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23 Piano Practice Games for Students of All Ages

Piano practice games are a great way to make piano practice more fun for your students. They can also make the practice more efficient and effective, if done right.

23 Piano Practice Games for Students of All Ages facebook 1

These 23 piano practice games are all fantastic ones to add to your toolkit. They’ll help make your students’ practice more engaging and more likely to get done.

Make sure you walk through the instructions and “practice the practising” during the lesson so your student feels confident following through at home.

  1. Crossing the River Practice Strategy
  2. Bat Bars Practice Strategy
  3. Careful Crab Walk Practice Strategy
  4. Play-Hum-Shh! Practice Strategy
  5. Yoyo Practice Strategy
  6. Echo Practice Strategy
  7. Relay Practice Strategy
  8. Right-Left Reversal Practice Strategy
  9. Imaginary Opponent Practice Game
  10. Loopy-Loop Practice Game
  11. Every X Practice Game
  12. Skip the X Practice Game
  13. The Multiplier Practice Game
  14. The Descender Practice Game
  15. The Countdown Practice Game
  16. Buckaroo Piano Practice
  17. Jenga Piano Practice
  18. Monopoly Piano Practice
  19. Jigsaw Puzzle Piano Practice
  20. Practice Bingo
  21. Practice Hero
  22. Recital Ready
  23. Practice Kit

If you’re struggling to get your students to practise at all, you can find useful info on my Piano Practice page.

Quick and Easy Piano Practice Games

These piano practice games can all be done with no preparation and with (almost) no equipment or special “stuff”. Just read the instructions and give them a try!

Crossing the River Practice Strategy

I’m starting with my ultimate favourite piano practice game. Crossing the River works for almost every scenario and is a fantastic first step in engaging your piano students with a more structured practice routine.

  • Put 3 small objects (pencils, erasers, etc.) on your left side.
  • State your goal for a certain piece or section aloud, e.g. “I’m going to play the 3rd line without stopping.”
  • Play your chosen section of the piece. Once you achieve your goal, move one object to your right.
  • Play it again. If you achieve your goal again, move another object from left to right. If you make an error, move an object back from right to left.
  • Keep going until all 3 objects have crossed to the right bank of the river.

These instructions are also included in the ‘Practice Plays’ set of 12 fun practice games and piano practice strategies, which members can download from the printable library.

Bat Bars Practice Strategy

Memorisation work shouldn’t be reserved only for pieces you want to play from memory. Just utilising their short-term memory in this way can have massive benefits for your student’s retention of a piece and help them learn the music faster.

Practice-Plays-music-theory-game
  • Look carefully at the last bar of your piece/section. 
  • Close your eyes and try to play it.
  • Repeat until you can play it successfully without looking.
  • Look carefully at the second-to-last bar of your piece/section. 
  • Close your eyes and try to play it.
  • Repeat until you can play it successfully without looking.
  • Continue working backwards through your piece/section, bar by bar.

These instructions are also included in the ‘Practice Plays’ set of 12 fun practice games and piano practice strategies, which members can download from the printable library.

Careful Crab Walk Practice Strategy

This crabby piano practice game is a great one to break out any time your student has just one troublesome crease in their piece which you need to iron out together.

  • Choose a sticky spot (a few notes or a chord which you’re finding tricky).
  • Play just this spot, slowly, until you’re feeling more confident with it.
  • Expand your section to include the note before and after the sticky spot. 
  • Play this new section until you’re confident with it. Remember how careful and cautious the crab is!
  • Crab walk again to include another note before and after, then practice until you’re happy with the new section. 
  • Crab walk one last time to include another note before and after, then practice until you’re happy with the new section. 

These instructions are also included in the ‘Practice Plays’ set of 12 fun practice games and piano practice strategies, which members can download from the printable library.

Play-Hum-Shh! Practice Strategy

Audiation for the win! This piano practice game will challenge your student’s knowledge of their piece and gradually train them to be able to think in music.

  • Play the first bar/measure of your piece.
  • Hum the next bar/measure.
  • Think or imagine the third bar/measure.
  • Keep going like this the whole way through the piece!

These instructions are also included in the ‘Practice Plays’ set of 12 fun practice games and piano practice strategies, which members can download from the printable library.

Yoyo Practice Strategy

This little trick helps strengthen reading skills and makes your student think differently about their piece.

yoyo
  • Play the right hand of bar/measure 1.
  • Play the left hand of bar/measure 2.
  • Play the right hand of bar/measure 3.
  • Continue alternating the whole way through the piece.

Echo Practice Strategy

The Echo is a fantastic practice strategy for any student who’s a bit stuck in one position or has trouble navigating the keys.

  • Play a short section or phrase.
  • Repeat the same section up and octave, softer.
  • Repeat it again, up another octave and even softer still.
  • Do this for one section/phrase at a time, working your way through the full piece.

Relay Practice Strategy

You’ll need a partner for this one! You can do your relay sitting side-by-side at the one piano or at separate instruments.

  • Player 1 plays the first bar/measure.
  • Without skipping a beat, player 2 plays the second bar/measure.
  • Continue alternating throughout the piece. Aim to make it sound as seamless as possible.

Right-Left Reversal Practice Strategy

This piano practice game is quite the challenge but also super silly and fun! 🤣

  • Cross your hands over each other to play the left-hand part with the right hand and the right-hand part with your left hand.
  • If this is too difficult at first you may need to do some ‘hands separate’ practice to prepare.

Games with Dice

If you want to make your students’ piano practice sparkle a little more, a simple pair of dice can do wonders. 🙂

Below are a few ideas for piano practice games with dice, but feel free to experiment and make up your own too. There’s no wrong way to randomise with dice and it’s always fun!

Imaginary Opponent Practice Game

This piano practice game was inspired by the book The Practice Revolution by Philip Johnston. I highly recommend checking out the book if you haven’t read it!

  • Set a goal (such as playing through a piece with all the dynamics and without stopping.)
  • Get a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. Write “opponent” on one side and “me” on the other.
  • Roll the dice.
  • Play the piece/section you are working on.
  • If you did not meet your goal add the number on the dice to the “opponent” column. If you met the goal, add the number on the dice to your column.
  • Continue until your score is at least 10 points higher than your opponent’s.

Loopy-Loop Practice Game

Loopy-Loop is a great piano practice game for students who suffer from Start Again Syndrome. If your student has a long piece, you can split it up into 12 sections rather than working with bar/measure numbers.

  • Roll the dice.
  • Whatever number you get, play your piece starting from that bar/measure and create a lap all the way back to that spot. E.g. if you roll 7: start at bar/measure 7, play to the end and then play from the start up to bar/measure 7.

Every X Practice Game

Another wonderful exercise in audiation! Make sure to think the music along with your student so you can see if they’re in time and really hearing each note in their head.

  • Roll one die.
  • Play only every X bar/measure of your piece, thinking the others instead of playing. E.g. if you roll 4: think bars/measures 1, 2, 3, play bar/measure 4, think bars/measures 5, 6, 7, play bar/measure 8, etc.
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Skip the X Practice Game

If your student has fallen into a trap of muscle memory which isn’t quite working out, this is a great one to clear the decks.

  • Roll one die.
  • Play the piece, skipping every X beat. E.g. if you roll 3: play beat 1 and 2, replace beat 3 with a rest, play beats 4 and 5, replace beat 6 with a rest, and so on.

The Multiplier Practice Game

This is one of the best piano practice games for those students who always polish the beginning of a piece more than the ending.

Make sure to work in sections rather than bars/measures if the piece is anything beyond a short beginner one. Otherwise this will be a very long game!

  • Roll one die.
  • Play the first bar/measure or section this number of times.
  • Play the next bar/measure or section this number x 2.
  • Play the next bar/measure or section this number x 3.
  • Continue until the end of the piece.

The Descender Practice Game

I recommend doing The Descender by bars/measures no matter what level your student is at (not in sections.) That way they won’t practice the start more than the end – the result will be more randomised, which is what we want here.

  • Roll the dice.
  • Play the first bar of your piece this number of times.
  • Play the next bar of your piece this number -1.
  • Continue in this way until you get to 1 repetition, then start again at the number you rolled.

The Countdown Practice Game

This last of the dice piano practice games is extra silly and fun! It will provide a great wiggle break for any student that needs it.

  • Roll the dice.
  • Play your piece, counting down (out loud) from this number as you play each bar/measure.
  • At the end of the countdown, get up off the piano bench and walk around it, then jump into the air like a rocket.
  • Sit back down and start another countdown from where you left off.

Games with Other Games

Another great way to mix up piano practice and make it more fun is to use games you have or your student has around the house.

Below are 4 examples with some of the most common games out there. You can definitely get inventive with whatever games you have, too!

Buckaroo Piano Practice

Many folks have an old dusty Buckaroo somewhere at the back of a cupboard. Why not take it out and put it to work in the practice room?

  • Set up Buckaroo beside the piano.
  • Pick out a tricky section of a piece that needs repetition.
  • Every time you play it successfully, place a new object on the Buckaroo.
  • If the Buckaroo bucks, play your section 3 times as a penalty.
  • Continue as long as you’re having fun and the section still needs practice!

Jenga Piano Practice

Jenga is an absolute classic that can be used in a similar way to Buckaroo above.

Jenga
  • Set up a Jenga tower beside the piano.
  • Pick out a tricky section of a piece that needs repetition.
  • Every time you pass the piano, play the tricky section and then take a block from the Jenga tower and place it on top.
  • If the Jenga tower falls, play your section 3 times as a penalty and then rebuild the tower.
  • Continue for a whole week of practice.

Monopoly Piano Practice

You probably have at least 5 different Monopolies in a drawer somewhere, right? Space-Cowboy Monopoly, Salsa Dancing Monopoly and Dublin Monopoly. (OK, you got me, the Dublin one is the only real one. But there really are some pretty obscure Monopolies out there…look them up if you feel like going down a rabbit hole today.)

Let’s put those beauties to use with a Monopoly Piano Practice game!

  • Take out all the Monopoly tokens.
  • Draw a picture of each of them at random points in your piece. E.g. draw a shoe at the start and then an iron in the middle of bar 5.
  • Set up the Monopoly board next to your piano with all the tokens on Go.
  • Roll the dice, decide which character to move and play their section that number of times before moving them forward. E.g. if you roll a 6 and decide on the shoe then you would play from the shoe up to the middle of bar 5 (where you drew the iron) 6 times.
  • Try to get all the characters back to Go within a week.

Jigsaw Puzzle Piano Practice

Any jigsaw puzzle will work for this piano practice game…the more pieces the better for the student’s progress!

  • Pick out a section or piece you want to work on.
  • Spread out the pieces of your jigsaw puzzle on a table near the piano.
  • Find a pair of pieces (just 2!) that join together to start your jigsaw.
  • Now, only add 1 piece to your puzzle each time you play the piece/section.
  • Aim to complete the puzzle by the end of the week!

Printable Piano Practice Games

These more specialised games can be a super fun addition to your practice toolkit. They will require a little forward-thinking on your part to have them printed and ready but it will be totally worth it when you see how much fun your students have with practising using these games!

Practice Bingo

You can find out more about my Piano Practice Bingo in this post.

The basic idea is simple, though! Just make a sheet with boxes and fill the spots with fun and creative practice tasks to spice-up your students’ practice. (You can even use some of the ideas from the quick-and-easy games above.)

Already a VMT member? You can download Practice Bingo instantly from the library.

Practice Hero

Practice Hero is a super fun practice board game that I created for Vibrant Music Teaching members. Members can find my game boards here, or use these as inspiration and make your own by hand with custom practice tasks for your students. 🙂

Not a member? You’re missing out on so much! Discover more about the membership today.

Recital Ready

This is not a general practice game – it’s specific to preparing for a performance.

Take your students on a journey towards an amazing recital or exam with Recital Ready, or hand-make your own with your favourite performance prep ideas.

Practice Kit

The Practice Kit is one of the earliest resources I shared here on the blog and it’s still one of the all-time reader favourites!

Members can download the full kit from the Vibrant Music Teaching Printable Library. Not a member? Learn more about the Practice Kit in this article.

What’s your favourite piano practice game?

Do you have a go-to piano practice strategy or game you use with your students? Share it below and we can expand the 23 games included here even further!

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