Piano for Kids

Have you ever gone to a Tuba Recital?  Well, to be honest with you, I had never thought of the tuba as a solo instrument.  However two weeks ago, I received an invitation from Adam, one of my former piano students, to attend his College Senior Tuba Recital.  When he went into high school, he quit piano and concentrated on the trumpet.  I lost track of him after he graduated from high school, so I was delighted that he invited me.  It was great.  I truly enjoyed the music!  For the last piece, he was joined by three other students, another tuba player and two playing the Euphonium.  Wow, what a great sound!

Adam started music when he was very young.  No, he did not always practice as I would have liked him too, but gradually music has become a big part of his life.  At the reception that followed the recital, I talked to Adam about his future.  He will graduate with a Bachelor in Music in May and plans to teach music, hopefully band in a high school.  His future students will be fortunate to have such a fine young man as their teacher. 

Adam was one of the early students to be introduced to music through the Animal Note concept. At that time I was only using the animals to describe the notes, hoping the children would recognize them when seen on the Grand Staff.  Working with young children like Adam gave me the desire to find a better way to teach them music.  The Animal Notes allows a child to enjoy and have fun with music from the very first day.  They feel success and learn their notes faster with this method.  I find true joy watching my students having fun while they are learning and succeeding. I hope you will seriously consider trying this unique approach to teaching music to very young children.

A teacher or parent can successfully teach a child as young as four years of age to play the piano, or other instruments for that matter, if the subject is approached with patience and a positive attitude. It is important that the child understand why you ask him/her to do certain things.  A very young child often wants to use only one finger when playing the notes.  Have fun with this by asking the child what has happened to their other fingers.  The child’s reaction to this can be entertaining to you, and you can make a very good point with the child by telling him/her that they must be a good teacher to their fingers.  In this approach you are not being critical of their hand position, and are giving them an exciting role of being a teacher to their little fingers.

At this age, practicing on their own is usually “Not going to Happen.”  They do not have the self discipline yet, so you must help out.  Have the child play the new piece several times at their lesson.  To keep this task from become boring and frustrating, mix the activity with other learning activities, like naming the notes in the piece and telling you a word clue that helps them remember the location of that note on the Grand Staff. 

When a child makes a mistake a simple “oops” or “think again” is enough, and when the mistake is corrected, a “good job” brings a smile.  Save strong praise for special accomplishments so it really means something to the child.  Remember sharp criticism can crush a child’s initiative to try.

Using the Animal Note method does make teaching young children much easier and more fun for them, but word clues of the notes location on the Grand Staff must be committed to memory and used with the Flash Cards to transfer the Animal Notes to Standard Notes. With children under seven, be patient and take time with this so the child builds a strong and solid foundation for the all of their music experiences in life. 

I had such a very special experience yesterday that I just have to share it with you.  Three and a half years ago, I received a call from the mother of a 4 ½ year old boy who is mildly autistic.  She wanted to start him in piano.  I told her that I use Animal Notes to start children 8 or under in music, and asked her if she was still interested.  She was, so Kyle started taking lessons from me.

Last summer Kyle, who is now 8, wanted to play guitar instead of piano.  We talked about the difficulties associated with playing the guitar.  He wanted to try it anyway.  His Mom had a guitar from her youth which seemed to be the right size for him, so we started toughening up the end of his young fingers.  He is already a good note reader, and knows timing, half steps, whole steps, sharps, flats, and intervals from his study of piano (we are now splitting his piano lesson time with guitar lessons).  This fundamental knowledge has made his advancement in guitar much easier.  To my delight, he is able to understand the fundamentals of chord formation and applying it to his guitar.

Yesterday he was playing Jingle Bells when we ended with a nice “chord.”  He was so delighted with his accomplishment.  I asked him how many in his second grade class played an instrument.  He thought a few seconds, counting on his fingers, and replied, “Six of us.”  I then asked him if any of the others played two instruments.  His eyes got as big and shiny as new silver dollars; his smile lit up the room; “No, I am the only one that can do that!”  He then hugged me and said, “Thank you for having the patience to teach me.”  Yes, my heart swelled with joy! 

If you are looking at house to buy you will exam the walls and foundation for any signs of cracking.  This is extremely important because any cracks would be a sign of structural weakness that can cause serious problems with time.

The same is true in music.  Note Reading is the foundation of music. Few can succeed if they are not able to accurately read notes.  Just as it takes time to build a strong foundation for a building; it takes time to insure a student has good note reading skills before adding the many wonderful techniques that make music so beautiful and entertaining. 

For young children, the Animal Notes, their word clues, and the Animal Note to Standard Note flash cards, allow the teacher to help the student acquire a strong working knowledge of note reading.  The Animal Notes allow the child to read music notation that are caricatures of fun and familiar animals.  Thus the note can take on characteristics that make its place on the Grand Staff and the keyboard easier to remember.  Once these word clues are part of the child’s memory, they can be used to quickly learn standard notation. Very young students achieve multiple benefits from this method, including a jump-start on students who begin their training when they are older and improved development of eye-hand-brain coordination in their golden period of assimilation.

As an oyster feeds along the oceans floor, it often ingests bits of sand that are filtered out. Should one tiny grain of sand get stuck in the oyster’s shell, something must be done to keep this frustrating object from rubbing the moist tissues.  With time, layers of a hard shiny white substance gradually form around that grain of sand, and a beautiful pearl is created to be admired and cherished by all that see it.

In music, that grain of sand is note reading.  In standard notation, it is difficult to understand, making it irritating and frustrating.  For many young children, it is something they would like to remove from their lives.  It is no fun; it brings no joy to their lives.  Why work at something that only brings misery to one’s life if it is possible to remove it.  Because of this, many young children drop out of music before they have a chance to add all the wonderful dimensions that make the beautiful sounds of music we all enjoy so much. 

If a child can learn to read music notes they can play many instruments, sing, and enjoy listening to music more fully.  This is a precious and wondrous gift for any individual.  This is why the Animal Note method is so useful in teachings young students note reading.  The notes are easily recognized, good word clues can be used to help the child remember the note’s location on the Grand Staff.  Once the Animal notes and their clues are a part of the child’s memory, the information can easily be transferred to Standard Note reading by using the Animal-Standard Note Flash Card Set. 

The child not only learns to read music, but has fun doing it!!  Gone is the frustration and irritation for them, because the Animal Notes are easily read.  With this method more children can succeed.  With time they can add all the layers of music while enjoying what they are doing thus creating their own beautiful pearl.