Piano for Kids

Four, five and six years olds love to adventure and learn.  It is a great time to start their formal musical training.  By the time a child is in second or third grade, the time frame when most parents begin thinking about music lessons, the child is also involved in other out of school activities that demand the child’s time and interest. 

You might say formal music is too difficult for a child of that age to learn.  I also felt that in my early days of piano teaching.  Standard note reading was so confusing and frustrating to my youngest students.  I started telling stories about the animals to help the children learn.  The stories turned into the Animal Notes.  The children loved the animals and the feeling of success.  Suddenly, I was able to take advantage of a wonderful “window of opportunity” with these little ones.

Their young lives were not yet filled with many other extra curricular activities, so they had time to play with their Animal Note Friends.  Not only did they learn the foundation of music, note reading, but I was also able to start them on the road to other important fundamentals of life such as self discipline, listening to teaching instructions, and the use of word clues, all while having fun learning.

Music gives so much to a child.  Don’t miss the wonderful opportunity of offering it to children as young as four.  With patience, love, and repetition, they can learn and be playing quite well by the time many others in their second and third grade classes are just thinking about beginning.  These young musicians will also be well on the road to good listening skills, self discipline to study, and word clue usage to help them learn.  

The piano is a complex instrument to learn. As a child advances in lessons, more symbols are required to create the lovely tones of the music.  To make things more complicated, the symbols are required to play different notes and move up and down the keyboard.  Wow, what a challenge.

For the young student, this is not only challenging; it is a very daunting task.  Finding the notes and getting them together correctly can be frustrating for them, so it is important that it be simplified as much as possible. 

The structure of the piano keyboard really helps with this task.  The white keys are grouped around the black in a simple pattern; three white keys are with the set of two black keys and four white are around the set of three black keys.  By focusing on this arrangement it is easier for a young child to learn the keys of the piano.  When working with the Animal Note method stories can be associated with the animal that lives in each location, using the note grouping to help.  For example the three white notes around the group of two black notes are Cat, Dog, and Elephant. Of these three animals, the Cat is usually the smallest, so it would be at the bottom of the set of notes.  Dog is always trying to dig his way out from under the treble clef, and he is located between the two black notes that are his fence on the keyboard. The Elephant towers over the other two animals and makes his home on the top white key of the three; it is higher and suits him better.

The stories about the notes and their locations provide the visual and mental clues that help place the notes on the staff and the keyboard.  The Animal Note Flash Cards provide the transition between the animal notes and standard musical notes.  A young child learns best when learning is fun. 

When I was a little girl, our family had a phone that was in a big wooden box that hung on the wall of our kitchen.  We had to turn a crank to connect to the operator who in turn asked us the party we wanted to be connected to.  Our ring was three shorts and two longs.  It was a big party line, and we had to listen carefully to know that the ring was ours and not someone else’s.  Mom and Dad knew some of the other people on the line and recognized there rings, sometimes wondering if their friends were receiving an important call.

Today I put on my blue tooth when I get into the car so I can safely drive while making and receiving calls.  I have downloaded my own special Mozart ring tone that is just for my phone, so it is easily recognized from other phones ringing around me in public places.  My phone has served me well when I have traveled internationally. 

It totally boggles my mind when I think of the changes that have come to our world in my life time, and this is just one example.  It‘s important to me to change with the flow as new techniques become available or, at least, give them a try. 

Teaching music to young children has always been a challenge, and there are many methods that have developed over the years.  The teaching method presented here is a new way of approaching this challenge.  I have tested, honed and polished it for several years before making it available to the music teaching public.  It works and is adaptable, and like other new approaches to music education is definitely worth a try. Other teachers have accepted this challenge and are pleased they have.  I hope you will too.

I know this can be done, as I have done it.  I am so thankful to the Animal Notes as they have made this success possible.  If you are a parent or teacher of children in this age group, you know that they have, in most cases, short interest spans.  They want your attention and love to tell you about there latest adventures in life real or make believe.  This is a precious and delightful age group to work with.  At this point in life, there minds are not cluttered with the many pressures of the world that become a part of life as a child grows into adulthood.

To teach a four or five year old child piano, you must have patience and gentle firmness. They will want to share their stories with you.  It is important that you allow this to some extent, but it must be kept under control. You must be firm and bring them back to their lesson. Their lessons must be fun and understandable for them, or they will want to talk all the time to avoid a difficult situation. The Animal Notes used in the materials shown on this page allows you to do this.  The notes are not abstract ovals and sticks on a page, but caricatures of animals that smile back at the child.  Word associations are easily formed around the animals.  Using these word associations and the Flash Cards, the child can more easily learn the standard notes of music.  Repetition of songs already learned at the close of a lesson, regular use of the flash cards, and word clues allow the child to feel excitement and success. 

What a terrific gift you give to a child who gets early music training.  It helps develop both sides of the brain, and music becomes a true part of their lives.