Tamara Niekludow's Short Halloween Songs

Over two weeks ago, found out about an Irish piano teacher and composer named Tamara Niekludow. She share with a FB group about very short Halloween songs that are simple and fun for piano students to learn. Here are YouTubes I made recently.

The first one is called Haunted House, a 16 measure song, is filled with a variety of musical concepts in such a short song. Niekludow's creates a melody in A Harmonic minor, including a D#, which makes the song more interesting. Line 1 and 3 are exactly the same, while 2 and 4 incorporate parallelism. She includes staccatos and legatos in this "eerie", "creepy" song. I had the chance to share the song with a student who really liked it. The rhythms are quarter, half and eighth notes, yet still a haunting, gorgeous melody. Great job.

The second song is called Witches' Waltz, that is also in 3/4 as Haunted House. The first four measures of each line are exactly the same, which is great to teach a melody. The song is in A Harmonic Minor, with a C# this time. She only uses A, Middle C and E (all close together) to creating an eerie, haunting melody in the first 4 four measures. She includes an ascending line in measures 5-8 and 13-16 a descending line.

Here is her YouTube page, worth checking out. I'm excited to learn more about her and the music she creates.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrMixViSMOByBg4SxZ-SUlQ

Who is someone you just learned about and has been helpful with your teaching? Would like to know. Thanks for your support. Blessings.