Once Upon a Piano: A New Approach to Preschool Piano

For the past ten years, I have had the joy of teaching private and group piano lessons, including many preschool-aged students. Along the way, I tried several method books designed for young beginners. Each had its strengths, but none placed enough emphasis on the foundational skills I believed preschoolers needed most. Just as importantly, it is neither realistic nor developmentally appropriate to expect a young child to sit still at the piano for an entire thirty-minute lesson.

As I gained experience as a piano teacher, a preschool classroom music teacher, and continued my education in graduate school, I developed a clearer vision of what early piano instruction could be. By bringing together my teaching experience, education, and understanding of how young children learn, Once Upon a Piano was born.

Once Upon a Piano transforms classic fairy tales into eight-week piano readiness units for preschool-aged students. Each unit is built around a familiar story, giving children an imaginative context for what they are learning and why.

Students explore rhythm patterns drawn from words and phrases in the story, sing and play echo songs inspired by its characters, develop a steady beat, strengthen their listening skills, and experiment with improvisation at the piano. As they enter the world of the story, each activity becomes part of the adventure.

Some activities invite students to move around the room, while others bring them to the piano for focused exploration. Together, they provide a varied and developmentally appropriate learning experience that feels more like play than work.

Singing and Vocal Exploration 

Singing is a foundational element of the Once Upon a Piano curriculum. Through playful vocal exploration activities, students learn to access and develop their head voices. They then sing echo songs inspired by the characters and events of the story before taking turns playing those songs on the piano.

Singing always comes before playing. This allows students to internalize the melody and experience it as music first, rather than encountering it for the first time as a series of notes on the keyboard. The piano then becomes a tool for expressing music they already know and understand.

Activities at the Piano

In addition to playing echo songs, students interact with the piano through a variety of story-based activities. They improvise music inspired by characters and events, play and chant rhythm patterns, explore the musical alphabet, and develop an understanding of keyboard geography.

These activities give preschoolers meaningful, hands-on experience at the instrument while keeping the learning structured, playful, and developmentally appropriate. Rather than simply pressing keys, students begin building the musical awareness and physical familiarity they will need for future piano study.

Rhythm and Steady Beat

Developing a sense of steady beat is one of the most important goals of any preschool music class. Each Once Upon a Piano unit includes two songs, usually folk songs, that the teacher plays while students keep the beat.

Students begin by playing a steady beat on a drum or another rhythm instrument. A drum is especially useful because the arm motion resembles the movement they will later use at the piano. After practicing this for two lessons, students transfer the steady beat to the keyboard, playing the tonic note while the teacher performs the song. Some units also include group steady-beat activities, such as tapping different parts of the body while chanting together.

Each unit also introduces five or six focus rhythms drawn from words and phrases in the story. Because rhythm is best understood within the context of a steady beat, students chant each pattern while tapping the beat on their legs. They then reinforce these patterns through games and activities, including opportunities to play them at the piano.

Listening and Ear Training

The fairy-tale setting creates natural opportunities for ear training. Every Once Upon a Piano unit includes brief listening games in which students identify musical contrasts such as high and low, loud and soft, and long and short.

Because these contrasts are connected to the story, abstract musical concepts become easier for young children to understand and remember. In the Little Red Riding Hood unit, for example, students distinguish between low “wolf” sounds and high “Little Red” sounds. These playful associations help students develop careful listening skills while remaining immersed in the world of the story.

Teacher’s Turn

Preschool piano students also need opportunities to hear beautiful, expressive playing modeled for them. Each lesson concludes with a segment called “Teacher’s Turn,” during which the teacher performs a piece while students close their eyes and listen.

Repertoire may come from historical composers or modern pedagogical composers, and many pieces contain an inherent story that young listeners can explore. For example, Jennifer Linn’s Rainbow Prelude begins with the sound of gentle rain and turns into a thunderstorm before it gradually develops into a hopeful musical rainbow.

Students can listen for these changes and then share the images, feelings, or events they imagined while the teacher played. In the process, they experience focused listening and expressive musicianship without being expected to produce anything themselves.

What Teachers Receive   

Each Once Upon a Piano unit provides the core resources a teacher needs to lead a complete eight-week piano readiness experience. Resources include:

• Two echo songs and two vocal exploration activities

• Printable two- and three-black-key keyboard diagrams

• A finger-number song and accompanying games

• Two or more steady-beat songs and activities

• Five or six story-based focus rhythms

• Two improvisation prompts

• Ear-training activities

• Suggested repertoire for “Teacher’s Turn”

• A printable board game and coloring or tracing pages

• A certificate of completion and student assessment form

• A sample lesson plan and materials checklist

• Guidance on the philosophy and teaching approach behind the curriculum

Together, these resources give teachers a structured, ready-to-use curriculum while still leaving room to adapt activities to the needs of individual students and classes.

Who Is It For? 

Once Upon a Piano is a flexible preschool piano curriculum designed for independent music teachers, early childhood music educators, group-class instructors, and anyone looking to add preschool piano offerings without developing an entire program from scratch.

Each unit includes clear directions, teaching suggestions, lesson materials, and adaptable activities, giving teachers a complete framework they can use with individual students, small groups, or larger classes.

Ready to Bring Once Upon a Piano to Your Students?

If Once Upon a Piano sounds like a good fit for your teaching practice, explore the units currently available and find the one that is right for your students.

You can also schedule a Once Upon a Piano curriculum consultation with me. During the consultation, I will walk you through the philosophy and teaching process behind the curriculum, offer suggestions for using it in your own setting, and answer any questions you may have.

Let’s make the world a more musical place, one preschooler at a time!

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