My Laughing Chimpanzee - Piano Solo with Lyrics: Piano Solo with Lyrics
7 All-New Elementary Piano Solos for Bean Bag Animal Lovers
By Catherine Rollin
Level: Elementary
Item: 00-PS-0017582
$4.99
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Description
Young piano students will easily find an entry point into expressive playing with the animal adventures featured in The Bean Bag Zoo Collector's Series Book 1. Inspired by the imaginative world of beanbag toys, this elementary level volume helps students master musical concepts such as learning to play bouncy staccatos by picturing a leaping frog or a laughing chimp, or attaining floating legatos with the image of a beautiful rainbow fish. A Federation Festivals 2024-2028 selection.
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Additional Details
Series:
The Bean Bag Zoo Collector's Series
Publisher:
Alfred Music
Page Count:
16
SKU:
00-PS-0017582
More about this title
About the Composer: Catherine Rollin
Catherine Rollin balances an active performance schedule with mentoring students who regularly earn festival recognition and competition honors. She holds a Bachelor of Musical Arts with distinction from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music from Oakland University School of Performing Arts, and her teaching and performance work have taken her across the United States, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan.
As a composer, Rollin has earned commissions from Clavier Companion, the Music Teachers National Association, and the Michigan Music Teachers Association, with numerous selections in the National Federation of Music Clubs Festivals Bulletin. She served as a judge for the MTNA Student Composition Competition and the Lynn Freeman Olson Composition Contest. Her ASCAP award-winning Museum Masterpieces series (Books 1-4) was featured in a multimedia presentation by the Steinway Society in 2018, the same year her commissioned trio Suite Detroit premiered at the MTNA national conference.
Why we love this
Rollin's gift for connecting musical technique to vivid imagery transforms technical practice into genuine play. Young pianists learn authentic musical concepts, staccato articulation, legato phrasing, dynamic control, by inhabiting the animal characters rather than drilling mechanics, which makes the work stick both physically and musically.
What to expect
Playful and animated, with a lightness that invites laughter. The music captures the energy of movement and personality; a chimp's chuckle feels genuinely mischievous, and the rainbow fish floats with real air and space.
Who it's for
Elementary-level pianists ready to move beyond purely mechanical practice into expressive interpretation. Teachers seeking materials that make musical concepts accessible without sacrificing artistic integrity will find this collection especially valuable for students who respond well to storytelling and imaginative play.
How to get the most out of it
- Encourage students to watch videos or images of chimps while practicing the laughing staccato sections; the visual memory strengthens their ability to execute the bounce with consistent rhythm and tone.
- Layer the accompaniment gradually if performing the piece with lyrics; start with melody alone, add simple left-hand patterns, then introduce any recorded accompaniment only after the student owns the right-hand line.
- Differentiate your articulation based on the animal character: sharp and light for the chimp, rounded and smooth for the rainbow fish, bouncy and precise for the frog. Each demands slightly different wrist and finger work.
How to use it
Program one or more pieces from this collection in a spring studio recital to showcase early-elementary progress in a musical context that feels age-appropriate and joyful. Alternatively, use individual pieces as between-piece palette cleansers in a longer student showcase, leveraging the programmatic titles to provide narrative flow.
Skills your students will build
- Staccato articulation with consistent rhythm and tone
- Legato phrasing and hand position over longer passages
- Dynamic shaping driven by musical imagery rather than notation alone
- Rhythmic precision in bouncy, energetic figures
- Expressive interpretation of programmatic music