Free Kids Sheet Music
Dipping Donuts
This free kids sheet music, Dipping Donuts, was inspired by a Faber piano book exercise for flexible wrists.
Easy piano music, it's fun too!
Make a "Donut" or "Doughnut" shape
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Forming a donut (doughnut) shape with thumb and third finger, players press each note using a flexible wrist. They are pretending to dip the donut into a cup of milk.
Kids think this exercise is fun
I wrote Dipping Donuts to help remedy the stiff and collapsed wrist posture young kids so frequently fall into.
To my surprise, many of my students actually LIKE it (that doesn't always happen) and so I offer it to you.
This "dipping donuts" exercise was devised by the Fabers in their cute books for young children. When I have a new student learning their way around the piano keyboard, I ask them to go from A to A, or from B to B, etc. up the piano by octaves, using the dipping motion. More fun! (Check out the paper piano keyboards pdfs here, for keeping track week by week...)
It is a great exercise for a class of kids, because they enjoy the exaggerated flexing motions of the wrist and keeping in rhythm with each other. (We usually sing it together instead of counting.)
Easy reading of Middle C territory notes
Because both hands start on Middle C and the notes are each played twice, this is an easy song to read for any child who can read all the Snakes.
Even the last line, which ventures on down to bass C, is easily read by comparing it to the step-wise motion of Snakes. (You can't have too much review of Middle C. Many students will forget again and again that Middle C is the same note on the piano for both L and R hands. So tell them, over and over.)
The flexible wrist does not come easily
There is usually a tussle the first week or two trying to get the student to really "dip" their donut with a controlled wrist motion, instead of stiff-handedly "splashing" the donut into an imaginary mug of milk.
Also, some kids want to use the 2 and 1 fingers instead of 3 and 1. I insist on 3, because I think it results in a better rounded shape of the hand.
Try this free kids sheet music as a "count-aloud" song and also as a "say-the-notes-aloud" song. More fun if it is done in a group!
The link for the piano music pdf:
Download free kids sheet music Dipping Donuts
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.
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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!
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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