Pixie Piano Music Instructions

Pixie Piano is a music game specially designed for kids to learn about the basics of music and rhythm.

Click the green GO! button to start. You will then go into the main game screen where you can see a musical score at the top, a set of built-in tunes in the middle and a part of a piano keyboard at the bottom.

The piano keyboard keys each have the musical note (written in black on the the white keys and white on the black keys) and also a computer keyboard key name in red. You can play a note either by clicking on the key with a mouse or by pressing the computer keyboard key. When you play a note, the musical notation for that note will be shown on the score at the top.

If you want to listen to one of the tunes, you can select the tune using the left and right arrows ( the name will be displayed between them), then click the Listen button. The tunes currently included are "Jingle Bells", "This Old Man", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Lou Lou Skip to my Lou" and "Three Blind Mice". The tunes are simple enough for a complete beginner to learn, but give a good example of changing notes and rhythms.

To play the music game: once you have listened to the tune you can play the copy game. Click the copy button and a piano keyboard key will flash. You have to click on that key and then it will flash the next note in the music. If you manage to follow the whole tune without making a mistake, then one of the Pixies will appear. If you make up to three mistakes, then an X will appear to the left of the music keyboard and you will hear a sound, but you will still get a "well done" message. If you make any more mistakes then you have to start the music all over again! Note: the game only checks if the note (or "pitch") is correct, but doesn't worry about the rhythm. That will be the topic in a future game...