The Making of a Star

(58 customer reviews)

$9.99

The Making of a Star is big, bold, beautiful and sounds much more advanced than it truly is!

The Making of a Star bundle

For more savings, click here to buy the discounted bundle!

Studio Use License – This single piece comes with a studio license and is a fantastic value as this can be used for as many students as you directly teach!

  • Level: Elementary
  • Pages: 5 pages, 3 pages of music, cover included!
  • Style: Big, bold, and beautiful
  • Format: PDF instant download

The Making of a Star is carefully composed to make all ages of elementary piano students sound accomplished, feel amazing, and develop confidence. This easy elementary piano piece will knock the socks off your students and their listeners with its big, grand gestures.

How to teach The Making of a Star

The main theme of The Making of a Star is in a comfortable C position. The introduction, interlude, and ending can easily be taught by rote. Just tell your students to put their left hand in C position and then their right hand on the note just to the right of their left thumb. It’s actually even easier to play these two sets of 5ths than two C position fifths since the thumbs of both hands are right next to each other!

The Big, Bold, and Beautiful Series for elementary students

The Making of a Star is part of the Big, Bold, and Beautiful series for elementary students. These pieces are carefully composed to:

  • Inspire students who are in their beginning years of study
  • Appeal to kids, teens, and adults
  • Make students sound as good as their older peers who have been studying longer
  • Motivate them to continue with piano because they love their music

Other pieces in this series include:

“My beginners feel like concert pianists!”

That’s what Melissa Willis and others have said about The Bold Escape and A Royal Invitation, two of the other pieces like this one! Another comment from Jeananne says it all is:

I am using The Bold Escape, Amazing Grace, and Royal Invitation with my beginning college students! Mostly young men, and they LOVE them.

Get all 3 at an even better price!

The Making of a Star bundlePurchase these 3 most popular big, bold, and beautiful pieces at a big discount!

58 reviews for The Making of a Star

  1. Keri Salustri

    This is exactly the type of piece I’ve come to expect from Wendy Stevens! It’s another “winner”! It has everything my elementary students will be excited to learn: Big, bold sounds, moving in different octaves of the piano, holding the damper pedal down and a great “advanced” sound, while still tangible at the elementary level.

  2. Rebekah Trevelise

    My students LOVE Wendy’s pieces like this and gobble them up as soon as she releases them! The BIG sounds created and played all over the keyboard in “Making of a Star” are always big hits for beginners!

  3. Debra Carlson

    My students love the sound of this piece. They are reluctant to take it on as a project though, because it sounds so hard to them! Once they get started though, and see how easy it actually is ( I’m teaching the “hard” parts by rote), their eyes just sparkle! They love it!

  4. Anna Fagan

    This is the perfect “hybrid” piece! The beginning and ending sound SO impressive, and can easily be taught by rote. Intervals no larger than a 5th, so perfect even for small hands. The middle provides a great note-reading opportunity to review the three Cs — bass, middle, and treble — and has just enough half notes to keep a young reader’s attention to rhythm intact.
    I have given this to several 1st year students already — as young as 6, and as old as 16! Loved by all. Thanks for another winning piece, Wendy!

  5. Karen Hess

    I like to start out the new year with what I call dessert music. This was the perfect one for my level one beginners. They have all come back with a really good start on it because of their enthusiasm to play this.

  6. Tamara Rutgers

    A great teaching piece for fifths and octaves, with “easy” parts in between to encourage them. Love the simple patterns that reinforce both note reading and interval reading.

    And a great fun piece for beginners of all ages because it sounds so bold and sophisticated!

    Additionally, the studio licen$e i$ $uch a practical budget stretcher so all my beginner students can enjoy Wendy’s creations!

  7. Elaine

    I love this piece and can’t wait to share it with my students next week, when I begin the teaching year again. The chords are beautiful, and the piece is written in such a way that even young students can play it, and hear that they are making beautiful music. The kids will love this song! Thank you Wendy for another wonderful composition. Your music is always a hit with the children, and also with the parents.

  8. Louise Frye

    The Making of A Star is a great piece for students who have difficulty reading and require learning mostly by rote.

  9. Helen

    The Making of a Star is another great rote/read pieces, with the special Wendy touch. Because of the affordable studio license, I’ve given this piece to several students. They all love it! When they see how easy the beginning and end are by patterns, they easily read the remaining sections. And parents (and grandparents) are so impressed!

  10. Carol DuBe

    We love this piece in the DuBe Music Studio! I gave it to a student who is not too advanced but wants her pieces to sound that way! She is delighted with it! And the title adds to the intrigue! Another winner, Wendy! When the student plays it, she is thrilled with the big sound and motivates her to practice it more!

  11. Kerry

    Wendy’s compositions are always people pleasers, and this one is no exception! Students who have played her other big, bold pieces are delighted to have another. Full of easily recognized patterns and short melodic motives, “the Making of a Star” gives your early students an opportunity to sound as impressive as your older ones.

  12. Judy Owens

    I gave this piece to several students and they loved it. They practiced it and had it ready the first week. I correlated giving this piece the week of the solar eclipse and it was very appropriate. This is one that students will continue to play for fun.

  13. Judith

    The Making of a Star, with its open fifths, repetitions, imitations and sequences is big and bold and quickly grabbed my students attention to memorize it! So far two of my student have done so; a young lady with serious low vision and a sixteen year old beginner young man transfer student who didn’t want to play beginner pieces.This is truly music they love! Keep them coming, Wendy! Dr. Judith S. siegel, NCTM

  14. Lois

    My students love Wendy’s pieces! I decided to give The Making of a Star to a first year student who has been excelling and is very motivated to try challenging music. His eyes lit up when I played it for him and he was excited to begin! I can’t wait to see his first week’s progress!

  15. Kathy Schopp

    I think this a beautiful piece. I enjoyed playing it myself and look forward to introducing it to my students for the next recital cycle. I think they will enjoy it.

  16. Alice Lyle

    I am so excited to introduce “The Making of a Star” this afternoon to my boy student today as he returns for this coming year of teaching. It is a stellar piece, and sounds harder than it is! I know my student will like it very much. The interlocking 5ths are fun and as they cascade downward in m.34 as single notes (5ths), it sounds very very impressive. It is definitely a 5 star rating!

  17. db

    BIG! DRAMATIC!
    Those are two fantastic words to describe this piece of music. The introduction is simple enough to teach by rote and the students enjoy the rest of the piece. I love getting to teach this piece of music.

  18. Susan

    When I gave this piece to my second year student his eyes nearly popped out of his head! He is thrilled with the big sounds and imagines the galaxy as he is learning it. I told him to pretend he was accompanying God as God created the planets and stars. He is very motivated because of the grandness of the piece. Thank you, Wendy. How well you know these young students’ minds!

  19. Elizabeth

    This beautiful composition has my late-beginner level students so excited to hear themselves make such big-sounding, atmospheric music that is yet so accessible to play. So glad to have added this to my teaching repertoire. Thank you, Wendy!

  20. Barbara Glenister

    I love finding rote pieces and this one is great. I have also used it to teach or reinforce low C, bass C, middle C and treble C. My 6 year olds, 16 year olds, and even 46 year olds love it. Barbara

  21. Caren

    Caren
    So melodic. Sounds hard but plays EASY. Just enough of a stretch for the beginner to feel confident.

  22. Priscilla

    great piece for beginning students and it makes them feel like a star on the piano!

  23. Valerie

    Best way to see starry-eyed elementary students!!! ⭐️ ???? ⭐️ ???? ⭐️
    Love, love, LOVE this piece to expand the musical palette of the elementary student who traditionally plays in C position.

  24. Cheryl Kendrick

    Wendy, thank you so much for another student’s favorite piece. We introduced it near the lunar eclipse. The kids are having a great time reading, counting, and learning the very grown up introduction which repeats midway through the piece. Excellent writing, Wendy, as is your reputation. Cheryl

  25. Martha Marks

    Wow! What a way to start the new piano season. My students are alive with enthusiasm and activity. I purchased “Making of a Star” recently and let several students begin working on it when the piano season started. They loved it and are ready for more. One student said ” It makes me feel like I am playing hard music.” I am enjoying the song because the students are happy and practicing a lot.

  26. Monica

    Perfect piece for motivating/confidence-boosting kiddos!! They feel so accomplished after they play the dramatic octaves. Thanks again, Wendy!!

  27. Catherine

    I gave this piece to a 9yr. old boy who has studied piano for 6 months. I like the beautiful sound of the 5ths which are easily taught by rote and that the melody, exchanged between hands, a beginning student can easily read. This big sound is so exciting and motivating for him. The pedal held down throughout is another wonderful feature . He can hardly wait to perform it on Oct.2nd.

  28. Elizabeth

    Another fantastic piece by Wendy. There is always great excitement in my studio when a new piece is released! I have children from age 8 to retired people in theirs 60’s and beyond absolutely loving this one. Well done Wendy!

  29. Irene

    My students and I love love love this piece. It is everything Wendy says. My students are able to draw on inner emotions with ease to espress this and the other fantastic pieces from Compose Create. I am looking forward to our local Eisteddfod where many of the pieces played by my students will be from Compose Create. Thank you for following your dreams Wendy and helping to create others.

  30. Holly J. McCann

    Terrific piece for a 7th grade beginner (1 yr of lessons). She thought it sounded very impressive! Looking forward to trying it with some of the younger ones too.

  31. Alayna Halling

    I love the repeating themes which make this piece easy for beginners to learn and to memorize…BONUS-they get to play a “BIG” piece with their little hands 🙂

  32. Claire

    Wendy’s music is fantastic! My students enjoy every piece she composes because they make them feel and sound so accomplished!!

  33. Rebecca

    This is definitely a winner in my studio! It has a beautiful sophisticated sound with the rich chords covering the keyboard in octaves. My little 8 year old guy is so proud of himself when he plays this. And listeners are very impressed.! Love this!

  34. Lois

    I need to write a follow-up to yesterday’s comments on The Making of Star that I gave to a motivated first-year student. I assigned the first page. Today he came with all three pages learned and memorized! He worked so hard to learn it because he absolutely loved this piece. It made him feel really good to move all over the keyboard. Thank you, Wendy. He really became a star today!

  35. Heather

    Heather- September 13, 2017
    This piece is fantastic for an older beginner who is motivated. It makes them sound really great at a concert. I asked my student how she felt about “The making of a Star”. She said” It sounds really good, like it is in outer space. The composer is “awesome”. Love it, it’s very successful. Heather

  36. Kim

    This is one of the first songs I’ve bought from Wendy. I have been enjoying using her cup rhythm materials. Now I’m a fan of her music also! I have not yet given this piece to anyone but will soon. I can only imagine how this is going to be received-with great enthusiasm and joy in playing such a wonderfully big sounding song at an early level. It is just beautiful and I can’t wait to share it with some students.

  37. Phyllis

    Wendy has done it again!!!! I gave this piece to 2 of my students this week and they were both so excited!!! They had both enjoyed “Bold Escapes” previously and commented that they love how this new piece sounded so BIG as well. This piece is MAKING STARS in my studio.

  38. Gayle

    I have given this piece to three students to begin their year. A transfer student who needs to work on the technique of a weighted arm, a 3rd grader who has really struggled with reading and is encouraged to learn sections of this piece by rote, and an older beginner who is working on the interval of a 5th without a collapsing fifth finger. Thank you so much, Wendy, for this bold and beautiful piece that uses the entire keyboard and teaches so much in such a delightful way.

  39. Louann

    I am looking forward to introducing this piece, “The Making of a Star.” You can never go wrong with one of Wendy’s pieces. She knows what students love and is very skillful at presenting pieces that combine rote learning with note reading. Students will enjoy learning this and parents will enjoy hearing it being practiced. What more could you want?

  40. Jeannine Zwiebel

    This is another great piece that sounds more difficult than it is. My students love her music. It ranks at the top. Bold Escape and Royal Invitation are awesome too.I highly recommend this piece for elementary level. Especially for older beginners!

  41. Jahn Crews

    Wendy Stevens has done it again with her new composition, The Making of a Star. With a combination of rote and note reading that offers a big sound by playing sets of 5th’s hands together that move up, up, up interspersed with an easy to read melody played hands alone. This is sure to be another one of Wendy’s “pieces that kids love”!

  42. Daphne Mischke

    I was excited to give another great piece to one of my beginner students. They love it!
    The Making of a Star is teachable by rote and sounds much more advanced than they’re usual pieces.
    The repeated note and rhythm patterns and use of the full keyboard help in teaching the black/white key connection and many other important techniques. This piece has a dramatic, big sound.
    We have added lyrics to this piece, as well as, A Royal Invitation and sing along during lessons!
    I highly recommend, The Making of a Star, for a wide range of students.

  43. Karen Warne

    My older (bigger) beginning students love this piece! The little ones have a hard time with it though because not only are their fingers and hands smaller, so are their legs and behinds. It’s hard for them to navigate the entire keyboard without standing and scooting. They love using the pedal, so we ignore all the 8va’s

  44. Heather Baldwin

    I purchased The Making of a Star and The Bold Escape not long ago, looking for some powerful new pieces for my beginners. I gave The Making of a Star to a 10-year-old boy who has only been playing for about three months. I taught him the interval movements by rote and he learned most of the rest by reading. Wow, does he LOVE playing that piece! He not only performed it (brilliantly!) in my recital over the weekend, but he was chosen to play a solo in his school after auditioning on it. No one can believe he has only been playing for three months when they hear him play “Star.” He is so proud and confident when he plays it.

    The parents have thanked me about a hundred times for making him so excited about piano and I know it’s in large part due to your compositions so I figured I’d better pass on the thanks. 🙂 I appreciate what you do, especially for beginning students who want to play pieces that don’t make them sound like beginners!

  45. Susan

    Maestro Wendy thank you ,
    This piece gave me sooooo many smiles, going back in time and space, I as the child with piano lessons in the 60,s with all those don’ts — Touch keys, move hands, only middle C , follow picture. Then this piece allowed me to bust out in to piano space and to enjoy at 60 even more the making of star music *****

  46. Nancy Repass

    My students are so excited to play this piece and the others I purchased and are practicing hard which pleases me. This is an exceptional piece and fun to play. I rate it a 5. Thanks for your help in making my students want to practice.

  47. Elizabeth

    This is the perfect piece for the beginning of a new term – my elementary students liked it so much that they wanted to go the piano and play it, so it got them straight back into good practice habits after the summer break. Than you so much!

  48. Louise

    I have had great success with one of my beginning students who recently learned The Making of A Star and has learned it very quickly and will play the piece for a program we will be doing at a local Con

  49. Jean Diffenderfer

    One of my students just played “The Making of a Star” in our recital. He loved the lush chords and the way the songs covered so much of the keyboard. The patterns made it easy to learn and memorize! Love it!

  50. Becky Barber

    “The Making of A Star” is a brilliant piece for early elementary students…lots of patterns and sounds very impressive! My student literally could not stop playing it…even when I was trying to talk to him! Ha!

  51. Wendy

    I gave this to a young beginner who LOVES to play forte, but I worried it would be a little above her. She was having trouble recognizing patterns on the piano. After only two weeks, she is moving all over the piano with confidence, and truly understanding the layout of it, which translates to everything else we work on. The pedal is an added bonus – she feels very advanced and proud to play this piece!

  52. Mary Jane

    What a wonderful piece to use for young elementary students who have taken lessons for a couple of years and want to sound like the big kids. My student loved this piece from the start, and now that she’s using the pedal she’s ecstatic! It’s a fun and easy to learn piece, but sounds like so much more. Even her mom was astounded to know that this would be her recital piece, she thought it sounded too difficult for her daughter’s age. Win win!

  53. Dorothy

    5 stars! I used this as rote learning with beginning students (along with I Want Some Water) who really wanted to shine in talent shows and at the May recital. Now it doesn’t look like any of those things are going to happen [because of Covid 19] but they are still proud of how they are sounding having started in piano after Christmas!!

  54. Janna

    I have used this piece many times for area Festivals as well as NFMC Festival. My students love it and so do the judges!

  55. Gabrielle Tee

    I used this with a complete beginner, and a teenage student who’s played for years, returning after a break and a struggling adult student who needed a confident boost! It is empowering and elegant. Gives me chills!

  56. Piano Teacher

    My students love it because they can make a big mature sound.

  57. Peggy Lee Royseck

    The making of a Star is such an exciting piece and motivates students to learn to play the interval of a fifth as well as to work at playing at a variety of dynamic levels. Starting softly and crescendoing to a Fortissimo when playing the dramatic chords occuring in the beginning, the interlude and the ending does take some practice and gives students a chance to use their imagination in learning to play expressively. The middle section is easy for students to sight read and the dramatic chordal sections present a good lesson in training the students ears to recognize fifths especially when learning these sections by rote.

  58. jennie.flicker

    This is classic. Make a new beginner sound like a showman? Yes, please! What a way to get my beginners to want to perform! I have one family that is so tired of hearing this piece in their house! I call that success! Fantastic design, Wendy!

Add a review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


By using this Site you agree to the Privacy, Terms & Conditions, which explain how we use information you submit.

You may also like…

Shopping Cart
Recital Themes: Space - The Making of a Star - Big, bold and beautiful piano solo for elementary piano students. Make them sound much more advanced that they really are! | Part of our Elementary Starter Bundle | ComposeCreate.comComposeCreate.comThe Making of a Star
$9.99
Scroll to Top