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"Make
or Break Your Child's Piano Lessons:
Top 10 Tips Peaceful Piano Lesson Preparation"
(Boulder County Kids, Fall 2003)
Parents: You are the determining factor whether your child thrives in piano lessons or not. You may not realize that you set a tone, an attitude and an environment where your child will look forward or dread each lesson. Any child can learn and develop talent, and aren’t expected to become a music professional. Parents can create a positive and fun environment and aren’t expected to know anything about music. I invite you to take into consideration the following tips and make your child’s piano lesson experience a stimulating, enjoyable and long lasting experience for you and your child.
1. Set up a daily “practice” routine with your child’s input. The routine will prevent lots of stressful conversations. It needs to be an automatic activity.
2. Start calling it “playing the piano” rather than practicing. It gives it a positive spin; and you’ll find it easier to say to your child. Playing sounds fun. Practicing doesn’t.
3. Sit next to your child, either on the bench or chair next to the piano. This support will help your child know what to do next and work through tough spots with your assistance.
4. Affirm and acknowledge your child constantly. After each try or each run through get in the habit of asking for your child’s eye contact, so you can slowly say each thing that you liked. Saying each item slowly allows the child to soak up your affirmations. Be authentic! Even if it sounded terrible you can say how wonderful it was that the child finished the song. Valuable lifetime lessons come from this continual piano lesson journey through childhood into adulthood. Persistence is one of them.
5. Make the “play sessions” fun. Integrate a made-up story or a favorite story using stuffed animals, toys, and other concrete items that bring more instant meaning to the child. Talk about what the song and it’s title and if it “sounds” like its title. Put your personalities into the playing sessions.
6. Ask your child to add something to the piece. Ask the teacher what the main focus is for the whole lesson or each piece. You are building the song and your child’s ability in playing it.
7. Move one step at a time. Once your child knows the notes and rhythm, don’t insist that he/she rushes to the next piece like there is a race or competition going on. When your child knows the notes and rhythm, it’s time to add everything else that makes playing piano enjoyable. Ask the piano teacher for tips on what to ask for in general and specifically for each piece.
8. Invite “dad” or significant other into this process. When they get home, dad can invite the child to play for him. Then dad can make positive comments and hear the progress the child is making.
9. Tune your piano twice a year. Getting it tuned regularly will maintain the “health” of you piano. More importantly you and your child will enjoy what it sounds like by keeping it tuned.
10. End each “playing session” on a good note. This way approaching the next session with your child will bring back the memory of how the last one ended. Here is a model I use with students that helps to structure the time and how it ends.
*Start with fun warm-ups. Add fun words to them. Ask the teacher for ideas.
*Secondly, play something the child already knows, and work on adding items into the review piece one at a time.
*Third, play something new. It could be a whole song or part of a song. I suggest one hand be learned at a time. This step is where students spend most of their time and why they don’t enjoy this process most of the time. Getting hung up on decoding notes and rhythms and playing all new songs every week is a problem. In my opinion this part of “playing the piano” should only be ¼ of the process.
*Fourth, goof around. Experiment with the piano, how it’s set up, what does it sound like when you play low, middle, and high sounds? What happens if you only play black keys? How do you make up a song? Imitate a favorite song.
Above all else, I hope you take to heart that you are the determining factor in your child’s success at playing the piano. Piano playing can be a long-lasting gift to your child. It might not be seen that way now, however, building your relationship through the continual process of learning the piano together makes it MORE THAN MUSIC and BUILDS A BETTER PERSON! Again, I invite you to enter into the process of peaceful piano preparation together with your child.
Karen M. Reinhold, owner of Enjoyable Noise: Piano Ages 3-103, provides down-to-earth music instruction, fresh resources and follow-up support to children and adults. She makes instruction easy, fun, and long lasting. Her parental involvement is key in her teaching process. She offers the “backbone” for those who want to make music a part of their life. For further information call 303-725-2737, or e-mail
karen -at- enjoyablenoise -dot- com or visit www.enjoyablenoise.com
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