How to Sing the Blues

S. Frank Stringham teaches us how to sing the blues.  Includes an accompaniment track plus a fun example, both created by S.  Originally shared on Happy to the Max .

Free Printables!

This mini-course features our most recent free printables and/or resources.  But don't wait too long, because they'll rotate out!  Always 5, there are.  No more, no less.

5 Lessons

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Irish Piano Songs (St. Patrick's Day)

This is a lovely collection of Irish songs arranged for piano.  From easy to intermediate, each song has an MP3 recording and video tutorial.  Available color-coded or in black and white.

You can access it for $8 at Irish Piano Songs , or through our Membership .  (discounted because we lost the video tutorial for "The Mug of Brown Ale".)

11 Lessons

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Metro Gnomes

New!!  Written and illustrated by S. Frank Stringham, these Gnomes will help kids remember the most common tempo markings. Their storyland takes place in a metro station built underground in a fantasy world for these gentle little people. The Gnomes travel at different speeds according to their ability.

You can access this product for $10 at Metro Gnome Station , or through a  Membership .

11 Lessons

Easy

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Beginning Ukulele Lessons

The first lesson is free.

Introducing a video course designed to teach the earliest beginners to play the Ukulele

Brooke takes children from learning to hold the ukulele and tune it to playing several songs with different strumming techniques in video lessons. 

Not only is Brooke a professional musician, but she also has years of teaching experience in Elementary settings and she has a gift for making her instrument engaging and relevant for children.

You can access this product for $25 at Beginning Ukulele Lessons for Kids , or through a  Membership .

22 Lessons

Easy

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My First Piano Lessons

Color-coded piano primer with fun songs. Step-by-step lessons with video tutorials, printable sheet music, and supplemental activities to get budding pianists off to a good start.

You can access it for $25 at My First Piano Lessons , or through our Membership .

23 Lessons

Easy

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Children's Opera by Children

With the help of their musical instructors, children all over are composing and performing their own operas.  I have been involved in this process a few times and was surprised at how simple the process is when I learned with the Cache Children's Choir in Logan, Utah.

  Children absolutely love it- it's a very rewarding process to compose and perform a work, and being involved in the simple props and stage management is a fantastic introduction to the world of theater.

Join me as we explore this process.

5 Lessons

Intermediate

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Board Games

These board games are all especially designed to teach your little ones how to read music. Each of the games are fast-paced and only take a few minutes to play.

You can get access for $7 at Board Games , for $20 in our Adventure Pack Bundle , or in our Membership .

5 Lessons

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Musescore Tutorial

Musescore is an open source program for creating music notation for MIDI and sheet music purposes.  In this course, we'll go over some of the basics to use this free program so you can create your own sheet music, and maybe even compose!

This course was originally ten years ago in 2011, but the instructions have been updated March 2021 for the updated version.  Some of the notated assignment examples look a little bit different because they were made on an older version, but the mechanics and applicable lessons have been updated.

There will be 6 notation assignments when this course is completed.

4 Lessons

Advanced

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The Solfege Train

This is the 2nd-oldest product on our site, and really was the foundational program that began my use of color-coded music for Movable Do.  The Instructional e-book has more than 150 accompanying printables for teaching music fundamentals focused around solfege. (Do-Re-Mi).

Available for $35 at The Solfege Train or through a Membership .

26 Lessons

Easy

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Beginning Rhythm

This is the product that started it all!  This course includes all of the contents of the original "Beginning Rhythm for Preschoolers" released in 2010, and has been updated to include more time signatures, more notes and note combinations, and a 35-page instructional e-book, "Beginning Rhythm".

Available for $10 at Beginning Rhythm or through a Membership .  (A $25 value, but we've decided to lock this one in at the original price to honor our beginnings.)

15 Lessons

Easy

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Crafts and Games

Get your scissors out because you're going to need them! These activities are a fun way to learn about the rhythmic value of notes, basic note-reading, and best of all, a full-fledged note-reading card game!
Available for $7 at Crafts and Games , for $20 as part of the Adventure Pack Bundle , or as part of our Membership .

5 Lessons

Easy

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Solfege Fun

These 5 activities are all especially designed to help children learn to sing in solfege. Each activity is fast-paced and only takes a few minutes to play.

You can access this product for $7 at Solfege Fun , for $20 as part of the Adventure Pack Bundle , or as part of our Membership .

6 Lessons

Progress

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Teacher's Friend

These activities are all especially designed for piano teachers. Each activity is fast-paced and only take a few minutes to play, making them great for supplemental use during music lessons.

You can get access for $7 at Teacher's Friend , for $20 in our Adventure Pack Bundle , or in our Membership .

5 Lessons

Easy

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Library

The Library is a place to find specific songs quickly.  Songs will be categorized by type of song and by instrument.  Beta.

4 Lessons

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10 Counting Games and Activities

These classic counting songs are a great way to introduce counting to children. Use the manipulative printouts to help teach the songs to the kids by ear, or give them the easy sheet music and have them play it!

You can access it for $5 at Counting Games and Activities , or through our Membership .

2 Lessons

Easy

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6-Holed Ocarina Lessons

Learn to play the 6-holed ocarina with our videos and color-coded tablature printouts.


You can access it for $5 at 6-Holed Ocarina Lessons , or through our Membership .

10 Lessons

Progress

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Christmas Piano Music

We have a lovely arrangement of Christmas music arranged for piano.  From easy to intermediate, each song has a video tutorial and color-coded printable to help you start the holiday season with some Christmas cheer.

You can access it for $15 at Christmas Music , or through our Membership .

10 Lessons

Progress

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10 Lap Harp Songs

These songs are really fun.  Regular lap harp music is follow-along too, but our experience is that it is far more fun and instinctive to play over these colors, especially if playing melodies by ear or regular sheet music.

You can access it for $5 at Lap Harp Songs , or through our Membership .

Finger Plays

This classic collection of 18 Finger Plays by Emilie Poulsson and Cornelia Roeske is brought to life with videos, color-coded sheet music, and even a few activities!

You can access this product for $10 at Finger Plays , or through our Membership .

4 Lessons

Easy

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The Mystery At Chord Factory

Something is wrong at the Chord Factory!  Journey with our protagonists as they meet Major Keyes and his little brother Miner Keyes and help them see if they can change the dissonance into something a little more harmonious.
The Mystery at Chord Factory is a chapter story book which teaches how to build and understand the four triads; major, minor, diminished, and augmented.  (Unfinished, and a bit of a cliffhanger.  Sorry, but finishing it is a 2021 priority.)

5 Lessons

Intermediate

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My First Christmas Songbook

This Christmas mini-songbook has five Christmas songs, each color-coded with solfege. Learn to sing the melody in solfege then learn the rhythms by ear. After you are comfortable singing them, try playing them on the piano with our color-coded piano insert! Supplemental sing-along videos are provided for practice.

5 Lessons

Easy

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Child's Own Book of Great Musicians

Thomas Tapper was a musician, lecturer, teacher, and especially an author who specialized in children's books. His "Child's Own Book of Great Musicians" series, written at the turn of the 20th century, is by far his most popular work.  And now that they are in the public domain, we can all enjoy them for free!

Staff Storybooks

Staff Stories are great for teaching children music because it's fun and educational all at the same time. 

Print out the Staff Storybook, cut and fold (as per the added instructions ), give it to your child, then have them fill out the music blanks with the name of the note that it coincides with, and you will have a fun little story.

The Rhythm Family

This is a printable storybook for "The Rhythm Family", which is also featured on Music Land TV .

My Alphabet Songbook

This music alphabet book has a musical concept, instrument, or musical style for every letter of the alphabet, set to poetry, and in large font for early readers. Read below to learn how to make your own homemade book.

Easy

Music Land TV

Music Land TV is a 7-section video that teaches basic music concepts through story telling, poetry, and basic ear training.  Enjoy!

Easy

Song Reader

These songs are designed for teaching sight-reading.  The Song Reader videos and printouts come from the 1914 edition of McLauglin and Gilchrist's "Song Reader", published by Ginn and Company, and now in the public domain. I stumbled across this treasure in a thrift store and it is now one of my favorite music resources. Even so, the text was small and black and white and I believe the videos and printouts I recreated make the materials much easier to digest for children.  (Incomplete.)

11 Lessons

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Boomwhacker Fun

A collection of 14 Americana songs arranged for boomwhackers, great for classroom use! Includes accompaniments for singing, simple melodies and duets.

5 Lessons

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Miscellaneous Theory Collection

There were a few theory videos and files in our old membership area that were never quite developed into more than stand-alone presentations.  Certainly I'd still love to revisit them someday, but in the meantime, you can enjoy them here, on the Island of Misfit, um, Joys.  If/When I do, they may be moved from this course.

5 Lessons

Easy

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Mother Play

Fredrich Froebel, inventor of Kindergarten, wrote “Mutter und Koselieder” (Mother and nursery songs) in 1844, when he was in his fifties. He wrote it for families, and so the daily life of the German family is described in the pictures, verses, games and music from this work. In 1906 his original music was translated into English in the public domain work “Motherplay ”. This is the work we have compiled on this site.

14 Lessons

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Pen