Advice on popular current music for young children and pre-teens

[adriancohen]

Hi, i'm looking for advice on what current music (2000-present) other teachers are using for  lessons, and especially their methodology using current/popular music. Genre doesn't matter, and i'm also very interested in music from films, television, and video games.

Lastly, would anyone know of a website that would have comprehensive info on music of these types for kids in this age range?

adrian cohen
www.carrollgardenspiano.com

[lilla]

Youtube tutorials

[timbo178]

I wrote out a bit of a list of pieces I've used, but then noticed you asked for music for young children and pre-teens.

I've only used a few ...

- Mad World (the version used in Donnie Darko) - very achievable for younger students. Adults like the song too.
- Passing afternoon, Iron and Wine. 8 chord progression from memory, which doesn't change. One of my students sang it while he played a chordal accompaniment. The hardest thing was the rhythm though.
- Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

I'm talking about the sort of methodology I use for older students now, as I only have a few younger students:

I teach students how to read chord charts so they can fill the chords in themselves. If they're not good enough at reading, then we'll do the entire thing without any sheet music.

Depending on their ability we'll do: 1) melody right hand + chord in LH, 2) bass note in the LH + melody in RH + add in a third or sixth below the melody note (they listen to see which one they think fits best, if they get it wrong, I just tell them which one to use and they usually remember after a couple of repetitions). A 3rd usually works, if not, try a fourth. This is often enough to fill out the harmony. 3) LH bass note/octave + RH melody + full chord below the melody note in the necessary inversion. Pretty hard!

I usually use MusicNotes for copyrighted sheet music. I don't know of any website that has comprehensive info.