About Piano Olympics
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!
The Piano Olympics events are divided into three categories:
1. Five-finger Patterns and Scales
2. Chords and Cadences
3. Arpeggios
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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.
Please download and print the 2024 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.
Piano Olympics is 10 Years Old in 2023!
On the 10th anniversary of Piano Olympics, we thought it fitting to highlight a student who has been with us all the way. Ethan Vu, a senior at New Berlin Eisenhower, has participated in Piano Olympics since 2014. In our inaugural year, third-grader Ethan dipped his toes in the water by entering in just two events—white major 5-finger scales and white major tonic triads. When he successfully earned his blue ribbons, he was encouraged to try for more the next year. As a fourth grader, he passed three events. Along with the previous year’s two events, he was now up to five passed events. This Ethan earned his first gold medal. From that point forward, Ethan was hooked. Each year he entered 5 events (the maximum number allowed) and each year earned blue ribbons and a gold medal. He even earned 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45-point pins, an incentive designed to encourage older students to continue with Piano Olympics and master more piano skills. Over the course of these past 10 years Ethan has progressed to learning all major events (scales, arpeggios, chords, and cadences) and most of the minor ones (natural and harmonic scales), not to mention inversions, dominant sevenths, and diminished chords. When asked what he likes best about Piano Olympics, Ethan said, “I like the way Piano Olympics makes learning technical skills fun.”