
Milwaukee Music Teachers Association, Inc.
Piano Olympics - 10th Annual Year!
Our 10th Annual Piano Olympics will take place
on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at WI Lutheran College.

The purpose of this event is:
a. to establish a firm technical base for our students, and
b. to demonstrate that the practice of scales, chords, cadences, and arpeggios CAN BE FUN!
Click here for a history of Piano Olympics
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The Piano Olympics events are divided into three categories:
1. Five-finger Patterns and Scales
2. Chords and Cadences
3. Arpeggios
For each event, the student will be awarded a Blue Ribbon or a Red Ribbon based upon the score made on the rating sheet. The Blue Ribbon is for an outstanding performance and Red Ribbon is Honorable Mention or “good try.” If a student earns the Blue Ribbon, they cannot enter that same event again. He or she has passed the event and must move on to another event. If a student earns the Red Ribbon, he or she may enter that event again next year (with the exception of events 101-116), and in fact must enter again in order to pass that event. When a student earns 5 Blue Ribbons, he/she is awarded a GOLD MEDAL — hence, the Piano Olympics! Students may choose to play any event. There is no prescribed order or requirements other that not repeating an event where they earned a Blue Ribbon.
Piano students need to learn scales, chords, cadences, and arpeggios to be ready for advanced music. As teachers, we need to ask ourselves if we are doing this with each student. One way to help us remember to teach all these very important aspects is to prepare students for the Olympic program and let them be rewarded in a tangible way for all their work. Let your students enter the Piano Olympics and GO FOR THE GOLD!
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MMTA wishes to thank the late Vincent Watkins of Peninsula Music Teachers Association for developing the concept. We have borrowed heavily from their outline and changed and added materials of our own.
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Remember, if you intend to enter students on Olympics day, you must be available to judge, monitor or serve in another volunteer capacity.
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Please download and print the 2023 Piano Olympics Syllabus for your own reference. You will need to download the Piano Olympics Rating Sheet and print one copy, front and back, for each student.