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The Best Encanto Piano Arrangements For Kids

If you’re looking for Encanto piano arrangements for your child, here are some recommendations!

Musicnotes

Mar 8, 2022 • 5 min read

tl;dr
Here are two of the best piano arrangements of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” for young kids to learn:

1. This one is larger print and has note names on each note
2. And this one by Chrissy Ricker has a very small range of notes and is only 2 pages long

If you’d like a few more options and to learn how to sift through search results to find just the right piano arrangements for your kids, keep reading!

“We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no….”

If you’ve seen Encanto, live with someone who has seen Encanto, or teach someone who has seen Encanto, there’s a good chance you find yourself humming this catchy tune throughout the day.

Kids and adults have fallen in love with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lively soundtrack from Encanto.

It’s really common when an awesome new movie with great music comes out that piano students want to learn the music on the piano.

This is a great goal, but it can be really tricky to find level-appropriate arrangements for movie soundtracks. Beginning piano students especially have a hard time finding movie music that is manageable with limited note-reading skills.

Every piano teacher has had students show up to their lesson with music they printed online and are eager to learn. While teachers usually appreciate the enthusiasm and effort to find music, this music is almost always arranged for experienced pianists, not kids.

Let’s take a look at some Encanto sheet music you might find on Musicnotes.com and learn about what to look for in sheet music for kids.

First, let’s take a look at a search for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”:

Be sure to click on “Keyboard” in the top left corner to filter out all of the other instrumental arrangements.

Look at that top result. Under “Scoring” it says “Piano/Vocal/Chords, Singer Pro”

All of this is helpful for a really experienced pianist or musician who can work with a lot of details, but it would be really overwhelming for a child to work on. First, you can see at the top of the page that this arrangement is 14 pages long! That is a lot of music, even for an experienced pianist.

Also, the three flats at the beginning of each line tell us that the song is written in the key of E-flat. Most beginning piano methods don’t teach students how to read in a variety of keys for several years.

The separate vocal line and piano part are also very confusing for young kids. An experienced musician enjoys having multiple lines and parts to read from, but it’s treacherous trying to guide a young student through that jungle of notes.

Bottom line, don’t print out the first thing you find online for your child!

Let’s walk through what else to look for when you search for a song.

The 3rd entry from the screenshot above is also a piano/vocal/guitar arrangement and it’s very similar to the first one. You can skip over that one.

There are quite a few arrangements listed as “Piano Solo.” A lot of these are great arrangements, but they’re definitely not created with kids in mind. They are usually suitable late intermediate or advanced pianists.

The second entry that says “Easy Piano” might seem promising. But, let’s take a closer look:

This is definitely easier than the first arrangement we looked at, but notice it’s 9 pages long. That’s still a pretty huge endeavor for a young piano student!

It also has a pretty large range of notes that many beginning piano students have mastered yet. And, it requires a pretty large hand to reach some of the larger intervals. This arrangement might work for an older student, but not a child in their first few years of lessons.

Let’s keep scrolling and see what else we can find.

Towards the bottom of the search results, there are tons of options with [easy] or [beginner] in the title. There’s a range of easiness there, but you will definitely find some good options among those.

You’ll see some arrangements by Jennifer Eklund and Chrissy Ricker. Both of these arrangers are also teachers, and they do an excellent job of modifying popular music to make it accessible for very young students.

Chrissy Ricker’s arrangement that is labeled [beginner-abridged] is probably the easiest and most manageable of the piano solos.

You can see it’s just 2 pages long. This still might feel long to some kids, but for an eager student who is excited about this song, it’s definitely doable.

It is also written in a very small range of notes that fit really well under small hands. Most of the notes in this song should seem familiar to beginning piano students. The rhythm is also simplified in a way that many beginning students will feel comfortable reading.

The other abridged arrangements by Chrissy Ricker and Jennifer Eklund would be the next in line for easiest arrangements. They do have a slightly larger range of notes and a few more sharps or flats to observe. They would be good for a mid-elementary student who has a couple of years of piano under their belt.

One other arrangement to consider is the one labeled “Beginner Notes” at the top of the list above. Beginner Notes arrangements are notated in larger print and the note names are printed on each note head. This style of notation is really helpful for students who aren’t confident readers yet.

Many Beginners Notes arrangements are written in only the treble clef for the right hand, and there are usually chord symbols for the left hand to read. But, this particular one is notated for both hands using both the treble and bass clefs.

This arrangement is longer, at 4 pages, but since the notation is so large, there isn’t as much to learn on each page.

If you’re searching for sheet music for a student with a few years of experience who is a strong reader, browse some of the other easy options. The best bet is to have your child look with you and ask them if it looks like something they can play.