Musical Hues

This is not a colouring book. It's a journey of music discovery.

Each page contains an abstract music instrument that will be revealed as you follow the trail of music symbols.

Not only will you be creating beautiful artworks in these colouring pages, you'll also be learning music theory along the way. Look up each term and learn a bit about it as you work through. When you're finished try to guess what the instrument is and find out about how it's played and how it sounds too!

A note to teachers

The concepts in these colouring pages cover a wide range of learning levels - I wouldn't expect many students to know all of them. I hope you'll use this book as more of an exploratory tool than a "test" or "check-up" on what students already know. Even if your student doesn't know the word accelerando when they finish colouring the sheet, it's sure to sound familiar the next time they hear it.

Musical Hues would be perfect to keep in the waiting room at your studio, to give to siblings when they're sitting in on a lesson or to send home over teaching breaks. Encourage your student to try and guess what the abstracted instrument is before and after they colour it in. Look up the instrument to see what it sounds like too!

A note to colourers

You may come across music symbols, notes and marks that you don't know yet in the course of colouring this book. That's totally fine - you can't know everything! I encourage you to look these up as you go and find out a bit about them. Ask your teacher or parent if you're not sure exactly what the definitions mean.

You might also come across some colours you've never heard of (maroon, anyone?). I've been quite descriptive and specific with the colour names so that your creations can really come to life when you're done. If there's a colour you don't have on hand, you can always make it with a bit of experimentation. For example, if you look up maroon and learn that it's a sort of red-purple colour, try colouring lightly with red first and then going over it with purple. If the instructions call for 3 shades of grey but you only have 2, you can create a third by colouring very gently for the lighter shade and more heavily for the darker shade.

And, finally, a note about your tools. I recommend using either colouring pencils or crayons, rather than markers. If you are going to use markers, make sure to put a spare rough sheet of paper underneath the page you're colouring so that it doesn't bleed through and accidentally colour in the page behind it.

A note about me

If you're reading this in certain parts of the world, you may have noticed one thing about me already: I spell the word "colour" wrong. No, it's not a typo. It's because I live in Ireland and that's how we spell it here - promise!

Aside from spending my time putting "U"s back where they belong, I teach piano to delightful children and adults in my home studio in Dublin. I also run a site called Vibrant Music Teaching that helps other music teachers and their students have more fun while learning about music together through creative resources and games.

I really hope you enjoy this book and I would simply love to see your colourful creations when they're done. Post a photo on Facebook or Instagram and tag me @ColourfulKeys so I can see how you put your own creative stamp on it. Have fun!