The success story of Diabelli's 'Melodic Exercises' Op. 149 for piano duet has lasted now for almost 200 years. They are beautiful melodies covering a range of only five tones, perfectly suitable for beginners, with refined and brilliantly designed accompanying settings in the Secondo part. To this day, the pieces are very popular among pupils, teachers and music lovers. Diabelli, born in 1781, was not only a respected piano teacher and composer in Vienna, but also a busy music publisher and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven who jokingly called him 'my diabolus' from time to time. Sometimes he sent themes composed by himself to the then famous composers, asking them to write and return to him some variations on these themes. This led to the creation of the famous Diabelli Variations by Beethoven, a demanding piano work which is performed in the concert halls all over the world still today.
Hopefully, Mr Diabelli .would not mind some of his wonderful five-tone melodies .being transported into the world of swing, samba and other forms of expression, as has been .done .in this volume. Apart from some arranged melodies from Opus 149, this volume also contains a few newly arranged pieces, all of them inspired by Diabelli's idea to make music with five fingers as varied as possible. The .original arrangement of the keys has been maintained. New .inspiration for piano lessons and four-handed piano playing!

This is BOOK 1 in the "Blessings Abound" collections of Easy Piano Duets. The 12 songs in this collection of easy piano duets (1 piano, 4-hands) are arranged for a beginning student to play the PRIMO while the teacher or an intermediate student plays the SECONDO. All notes in the PRIMO are played singly with the hands in one position centered around middle C and then played one octave higher. The PRIMO and SECONDO parts are on separate pages (combined scores with PRIMO and SECONDO on each page are only available when purchased individually, not in this collection). The PRIMO part can also be played as a solo when played as written, centered around middle C.

These fun-to-learn arrangements are a welcome addition to the piano repertoire for beginning students and suitable for a first performance in a church setting. Selections in this first collection include a mixture of holiday themes (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Birthday), familiar hymns and choruses, non-seasonal favorites and several originals. Lyrics are included on the PRIMO part. All the songs in this collection are also available separately and include preview pages and audio samples.

Song titles included in this collection:
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Always Cheerful
Amazing Grace
Birthday Blessing
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Christmas Is
Count Your Blessings
God Loves You
Jesus Is Coming Soon
Let It Shine Medley
Trust in the Lord

Worthy Are You Medley

Fred Rogers' sophisticated and lovable melody affords both young and old the chance to experience a jaunty interplay of triplets and swing eighths. Both parts of this duet sweep hand-over-hand to introduce the theme after which each player keeps close to Middle C position notes in single line melody or harmony. The primo takes the melody while the secondo provides bass. The secondo part includes a cue line to show the melody and lyrics. Both parts are included. (NOTE: Both parts are written in Middle C position - except for the introduction - and move out one octave from the center.).