Jingle Bell time

I've been a little stymied on what to post lately because sometimes it feels like I've written on everything I can think of about music education.  Which I know is false, but I'm also hip-deep in actually just plain doing it. WonderGirl is doing amazing at both violin and piano and I'm a happy mama.

Christmas is coming soon and is a fabulous opportunity to get kids to practice.  Taking a break from their regular music and getting to play familiar and fun songs is great for revving their desire to play as well as sight reading skills.  I'll post the piano books I'm currently using for WonderGirl, but today I have a treat for you violin parents out there - I whipped up a version of Jingle Bells that I've been teaching WG.  She's pre-reading, so I used this easy notiation my mom used to use with me.

Blue notes are A string, E is red, and it's pretty easy to follow.  It's a lovely step to getting a student used to getting outside of their violin box without distracting them too much from developing their technique.  I use this kind of notation along with aural and verbal teaching songs until about the minuets in Suzuki book 1.

I started teaching this to WG last week and she has it memorized by now - it's a very simple tune for just about every instrument.  She's even going to be playing it for her school's Christmas program!  *squee!!*  If you want to see Christmas songs or other song examples in this notation, I'll whip some of those up too.  Have fun!