Snakes Go for a Walk, or
Crickets Go Hopping!
Snakes Go for a Walk, now re-christened "Crickets Go Hopping" by a student with more imagination than I.
These piano music note exercises move up and down on the staff with an occasional skip to challenge students!
Here's the newest version:
Scroll down the page for the links to the free printable PDFs.
This free piano music for beginners is a cute and fun page of reading exercises that get progressively harder.
Every movement is either one step away, or a skip away. Here's a closeup view:
Almost the same as "Snakes," in which the notes move only by steps, "Snakes Go for a Walk" / "Crickets Go Hopping" differ by craftily inserting surprise skips into each set of music notes.
And not too many -- students only have to spot 1 skip (or interval of a third) in line 1, 2 skips in line 2, 3 in line 3... you get the idea!
First one skip, then two, then three, and at last four skips are hidden in the lines of notes. Kids like the challenge of spotting them. The "tunes" are quite un-singable, helping prevent the Snakes/Crickets from being memorized!
By the time kids have played these at home for 2 weeks or so, the exercises are usually too easy to do again... So I assign the page by asking for "Just one a day" to prevent memorizing.
This is important.
You don't want these non-melodies to become tedious, and you want each exercise to demand full attention, so I recommend NOT requiring students to go through the whole sheet every day. And to play each chosen exercise-of-the-day just twice only.
Try these exercises as solos to be performed in group classes, with the other kids looking on.
Another way to add some "pressure" to the game is to set the metronome to a slow speed...most kids enjoy trying to "win" against the metronome by not getting behind.
These little exercises can also be used (with some imagination) with non-keyboard instruments.
You will know at once if your students understand the principle of reading notes, when you give them Snakes or Snakes Go for a Walk (or Crickets Go Hopping!).
The links to the piano reading exercises:
Download Crickets Go Hopping piano reading exercise
Download free printable music notes Snakes Go for a Walk
More songs especially for new beginners:
Black Keys songs - songs set to lyrics and poems, all on black keys!
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!
This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells the riveting story of the time when Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a brave young queen risked her life to save her people.
A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!
This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.
This book is available as a digital download from this site. Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.
It is also available from Amazon as a paperback!
This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!" They will be spending more time at the piano.
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Joy:
I bought your Halloween Songs, wrote teacher accompaniment for some, and performed with 17 of my students in costume at an assisted living facility.
It was a "win-win" situation. The kids and residents loved it and the parents were very pleased with the service aspect of their children's performance as well.
Thank you for sharing these lovely pieces that introduce the minor key in a very simple and interesting way to early elementary students.
Victoria:
This website is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I'm actually a high school student who teaches piano to elementary/
middle school students! Only being in high school and not having an actual job makes it difficult to find good, reliable music to give to my students without having to pay for it.
But this site is a miracle! Almost everything that I give my students to play comes from this site. The sheet music is clean and clear and I, as well as my kids, love it! Thank you so much for everything that you do. It really means and helps a lot.
Alicia:
I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!
I started teaching my kids music and am now teaching others. This is exactly what I was looking for!! Thank you!!
Comments: Do you have a story or a question about music teaching? Share it!
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
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