Piano Notes for Beginners
Two Songs

Piano notes for beginners on the staff - two little songs with just two notes each.

For left hand, Middle C and B; for right hand, Middle C and D. These little songs are perfect right after your student has learned what the staff and Middle C look like.

Piano Notes for Beginners, Music-for-Music-Teachers.com

Scroll down the page for the links to the free printable music sheets.

When to introduce these 2-note songs?

These easy little piano songs would be just right after completing Wormies, or to go along with Snakes.

But... it's only 2 notes!

You may think piano notes for beginners will not hold the interest of your young student. Well, it will, for at least one week, when these notes are new. After that, think about giving them Sharks.

Very easy piano songs for beginners, Music-for-Music-Teachers.com

How easy are little songs like these for beginners?

There are more skills involved in reading just two notes than you think.

The last student I gave "C & B" to played it all week at home with the right hand instead of the left. And why wouldn't he?  He is right-handed.

Everything is new to beginning students

The grand staff is a new thing to him, and he is not yet a reader.  

I can write "Left Hand" - LH - or even draw a little hand diagram above or below the staff (the best idea!) at every lesson, and he may not "see" them!

So more reinforcement is needed

When I saw that he had used the wrong hand at home, I quickly decided it was time to play the "Right-Left" game. Here's how it goes:

Big movements - a break from finger work

We push away from the piano a few inches so we don't whack our hands on the piano, and I try to fool the students as we each slap our right or left hand while I say,

"Right! Left! Top! Bottom! High -- Low. Treble -- Bass.Up! Down!"

All those directions are for either the right or the left hand.

Trying to trick them is fun for both of you

Then, I mix the directions up. Eventually, the student will slap - or even just lift - the wrong hand, and they will smile.

Then I elevate my two hands to the music, right hand above the left, and say, "Top", indicating treble clef, and "Bottom," indicating the bass clef.

A nice quick break in the lesson

This is a fun game to break up a piano lesson any time your young student has been sitting and focusing too long!




The links for the two-notes songs:


Download piano notes for beginners for left hand


Download 2-notes piano song for right hand




More songs especially for new beginners:

ABC & CDE - Two little 3-note songs focused on the Middle C area, one for left hand and one for right

Black Keys songs - a whole page of songs set to lyrics and poems, all on black keys!

C&B  & C&D - Left hand, then right hand, play little songs with lyrics that make them fool-proof.

Dueling C's - a short song with 3 notes: B, Middle C, & D.  The thumbs of each hand are "fighting" for the Middle C - but the music makes it plain which hand really owns it.

Fuzzy Wuzzy - this song is about a bear that WASN'T fuzzy.  Quarter rests form part of the action! One-handed & two-handed arrangements.

Indian Dance - Though it sounds powerful (and even difficult with an added repetitive chord in left hand), it is very intuitive and repetitious, easily conquered in several lessons.

Jingle Bells - Is there a child who doesn't know this happy tune?  Its repeated notes make up for the "tricky" skips in the melody - plus there are lettered notes in some of the arrangments!

Lavender's Blue - this pretty song forms part of the drama of Cinderella's rescue by the prince in the newest Cinderella movie with Lily James...  little girls love to play this song!

Mary Had a Little Lamb on the white keys - even adults benefit from having this tune "in hand" - later they will learn much about using chords from simple little songs like this.

Music Alphabet Song - from A,B, & C in the left hand, through C, D, E, F, & G in the right hand, this song travels scale-wise through all the notes, to help a logical thinker conquer this concept.

Ode to Joy - like Mary Had a Little Lamb and Jingle Bells, this melody is well-known, and starts with finger 3 on E.

Peck! Peck! Peck! - a "shared-hands" melody, this cute song about chickens pecking on the ground to find their breakfast only moves by steps.

Pizza Please - Using just 3 notes, this song for left hand or right hand is actually Hot Cross Buns in disguise.

Sharks - Wait until kids have started working on the treble and bass clef with this dramatic 3-note song.

Snakes - the next step after students have conquered Wormies, this more intricate set of exercises is longer, with smaller note heads, but still moving just one step at a time in either direction

Snakes Go for a Walk - More exercises like Wormies and Snakes, but with "skips" hiding amongst the steps in each line.  Line 1 has one hidden skip; line 2 has 2 hidden skips - you get the idea!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - this song is so familiar that children will conquer it easily, especially because it moves by repeated steps.  Excellent for memorizing and transposing.

Wormies - This little set of exercises asks beginners to choose ANY white key, and then decide whether to move up, down, or stay there, by looking at the next note.  EASY.







The Adventures of Tonsta, Volume 1, is a book about a young boy travelling over mountains and fjords from village to village, encountering trolls and helping folk in distress.

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.

Available at Amazon!




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Swan Lake music book by Piotr Tchaikovsky

Cheri in Vancouver, BC:
I was looking for sheet music for She Moves Thru the Fair since I'm beginning both mandolin and uke. I got far more than I bargained for reading your notes on this one song. Very insightful.

John Schaum's Teaching Little Fingers to Play (the piano!)

Cheryl:
AMAZING site! Helps me a lot as a music teacher too. I'm a violin and piano teacher, and I think this is an incredible site!

Patriotic Songs for Piano MADE EASY sheet music

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