Cute Lesson Supplies Makes Kids Want to Practice

8 Nov 2007 Category: Features, Japan, Products

Cute Lesson Supplies Makes Kids Want to Practice

Many Japanese kids have packed schedules. After school they go off to cram schools or private lessons, such as a swimming, English conversation or ballet, and the eternal favorite, piano. How can parents keep their kids motivated through their long and busy day? Why not make their lessons fun with cute and colorful piano lesson goods designed especially for kids? Cute notebooks and twinkling music note stickers make even the most tedious scale practice fun. Today, PingMag would like to show you the fun kids gear we found.

Written by Ryoko
Translated by Rie Ishimi

Music sheet note book

Learning the piano usually starts with learning to read music. But it is very difficult for kids to learn the complicated symbols and marks of musical notation. This cute “Music Sheet Note Book” helps them to learn those symbols and notes in a fun way.

This is the “Butt-biting Bugs’ Music Notebook” released by YAMAHA Music Media. What are “Butt-biting bugs” you ask? They are characters which leaped into fame in NHK’s music program “minna no uta ‘Everyone’s Song’”. They are mischievous bugs that can’t help biting a butt when they see it. Maybe kids can learn difficult notes more easily with these humorous characters…!?

When not busy biting butts, these cute cartoon characters help Japanese kids learn to read music.


The wide spacing between the lines is made especially for kids’ small hands.

The cute little guy in the corner seems to be saying “practice your C major scales or I will bite your butt!”

Lesson Notebook

A piano lesson notebook usually includes sections for “lesson schedule”,”diary”,”written music”,”recital schedule” and so on. Sounds boring, right? Why not make if fun for kids with bright colors and cute characters? There are also place for teachers to leave memos such as “practice the part which you could not play in the last lesson so that you will be able to do in the next lesson.”


Kids start piano early, at three or even two years old. Miffy can be a good pal for young kids at lesson time.

A section for notes and words of encouragement from the teacher. And of course cute bunnies on each and every page.

Read along with Miffy to find out all about music notation symbols and their meanings.

This notebook released by YAMAHA Music Media Japan features “Miffy a character by Dutch designer Dick Bruna that is extremely popular in Japan. Miffy pops up on each page, and kids can also color in the pictures outside of lesson time for more fun.


Of course we couldn’t pass up Hello Kitty! Here the ubiquitous feline shows how fun it is to study.

It is colorful inside, too!

Big illustrations let kids have fun writing around them!

Student or their parents fill in the circles when kids practice at home so the teachers can check on their progress.

You probably know Hello Kitty, an extremely popular character not only with young girls, but also teenagers and even adults. Kitty-chan, as she is nicknamed, appears on over 22,000 products, including this piano lesson notebook byONKYOPUBLISH. The colorful and big characters are designed for small kids who even haven’t been able to speak difficult words yet, much less read music. There are also various kinds of products such as a compact notebook with seals!


This “Music Notebook” released by COOPE shows a giraffe and a trumpet-playing panda on its cover. We wonder what they are playing…

Animals shown inside happily perform music!

Monkey “Music Note” released by COOPE.

You can put stickers on the pages to mark progress.

The “attendance seals” which kids get when they go to lessons regularly, and the “reward seals” they get when they play the piano especially well.

Envelope for payment of monthly lesson fees

Small kids who go to a lesson not only acquire musical techniques but also naturally learn about the regular achievement goals and how to connect with adults through interaction with their instructor. Of course, they can also get a sense of responsibility by passing their instructor the “important money (envelope containing the monthly lesson fees)” which they receive from their parents.

No wonder that an envelope should show a cute character for kids. There are many designs to choose from, such as ones with illustrations of big panda’s face or a cute bee. You can have Snoopy, which kids all over the world love, or a clear plastic envelope. You might need a lot of time to choose just an envelope!

These envelope for payment of monthly lesson fees shows illustrations of Snoopy, a panda and bee. After an instructor checks money inside the envelope, kids get a stamp or signature from their instructor in the blank boxes for each month.

Kids can get 12 cute monkey’s faces staring back at them if they go to lessons for 12 months.

A cute clear vinyl envelope.

Stickers

The important things for kids are “reward stickers” which they can get when they go to lessons regularly without absence or play a requested piece very well. Some kids practice very hard and go to lessons even when they are crying because they want to get those colorful, brilliant and fascinating stickers. How great it would be if we could also motivate adults like this!

How colorful! The stickers which is especially popular among kids are the one with a character like “Winnie-the-Pooh”.

Try putting some stickers on the attendance card. …Well, it might be fun!

And the stickers for the lesson fee envelope.

The last image shows a brilliant note-shaped stickers!

Did you enjoy checking out some lesson goods for kids today? The products introduced here today are sold in music shops all over Japan. If you have a small child who goes to lessons, please make sure to use them!

53 Comments

  1. No one knows how to do cute like Japan. I absolutely love all the miniature note pads and stationary you can get there. Interesting, but not surprising to see all of the characters used in different learning resources. Why have a plain old boring envelope to hand your teacher money in, when you can have something with personality and fun? Nice Article!

    Posted by: Stewy on November 8th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

  2. Totally agreeing with Stewy. No one can outshine Japan in cuteness! Makes me want to go back to my childhood years and pick up piano so I can get those shiny little stickers!

    Posted by: razori on November 8th, 2007 at 8:53 pm

  3. Japanese cute paper products and characters are loved by adults too! I really enjoyed this article. I always recognized the attractiveness of Japanese kid-friendly products, but I never made the correlation that it would have a positive impact on learning for children. Makes complete sense.

    Maybe the US should look into livening up the plain spiral notebooks and texts school children use.
    Maybe the United States should look into livening up the notebooks and texts school many children use.

    Posted by: Karen on November 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

  4. i’m 33 and my previous boss actually would put stickers of kittens on my projects when he reviewed them if he liked them. it was the best! i was totally motivated. if only we could infuse american culture with more of the japanese kawaii culture!

    Posted by: april on November 9th, 2007 at 1:44 am

  5. You could motivate me with those stickers any day! Very interesting article, thanks!

    Posted by: Anna on November 9th, 2007 at 2:27 am

  6. Love it!
    Those note stickers are so beautiful!

    Posted by: Akai on November 9th, 2007 at 7:59 am

  7. These cute designs then, are the sugar that helps the medicine go down? They help motivate the children?
    Sorry to say i’m not a big fan of (what is basically) branding in education.

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