Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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As the Disney centenary draws to a close, I don’t want to miss the opportunity to highlight some of the recent publications from Hal Leonard celebrating the studio’s unrivalled catalogue of hit songs, spanning the decades.
Having previously reviewed Disney Goes Classical (read the review), which offers a wonderful selection for late intermediate (UK Grade 5-6) players, I have picked three easier collections for this celebration, delivering outstanding selections of great songs for elementary to intermediate players.
These collections are equally prime examples of the larger series in which they appear; those interested in exploring Hal Leonard’s various easy piano songbook series can thus use this review, and these books, as a jumping off point for doing so…
Really Easy Piano • 40 Disney Songs
The first book in my pile comes from the Really Easy Piano series.
This long-running series has well over 100 titles, with collections to suit most popular music tastes, and I have previously reviewed the Really Easy Piano Beatles collection if you are interested in more info.
The 40 songs in the collection are:
- Almost There (The Princess and the Frog)
- The Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book)
- Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)
- Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast)
- Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (Cinderella)
- Breaking Free (High School Musical)
- Can You Feel The Love Tonight (The Lion King)
- Circle of Life (The Lion King)
- Colors of the Wind (Pocahontas)
- Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians)
- Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Frozen)
- A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella)
- Go the Distance (Hercules)
- Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride (Lilo & Stitch)
- He’s a Tramp (Lady and the Tramp)
- How Far I’ll Go (Moana)
- I See the Light (Tangled)
- I Wan’na Be Like You (The Jungle Book)
- I’ll Make a Man Out of You (Mulan)
- Into the Unknown (Frozen 2)
- Just Around the Riverbend (Pocahontas)
- Let It Go (Frozen)
- Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty)
- The Place Where Lost Things Go (Mary Poppins Returns)
- Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid)
- Remember Me (Coco)
- Reflection (Mulan)
- Show Yourself (Frozen 2)
- Speechless (Aladdin)
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins)
- Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid)
- We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Encanto)
- When She Loved Me (Toy Story 2)
- When Will My Life Begin? (Tangled)
- A Whole New World (Aladdin)
- The World Es Mi Familia (Coco)
- You’ll Be in My Heart (Tarzan)
- You’re Welcome (Moana)
- You’ve Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story)
- Zero to Hero (Hercules)
The selection includes a few older classics, but places an obvious emphasis on the more recent film successes: Coco, Moana, both Frozen films, and Encanto are all present and correct. This will make the collection especially popular with younger players growing up with these favourite movies.
Almost all the simplified arrangements take up 2-3 pages, only a couple longer than this. In general the RH plays the melody line over a simple LH bass line, with only occasional three-part chords appearing. That said, chord symbols appear above the stave for the benefit of those able to flesh out the harmony, or so that others can join in. Song lyrics are also included.
Hand positions remain simple, intervals of an octave or more are avoided, and only four of the forty songs include more than one sharp or flat in the key signature (bear in mind this means most appear in different keys to the original recordings). I would say that the arrangements would suit an elementary player, around UK Grade 2.
A particular strength of this series is that every piece is preceded by an introduction giving background information about the song and performance tips for the player. These prove to be both useful and interesting.
With 104 pages (all books in this review are printed on white paper), the book has nicely spaced notation and a stiff spine that seems sturdy enough to withstand bending back in order to stay open on the music stand. The overall presentation is, in a word, superb.
First 50 Disney Songs
Hal Leonard’s First 50 series has been a particular success since the start of the decade, with several new bumper books arriving each year.
These are large books (in this case 210 pages) with glue binding, and have larger than usual notation throughout, despite apparently being aimed at adult learners. As a result, most of the songs in this collection take up several pages and require numerous page turns.
The fifty tunes here are:
- A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella)
- A Spoonful Of Sugar (Mary Poppins)
- A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)
- Baby Mine (Dumbo)
- Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo (Cinderella)
- Can You Feel the Love Tonight (The Lion King)
- Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins)
- Circle of Life (The Lion King)
- Colors of the Wind (Pocahontas)
- Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians)
- Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Frozen)
- Evermore (Beauty and the Beast)
- Friend like Me (Aladdin)
- Give A Little Whistle (Pinocchio)
- Go The Distance (Hercules)
- God Help the Outcasts (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
- Hakuna Matata (The Lion King)
- Heigh Ho (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
- He’s A Tramp (Lady and the Tramp)
- How Does A Moment Last Forever (Beauty and the Beast)
- How Far I’ll Go (Moana)
- I Just Can’t Wait To Be King
- I See the Light (Tangled)
- If I Never Knew You (Pocahontas)
- It’s a Small World (Disney Parks)
- I’ve Got No Strings (Pinocchio)
- Kiss The Girl (The Little Mermaid)
- Lava (Lava)
- Let it Go (Frozen)
- Mickey Mouse March (The Mickey Mouse Club)
- Part Of Your World (The Little Mermaid)
- Remember Me (Coco)
- Some Day My Prince Will Come (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins)
- The World Es Mi Familia (Coco)
- Trashin’ The Camp (Tarzan))
- When She Loved Me (Toy Story 2)
- When you wish upon a star (Pinocchio)
- Where You Are (Moana)
- Whistle While You Work (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
- Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? (Three Little Pigs)
- Winnie The Pooh
- Written In The Stars (Aida)
- Yo Ho (Pirates of the Caribbean)
- You’ll Be In My Heart (Tarzan)
- You’re Welcome (Moana)
- You’Ve Got A Friend In Me (Toy Story)
- Zip-a-dee-doo-dah (Song of the South)
The selection here is notably broader, a reminder that this series appeals to adult players (and personally, perhaps in part due to my advancing years, I find it the most musically inviting of the three collections reviewed here).
As well as being longer arrangements, these are more complex workings of the songs covered, while remaining fairly accessible to the early intermediate player (around Grade 3-4).
There is a slight increase in the use of three-or-more-note chords, and with seemingly no page constraints repeats are fully written out, including variants where appropriate. Chord symbols are again included, as are the song lyrics, along with basic fingering suggestions.
The publication is attractive, although it lacks the background notes and performing tips that are a strength of the Really Easy Piano 40 Disney Songs publication reviewed above.
Disney Songs in Easy Keys
Songs in Easy Keys is a recent series from Hal Leonard, each book boasting arrangements with “never more than one sharp or flat!”. I have previously mentioned the Christmas book and various other titles are available.
Whether or not the number of sharps or flats in the key signature is actually the defining aspect of whether a song is difficult to play is certainly a moot point. Broadly speaking, the arrangements here are the same level as those in the First 50 Disney Songs collection (in which, for the record, only six of the songs have more than one sharp or flat in the key signature); indeed, some are identically the same arrangements.
What is perhaps more interesting here is that the songlist itself includes some less-expected highlights:
- A Whole New World (Aladdin)
- Almost There (The Princess and the Frog)
- Beauty and the beast
- Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo (Cinderella)
- Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians)
- Ev’Rybody Wants To Be A Cat (The Aristocats)
- Feed The Birds (Mary Poppins)
- He’s A Tramp (Lady and the Tramp)
- How Far I’ll Go (Moana)
- I Just Can’t Wait To Be King (The Lion King)
- I Won’t Say I’m In Love (Hercules)
- Les Poissons (The Little Mermaid)
- Let it Go (Frozen)
- Love is a song (Bambi)
- Never smile at a crocodile (Peter Pan)
- Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty)
- Remember Me (Coco)
- So Close (Enchanted)
- Someday (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
- Someone’s Waiting For You (The Rescuers)
- The Age Of Not Believing (Bedknobs and Broomsticks)
- We Belong Together (Toy Story 3)
- We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Encanto)
- When Will My Life Begin? (Tangled)
Though a smaller collection than the other two, the eclecticism of the song choices will make this a winning choice for some. I would also say that it makes a rather good companion to the Really Easy Piano 40 Disney Songs reviewed at the start of this article.
A comparison of We Don’t Talk About Bruno shows that this is a notably more complex arrangement than that in the Really Easy Piano collection, while there is remarkably little overlap between the two books.
The presentation here is lovely too, with generously sized and spaced notation, crisp print quality, chord symbols and fingering included throughout, and song lyrics as in the other collections printed between the RH and LH staves. The book has a classy cover, 96 pages and staple binding.
Closing Thoughts
The musical legacy of the Disney studio is beyond compare, and it is wonderful that in this centenary year we musicians and teachers have so many excellent collections of the best songs to choose between.
In this short review I have focused on three, which I am now happily including in the Pianodao Music Library, but there are many more to explore on the Musicroom website here.
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