First Goals for Preschool Piano Students

One of the biggest traps piano teachers fall into when they’re new to teaching preschoolers is expecting too much of them…or too little. It always seems to be one or the other – nothing in between.

When I began teaching preschoolers, I fell into the too much camp. Not because I had such lofty goals for my students, but mostly because I was worried what the parents would think. 

I realised it was important to get my own foundational goals settled so I could feel good about my students’ progress and educate their parents on what to expect.

This article isn’t about what rote pieces they’ll play, how much we’ll improvise and compose or what their music reading skills should be like. It’s all about the foundational goals that are needed to support those efforts.

So what counts as good progress when we’re teaching 3- to 5-year olds?

If you want to jump ahead in this article, click on the relevant link below:

• First Month Goals
• First Year Goals
• Summary/Comparison Chart

This content was originally written in April 2017 and July 2018. It was updated in August 2026.

Goals for the first *MONTH* of Preschool Piano Teaching

I was so used to teaching 8 year olds who would be playing something parents would recognise after the first lesson – let alone the first month.

And I have had the odd 4-year-old piano student who can do that. Some preschoolers are very quick for their age and leave playing a great little piece of piano music. But that’s not the norm.

When you adjust your expectations (and the parents’, if needs be), you’re setting yourself and the child up for success. Most of the first month of piano lessons with a 4-year-old should revolve around creating a relationship and navigating the piano lesson.

So I now consider the first full month to be laying the groundwork for our lessons together. These are the top four goals that I focus on in that first month with a preschool piano student.

First Month Goal 1: Rhythm Vocabulary

I use resources like my rhythm vocab cards and relative rhythm cards a lot in my preschool piano lessons.

I think that one of the biggest benefits of starting music so young is the rhythm language that kids learn. How many older students do you have that struggle with rhythm? My students who started as preschoolers just “get it”. What a wonderful asset for them to have later on.

By the end of this first month, most of my preschool piano students would be able to identify and chant quavers, crotchets and minims in the Kodály rhythm language (eighth note pairs, quarter notes and half notes).

If they have difficulty with motor coordination they’ll just be chanting at this stage (ta, ti-ti, ta-2 etc.). But if they’re up for it, they might be accompanying this with actions such as claps, stamps and lap-claps.

First Month Goal 2: Groups of Black Keys

For some 4-year-olds, this really is all the keyboard navigation they can handle in that first month.

I would be completely happy if my preschool piano students can play the big and small groups of black keys without the aid of manipulatives (such as my dog and frog cards).

First Month Goal 3: Finger Identification and Independence

What I mean by this is, I want them to be able to waggle one particular finger when asked. Most 4-year-olds will only be able to do this with finger two when they first come to me. At the end of the first month I want them to be able to at least move their finger two, three and one at will.

A big part of how we do this is the Preschool Fingerplays. These are little poems with actions that help with finger dexterity and coordination. There’s even a YouTube playlist of all the Fingerplays so you can send it to parents.

The rhymes are super cute and the kids absolutely adore them. Which makes my job easier for sure. 🙂 

The printable Fingerplays are available to members of Vibrant Music Teaching, but everyone can watch the videos for free. Not a member? Learn more here and join today.

First Month Preschool Goal 4: Imitation

Huh? You thought I was all about creativity and freedom! Why would I want a 4-year-old to learn to imitate first and foremost?!

Well, there’s actually not much that will lead me to say a preschooler is not ready for piano lessons. I know some teachers want the child to be able to sit, listen or stay on the bench for at least five minutes, and I get that. But for me and the way I teach these kiddos, none of those things are an issue.

What is an issue is if they don’t want to make music. I’m all for improvisation, but some 4-year-olds only want to bash the keys. They’re not interested in making the same sounds I did – even when they’re capable of doing so.

Not wanting to imitate sounds after that first month (either vocally or at the piano) is a sign they should wait six months or so and try again. They’re just not ready.

Goals for the First *YEAR* of Preschool Piano Teaching

It can be hard to estimate progress with any piano student, and it’s especially tricky at this early age. However, over the years of teaching many preschool piano students, I’ve come to land on some key priorities for what I want them to be able to do after the first year.

Just as important as the goals themselves is the sequencing of these priorities. As such, I created my Tiny Finger Takeoff course for preschool piano students.

This course takes teachers through 40 weeks of preschool activities and games that they can teach alongside a method book (such as Piano Paintbox) or other work. The plans are carefully sequenced to include the four important areas I’ve mentioned here, and they come from my years of experience with this age group.

The “Tiny Finger Takeoff” course is available exclusively for Vibrant Music Teaching members. Not a member? Learn more and join today to get immediate access.

First Year Goal 1: Keyboard Geography

By the end of the first month, we talked about preschoolers knowing the big and small groups of black keys. But by the end of the first year of lessons (30 – 40 actual lessons) I want my little preschool piano students to know all the piano keys extremely well.

That might seem like a teeny tiny goal for a whole year if you’ve never taught preschoolers before. But this is something that can come back to bite you later if you’re not careful.

So let’s be clear. What “tests” (and by tests I of course mean games 😉 ) should the preschooler pass in the area of keyboard geography by the end of the year?

• Name any key on the piano instantly when we point to it.
• Quickly find a key we specify with any particular finger from either hand.
• Be able to tell us what key is after/before a given key when away from the piano. E.g. What note is a step down from D?

As an add-on to this goal, I like preschool piano students to be able to say the music alphabet forwards at the very least, and backwards if possible.

They will probably be able to do most of this after the first semester with me. But I’ve learnt my lesson through years of teaching preschoolers, and now I make sure to continue to check up on these core piano geography skills for the whole of the first year.

First Year Goal 2: The Staff

During the first month, I don’t even discuss the staff with preschool piano students. And even after their first full year, I don’t want them to be reading fluently hands together on the staff.

That’s not because that’s impossible. It’s because, if you prioritise that goal, you’re going to throw pretty much all the other core skills out of the window.

Remember: it’s about priorities.

What I do want them to have is a basic understanding of the staff including:

• The treble and bass clefs and what they’re for
• How up/down on the staff corresponds to left/right on the piano
• The difference between line notes and space notes
• The difference between steps and skips
• The first 5 landmark notes (in my studio that’s bass C, bass F, middle C, treble G and treble C)

If they know these basic facts, they’re off to a good start with the staff and it’s beginning to make sense to them as a system. This understanding is far more important to me than individual note names.

First Year Goal 3: Aural Differences and Solfa

One of the biggest long-term benefits of starting music lessons at a young age is developing aural skills.

By the end of the first year, I want my students to learn to identify by ear:

• Same vs different
• Short vs long
• Loud vs soft
• High vs low

Most of those won’t be a problem for a preschool piano student to get within the first month or two, with the exception of high vs. low. That one can take quite a bit of practice for some kiddos.

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The next aural skill I start developing with my preschool students is the solfa pentascale. We start working towards this with just do, re, mi and from there we add so and finally la.

I recommend you check out my article on Solfa for Piano Teachers…for Beginners if you want more guidance on including solfa in your teaching.

First Year Goal 4: Rhythm Identification

When we put rhythm at the forefront of preschool piano lessons it means this fundamental skill is never an issue for them. It’s just natural.

Adding on to my list of first month goals from above are single quavers (eighth notes) and dotted crotchets (dotted quarter notes).

You may be a little surprised at my inclusion of these during the first year. The thing is, there’s nothing actually difficult about these notes and how they sound in music.

The difficult part, and I think the reason they’re left for later on in most method books, is understanding the maths. So if we don’t mention half a beat or one and a half beats or exactly what the dot does, we can give our students the experience of these notes much earlier on.

By the end of the first year, my preschool piano student will be able to clap and vocalise patterns using these note values and also to identify one bar patterns of them aurally given a range of options.

And my preschool students love working on rhythm because it means banging drums and boomwhackers and running around the room!

First Year Preschool Goal 5: Technique

This is the hot-button issue when preschool piano teaching comes up, which is why I’ve left it for last.

Technique doesn’t have to be a struggle if you’re teaching all those other skills and concepts in an interactive way. There’s much more to my beginning piano lessons (with every age) than just sitting still and playing five-finger songs.

Technique is only a problem if you attempt to sit a kiddo at the piano with their fingers spread out over 5 keys right from the get-go.

With that said, there is some extra work you need to do with your preschool piano student when it comes to technique.

• Spend longer on finger numbers and the association with the movement of each individual finger.
• Reinforce correct sitting position, bench height and footstool height many times, both at home and in lessons.
• Stick with non-legato for a very long time before introducing legato.

That’s about it for technique.

In fact, technique probably takes the least amount of lesson time of any of these first-year goals – it’s all about small exercises and regular course-corrections.

Summary/Comparison Chart

For those of you who are more visual in nature, here’s a quick-glance summary of my first month and first year goals for preschool piano students.

Do any of these preschool piano goals surprise you?

What else would you add to the list? Share your thoughts in the comments below or in the Vibrant Music Studio Teachers Facebook group.

For more help teaching preschool piano students you can visit our Preschool hub page, take the Preschool Minicourse or check out Nicola’s book ‘Playful Preschool Piano Teaching‘.

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