Check out these 6 first piano lesson ideas for kids ages 3-9 and get access to your FREE piano key group printables!
First piano lessons- easiest way to learn the notes is a fun animal memory game that teaches the names and positions of notes that Kids love!
Here is a roundup of free printables for piano teaching. These are all guides that I've made for my own piano students.
Engage your piano students from the very beginning of their piano lessons with these creative ways to start a lesson. Read more.
5 easy first piano lessons that you can do at home with your child, to introduce them to the piano, and build a strong foundation to learn the instrument.
Being able to identify intervals immediately is an essential skill for sight reading. That’s why I like to do all I can to get my students to identify an interval by sight as quickly as possible. This game helps do just that! This game is also a helpful assessment tool for me to see just […]
...enhanced learning through tactile means. Here are a few of the most frequently used music manipulatives in my elementary classroom...
How to read music made easy : an introduction and guide to reading music for beginners - perfect for kids but ideal for adult beginners too!
Looking for engaging, musical games to play with your students? Here are a few of my favorite games and activities for elementary music classes, children's choirs, and elementary group classes.
Check out these 8 piano lesson must have items and Montessori game ideas for each teaching tool to make piano lessons more fun!!!
Level: Beginner to Intermediate Objective: To help build sight reading skills by reviewing notes on the staff and learning to quickly correlate notes with each other (steps, skips, etc.). A player wins when he/she has consecutive notes that either ascend or descend. Materials: Music note flashcards (Subscribe to our emails for a […]
Start learning how to read music for beginners today! Teach your kids how to read music notes with fun printable activity ideas.
How to teach melody in elementary music class for first year elementary music teachers-- from high and low to solfege to notes on the staff.
Who doesn’t love music and what all it represents? And as you all already know it is said that having a musical education can help your brain to develop stronger in other educational areas as…
Do you teach "Piano Posture" in your studio? Some methods start their Primer books with a basic "this is how you are supposed to sit at the piano" model. Pictures might illustrate how far away
Free sheet music of traditional nursery rhymes and children's songs and free fun and easy music theory printable worksheets for kids.
Here are my favorite five piano pedagogy books to help you keep your piano studio professional and to keep your students engaged.
Here are my favorite five piano pedagogy books to help you keep your piano studio professional and to keep your students engaged.
If your third or fourth grader is starting to think about taking up a musical instrument, help him get the basics of reading notes with this handy sheet!
This handout is a "cheat sheet" that can be given to introductory keyboard students to show where C position fingerings are on the piano. ...
Here are my favorite five piano pedagogy books to help you keep your piano studio professional and to keep your students engaged.
Coming up with engaging games for a middle school classroom can be daunting. They are at an age where they want to be independent, yet need some hand holding. They start the “I’m too cool for school” attitude and it can be intimidating at times when you introduce a new game or project - immediately the eye rolling takes over and you are stuck with questioning yourself. I’m here to tell you, I’VE BEEN THERE! It is incredibly frustrating when you are put in a situation like that, but I’m here to s
Here’s a game that I use with my piano students that is always fun to play! All you need are two tokens of some sort (I use game pieces) and letter cards (A-G, including sharps and flats if y…
How to Read Music: Hi! Do you want to learn to read music, but are think it's too hard? This instructable breaks down the basics of reading music into simple, easy to follow steps. Reading this instructable will make it easy to learn to read and play music o…
Come listen to this collection of 25 pieces of classical music for kids. Classical music is not just for adults. Kids will love them!
Here’s a collection of free printable worksheets for the young pianist. The Color That Note! note name worksheet is a great place to start for the beginning piano student. Other as good drill…
In this 15-Minute Music Lesson freebie, with a free downloadable printable pack, you will learn about 3 of the most famous pieces of music of the Olympics.
How many students does it take to make you a full-time piano teacher? Knowing the answer can help you make changes that affect your health and income.
What do piano pedals do? Learn more about piano pedals and how to use them from the piano experts at Hoffman Academy.
Let's explore the variety of ways that an expert musician might perceive and conceive of a piece of music...
All piano students should know these basic music theory concepts: Staff Awareness bass clef treble clef Note Names and Placement on the keyboard on the staff Basic Music Vocab measure bar lines, double bar lines repeat symbols slurs fermatas, etc. Basic Music Notes quarter eighth whole half Dotted Notes and Triplets timing Rests quarter […]
This piano teaching idea share is full of fresh recital ideas, interesting games to play online, and great ways of injecting energy in lessons!
Music theory private lessons for students on all instruments. Music theory is the written language of music.
We've all been there: one class is ahead of the rest of the grade level, it's the last day before a vacation, you're stressed/ tired/ sick and can't think straight to teach a regular lesson, it's a weird schedule day and the kids are spinning in circles, there's a last-minute change and you can't do the lesson you had planned... Whatever the reason, we all have days when we need to step out of our regularly-scheduled sequenced curriculum and do something different for one class period. Sure, you could throw on a movie or pull out some worksheets. But those types of classes can result in lots of behavior difficulties (and no wonder, the students are usually bored!). Here are my favorite ways to use those "one-off" class periods in meaningful musical ways. These ideas are ones that don't require too much thinking on my part, don't require advance planning to set up, can be done with large or small groups, and keep students engaged for an entire class period. 1. instrument merry go round I actually use this activity as a part of my regular "curricular" lessons as well, but it's a good one to pull out when I want everyone to stay focused and engaged but I know they're going to be antsy. I have every student pick out one instrument (usually I limit their options to small percussion on specific shelves in my room) and bring it to sit in a circle on the floor. Then I tell them to play when my hands are open, and stop when I close my hands. If they play/ don't play at the wrong time, they're out for the next round. Once they get the hang of starting and stopping, I have them leave their instrument on the floor, stand up, and move over one spot around the circle. Then they pick up the new instrument and repeat. Keep going around the circle and switching instruments! The great thing about this is I can use it to review a variety of concepts. Instrument names and playing techniques are obvious ones, but I can also teach dynamics by having them play louder/ softer when I hold up dynamic symbols or move my hands bigger or smaller, review instrument classification by calling out certain types to play on different turns, or practice rhythms by having them echo patterns instead of starting/ stopping. Lots of ways to change it up! 2. Musication I purposefully save videos from this awesome YouTube channel to use only for this purpose so that I know students won't get tired of them. They are most well-known for the play-along videos for Boomwhackers and hand chimes with color-coded notes, but there are also play-along videos for percussion (which is great for large groups and younger students), and even chord play-alongs (which I use with ukulele but could also be done with guitar, piano, etc). One other pro tip for these: you can slow down or speed up the videos on YouTube without distorting the sound by clicking on settings (the gear icon at the bottom of the video) and selecting "playback speed". This is a perfect way to keep classes engaged and "up the ante" by repeating the same song but speeding up each time! Of course switching the parts/ notes they're playing is another great way to change it up and keep everyone on their toes. 3. posters I don't do this often but every now and then, especially if I'm under the weather and I don't think the students will be too high-energy, I'll have the class make posters to hang up on the walls. Sometimes I'll have them make posters for an upcoming music event to hang up around the building, including reminders about concert etiquette. Other times I have them make posters about something they're learning: instrument families, a musical element, music vocabulary, etc. Bonus: it's great to have student work to actually display on the walls because most of our student work isn't visual, and administrators (and kids!) love to see that in the classroom! 4. soundscapes There are so many ways to do soundscapes- I've written an entire blog post just about all the ways to do them here- but the most basic one I pull out most often in this scenario is to write down names of places on slips of paper, fold them up and have students draw one from a jar, and then have small groups come up with a soundscape to match that scene using only their voices and found objects they have in the room. So for example if a group has the beach, they may make the sounds of waves by flapping a piece of paper, seagulls with their voice, beachballs getting hit by hitting a chair, etc. If you're reading this right now and thinking ha, I wish I had a sequenced curriculum laid out for me that I could even stray from in the first place! Don't worry, you're definitely not alone- I talk to so many music teachers every week who are planning their lessons week by week or even day by day from scratch! You can get my complete curriculum with all the plans and materials for the entire school year for K-6 general music here, or learn exactly how to make your own in this free e-course here. I hope these lesson ideas are helpful the next time you find yourself in one of those situations- I'll be using a few of them this week after I finish my concerts and try to finish the week until our vacation!
Lego is such a brilliant toy! Teachers often use it to teach maths and so it’s also an excellent way to teach rhythm and notation with these lego beats music manipulatives. How To Use Lego Music Manipulatives Younger children find the chunky ‘Duplo’ easier to manage so it’s best to start off […]
Music class is an active, engaging, and joyful experience! This is especially true when our musical activities are grounded in creative and intentional teaching strategies. One of the most important teaching strategies has to do with teaching the difference between steady beat and the rhythm of
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. That means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you choose to make a purchase. Read my full disclosure here. Organization & Planning Evernote – I sync Evernote across my computer, tablet, and phone. I use Evernote to keep […]
Learn how to teach piano to a 5-year-old step by step- even if your child has a hard time listening! The most important thing you can do is...
Piano music doesn't have to be all classical, all the time! Here's what you need to know about getting started with jazz piano chord progressions.
Aside from an appreciation for music, I have no other knowledge of it or possess any talent myself. My son's music teacher’s “tee tee tah” lesson on music notes had my son trying to teach me, though. His curiosity became mine too. To help him learn the names of the music notes and practice some math, I designed this fun activity. Download the music measure mat, cheat sheet, and notes/rests cards here. The objective? See how many different combinations of notes can be used to create a measure of music with a 4/4 time signature. I made some “note” cards and a cheat sheet that showed all the notes and rests and the number of beats each has. After cutting the cards and taping together the music measure mat, my son sorted the cards into piles. Then I told him that the top number in the time signature (4/4) told us that each measure of music should have four beats. Each note does not have 1 beat, some have as little as a half beat, others as much as 4 beats. I told him to fill the measure with notes and rests that added to four beats. He started with the easiest combinations: 1 whole note and then four quarter notes. But they got progressively harder. I had to explain that two half beats equal one beat (I used an apple cut in half to show how two halves equal one whole). Then, the fun really began – using the eighth notes and eighth rests! More and more cards were laid down. This was a great way to boost my son’s music vocabulary and work on counting, addition, and fractions. We made LOTS of different combinations of notes and rests that added to four beats. I lost count after he created 13 measures!
