How do you make piano lessons fun for beginners?
What is the first thing you teach piano beginners?
As Back-to-School time lurks right around the corner, it is likely you are starting some brand new beginning piano students this school year and thinking about these questions.
When I begin new elementary-aged piano students, I LOVE adding games and activities throughout the first couple of months to help make lessons fun for beginners.
Games help to get those initial first lesson jitters out and help beginning piano students get excited about learning new piano concepts quickly!
Today I’m sharing with you my absolute favorite digital Boom Cards activities that are perfect for piano beginners – specifically 5-8-year-olds.
The first thing I teach my piano beginners is keyboard geography and I include activities that reinforce the black piano keys pattern and identifying groups of two and groups of three black keys.
Keyboard geography Boom Cards digital activities:
2️⃣ Identifying Black Piano Key Groups
3️⃣ Black Piano Key Groups Pattern
These three activities present and review black piano key groups in three completely different ways and give young students lots of repetition and review as they learn.
Find additional black piano key group activities here
Once my students have a good understanding of beginning keyboard geography, we move on to learning the music alphabet, the names of white piano keys and how the music alphabet lines up on the piano keys.
Boom Cards activities that review white piano key names & the music alphabet:
4️⃣ White Piano Key Names Sorting Activity
Students identify only two piano keys at a time by sorting throughout this activity. They drag piano key “chunks” to the correct box to practice reviewing white piano key names.
5️⃣ Music Alphabet on White Piano Keys
This deck features the 7-white key keyboard presented in different versions throughout the deck, so students get comprehensive understanding of the white piano key names and a look at how the music alphabet lines up on the piano keys.
We move on to identifying piano finger numbers as well as note stem direction and the difference between the right and left hands once keyboard geography has been mastered.
Boom Cards activities that reinforce piano finger numbers and stems up and stems down music notes:
6️⃣ Piano Finger Numbers for Elementary Piano
Throughout this activity, students drag missing finger numbers to the right and left hands on the cards. This deck features five different skin tones throughout.
7️⃣ Music Note Stem Direction with Right and Left Hands
This Boom Cards activity associates left hands with stems down notes and right hands with stems up notes and is a quick first introduction to stem direction and right and left hands.
Note and rest values and note names on the staff come next as I teach – usually simultaneously. There are so many wonderful activities to help beginning piano students review both of these concepts!
Beginning note and rest values Boom Cards activities:
8️⃣ Note and Rest Values in 4/4 Time
This dog-themed digital Boom Cards piano game gives your beginning piano students extensive review of quarter, half, dotted half and whole notes plus quarter, half and whole rests.
Find additional note & rest values activities here.
Beginning note names on the staff Boom Cards activities:
9️⃣ Middle B & Middle D Note Names on the Grand Staff
This activity reviews only those sometimes tricky middle B and middle D notes on the grand staff early elementary students get extensive practice when they play these cards.
🔟 Middle C Position Note Names on the Staff
This digital flashcards activity gives your beginning piano students comprehensive review of bass clef and treble clef notes (F3-G4) in middle C position only.
Want to know the best news about teaching beginners with these essential Boom Cards games & activities?
All 10 of these activities are bundled into one easy to grab and use Beginner Boom Cards Bundle!
Watch a playthrough of all 10 decks in the video below.
Kelly Bordeaux Piano 