Black Key Blast By Wendy Stevens
Wendy Stevens has produced many music resources over the years, spanning from theory tests (which I personally benefited from), to piano music, rhythm books, and now one of her most recent products: Black Key Blast-a beginner pre-staff songbook. In this book you’ll find 6 upbeat and energetic pieces with accompanying teacher parts, and lyrics to boot! Just to give you an idea of what you’d be in for, check out the title for each song…
– Movin’ and Groovin’
– Click Clock Click
– Round and Round
– My Imaginary Friend
– I Am the Princess
– Ninja Power
Natalie and I decided to play through Black Key Blast together to get the full effect, and I’m really glad we did because it helped a lot! When she and I finished the book, I really liked, “I Am A Princess” because I thought the student and teacher part complemented each other very nicely. I can’t say I felt the same way with the other songs after we had played through all of them. It took Natalie and I a couple times of playing through each song to really start getting an idea of what the duets should sound like. Even still, with some of the duets, Natalie commented, “They just don’t seem to fit.” Each part was actually quite fun, but, but it was just a bit challenging to get the duets to flow rhythmically and melodically.
I watched Wendy’s YouTube video for her Black Key Blast book and it definitely helped with understanding how the songs should sound. The songs in Black Key Blast seem like they’ll be really fun and exciting for beginner students to play as a solo or duet, but once those teacher parts come in, I can definitely see the students finding it a lot more challenging rhythmically. Even though this wasn’t my favorite elementary book, I do think your little students will enjoy learning these songs and even the challenge that may come with playing the duets!
To purchase your own copy click here>> Black Key Blast
To check out Wendy Stevens’ site click here>> ComposeCreate
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