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The holiday season is upon us, and what better way to make it merry and bright than with the gift of music? Busy Kids Do Piano is excited to present our Musical Advent Calendar – a free downloadable PDF packed with daily musical activities to make the countdown to Christmas extra special for your little ones. This unique calendar is designed not only to teach kids about holiday music but also to foster togetherness and create lasting family memories. Continue reading “Musical Advent Calendar”
Learning to play the piano is an exciting and rewarding journey, but it comes with its own set of challenges, especially for young beginners. One of the fundamental skills that budding pianists need to develop is a solid understanding of keyboard geography. Knowing where each note is located on the piano is essential for playing melodies and reading sheet music. I’m thrilled to offer a free printable set of piano flash cards that are designed to help young piano students grasp the layout of the keyboard. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of keyboard geography, how these flash cards can be a valuable tool, and how to get your hands on this free resource. Continue reading “Free Printable Piano Flash Cards”
If you could see me in person right now, you’d see my giant smile because April is BROADWAY MONTH for the Busy Kids Do Piano community! That simply means we’re going to learn all about Broadway Musicals this month. I have a deep love for Broadway and could talk about it endlessly. In fact, last month, I took a trip to NYC and was fortunate enough to see three shows in three days! Pure musical heaven.
I have all kinds of fun Broadway Musical resources I’ve put together for your musical learning fun this month (or any month!). If you follow me over on Instagram, you can check out my quick tour of the Museum of Broadway in this reel, or learn about some of the Broadway careers available to musicians in this post.
Over on the podcast, I have two very special episodes with Broadway-themed content.
Continue reading “Broadway Musicals: A Round-Up of Resources”
In my personal experience, when I feel successful at something, I’m more likely to stick with it. The same has proven true for my children as well. I’ve noticed that as their mother, I have a lot of power in how I shape my kids’ experiences; giving them feedback that is positive and encouraging always seems to help them persevere. This is true for piano learning as well, and let’s be honest, learning to play an instrument is not for the faint of heart. A student has to persevere through many iterations of getting the notes wrong before they can finally get them right. That takes some serious stamina, even for the most self-confident among us. Continue reading “Piano Student Brag Tags”
In my years of teaching piano, one thing I consistently encounter is a student who is more confident reading notes in the treble clef (right hand) than the bass clef (left hand). And since many of us are right-hand dominant, it makes sense that playing with the right hand would feel easier and therefore more comfortable. Many students end up with weaker bass clef familiarity and improving this is the goal of the November Music Challenge Monthly. Continue reading “Name the Notes: Bass Clef Edition”
Simply stated, I’m obsessed with fall. Around this time every year, I pull out my favorite coat and boots, and start wanting pumpkin-flavored treats and warm cider. For our download this month, I wanted to give your student an opportunity to relish the delights of fall as well. As we near November, the days are shorter, the rain clouds linger, and the leaves turn golden. It’s a very special, beautiful time of year and it tends to bring a certain vibe, a feeling quite different from the excitement of summer. Continue reading “Be a Kid Composer”
The classic game BINGO is a classic for a reason. From kids’ birthday parties to Tuesday nights at the senior center, the game appeals to all ages, in all seasons. I simply had to incorporate it into our Music Challenge Monthly series — a Back-To-School version for September — where I try to offer fun ways to teach supplemental piano theory to your students. Continue reading “Back-to-School Bingo”
There’s always something nostalgic and appealing about play-money, isn’t there? I grew up playing Monopoly and LIFE, and I remember loving a nice stack of pastel-colored cash. It felt so empowering to earn and spend my money, making grown-up types of deals with high dollar values. I bet you could tell me the color of the $500 bill in Monopoly, right? That’s how impactful these kinds of games are to us as kids!
This month, I wanted to create that feeling for my students. The download contains printable Composer Cash, featuring a different composer on the various bills, as well as a reward chart. But the rest of the challenge is up to you, and provides a great opportunity for you to connect with your student in a meaningful way to discuss not only their piano goals, but also what kinds of incentives mean the most to them. Continue reading “Composer Cash Incentive”
Well, we are already well into the summer, and if your students are like mine, the heat, the ice cream cones, and the screen time are beginning to pull them well out of routine. It’s great to enjoy that much-needed break from the school year, but I don’t love it when my students take too much of a break from piano. Sometimes, I struggle to “inspire” them to keep practicing piano throughout the summer, and I don’t want them to lose precious ground over the break, forgetting what they’ve most recently learned. I think continually changing up the practice routine and keeping it fun can help. Continue reading “Summer Practice Challenge”
June is African American Music Appreciation Month, and so I sat down and made a list of some of my favorite songs written by Black artists from various decades and in various musical genres. My list ended up including favorites from jazz, classical, R&B, pop, and more. This month’s challenge is in hopes your student will get to listen to some of these songs, ones you probably love as well, by artists like Stevie Wonder, Etta James, ragtime-extraordinaire Scott Joplin, and I even threw in a classic by Destiny’s Child. Continue reading “Dance & Draw Party Packet”
