Piano theory worksheets give kids the extra practice they need to master the musical concepts and become proficient musicians. When you help kids really understand their theory, learning new songs is easier and kids are better able to enjoy themselves at the piano.
Here you’ll find a collection of free printable piano theory worksheets. Watch the video to see a quick introduction of the worksheets. Then click on an image to print the worksheet for free.
The young beginner will need reinforcement as she learns the finger numbers. I’ve found that young children often mix up their finger numbers when they are first learning. When you use this activity often to help kids know the finger numbers, learning new pieces is easier for those little ones. Just click on the image to print this piano theory worksheet for free.
These piano worksheets have a fun cowboy theme and kids like the bright colors. You can print these for free to help piano students practice identifying the piano keys. Kids just look at the highlighted key and then write the letter name in the box beneath the keyboard picture.
Kids love creating their own songs! In fact, I’ve often observed that kids will practice their own compositions more than their assignments from their method books. While I still want them to learn the pieces from the method books, practice is practice, and I love seeing kids spending a lot of time at the piano and getting excited about music. Even young kids can be successful at composing piano music, especially when you give them fun printouts like this that give them simple, easy to follow parameters. You can find lots more free printable piano composition worksheets here.
Kids need lots and lots of practice to be able to quickly identify the notes. When you think about it, you realize that they are actually learning a whole new language. Sometimes we teachers can forget how much effort is required to learn the notes because we’ve been proficient at note reading for so long that we may not even remember how we learned. A major reason that kids drop out of piano is that learning new pieces is frustrating when they aren’t fluent at reading music. You can help your students learn their notes with fun worksheets like these. On this website, there are many more free printable treble clef worksheets and more bass clef worksheets that you are welcome to use. When your students are fluent note readers, learning new pieces is easier and more fun for your students.
This worksheet has been a very popular download from my blog. Piano teachers like it because kids often draw the stem incorrectly when they are composing songs or completing theory assignments. There aren’t many fun worksheets out there that isolate the skill of correctly drawing the stems. This worksheet is fun because you can use it to teach the concept to a beginner, or you can make it into a fun game for a student who knows the stem rules but needs extra practice. To make it into a fun game, you have the student start at the base of the pyramid and race to correctly add all the stems up to the top. Use a timer to record how long it takes them. You can then revisit the worksheet and challenge the student to beat their previous time. After a few rounds with this game, you’ll notice that your students no longer make errors with their note stems.
These worksheets will help you teach your students about half steps and whole steps. Students will need to understand how to identify and count half and whole steps when they start learning more advanced scales and chords. And the more cool chords they know, the more fun they can have creating their own music at the piano!
There is one worksheet that asks kids to identify half and whole steps on the piano keyboard and one that gives them practice identifying steps on the staff. I like to introduce this concept using the piano keyboard because I think it’s easier for kids to visualize. Then once they “get it” students can start practicing identifying half and whole steps on the staff.
The circle of fifths–this tool is vital to all intermediate and advanced players. Knowing how to use the circle of fifths makes it easy to learn key signatures and improvise at the piano. Use the worksheets from this site to give your students practice with the circle of fifths. They will forever thank you for helping them master these concepts. For more circle of fifths worksheets, click on the link.
Rapid recognition of music intervals is another step towards fluency in reading music. All it takes is practice to help kids learn their intervals. Once kids are pretty good at note identification, you can help them practice intervals at every lesson. Use fun activities and worksheets like the ones on this website and you’ll notice a world of difference in your students’ piano playing–especially in their sight reading abilities.
You can use these piano theory worksheets to help your students better understand the theory behind their piano scales. I like that these worksheets use both the notes on the keys of the piano keyboard, and I think students learn better this way. To complete the assignment, students are first asked to look at the notes on the staff and color in the corresponding keys on the keyboard diagram. There are white spaces on each black key so that students can color when they need to use black keys. Once they’ve got the scale diagrammed on the keyboard, they can easily see the whole and half step pattern. Students are asked to mark the half steps in the scale on the staff with a slur and then draw a whole note for the tonic in the last measure.
Here on this website you’ll find lots of tools for ear training with kids. Ear training is so important, but many teachers neglect it–either because they don’t know how or because they struggle to find the time. This website gives you tips and training to help with both of those issues. Ear training is an important aspect of developing the whole pianist, so be sure to reserve time for it at least once a month. You will really stand out as a teacher when you do this and your students will be much better musicians. The Bees Go Buzzing worksheet featured here will helpyou practice rhythmic dicatation with your students. For more ear training worksheets, click here.
Hope you enjoy these piano theory worksheets. Click on the link to see the complete listing of all the music theory worksheets on this site. You’ll find a huge selection of fun, free printable worksheets to help your piano students. Be sure to check out the fun holiday worksheets at the bottom of the page.
I have discovered that kids respond well to colorful printouts and that using worksheets has dramatically improved my students’ understanding of music theory concepts and their performance on on piano theory exams.
Don’t be afraid to reuse a worksheet with a student, either. Some of these concepts, like note identification, the circle of fifths, and music interval identification require regular and consistent practice in order for students to become proficient. You will find that when you take the effort required to help your students master these concepts they become better piano players.
I’ve got lots more resources on this site, so be sure to check out the piano improv ebook which teaches fun and simple activities that kids can use to create their own improvised piano pieces (they love this!), the resources for teaching kids how to play the piano by ear, the piano composition worksheets and the piano teaching resources.
Which is your favorite worksheet and why? Are there other fun activities you like to use to teach music theory to your piano students? Leave a comment below to help out the other piano teachers in our online community.
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Thank you so much! Great worksheets for teaching students. Just wondering, do u have and worksheets on which way stems go or counts and rests
Thanks, Lily! I’m glad these worksheets are helpful. Check it out my big list of music theory worksheets here: https://www.myfunpianostudio.com/music-theory/music-theory-worksheets/ and for stem rules you can try “No More Frankenstems: https://www.myfunpianostudio.com/Halloween/Frankenstems_Halloween_Stem_Rules_Music_Worksheet.pdf
Your ideas are awsome. Thank you for these worksheets. It really helps my daughter who is a beginner in pianoI’m trying lessons out on my very first student. He is about 18 yra old. Had lesson before, but i dont know where to start. I hope I can figue out his experience through these worksheets! Thank you. I’m nervous to start teaching. I dont know where to start.
SO GREAT. Thank you so much. I’ve had to switch gears with a young student and thought to have more worksheets for each lesson, hopefully to help him really remember some of these base rules of music.
He will most likely not be psyched to have more homework BUT I’M THRILLED.
Helloo! Thank you for so many creative music learning sheets! I am teaching my own children piano because they cannot start a lesson at the moment due to the pandemic. This way of learning is so much more fun than in my time when music learning was quite boring sometimes.
Best worksheets on the internet! I have used some of all of the categories! Great job!