Staying One Jump Ahead of Gaston the Candyman

That was an adventure.

See, Lizzy's having a rough time with piano - as I'm sure her music teacher could tell you if she weren't a much nicer person than I am - with focus just now. She wants to continue, but the realities of Covid-19 StayHomeSafe™ are really tough on her. Even under normal circumstances - which these emphatically are not - Lizzy has the following sensory issues with piano pieces:

1. It has to be a song she already knows from Girl Scouts or movies or TV or whatever. And the media with which she associates the tune can be an issue - she seems unable to deal with, say, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," as to her it's "the victory theme for Peggle." Same goes for things where she learned a parody before the original... she gets distracted if the lyrics are different.
2. It has to "sound right." This means if it's in a different key or time signature than that she originally heard it in, she may or may not be able to cope. And god forbid someone arranges a piece to drop a note into a more accessible octave.
3. She resists - sometimes to the point of outright refusal - to attempt a new key or time signature without her expert (i.e. her teacher - I can read music but I'm really slow on treble clef) on the spot to hold her hand. But she still gets bored with old songs really quickly once she perceives her skill as "good enough."

Adding in long-distance lessons via Zoom (both school and music lessons), a homegrown routine instead of the usual weekdays-at-school rules, and all the other stuff and stress and anxiety going on right now, and well... she's a little unfocused and having issues. Issues with compliance, cooperation, and general crankiness.

I get it. I'm her mom, I'm very much the same and was more so in my early adolescence where she is now; the biggest difference now is that I have more coping mechanisms than she does. One of my coping mechanisms is to Do Something About It... no matter how small, my anxieties can always be relieved somewhat by Fixing a Problem... in this case, with helping her find a new song, as she feels she has pretty much mastered the outro from Adventure Time. Not that she'll prove it to her music teacher because of all that up there. ☝☝☝

So... here's what we did. We fed everyone lunch so nobody has hunger or low blood sugar as an excuse for not participating. We got out all of both Lizzy's easy piano books and Abby's much more extensive collection of audition songbooks, which have both voice and piano parts. We sat down and made a list of songs Lizzy would be okay with trying right now (nine songs, eight of which are from Disney films or their stage show versions) because she knows them well enough to satisfy Rule One above. We pared that down to three ("One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin, "Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast, and "The Candyman" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) by applying Rule Three above. That left us with three, which she tried on her piano by playing the first line (and that's the first line of the lyrics, mind you; she needs to start there to grok it) after playing whichever major scale applied to that song.

I would have preferred this one. Maybe next time.

And the winner is... "One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin! Lizzy's just so charmed by the HIGH-low of "ONE-jump" at the beginning of the song that she's willing to try. And that's huge. And it took almost an hour; there's no way to manage this process in a half-hour remote music lesson.

If anyone could have managed it, that would have been Lizzy's music teacher; she's that awesome. But I'm not willing to put her through all that as an accommodation for Lizzy's needs when I can do it myself. And right now, I certainly have the time to spare on taking it slow and making sure it gets done. Teamwork in the Time of Corona.