Let's Play Music - Making Musicians

If you haven't seen it yet, our 2026 Student Composition Contest blog post is live! 🎹✨ We are so incredibly proud of the creativity and hard work our piano students put into creating their own original music this year.

​🎶 Want to hear what they created?

Head over to our blog to listen to their compositions, and also check out their sheet music in our webstore! 💻👇

🔗 Read the blog here: https://www.letsplaymusicsite.com/post/student-composition-contest-winners-2026-let-s-play-music-piano-program

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Student Composition Contest Winners 2026 – Let’s Play Music Piano Program The results are in! Join us in celebrating the incredible creativity of our young musicians as we announce the winners of the 2026 Let’s Play Music and Presto Composition Contests. Watch their amazing video performances and view their original sheet music inside!

In the 1️⃣st Year of Let’s Play Music, lines and spaces of the staff take on meaning as children are taught to read steps and skips; ups and downs.

An awareness of how the staff works is internalized before children are required to memorize the letter name of specific lines or spaces.

In the 2️⃣nd Year, intervals and chords are added to staff reading skills as well as anchor note names such as middle B, C, and D.

The 3️⃣rd Year adds the letter names of ALL the lines and spaces of treble and bass clef. Most children are 6 or 7 at this point and are ready for this letter labeling of staff position.

Let’s hear it for age-appropriate staff-reading!

To the dads who listen, encourage, and help make music happen - thank you. Happy Father’s Day from all of us at Let’s Play Music! 🎶💙

🏆 Congratulations to our 2026 Let’s Play Music Composition Contest Winners! 🎶

➡️ Swipe to see the winners!

We're continually amazed by the creativity and musical talent of our students.

Thank you to every student who entered, the parents who supported them, and the teachers who helped bring these original compositions to life.

Choosing winners is never easy, but we can't wait to celebrate these outstanding young composers!

Visit the link in the comments to see the winners play their compositions, and to download the sheet music to their songs as well!

Can playing an instrument actually give you a “smarter ear”? 🧠✨

Scientists at Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory dug deep into how music training reshapes the brain, and the findings are absolutely fascinating!

It turns out that learning to play music isn't just about mastering an instrument—it actually completely fine-tunes your nervous system. Because music and language share the same neural pathways in the brain, the skills developed during music practice transfer directly into everyday life.

According to the research, people with musical training develop a major "musician's advantage":

👂 Super-Hearing in Noise: Ever struggled to hear a conversation in a loud restaurant or classroom? The study shows that while background noise degrades brain responses in non-musicians, a musician’s brain can lock onto target speech sounds with incredible clarity.
🧠 Boosted Brainpower: Playing music acts as a total workout for the brain, significantly strengthening auditory working memory and the ability to focus attention on specific sounds.
📚 A Foundation for Literacy: Because music sharpens how the brain processes rhythm, timing, and pitch, it strengthens the exact foundational skills children need to learn how to read!

Whether you are a parent, an educator, or just fascinated by the power of music, this article is an incredible eye-opener on how music education shapes cognitive development and helps minds thrive.

👉 Want to dive into the mind-blowing science behind the music? Read the full article here:https://brainvolts.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/boxtrx/Strait&Kraus_Mus_Perc2011.pdf

Music brings us together! 🎶 Watch our incredible students and teachers bring the classic "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" to life through smiles, rhythm, and lots of fun. 🌟

See how we make learning music an unforgettable adventure.

📺 Watch the full video here: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-55IOJoowE

Let’s Play Music: "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing" This video is a small collection of some of our incredible teachers...

Childhood development experts generally say that a reasonable attention span to expect of a child is 3-5 minutes per year of the child’s age. That’s the period of time for which a typical child can maintain focus on a given task.⏰

Here at Let’s Play Music we strive to incorporate developmental evidence into our culture and programs. We use evidence like this to make the outcomes of learning more impactful. That’s why our classes are presented in two distinct areas and we move areas several times during class. It resets the attention span and the child enjoys maximum learning! 🎶🎉

📖Source: Murphy-Berman, V., Rosill, J., & Wright, G. (1986). Measuring Children’s Attention Span: A Microcomputer Assessment Technique.

Imagine a 4-year-old sitting at the piano, tapping out simple notes. Or a toddler doodling with a crayon on paper. What’s happening in his brain?

By this age, the brain has already grown to 90% of its adult size — forming millions of connections every second. These early years are when experiences shape how the brain learns, remembers, and interacts with the world.🧠

🎶 When that child plays music, he’s not just making sound, he is strengthening memory, building language pathways, and wiring the brain for creativity and problem-solving!

That’s why we take our Sound Beginnings classes so seriously! Play is the work of childhood and musical play is the most productive work! Find a teacher near you for your child’s best brain work. 👶🏼🧠🎶🥁

Music theory isn't a chore—it's a superpower. ⚡️

Our founder, Shelle Soelberg, sat down with Musical U to talk about how understanding chord theory completely transformed her ability to play by ear, arrange, and improvise.

Whether you're an adult looking to deepen your skills or passionate about early childhood music education, this episode is a must-listen!

➡️ Click the link to listen now: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/seriously-enjoyable-music-learning-shelle-soelberg/

Seriously Enjoyable Music Learning, with Shelle Soelberg - Musical U What if learning music theory was a mind-blowing and immediately-useful experience? Shelle Soelberg from Let's Play Music reveals the key.

Your little musician is graduating from the 3rd-year program... so, what comes next? 🤔🎓

Whether you're transitioning to a traditional private piano teacher or looking for the perfect next step to keep their momentum going, we have some amazing options! In this video, Shelle Soelberg breaks down exactly how to bridge the gap and keep music lessons fun, engaging, and seamless.

Discover:
✨ The 8-Week Student Review Book (built right into your 3rd-year materials!)
✨ The 1-Year Bridge Curriculum (complete with new songbooks, theory workbooks, and play-along scale tracks!)
✨ How to easily transition your graduate to a new piano teacher using familiar terminology.

Don't let their hard-earned skills fade over the break! 👇

🎥 Watch the full video here to find the perfect path for your LPM graduate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lg9fRzD5UE

Let's Play Music: Options for LPM Grads Songbook, Workbooks, Technique Books, Audio Tracks, Flashcards and ...