"Walking In the Air" Piano Music
from The Snowman

This sparkling piano arrangement of the main musical theme from The Snowman will win your students' hearts and imaginations with its beauty. Just in time before the snow starts falling!

What is "The Snowman?"

"The Snowman" is a short classic Christmas movie, that started off as a children's picture book by Raymond Briggs. Definitely worth a watch, and a read!

Howard Blake's exciting theme song, "Walking In the Air," is the background music for the flight to the North Pole of a little boy and the snowman he built. On Christmas Eve, the boy's snowman comes to life, along with every snowman in the world, and they all fly to the North Pole! I have linked to a video of this scene, down at the bottom of this page.

The music sounds harder than it is

Only page one appears in the video, as this is COPYRIGHTED music, available at Sheetmusicplus.com.

So why is it here on my web page? Because I and my daughter are the arrangers of this piece!

Any technical issues playing this piece?

So what about the piece itself? What are the primary difficulties?

Page 1 of the piano solo sheet music "The Snowman Theme: Walking in the Air"

First off, look at that left hand. Your student must have a hand-span of an octave to play this easily.

It starts off as a "broken chord stretch", a technique I explain on my Mary Had a Little Lamb page.

But then on the way back down, finger 3 takes the place of finger 2, enabling the hand to reach VERY HIGH up to the 10th - a G ten steps higher than the root of the E minor chord.

Make them master the fingering

This fingering takes lots of practice! But it is a beautiful chord pattern that your students can make their own. It is used all through page one, then on page two, simpler broken chords replace them.

Page 3 of the piano solo sheet music Walking in the Air from the short kids' movie The Snowman

On page 3, above, things seem to wind down, with a return to the broken chord pattern of page 1 again.

Back to the beginning, up an octave

Then, the music repeats all the way back to the beginning, with right hand playing an octave higher for a bit, until the "loco" at the top of page 2 (not shown here).

I tell my students that "loco" means to go back to the ordinary LOCATION of those notes, coming away from the 8va...

Four times, right hand crosses over and hits a low D. That's FUN. Listen for it on the piano video at the top of the page.

On page 2 (not shown), there is a VERY LOW D - it booms, reminiscent of the splashing tail of the whale in The Snowman video.

The excitement of the video

Watch that part of the movie, below (4 minutes):

And the whole movie (25 minutes), if you wish!

Back to the music...
Broken chord inversions

There is another difficult spot, at the very end of the piece, and also just before the repeat on page 3. Long E minor broken chords alternate, from root position to an inverted position, several times.

Very pretty, but your student may need preparation both mentally and "geographically" to "see" the chords that are happening.

I play the chords all with one hand, but they could EASILY BE SHARED, LIKE THIS:

Check out this lovely piece The Snowman Theme: Walking In the Air at Sheetmusicplus - your students (and their parents!) will be enthralled!

One more video - a charming & amazingly talented young boy, Aled Jones

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!

Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church? Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!

Songs Old & Songs New

All the first-year material I give my beginner students.

Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!

Queen Esther in the Bible

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.

Just the Black Keys

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.

The Adventures of Tonsta

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!

Available at Amazon

About the Author

Dana Thynes

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.

Piano book Songs Old & Songs New, a collection of beginning piano music