10 Things To Do Before Your Child Starts Piano Lessons

By Author: gaelgrant
Total Articles: 5
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This is a quick checklist of things to do, buy, learn, and decide before your child has their first piano lesson.
Working through this checklist will speed up your child's learning curve, possibly for months (maybe longer!), And once you've covered all of the items below, you'll be a superbly equipped parent stepping into the role. of nurturing the growth of a new little (or not so little) pianist.

1. Buy a piano. This may or may not seem like a no-brainer to you. In case it isn't, let me explain. Your child will not progress without a piano at home that she can practice with between lessons. So, until he doesn't have a piano, don't bother getting organized to take piano lessons. Unless your goal is to pay for a really expensive babysitting service.

Ideally, you will buy a good quality acoustic piano, but there may be reasons why you would prefer a digital piano (usually problems related to living in an apartment or a very small house). You want an acoustic piano because it does cool things that digital pianos can't do, things like capturing harmonics when you silently press keys ...
... and then play other keys, and because the 'touch' your child will develop by practicing on an acoustic piano will be a better playing than when practicing on a digital piano.

But if a digital piano is the best option for you, you will find that a digital piano offers some wonderful extras that acoustic pianos don't offer (things like recording your performance and a variety of sound options, how many extras, and how wonderful they are, it depends. quality of the digital piano you buy). The thing is, you need weighted keys, touch sensitivity, a fixed pedal, a music stand that isn't flimsy, and a sound that matches the sound of a piano (compared to an electric keyboard).

2. Put the piano in a part of the house other than a. lonely and/or b. where is the only television. Two of the main reasons kids don't end up practicing are because they feel alone in the darkest or most distant room in the house or because everyone else wants to watch TV and the piano is in the same room. Having the Piano Teacher in St Lucie hidden communicates that the piano is not something normal or useful; having the piano and television competing for acoustic space is just asking for a conflict in your family.

3. If you have an acoustic piano, keep it in tune! This is more of an administrative burden than a major expense (you need to find a piano tuner, reserve it, and then be at home while they tune the piano), but if your piano is out of tune, your child (ren) will find that playing the piano is a lot less pleasant, and you won't enjoy listening to the piano much either.

4. Keep the piano in your home for months, even years, before your child begins lessons. It is about developing a sense of every day about instrument (the piano is part of normal life) and allowing the child to explore the instrument thoroughly before starting the lessons. To what end

5. Encourage your child to play the piano before starting lessons. You cannot break a piano by playing it, and your child will develop a sense of familiarity with the layout of the keys (black notes in groups of 2 and 3 placed between the white notes) and the way the keys make sounds (high sounds toward the right, low sounds to the left), as well as the different effects that the piano can produce (softer sounds when you press more gently, sustained sounds when you press the pedal, etc.). This saves time in the first few weeks of lessons and, more importantly, means that your child will feel confident when asked to try "new" things on the piano in these first weeks and months.

6. Buy a piano chair/stool/piano bench that is adjustable in height. Sitting at the correct height is a big part of what makes playing the piano effortless and comfortable, and sitting at the wrong height can prevent the pianist from creating beautiful sounds. Don't settle for cushions - organize a permanently available medium for your child to sit at the piano with maximum ease.

7. Watch what your child discovers on the piano and (when the time is right) talk to him about his discoveries. Does your child play the same (or variations of the same) every time he approaches the piano? Or do they experiment with one type of sound for a few days and then move on? Are they trying to pick out melodies or are they more interested in piano RPGs? Do they play the entire keyboard or are they limited to one area?

Realizing how your child experiences is an essential foundation for being able to talk about what he is doing. And talking about what your child is doing is an essential part of validating and consolidating the discoveries that he is making.

It doesn't matter if you are unsure of the exact musical term, talk about the kinds of feelings that sounds reflect, what the sounds remind you of, and ask your child to talk about her intentions, ideas, and reflections. Some gestures of the pianist are kind, others cheeky, while others can be very sad. Starting your child's piano journey by talking about emotion, attitude, and texture (soft/spiky, for example) puts your child at a huge advantage in communicating with others about their playing.

8. Make sure your child knows the difference between the right and the left side. This is a bigger problem than simply distinguishing the right hand from the left; Making your child aware that he can create an action on one side of her body and then mirror that action on the other develops a spatial-physical awareness that will be immensely beneficial as he learns new keyboard skills. In other words, having a child practice jumping left or right will help them become better pianists. Anything that asks a child to do things with her body in terms of left and right will lay the foundation for physical fluency on the keyboard.

9. Make sure your child knows her alphabet. From A to G. And maybe back. This will not be covered in the first lesson (usually), but if your child understands that the musical alphabet is A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B, etc., he will save at least half a lesson. And if your child can think of those letters backward, he probably saved two more full lessons over the first year.
10. Show your child a treble and bass clef. And explain that the treble is for high notes and the bass is for low notes. If you have no idea what a treble clef is, Google it. This is just a symbol, but the more familiar your child is with what these symbols look like, the easier it will be for a teacher to come up with new ideas quickly during the first year of lessons. The treble clef in particular is a symbol often used to represent music; Your child may have already seen this symbol and never quite understood what it means (it only refers to the notes in the upper half of the piano). Being confident in distinguishing these two symbols could save half a lesson about three times over the first 12-18 months of lessons.

I'm sure readers of this post will be able to contribute more great ideas for things parents can do before their kids start piano lessons, but these are my top ten. If all new students had these items covered Well, I can dream, can't I ?!