Preschool Piano Sheet Music

by john aschenbrenner January 16, 2025

Preschool piano sheet music should be as simple as possible. In my experience, preschool kids have great difficulty with sheet music no matter how simple. They resist it like a trip to the dentist. The reason for this is that preschool kid's brain hemispheres are usually not yet equipped to brave the multiple dimensions and planes of sheet music.

Rather than inundate beginning preschoolers with attempts to get them to read sheet music, there is an alternative approach that kids find easy and enjoyable. The wisest choice is to prepare preschool kids for piano sheet music by using numbers. Every kid understands numbers. Getting preschool kids to read sheet music is the ultimate goal, but you have to prepare kids very carefully. Patience may be your only usable tool.

Piano Is Easy

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Use Numbers Instead Of Notes

We start by numbering the keys with removable stickers as in the drawing below.

Numbered Keyboard

As we teach kids to play familiar songs with numbers, we slowly introduce the elements of reading sheet music.Keep the proportion of numbers to notes, fun to work, at 9 to 1. Nine parts fun with songs, games and numbers, and one part of reading sheet music.

Teach Concepts Without Notes

You don't have to use musical notation to teach the basic concepts of sheet music.These ideas include: up/down, left/right, loud/soft, black/white, fingering, hand position. In fact the list is endless. Mastering the outline of these ideas is a huge advantage when kids finally attack sheet music. Try a few of these ideas on the online piano below.

UP
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
DOWN
| 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 |
SKIP
| 1 3 5 7 |
STEP
| 1 2 3 4 |