My Top 6 Just For Fun Music Books for Beginners

We love things we know.  They comfort us and help us know we are on the right track.  To kids taking piano lessons, being able to play music they know is the only tangible benchmark they have to see progress.  Having books around your house “just for fun” is an often overlooked piece of the music lesson pie.

image by: juliaf via sxc.hu

When I started taking piano lessons I remember being so stupid excited about playing Jolly Old St. Nicholas.  It was the first song I could read music for that I actually recognized and I played it over and over and over again.  That music coming out of the piano was MINE. I made it, with my own brain and 10 fingers.  I owned that song and it made me feel awesome to play it.  Then I went to the next lesson and back into the oblivious world of random songs about dogs. Sigh.  I kept hoping another song I knew would come my way.  It did, eventually, and every time it did it sparked my desire to play the piano and continue to improve.

What is it about being able to play a song we know that’s so powerful in the learning process?  It’s real.  It’s concrete.  It’s the first honest to goodness event that proves to us that all those things we hear on the radio or iPod come from real people and that maybe, just maybe, we really could be one of those people someday.  It proves reading those dots does actually make sense.  It proves that my finger numbers really are important.  It proves that we can do it.  And that’s a powerful feeling.

You can help your child experience this “I can do it” moment by having Just for Fun music around your house.  After all, isn’t the point of all this hard work and practice to make music fun?

It’s important that the Just for Fun music be easy for them to play and not discouraging.  Many of the music books in the stores are just plain hard for young players so I’ve put together a list of books I think will appeal to a lot of kids.  These are all 5-finger books which are appropriate for students in the first 2 years of lessons who are reading music on the staff.  You can order them online from Amazon through my affiliate links below or you can print this out and take it with you to the store.  Parents of current students: if you’d like any of these books, let me know and I can also grab them for you and have them at your next lesson!

You can find more of my selections of easy sheet music for beginners here.

Getting Started: You Do Have The Time For Piano Lessons

We all have busy lives. The thought of adding one more thing into the mix is overwhelming. It will require us to change our habits, adjust our priorities and be a little bit more responsible – all things that music lessons can help your child develop. I’m pretty sure you actually do have the time for music lessons in your already hectic life. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the real time involved in starting music lessons.

As a student, I was involved in the usual things. I took dance classes, played in the school band, sang in the church choir, had a job, was on the badminton team (yes, it was a real letter winning sport, thank you very much), was on the pom squad, played handbells, was part of my youth group, had a decent social life…and took piano lessons. One of the many benefits of music lessons? Learning to manage your time well. And in a busy life, they don’t take as much time as you think.

The day of the lesson is the most time intensive. It requires travel to and from the lesson as well as time in the lesson itself. Depending upon the distance to your teacher, this could be one hour of your time. Not so bad right? And if you plan well, your teacher will live within close proximity to a grocery store or other areas where you need to run errands cutting down the time specifically for lessons even more. Double bonus!

What about practice?
Don’t we have to do 30 minutes every single day?
How can I possibly fit that into the family schedule?

OK, here’s the real deal truth on practice: the TIMING & the QUALITY of the practice is more important than the QUANTITY. Your child should run through their songs a couple of times on the day they get home from their lesson. Grand total of their time: 15 minutes. Why the day they get home? Short term memory is not permanent. After the first 24 hours they will forget more than half of what they learned in their lessons. After 48 hours, 75% is forgotten. After 72 hours, its like they were never there. By playing through it in that first 24 hours, they will retain most of what was talked about. Then they can get their practice in on the days when it’s most convenient. For beginning students, this practice time can be productive in as little as 15 minutes.

15 minutes.

If your kids are like mine, there are 15 minutes of random boredom scattered throughout their days. Plenty of time for them to turn off the TV to increase their creativity and boost their brain power at the piano.

As your child’s skill level increases, their practice time will too but by that time they have set their own priorities and other activities will have fallen away. And, unlike football or gymnastics which both generally fall by the wayside as our bodies age, piano lessons last for a lifetime.

A lifetime.

Isn’t that worth 15 minutes of your day right now?

Could You Be Wasting Your Money On Piano Lessons?

My kids and I went to a carnival a few weeks ago.  It’s was a fun family evening and we had a blast running from game to game and collecting our prize tickets.  My son was so excited when we were all finished to turn them in for … wait for it … a paddleball game.  You know the one: you try to bounce the ball a few times and then, without warning, that little plastic staple can no longer hold that flimsy piece of elastic string and bang, no more toy.  We tried to talk him out of it but nope, that was going to be his reward.  And no sooner had we gotten back to the car then it broke.  I think we all learn a good financial lesson from that toy.  Wasting our money hurts. Good thing you’d never waste your money on your child’s piano lessons.  Or are you wasting it right now?

photo by: EvelynGiggles from flickr licensed under Creative Commons

How could I be wasting my money?

Learning to play the piano is not an overnight process.  You don’t eat a fancy little cupcake and suddenly become a virtuosic pianist.  It takes work, dedication, self discipline and determination and it takes time.  The more time we put in, the better we get.  The more time we spend away from it, the worse we get. There is no other alternative.  I took some time off of playing piano several years ago.  I was so busy working and being mom that my own performance skills were beginning to slide.  All of those pieces I had spent hours and weeks perfecting, gone, just like that.  Well, it’s wasn’t just like that.  I hadn’t done anything to make sure my skills were sharp.  I just flat out didn’t play anything for myself so when I did finally return to it, it was gone. My brain still knew what was supposed to happen, my fingers no longer could do the work.  It was dreadful. It was frustrating. And I vowed to never let it happen again.  No matter what, I would play something every single day.

During the school year, your child without doubt has a piano lesson every week.  Knowing that lesson day is coming, they spend a little time playing pieces so that when it comes, they don’t have to show up without improvement.  And you, knowing that you write that check every month, help to make sure it happens.  But during the summer months when the playground & pool are calling, lessons are few and far between and our schedules get a little flexible, the piano can become the “I’ll do it later” event of the day.  How many days have passed since your child actually played the piano?

Summer practice is not something that has to be rigid.  The act of playing anything is better than doing nothing at all.  It’s important to keeping up the skills that we all worked so hard to build during the school year.  So make it a point to help your child find a song to play every single day for the rest of the summer.  It can be something they already know or it can be something completely new that you pick out together from the music store or online (click here for some posts relating to sheet music).  Whatever you choose make it a fun and relaxed session.  This isn’t the time for drill sergeants.  This is the time for creating music just because we can.

Has your child been playing the piano this summer?  If so, what is the hot song on their playlist?

Getting Started: Why Do You Want Your Child To Take Piano Lessons?

I have a sticker on the back window of my car with my website address.  It’s great advertising but I often forget it’s there so I’m always shocked when someone completely out of the blue starts a conversation with me about piano lessons.  The other day was no exception.

photo by: eranbecker from sxc.hu

My kids and I were at a drive-in restaurant here in town where the waitress delivers the food right to your car. Rather than the usual “How are you today?” she says to me, “You teach piano lessons?  That’s so cool!  I play the piano but I never learned to read music.  I just play.”  We briefly chatted while she handed our items to us and I assured her that not being able to read the music is not all that uncommon.  Even for people who have taken lessons.

In fact, when I took over a piano studio from another teacher 12 years ago, a large percentage of the students there could not read a note.  They just knew where to put their hands and played the songs.  On the surface this was not a problem.  They could get through their lessons alright and for most that was fine.  But some students would come to me frustrated after spending many days trying to read their new popular music book they picked up from the store. Their 3 or 4 years of lessons had not prepared them for their ultimate goal of playing popular songs.  Their parents had failed to plan.

What should we, as parents, do?

We know that giving our kids music exposure at a young age benefits them in so many ways but before jumping into classes or lessons, I think it’s important to consider what you ultimately want from your  child’s music study.  Has your child expressed an interest in learning another instrument besides the piano? Do they already show great promise by playing difficult songs by ear? Or do they just like to play around and maybe it’d be nice if they could play that new single they heard on the radio last week?  Each of these children would benefit from very different courses of study and different types of teachers.

If your child is interested in pursuing another instrument, it may be best to start with a teacher that has a serious focus on music theory.  Reading and writing the music is the same no matter the instrument (aside from some small nuances that are instrument specific, like reading chord symbols for guitar).  If your child is expressing an interest in being a professional musician, you might want to look for a teacher that has their own current or previous professional performing credentials.  Someone who has been down that road can help you all anticipate the bumps in the road that lie ahead as well as provide valuable connections in the business.  And if your child is interested in just playing the latest popular music, you certainly don’t want to wander into the studio of a classically focused teacher who requires 45 minutes of scales and arpeggio exercises every day.  Don’t get me wrong, they have their place, but the popular music focused child will need to have a different approach to make them relevant.

I encourage you to sit down with your child as a family and decide what your ultimate goal is when taking piano lessons.  This goal will most likely change over time and could require you to change teachers down the road.  Don’t think you must start with the town’s most famous teacher who happens to be a former concert soloist just in case your child decides to becoming a performing pianist.  That’s like asking Tiger Woods for golf lessons when your child is 4 just in case he takes a liking to it.  (Sounds totally absurd when you think of it like that doesn’t it?)  Many beginning students just want to be able to play songs they know and are happy in that role for a lifetime.  But if your child has other ambitions, it’s best to know what you are getting into before ever beginning the journey.  Knowing what you ultimately hope to accomplish right from the start will make the experience the most satisfying for everyone and can ultimately prevent the dreaded “I took piano lessons when I was a kid and I hated it.”

 Let me know: how did you feel about piano lessons as a kid & what do you think contributed to your like/dislike? Leave your responses in the comments below.

Harry Potter Easy Piano Sheet Music Round Up

So this is it.  This is the end of Harry Potter. To be honest, I’ve never been more excited to see a movie I already know the ending of and so completely sad at the same time.  I started reading the books at the suggestion of one of my piano students in 2000.  She was die hard in 4th grade even getting her mom and dad to take her to the bookstore for the midnight parties to get the latest adventures of Harry and his friends.  She would come to lessons with her face buried in JK Rowling’s words, and when it was her time for piano, I would get the latest update on the Hogwarts gang as she unpacked her music books.  I figured it must be pretty good stuff.  I’m so glad she convinced me to read them!

So in honor of the end of Harry Potter, I thought I would put together a list of easy, beginner level piano sheet music books and pieces from each of the Harry Potter films.

      Hedwig’s Theme 5 Finger Piano

There are only a handful of movie theme songs so easily recognized as this one.  We only need to hear the first 8 notes to know we are about to enter the world of Harry Potter.

     Themes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

A slightly more challenging book than the 5 finger ones.  This book would work well for students who have completed 2 years of piano lessons (or are really ambitious first years)

    Double Trouble from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This book is a compilation of the first 5 films for easy, 5 finger piano.  Students may still be challenged by this book, but the 5 finger versions really bring it down to a level they can relate to. *UPDATE* I’ve been using this book with kids in Piano Adventures level 1 Accelerated & level 1 of the Basic course with much success.  They have really been excellent for teaching them some new rhythms!

    Selections from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

A Big Note book version means that it’s a simplified, but not of the beginner.  Students completing years 2 and 3 will be the most successful here.

    Selections from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Another Big Note book.  Recommended for students completing years 2 and 3 (and up).

    “In Noctem” for 5 finger piano from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

First years dive in!  This 5 finger solo piece is right up your alley.

     “Obliviate” from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 for 5 finger piano

Another one for the first years (and beyond).  Solo piece.

UPDATE (2/2012): Alfred has just released a book that includes ALL 8 Harry Potter movies worth of music for easy piano! You can find more about the book in this post.

(The links in this post are affiliate links meaning that by clicking on them and making a purchase, NormanPianoLessons.com gets a small referral fee which allows me to purchase new music & supplies for my studio & students at no additional cost to you. Thanks for making your purchases through my link!)