Chopsticks music is easy to play by rote - incorrectly! Sharpen up your students' abilities with duet & solo sheets showing chords & accurate melodies.
Below are several arrangements that represent the most familiar versions of Chopsticks, and now, Parts 2 AND 3!
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It's funny how many kids THINK they know how to play Chopsticks! Almost uniformly, kids play what they think is the pattern, with 5 beats, or 7 beats, per note cluster. Also, they progress straight out from the first melody note (G) to an A, instead of holding on to the G through the first measure of C chords.
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The first sheet, above, shows "soprano" and "alto" voices, or right and left hand index fingers playing the notes. That is why I have arranged the note stems up, or down. (I always call index fingers "pointer fingers" for my students.)
This is truly the easiest way to play the Chopsticks piano music, though you may be surprised at students' hesitancy over some of the notes, even with "helper" AlphaNotes inside the note-heads. I think this is because they are expecting to hear something a little different. Like all "folk" or "traditional" music, variations will be found.
I found it helped to cover their hands for some of the notes, so they were forced to look up at the "music map."
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As you can see, the eighth notes will require some extra coordination, whether students are playing this as a duet, or as a solo!
However, I have been playing Part 3 with my students as they play the chords, so they already have the melody and rhythm burned into their brains (I hope). This is new, uncharted territory, as this Part 3 sheet was just completed a few days ago!
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The chord pages - or secondo duet parts - differ slightly. Above, you see root position chords. That is, a G7 chord which has "G" on the bottom of the chord, and a C chord that has "C" at the base of the chord.
G7 is a big chord, but getting familiar with this chord is actually my primary reason for introducing Chopsticks to my students. They know the little G7 "pinch chord" from their early songs such as Mary Had a Little Lamb; here, they will encounter and learn well the full chord. Then they can transfer that knowledge over to other keys.
Not too much harder to play, here is a descending bass line.
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The "walking bass" gives energy and direction to the music, and keeps it from being all the same.
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This pretty little melody looks harder than it is - all the notes move stepwise, or are repeated notes. It follows very nicely after the main theme.
Once students are very smooth with the separate parts, and can play the primo all with one hand (the stretch of the octave is a determining factor), and the secondo all with one hand, then it's time to put the parts together.
Here it is, with the chords as repetitious as they can be:
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Now we're talking about some skill - and some music theory too! With chord inversions in the left hand, the next step will be some (very easy) Chopin waltzes! Can your students recognize chords when they are in inverted form?
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The links to the duets: