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Pop Selection List: Fun and Romantic Music for Valentine’s Day
Pop Selection List: Fun and Romantic Music for Valentine’s Day
Blogs: Music Matters Blog
Pop Selection List: Fun and Romantic Music for Valentine’s Day
Feb
14
Fun and Romantic Music for Valentine’s Day
By Peteris Zarins
Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day for romance and music; for me the sentiment is best expressed in the lyric tenor voice and mournful trumpet of Chet Baker’s “My Funny Valentine.” Capture the fun of Valentine’s Day by integrating the Popular Selection List, 2011 Edition into your students’ piano repertoire. Here are some of my personal faves honouring the occasion!
Now that the 2011 edition of the Popular Selection List includes Grades 1 and 2, there are lots of great pieces to choose from for the junior levels:
Grade 1: Love Me Tender; Tea For Two
Grade 2: Stand by Me; You Are the Sunshine of My Life
Grade 3 I’m a Believer; My Guy
Maybe save “Your Cheatin’Heart” (Grade 3) for another occasion...
Here are some wonderful intermediate-level arrangements celebrating Valentine’s Day that also offer opportunities to develop cantabile, dolce, soutenu, and con tenerezza touches, rubato, and pedal integration:
Grade 4: I’ll Be There For You; Moon River
Grade 5: Gimme’ Some Lovin’; The Man I Love; My Funny Valentine
Grade 6: Someone to Watch Over Me (perhaps the all-time best Valentine’s Day song); You Are So Beautiful
For the late-intermediate and advanced levels, any Chopin Nocturne from the Piano Syllabus, 2008 Edition would set the mood. Using the Popular Selection List, 2011 Edition, is a great way to peruse Motown, Broadway, and Latin classics:
Grade 7: Hallelujah I Love Him (Her) So; I Will Remember You
Grade 8: Amor; How Sweet It Is; Stormy Weather
Grade 9: All the Things You Are; As Time Goes By
Check out the Popular Selection List, 2011 Edition here for MANY more excellent ideas for Grades 1 to 9!
Peteris Zarins is a pianist, author, faculty member of the Royal Conservatory, examiner and frequent clinician.
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