Happy Halloween!

Click link below for free Sheet Music for you little goblin!

Little Bear on Halloween Sheet Music

Best Wishes for a Spooktacular Time!

Cynthia Marie VanLandingham

March Slav for Halloween Mood

Looking for a piece of music to add a ghoulish touch of doom to your Halloween party? This is the perfect piece. This arrangement is from the Piano Adventures Lesson Book Level 3A. The original work was by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.



Piano Adventures Lesson Book, Level 3A

Pumpkin Boogie

Here's another great Halloween Piece with a wonderful duet from Piano Adventures Lesson Book 2B. Click the audio player to hear my piano student and I playing this fun duet together.


Piano Adventures: Lesson Book Level 2B

Fun Halloween Piece - The Crawling Spider, Duet

This is a cute piece in the level-one Piano Adventures Lesson Book. I's a great casual piece students can learn quickly and play for fun at Halloween. It's called the Haunted Mouse! Listen as I play it below as I play the duet part along with one of my students.


Piano Adventures Level 1 Lesson Book - The Haunted Mouse

Piano Piano Party Idea - Fall Harvest Mini Recital

By Cynthia VanLandingham

Children in piano lessons benfit from opportunities to perform, but all of these don't need to involve a formal recital with kids dressed in their Sunday best and all their relatives present. Piano recital parties can be rather spontaneous events that allow children to enjoy sharing their music with other kids in a relaxed way. Here's a great piano party idea that kids love because it's just for students! If you're a parent, share this idea with your child's piano teacher. There many possible formats for such a party. Here is one of the ideas I have used with great success.

The Mini Harvest Recital - The Fall Harvest Mini Recital is a piano party just for students to share the progress they have made with other kids. Emphasize the harvest recital as a time for students to practice sharing their talent and the fruit of their hard work with others. Decorate with pumpkins, scarecrows and fall leaves.

Begin the recital with a scavenger hunt. Give each student a paper treat bag and let them find candy and small toys hidden around the piano room.

After the scavenger hunt let students enjoy their treats while they play their songs for each other on the piano. The songs students play for this recital can be the pieces they have currently been playing in their lesson books. Remember the idea is to create a piano community and to let kids learn to share their music with others in a relaxed way that will break down any walls of worry that students often have about performing. There is no need for formal seating since parents won't be there. Just put some big quilts to make a cozy place on the floor where the children to sit while they are waiting their turn to play.

After the students have played their pieces have enough board games on hand for everyone to grab a partner and get to know each other better. They don't have to be games that every can play at once. You can have Chess, Checkers, Boggle, Musical Bingo, Chutes and Ladders, whatever you think your students would enjoy. Remember the games don't all have to be about music, they just need to support your child's or your student's musical experience.

Remember to take some photos of this fun event and put them in a special piano party memory book to share with parents and friends.

Share the gift of music with Piano Bears Musical Storybooks
Kids love my storybooks books that Inspire and Motivate children in piano lessons.

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American Fanfare

This is a lovely selection from the Faber Level 5 Performance Book, played by Ben, one of my middle school students. He really enjoyed this piece and played it at my Fall Piano Party.

How Piano Lessons Benefit Young Children

By Cynthia VanLandingham

Piano lessons provide a wide range of benefits to young children. Here are my "Top Five."

1. Piano lessons help preserve and develop children's natural creative abilities.

The best analogy of how children learn through music that I've found is from Donald Kroodsma's book "The Singing Life of Birds." Every songbird can be identified by the unique song it sings, but a baby bird has to be taught by its parents to sing the family song. Baby birds, like humans, just 'babble' at first. Mother birds sing the family song over and over to the baby birds as they try to repeat it back. At first, the baby birds are only able to sing back one or two notes, but they gradually learn to sing the whole song. And birds with two voice boxes even learn to sing their own harmony parts! Once baby birds learn the family song, they can start developing their very own songs. Similarly, I encourage students to compose their own music after developing needed skills. In my experience, young children in piano are a lot like baby songbirds!

2. Piano lessons help children perfect their natural learning processes.

Music is a language, and children are programmed to absorb languages. Studies have shown that kids can most easily learn new languages when they start at a young age. Piano lessons help children develop the very same skills needed to accomplish language arts, like reading. In piano, students learn how to follow directions, scan written materials, think critically, create solutions and translate writing into action. For example, students must look at each note, measure and phrase and decide how to play each note to make the music come to life. Many children (including my own sons) have become much better readers after starting piano lessons. Further, piano lessons involves an interplay of both right and left brain activity that stimulates neural development.

3. Piano lessons help children learn how to stay focused and achieve goals.

Piano lessons help children set specific goals and then work towards reaching these goals. Each new piece of music a student learns requires a specific set of skills and playing habits. To achieve these goals students must learn to stay focused and study each note, measure and phrase to understand how to play the song. In doing this students learn to think critically and creatively as they decide how to make the music come to life. Staying focused over time develops good study habits that become natural. This is important because learning to practice good habits that match their goals shows children how to make their dreams come to life!

4. Piano lessons help children develop courage.

It takes courage to face challenges without letting our anxiety and worries get the best of us. Piano lessons help students learn to accept challenges such as learning a difficult song, as well as to perform pieces in front of teachers, friends, and families at recitals. Lessons also help kids learn the importance of keeping a positive perspective despite difficulties. Learning to handle uncertainty and stress in a way that minimizes anxiety and maximizes creativity is a valuable life tool. We all need practice at this!

5. Piano lessons teach children to persevere.

A key part of accomplishing anything difficult is not to give up easily. As children grow, piano lessons teach kids to try and then try again if they don't initially succeed. However, as Yoda explained to Luke Skywalker, the objective isn't just trying itself, but accomplishing the desired goal -- "Do or do not, there is no try!" Piano lessons teach students how to adjust their expectations if they can't initially master a tough song or skills, and to tackle these big goals by taking small incremental steps. In the end, just like the baby songbirds that eventually learn to sing, students learn that they can accomplish great things and reach their dreams through careful and consistent effort.

Share the gift of music with Piano Bears Musical Storybooks
Kids love my storybooks books that Inspire and Motivate children in piano lessons.

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Whoop-de-Do!

This is a sweet level-one piano duet by Kim Williams. I'm playing this with one of my young beginning students. It doesn't have any words, so I wrote some lyrics for it. My student loved singing along as he played, and was able to keep the rhythm and tempo throughout the piece.

Listen to Whoop-de-do!

Played by Cynthia Marie VanLandingham




Email Me for my lyrics to this piece.

Cynthia Marie VanLandingham
Author of
Piano Bears Musical Storybooks
PianoBears.com

Piano Article: The Piano Parent Trap!

By Cynthia VanLandingham

"My 6 year old daughter really loves the piano and wants to learn to play, but when I try to help her she gets very upset with me. What should I do?"

The parent who asked the above question has fallen into a hole that I call The Piano Parent Trap!

If this is you, you don't have to feel bad. In fact you should be flattered! This is just a problem of conflicting needs. The role of Mom or Dad is very important to the emotional security of children. Your acceptance and approval is everything to them! When parents move out of the parental role into the role of piano teacher, young children can become confused and anxious. The expectations of children are that Mom and Dad will always play the specific role needed to protect their emotional security. Because children must have their emotional needs met to feel loved and secure before they can learn, they may refuse to allow a parent to be "the piano teacher," even when they want to learn. And surprisingly, the child who really wants to play the piano may resist a parent's help even more! So, how does a parent get out of this trap? It's not really that hard. Here are two key things you can do.

1. Find the right piano teacher.

Look for a piano teacher you feel your child will be comfortable with. This decision should never be based solely on location and price -- those are important to your convenience, but they tell you nothing about the lessons your child will receive. You should talk with the teacher to get an understanding of how they will work with your child and the type of programs they offer. You should look for a teacher with a warm enthusiastic personality that inspires confidence, and they should go out their way to say, "I want to be your child's piano teacher!" If upon your interview you don't get this message, keep on looking. Remember, piano teachers are not selling a product, they are the product! The right teacher for your child is someone who will build a supportive relationship that challenges your child to do their best.

2. Be supportive, but don't try to be in control.

From the time your child approached the age of two they most likely have been sending you the same conflicting message over and over: "I need you - Let me do it myself!" Get used to this because it isn't optional and it doesn't really go away when kids get older-- it just comes with the package! There are, however, a couple of options you do have that involve your making a choice. I'll lay it out for you simply. Your choices are between Door Number One and Door Number Two. If you should choose Door Number One, you are in control. If you should choose Door Number Two, you are in charge.

Now you might be thinking this is some kind of a joke -- they are the same door! But not so, they are very different! A Door Number One approach requires you to make all choices for your child without their participation in the decision, such as when they should do their piano practice, what songs they should try to learn, and how fast they should progress. However, because this approach ignores children's need for independence, they will fight for this control - they may actively resist practicing at your appointed time, or could act totally passively and claim that they are just unable to learn new skills.

In contrast, a Door Number Two approach recognizes children's needs for independence but provides needed support and guidance. It allows children to make choices among options you identify for them, which lets them "do it themselves" while still receiving needed protection. As a result, here is your real choice in basic terms: Behind Door Number One lurks a hungry lion, while a happy child and family are behind Door Number Two!

3. Guide your child by following an authoritative, not an authoritarian approach.

An authori-tarian approach teaches power and control. In contrast to this approach, an authori-tative model teaches ownership and responsibility. These differences can be seen in the following descriptions.

Authoritarian approach

• Parent is in control -- child is powerless.

• Child believes parents and other adults are in control them.

• Child believes others are responsible for their behavior.

• Child waits for others who know more than they do to tell them what to.

• Child is passive and does not assert their opinions and ideas or take initiative, or is very angry and acts out! Or, is passive and later becomes very angry!

Authoritative approach

• Parent is in charge of setting appropriate consequences for their child's behaviors.

• Child has the choice to make reasonable decisions within protected limits where they can learn from their mistakes.

• Child learns they are responsible for the consequences of their choices and learns to take initiative and trusts their ability to make intelligent decisions and act responsibly.

• Child learns to be assertive and can ask adults for information and guidance when making important decisions, but accepts ownership and responsibility for their actions and decisions.

How can you start to use an authoritative approach to get out of the Parent Trap and open "Door Number Two?"

An easy way is to reverse roles. For example, after your child comes home from piano lessons, ask them to teach you what they've learned because you want to learn it too! This lets your child be in control as they share their special piano knowledge with you. Kids can't resist this. It's just so much fun to be the teacher, and children love to reverse roles! Your young teacher will probably even correct your playing, and tell you that you're doing it all wrong, especially if you play "their song" perfectly! So, be wiling to make a few silly mistakes that your little teacher can have fun correcting. Just don't get defensive. I can guarantee you'll get a lot of mileage out of this strategy!

Share the gift of music with Piano Bears Musical Storybooks

Kids love my storybooks books that Inspire and Motivate children in piano lessons.


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