Kid Scoop
Approaching Piano Lessons…HELP!
All it takes is seeing prodigal children play the piano on the Today Show to make me question where I am going wrong. Addie has a natural affinity for the piano and Cody has given her a few lessons (he spent his entire childhood being forced encouraged to play the piano.) Through the few lessons Cody has given her and the simple piano books he bought from Amazon she was able to teach herself a fine rendition of “Old MacDonald.”
I on the other hand have no musical talent in any part of my body aside from being able to push play on my iPod.
I was a dancer and heavily involved in drama in my youth. If Addie were ever curious about the finer points of iambic pentameter? She has the perfect mom for the job.
Since I am the one home when she gets home I am the one who gets to force encourage her to practice the piano. I have no idea if what she’s playing is right, I also have no idea if there is a chance she could be a piano prodigy or just an average piano player. I do know I want her to play. But I’m unsure of where to go from here.
Do I look into private lessons? Where do you even find such people? What does one look for in a piano teacher? Are there different methods for teaching?
My first guess would be Craigslist since you can find everything there, I guess I just worry that I’d find a piano playing murderer.
I’ve asked around at church without much luck and don’t know many other people who play piano.
When it comes to me forcing encouraging her to practice, does it matter that I have no idea what I’m doing or listening for? I know practice makes perfect and is very important, I just don’t know…you know?
One last question, does it matter if our piano is completely out of tune? Is that going to destroy her developing musical ear?
I sure do hope someone can help me.
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2 Comments
lam commented on Nov 14 11 at 9:14 amMy 7 year old son has taken private lessons for about 1.5 years, and our 4 year old just started. They wanted to learn, so I don’t take the “force” track on practicing. Our older son works pretty hard at it. I just remind him that practicing is how we get better at something. Does he want to get better and progress? We also praise him lots for his progress.
We found our teacher by calling the local piano store. Then I had coffee with him before he came to our house for the first lesson. If you are around when she has the lessons, you’ll learn how the songs are supposed to sound. I kind of like it that I’m not the authority on what’s right. I just ask him, “Will your teacher agree that these are the right notes?”. The lessons started out around 20-30 minutes twice a week. Now he does almost an hour twice a week, plus he practices every day. We have his teacher write up a list of practice songs (and how many times he should play them) at the end of every lesson. Whenever he gets a song “finished” we skype everyone so they can hear and see him play and tell him how great it is and he loves it.
Your teacher should be able to tune the piano or refer you to someone who can.
Jay commented on Nov 14 11 at 9:53 amI love that you are encouraging your son to play, I am doing the same for my daughter. Takelessons.com is a pretty good website to look for private instructors. Craigslist would be a fall back, only because some people simply know how to play the piano and assume they can teach it. I would look for a teacher who has experience playing professionally, as I would not be inclined to trust my child’s musical future to a weekend warrior. And yes, there are many different methods for teaching so it depends on the style you want her to learn: Classical, Modern, Gospel, Jazz, etc etc. I would go with a Classical influence, so many beautiful pieces of music he can learn to play :)
No, it does not matter if you know the pieces of music or not. Just be encouragement, and leave the finer details to the teacher!
Yes, definitely make sure your piano is in tune! You may not know it, but by learning simple songs she is learning her intervals and tone pitches. You definitely want to make sure your piano is in tune.
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