I have two 5-year-old students signed up for a Piano Readiness Class, and our first class was yesterday! We had such a fun time. We sang songs, listened to music to find/walk to the beat, traced our hands to learn about RH/LH/finger numbers, and more. Best of all, we played the Piano Hands Hunt game — a simple game I invented on a whim yesterday as I was lesson planning. It was quite a hit! The girls asked to play it again next week — a request I’m happy to oblige!
Just added to the Printables > Games page:
Piano Hands Hunt — a music game for 2-6 players. This simple game is intended for use with young beginners/elementary level students to help them learn RH versus LH, and the finger numbers for piano.
Assembly:
- Print the Piano Hands Hunt pdf. For extended gameplay or for large groups of students, print the document 3 or 4 times.
- Cut out each card, leaving about a half-inch margin around each box.
Setup:
- Before the students arrive, hide the cards around the room.
Gameplay:
- Instruct students to search around the room for the Piano Hands cards. When a student finds three cards, they must come to the piano.
- At the piano, the student can place the cards on the piano rack. Students must play a piano key on the piano with the correct hand and finger as each card indicates. The teacher may instruct the student to play any piano key they choose, or the teacher can use alphabet cards (or another method) to randomly choose the keys they must play. Once the student has successfully completed their three cards, they may go search for another three cards.
- Continue gameplay until all the students have had a chance to play at the piano, or until all the hidden cards have been found.
The PDF includes a card with the above instructions for assembly, setup, and gameplay.
Piano Hands Hunt game (695.6 KiB, 9,682 hits)
Even if you don’t currently have a group of young elementary students to play this game with, the cards themselves could be useful as flashcards to use during private lessons.
Enjoy!
This is such a great game for those first few lessons in the fall for beginners as a fun way to double-check they “get” the finger number concept 🙂 Thanks Joy!
Super cute! Thanks for sharing!