like to play the Maple Leaf Rag in its original form, download here:

Maple Leaf Rag original sheet musicDownload

Happy September piano friends! Autumn is my favorite season, and even though we don’t have a lot of deciduous trees in southern California, we do see some Japanese Maples on certain streets, and we just love them! I’m looking forward to cool evenings, fall holidays, wearing sweaters, making soups, reading books by our fireplace and getting cozy at the piano.

Have you been playing the Moonlight Sonata from my July and August blog posts? If you have been enjoying the slow, haunting beauty of Beethoven’s Adagio theme, I hope you are ready for some perky, uptempo Scott Joplin this month 🙂

This month I find myself with two openings for piano students! If you are looking for an online piano teacher for yourself or someone else, email me at upperhandspiano@gmail.com for details.

I hope you have a lovely September. Are there some pieces you like to revisit or books you like to reread in Autumn? Share your favorites with us or give us an update on your piano progress in the comments below. With love and music, Gaili

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November Free Sheet Music: We Gather Together

While we Americans are patiently 😁 awaiting our presidential election results, we might turn our attention to the fact that it is the season of gratitude. In the US, the weeks approaching Thanksgiving are a time to slow down and take stock of all the things we are thankful for. Life is such a gift, and I grieve for all who have lost loved ones in the pandemic, and am grateful for our own good health. What are you thankful for, in spite of all the disasters we have experienced this year?

I have posted the Thanksgiving favorite, We Gather Together for my November giveaway. This is replacing last year’s Over The River and Through The Woods. If you want that arrangement, leave a comment below and I will email it to you.

Print: WE GATHER TOGETHER

This month is also your last chance to print O Holy Night from my website. Just click on the link above and you can see all the other downloadable free sheet music from the past year.

I hope you are well, and will be able to connect with your loved ones during the holidays, even if it is only online. I am deeply grateful for all of the kind people who subscribe to my blog and tell me that they are playing and enjoying my arrangements. Bringing more music into your life gives meaning to mine. Thank you for joining me here, and for all of your good wishes.

Leave a comment below if you have a request for an arrangement of a holiday song or piece for December!

With gratitude, love and music, Gaili

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Free Halloween Sheet Music: Chopin’s Funeral March

Well this may be the least eventful Halloween we have ever experienced, but we can still have fun watching spooky movies and playing spooky music. I think Chopin’s Marche Funèbre (Funeral March) is one of the most ominous pieces ever written, and it is super fun to play. John Williams based his Darth Vader Theme (The Imperial March) on Chopin’s piece, so it will sound very familiar to Star Wars fans! I have simplified the piece for the late beginner/early intermediate player, and I am also posting the original sheet music for the more advanced pianist:

Funeral-March-simplifiedDownload
Funeral March originalDownload

The simplified arrangement is from my Songs of the Seasons: Autumn book (I have a sheet music songbook for each season, all available on Amazon – see below!)

What are you doing on Halloween? Halloween is such a fun neighborhood activity, and we are so sad to not be giving out candy this year. But my husband and I host a singalong every Friday night from our front porch, and this Friday we and our neighbors will all be in costume, so we will still feel social, even though we will be distanced. This year wearing a scary mask will be de rigeur! On Halloween night (Saturday) there will be a full moon (aka a “blue moon”, because it is the 2nd full moon in October!), and the end of daylight savings time in California.

I hope you are doing ok in spite of all, and that you enjoy playing the Funeral March this week. Thanks for following my blog, friends, and please leave a comment or a spooky poem if you feel like it! With 👻 ghostly 👻 love and 🎃 creepy 🎃 music, Gaili

Gaili Schoen

Author, Upper Hands Piano: A Method for Adults 50+ to Spark the Mind, Heart and Soul, Songs Of The Seasons, and Piano Powered for younger adults!

PS- I just noticed that the Piano Powered manuscript book is on sale for $3.14, regularly $6.95. I have no idea how long this sale will last, Amazon does what it pleases, but it’s a pretty great deal!

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September Free Sheet Music: Tristesse (Chopin’s Étude Op. 10 No. 3)

Searching for beautiful melodies, I suddenly remembered that Chopin believed that his theme for Étude Op. 10, No. 3 was his most beautiful melody. I first came upon it in childhood when I opened a music box containing a ballerina dancing to Tristesse (according to the label beneath); though Chopin didn’t name his composition Tristesse, it has become the popular title, so I defer!

You can listen to the original piece here, and watch a video of my intermediate arrangement below:

CLICK to print TRISTESSE (early intermediate arrangement)

Or click to print the original sheet music for Tristesse below:

Étude Op. 10 No. 3 (Tristesse)Download

Happy September! I think many of us are looking forward to the cooler days of autumn. With all of the recent disasters, I hope that playing your piano can remind you of all that is beautiful in your life.

I have some additional posts planned for this month, and be sure to leave a comment if you have a piano-related issue you would like me to address in a post. Do you have a favorite piece you would like me to arrange for beginning or intermediate piano? Remember, I can only give away arrangements of songs and pieces that are in the public domain (i.e. written before 1925). How is your practice going? Give us an update! Be well friends 💛

With love and music, Gaili

Author, Upper Hands Piano: A Method for Adults 50+ to Spark the Mind, Heart and Soul