Piano for Kids

The Animal Notes came into being to help take part of the frustration of learning to play the piano out of young children’s lessons.  They help more than words can ever express, but note reading is not the only frustration found in learning to play the piano.  Every lesson there are so many corrections and “NOs” that the child must hear.  It is so easy for them to get discouraged and negative about the challenge they are facing.  Because of this I encourage you with all of my heart to be positive with them.

How can a person be positive yet give the necessary corrections needed to develop the good techniques required to become a confident and skilled musician.  Every individual is capable of achieving this worthy goal when music is approached with positivism.

In the next few weeks I want to share with you some of the ideas and techniques I have found so very helpful with my students in the 39 years I have been teaching.  Hopefully you will find a few of these ideas useful to you as well. 

For today I want to stress, that regardless of how rough a lesson goes there are always some simple positive words that can be given to your young student.  I like calling these comments “warm fuzzys.”  It might be as simple as, “I appreciate how hard you tried today,” or “I know you had a tough lesson today, but you stayed with it and that is so important, I am proud of you.”  These are simple word, but when given with sincerity the child goes from his/her lesson with a good feeling, not “This is too hard, I don’t want to do it.” A sincere smile and possible a farewell hug from you is a real bonus.  

Since the beginning of this communication with you I have spoken of how unique each individual is and the importance of this fact in teach piano.  In most cases you have the privilege of working one on one with your student and in group situations your classes are usually small.  In the case of teaching the 4 to 6 year old group I strongly advise, when ever possible, working one on one with them so you can truly tailor your class to that special young individual sitting with you.

Young children tend to get distracted easily.  The animal notes help so much to keep their attention.  The Animals allow you to create fun in interesting stories about the notes.  It is important to come up with at least one for each animal that has meaning to the young child.  Many times I ask them to help me make up the story; this is such great fun for them.  I make certain the story somehow ties in the location of the animal on the Grand Staff and Keyboard.  What I am trying to do here is create a lasting memory for the individual child that will be an important memory clue that allows them to play the note correctly when ever seen.

I bet many of you are thinking; “How do you switch from the animal notes to regular notes.”  I will discuss this in length in the future and I will soon have flash cards to help you with is task.  What is important in the beginning is helping your young student conquer the difficult task of Note Reading in a fun, relaxed and memorable way.

A couple of weeks ago I started a 10 year old girl who takes violin at her school.  She is a friend of one of my other students who started with me about two years ago, so knew about the Animal Notes.  After discussing music her I discovered she was having a truly difficult time note reading and was really discouraged with her violin class.  We decided to start piano with the Animal Notes.  By the end of her first class she was excited and told me “This is finally making sense to me, thank you so much.” 

The second week we were together I super-imposed the C cleft, that is used with many stringed instruments, upon the piano’s G (treble) and F (bass) clefts.  With the animals notes we worked on the note reading she needs for her violin class.  She was so excited and pleased.  Suddenly music was not as intimidating for her.  I was equally excited that the Animal Notes had helped open the door to her musical future. 

I have found the Animal Notes are useful for any age beginner who has difficulty with the traditional note presentation.  I have even used them for short periods of time with a couple of adults.  There is so very much to learn as a student approaches the study of piano, and in some minds note reading is totally confusing. The Animal Notes are friendly and something familiar, thus removing one of the early frustrations to reaching the goal of mastering playing the piano or any other instrument.  Initial success in playing even simple pieces in the beginning is encouraging to the student and helpful to the teacher.

Every individual is a unique and very special person. Our DNA is made up of pieces from all of our ancestors. If you go back twenty five (25) generations on any one line of your ancestors, it would be possible to identify up to 33,554,432 individuals (sort of mind boggling isn’t it?). This shows how important it is to learn and understand each of your students as the unique individual they are. It is no easy challenge, but one that is extremely important.

Your ways of teaching must be tailored to your individual student. Each will have their own way of learning and retaining the information you give them. For your young beginning students the Animal Notes lend themselves well to varying your teaching to a young child. Animals are fun, entertaining and can be given interesting personalities. Take the cats; they can be playful, loving, mischievous, and personable. Their whiskers are easily identified. For a plain middle C it is just a ledger line. What child can understand that or maintain the information, but whiskers of a cat are something a child can identify with, and giving the cat a personality can be a lot of fun.

Make up stories about the little animal that relates to the child that he/she can remember. Remind them often of this in relation to the note they are working with. Have fun with this yourself and with your student. NO it is not the old traditional method of teaching music, but what is more important; tradition or using your creativity and imagination to make the notes of music a basic and permit part of your student’s knowledge.