Teaching a 5-year old piano

[garrettendi]

Hello, so as mentioned before in previous threads elsewhere, Miss Endi who is 5 in a couple of weeks really likes my piano (actually an 88-key MIDI keyboard and a piano VSTi). We can't get her professional lessons as she also wants to do dancing, but I know a fair amount of music theory as well as being able to play the piano relatively well - not to the extent of classical/jazz but I am capable of learning and playing your average popular song, as well as composing my own pieces.

I can't teach her dance so it makes sense for me to encourage her with the piano as much as I can to start her out. At the moment really all she does is bang on the keys and sing into an (unplugged) microphone, so I was wondering: how do I start to give her a gentle push in the right direction and start teaching her to actually play?

[Wonks]

Get her the first 'Tune a Day' (or similar) piano lesson book and go through it with her?

Of course the lack of p and f pedals on a MIDI keyboard might be a drawback to doing the complete course as described.

[Eddy Deegan]

Initially, I'd recommend you attempt to teach her the melody of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' using her right hand only but employing all the fingers as opposed to jumping around 'chopsticks' style.

Ideally once she's learned it she should be able to play it using the same fingering each time. This should give a reasonable indication of her willingness (or otherwise) to learn and may also reveal a measure of her natural aptitude.

[Folderol]

I was going to suggest starting with 'Three Blind Mice' in C. My reasoning being the first three notes naturally fall under middle finger, index finger and thumb.
As a matter of interest, that was the first tune I taught myself to play - prompting my parents to get piano lessons for me.

[BJG145]

My main reflection on music tuition, looking back, is to engage students in what they want to play. I hated the material I was given for early lessons in trumpet/piano/guitar.

Although, at five, they might be a bit too young to have formed strong opinions on that?

My piano teacher used to hit my fingers with a ruler if I played the wrong notes, but I don't recommend that approach.

[Wonks]

My piano teacher used to hit my fingers with a ruler if I played the wrong notes, but I don't recommend that approach.

It's OK to hit Ben's fingers with a ruler if Miss Endi plays wrong notes though.

[OneWorld]

My main reflection on music tuition, looking back, is to engage students in what they want to play. I hated the material I was given for early lessons in trumpet/piano/guitar.

Although, at five, they might be a bit too young to have formed strong opinions on that?

My piano teacher used to hit my fingers with a ruler if I played the wrong notes, but I don't recommend that approach.

So, the piano teacher was hitting the right fingers but in the wrong order?

I'd agree with starting out on what she wants to play, just the simple basic melody so she can recognise the tune of course. And then as she progresses, take her on a journey into the unknown.

My guitar teacher eventually took me to places I knew nothing of nor really wanted to know. But taking me out of my comfort zone saw me improve leaps and bounds and I am ever grateful to the old chap. He'd played in a top dance band and his jazz playing was note perfect, he taught me so much, but allowed me to indulge myself too, learning stuff I wanted to, making the point that music was for the main part just dots on a page, but the enjoyment comes when you put your own take on things and do what you're supposed to do - enjoy it. He said if I were not enjoying it then he had failed me. He was a lovely old chap, and so was his wife, she always came into the lesson half way with a cuppa and some biccies, I said I guess I'll have to learn "Tea for Two" now, she said "Save that till you meet a nice young lady to look after you" Strange how there's some things we can't remember, and some we can't forget.

Best of luck to young Endi and I am sure she has a great teacher in yourself.

[ajay_m]

The old John Thompson course books are quite thorough. A lot of more modern music can be a little tricky to learn off sheet music as any syncopation or dotted notes are a bit off-putting hence simple four on the floor stuff is best to start.
If you can find a song they like that's simple you could reduce it to one note in the right and one in the left and get them confident to play it. That usually awakens something in children who truly want to learn, then take it from there.
10 mins practice every day is much better than 1 hour a week. Keep it short but often and see how you go.

[bonefixer]

The microjazz series of books were what my kids started with. I didn't teach them - I've had lessons but am essentially self taught and play largely by ear - they had a properly qualified and top quality professional teacher, and that's what they started out on before heading down the ABRSM grades route.

[Eddy Deegan]

Speaking from experience Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is ideal for the youngest of students for a few reasons:

• The interval between the highest and lowest notes is a 6th, making it friendly for small hands
• Most children know the tune already
• The rhythm is easier for small children to comprehend than many other pieces in that the 'normal' pace is crotchets and the only deviation from that is minims, which being double the length of a crotchet is friendlier to them than a speed-up
• The scale involved in the descending portion of the melody is a half octave yet gentle introduction to 'proper' scales, should they progress to those exercises later
• Once the right hand has been learned there is a simple left hand counterpart which, again, is friendly to small hands
• There is a more complex version of the left hand involving quavers which is a challenging progression but remains friendly to small hands and is a natural evolution from the point at which they've learned the first, simpler version of it

There is no need to introduce a young child to any form of book until such time as they've learned something trivial that doesn't need one. Pedals are not needed in any way shape or form until long after this initial exercise has been completed (they come much later).

There is a difficult balance to be struck when teaching young children piano whereby you want to foster their enthusiasm while at the same time not putting too much on them and for most adults the latter part is especially difficult.

Unless you have an exceptionally gifted student Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in its three variations (right hand only, right hand + simple left hand, right hand + quavers left hand) should be good for a month, maybe two, of work if you give a lesson every other day.

This is why I recommend it (Dale, if you go this route and need input on the left hand parts, or even the best right hand fingering, PM/mail me).

[garrettendi]

Thanks all, Eddy's approach seems my favourite here, especially given she likes that kind of tune. I'll find out how to play it myself first (being self-taught a lot of stuff like this I never used) then I'll take her through it. In fact I probably have that tune in my Classical Piano Method book that has been collecting dust.

[Scramble]

I'm a fan of teaching little kids clapping exercises as well as starting on an instrument. It's easy to make the exercises fun, so the kids hardly feel they're working, it improves their basic rhythm, plus you can easily introduce crotchets, quavers and minims into it before long so they get used to them.