I “saved” this post on my browser as soon as I saw the title, but just finally got around to watching Mario Ajero’s video clip on How to Start Piano Lessons for Pre-School Aged Children. If you are a parent or teacher of young children and need a little inspiration and practical advice, you have to check this out! It’s so neat to watch Mario work with his daughter and see the excitement in her face as she learns to play simple songs on the piano. I really love his suggestion of making time at the piano a part of your daily routine so that it becomes a normal and expected part of life.
These are great ideas that could also easily be incorporated into a Pre-Piano Camp for young students who are considering starting formal piano lessons.
I started my youngest piano student ever last fall–a 4 year old (now 5), and it has been a great experience for both of us. My Suzuki experience/training in violin has definitely helped the process too. Thanks for sharing this resource–I look forward to checking it out.
Thanks for sharing – you have some great content on your blog! I always enjoy visiting. Would you be interested in doing a guest post – or letting me reblog some of your articles with attribution?
The video is really great and it is really an inspiration. My youngest piano student is five years old. I have never taught younger kids. I like the methods used in the video.
Great Video!
Thanks for sharing, Natalie. You and some of your blog readers will be happy to know that Olivia’s progressing nicely into using fingers independently mostly on black keys and starting to associate the alphabet with the white keys. We’re still focusing on teaching more by rote to develop her ear and a vocabulary of melodic and rhythmic movements on the keyboard since she doesn’t turn 4 until October. At least with her, I’m finding more success with not rushing the reading aspect of music-making at the piano.
I started playing the piano when I was 10 (a little bit older than most kids start out at) but I really wanted to be able to play. I had neighbors and church friends that played in the band for the youth group and young adult services, and that’s all I wanted to do. After about a year of lessons I stopped taking lessons and decided to teach myself some things. I made a chart with all the scales with all the sharps and flats, and I would listen to talented piano players like Yanni and basically taught myself to play by ear. I think that kids should be taught to play outside the orthodox “sit down and sight read” methods to broaden there perspective on music.