Halloween Songs for Beginner Pianists

The best thing about these little Halloween songs is that they conjure up pleasantly spooky images without being too creepy for young children. Also, it is easy for piano students to succeed quickly (making them feel smart) with this "scary Halloween music" because the simple stories pull them along toward the conclusions with many repeated step-wise patterns.

The first one, Monsters Everywhere, I am offering for free.

$3.75 USD

Ghosts and Goblins sounds like scary Halloween music because of all the half-steps, just as in the Jaws theme song. There are some big steps in the music -- from A to D -- but D is a note even your beginners likely recognize. Then the song repeats the pattern, but landing on the note one step higher than D... climbing, climbing, climbing all the way up to A above Middle C. This song makes a good pattern-spotting and note-reading drill even away from the piano, and with a group of keyboard players. But best of all, it has a great spooky melody!





Candy Night and See the Pumpkins are safe little Halloween songs aimed at children whose parents tend to frown at celebrating Halloween. These songs just celebrate the fun of costumes and candy.



One of my young students liked this quick-success song, Did I See a Witch, so much that he wanted to play it for a Christmas recital. Well, I wasn't going to put that title on the Christmas program, so together we scrambled to invent a new title and words, and came up with something involving Santa and reindeer on the roof! This Halloween song uses lots of repeated patterns and a minor feeling, building towards a surprise quarter rest and a staccato.




There's a Dark House plays with a hidden longing all of us have as children (and even as adults) -- the desire, for some reason, to be scared, but not to be really in danger. We love to have a haunted house somewhere nearby upon which we can focus unspecified fears and suspicion! I think this song achieves this atmosphere, employing many half steps and a tritone in the melody.





Black Cat and Cats at Night are both a little bit harder than some of the other Halloween songs, because of skips, and little chords. However, one of your most timid beginners is bound to want one song or the other because they are about cats!

Cats at Night is really fun, if I do say so myself. The articulation (the "creeping" legato left hand and the staccato right hand chords) make it enough of a challenge for even a Level 1-2 student. In measure 3, the four beats of staccato followed by whole notes in both hands feels like a POUNCE! (Perhaps the cat has pounced upon a mouse.) I like to approach this song as a duet the first practice session, switching LH/RH (left hand/right hand) parts with the student.

At the very end is a glissando. Your pupils will have many imaginative ways they'd LIKE to play the glissando, but I will offer my two bits' worth on how to achieve the glissando spectacularly, with the least amount of effort:

With straight fingers (RH), touch your fingertips to the keys, hand turned so that your palm is toward Middle C, and the back of your hand toward high C. All fingers rest on the same key, sideways (of course, only the longest fingers can actually touch -- the glissando really depends, mostly, on the fingernail of the long middle finger).

Now practice a baby glissando: brush the fingers to the right from an A up to an E. Do it several times, all over the piano. The motion is similar to sweeping with a broom. It is the fingernail, about halfway up the nailbed, that must contact the keys. (Of course, the kids will try to drag the fleshy part of their fingers over the keys, rubbing the skin raw -- OUCH! Keep reminding them, "The fingernails! The fingernails!")

Now "dig" into the A key, stiffen the fingers a little, and drag them LIGHTLY all the way up to a high A. With practice, you will be able to stop on the A accurately, and make it sound.

Aside from the fact that these Halloween songs are going to be hits with your beginner piano students, why should you buy Halloween Theme Songs from me?

* You don't have to download any new software into your computer in order to acquire the PDF for these Halloween songs. I don't know about you, but I detest clogging up my computer with yet another program I didn't know I needed. You just need a version of Adobe Acrobat or another PDF reader, which all computers come with. If you DON'T have Adobe Acrobat or a similar program, then you couldn't download any of my other PDFs either.

* For a little extra excitement, you can pick your own special paper, and print on unusual colors of paper instead of plain white. My students are thrilled when I give them music printed on colored pages, so at Halloween time, I go for darker paper -- as long as the notes can be read.

* The notes and lyrics are nice and big, making reading easy.

* I give you permission to make up to five copies legally of each song. This is a real deal! Ordinarily, one music book, for just one student, will cost at least $5.00, and then there is tax and postage. After 5 copies, please re-purchase the set, or send your students' parents to my site to buy their own copy.

*Paypal, the payment system I use, is a secure and recognized payment system. You can pay by credit or debit card, or your bank account. E-Junkie delivers the PDF document, working as a partner with PayPal...your purchase is guaranteed.

Tip for Printing:

Once you've got the PDF file for the Halloween theme songs, feed just one page at a time, unless you know you have high-quality paper which won't grab extra sheets when being pulled through the feeder.

Get Halloween Theme Music Now

$3.75 USD

Back to Beginner Piano for more printable piano music

Return from Halloween Songs back Home for more free sheet music