Colourful Keys is primarily a blog for music teachers. However, this article is part of a series for PARENTS of music students. If you’re a music parent, read on to find out what your preschool child will learn in a ‘Mini Musicians’ class. If you’re a teacher, feel free to pass the link to this article on to parents who are considering a ‘Mini Musicans’ class.
Are you looking for a positive, creative and exploratory first introduction to music for your young preschooler? Well, look no further – you’ve found it in Mini Musicians!
If you’re considering signing your child up for a Mini Musicians group preschool class, you might be wondering what the heck a 3-year-old can actually learn about music. So that’s what this article is about: letting you know what to expect from the program.

Note: ‘Mini Musicians One’ is designed for children 3 – 5 years old. ‘Mini Musicians Two’ is a follow-on course for 4- to 6-year-olds who have completed level one.
Before we get to the nitty gritty stuff, let me just point out that – aside from the specific musical elements they’ll be studying – your child will have FUN! More than anything, we want your kiddo to have a great experience with music as they explore and discover the magic.
The program incorporates piano playing and will provide great preparation for more traditional piano lessons, but it’s beneficial for children who will go on to study other instruments too.
As the kids progress throughout the year, we’ll use fun and games to teach them six components of music.
Music Skill No. 1: Ear Training
Listening is at the heart of all music-making. Good aural skills help students gauge their own sound and balance with others, keep in time and play with a steady pulse.
Thankfully, children are fantastic listeners. After all, how else would your child have learned to communicate fluently in such a short amount of time?
‘Mini Musicians’ uses folk songs from around the world to encourage further development of their musical ear.
They’ll also get to experience and practise using “solfa” (do, re, mi, fa…The Sound of Music, anybody?). This lays the groundwork for exploring scales and musical structure down the road.
Music Skill No. 2: Piano Technique
As we said before, ‘Mini Musicians’ is meant to be an introduction to music for your preschool kid…so don’t expect to have any little Beethovens or Mozarts on your hands.
When it comes to piano technique for preschoolers, it’s all about laying the foundation for healthy and natural piano playing. This is the time when your child will work on piano posture and using their arms, wrists, hands and fingers all together in a healthy way.
Kids in this class will NOT be using all 10 fingers at the piano. There is no rush for your youngster to use all their fingers at the piano; staying tension-free is much more important.
Instead, your child will learn to use a relaxed arm and hand at the piano and what a round hand shape feels like.
Music Skill No. 3: Rhythm
If you’re unfamiliar with musical terms, “rhythm” is all about how you combine longer and shorter notes against a steady beat, or pulse.

You might have heard of musicians “counting” their music. In ‘Mini Musicians’, however, different nonsense syllables allow children to work with rhythm patterns in a much more instinctive way.
‘Mini Musicians’ teachers often gravitate toward a modified version of the widely-used Kodály system of rhythm syllables (you’ll hear a lot of tas, ti-tis and tums coming from these students). Your teacher may prefer a different rhythm syllable system such as Gordon, traditional Kodály, Takadimi, etc., all of which have similar benefits.
Whatever the system, ‘Mini Musicians’ kids will be chanting, moving and improvising their way through rhythm patterns in no time.
Music Skill No. 4: Music Theory
Theory is all about the nitty-gritty of music making. The primary concept covered in the first year of ‘Mini Musicians’ is navigating the keyboard, but students will also explore the concepts of high vs. low, loud vs. soft and same vs. different.
In ‘Mini Musicians Two’, kids start to explore elements of written music such as the staff, up vs. down and even a few landmark notes.
Music Skill No. 5: Improvisation
Improvisation is one of the most important activities for students of all ages to explore the full range of sounds at the piano, but it’s especially important for the youngest students.

Preschoolers are built to play. They need to play to understand the world and to take in the vast amount of skills and information that they’re going to absorb during this stage of life.
In ‘Mini Musicians’, your preschool child will explore four different environments through guided improvisation patterns at the piano – forest, ocean, desert and sky – to engage their creativity and imagination.
Music Skill No. 6: Music Reading
Students in ‘Mini Musicians’ will work with colours and letters to build towards fluent music reading skills, giving them the best chance of success. Your child will absorb important skills like reading from left to right, line-by-line, along with the directionality of notes – all crucial skills for moving into more traditional piano lessons.
Are you ready to enrol your child in a ‘Mini Musicians’ class?
Let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear what you’re thinking, and will do our best to help.
For more like this, check out other articles from our “music parent” series:
- How involved should you be in your child’s music practice?
- Why NOT to Teach Your Child Music Staff Mnemonics
- Help Your Child Develop a Solid Music Practice Habit
- Is your child’s piano practice “right”?
- Why is my child’s piano teacher playing games in lessons?
- Why does my child have piano listening assignments?
- Is your child ready for a piano exam?
- Music Appreciation for the Family
- What Your Child Will Learn in ‘Mini Musicians’
- What Your Child Will Learn in ‘Piano Launchpad’