Occasionally I receive questions like this from parents who really want their children to have a music education, but just have no opportunities for them to take lessons from a dedicated piano teacher. I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of getting a solid start with an excellent teacher, but I sympathize with parents in this predicament and applaud you for wanting to find the best materials/resources for working with your children.

For starters, there are some great musical things you can do with your children that will prepare them for piano lessons even if they are not specifically starting in piano lesson material yet. Here are a few resources that might be helpful:

13 Ideas for Parents to Prepare Their Young Children for Piano Lessons – a post I wrote a while back that gives some helpful ideas for a well-rounded musical start.

Fun and Easy Musical Activities for Young Children – a video interview I did that gives practical suggestions for parents wanting to work with their children.

Pre-Piano Camp Package – this is a course I put together specifically for children ages 3-6, and it should be very easy for a parent with minimal music background to use with their children.

As far as specifics, here are some of the books I use with beginning students:

My First Piano Adventure – This is especially designed for young beginners and comes with a CD that has lots of fun music and interaction for the students. It’s fabulous for several students at once, too, because they can clap or tap along and enjoy the music, even if not all of them will be specifically learning to play the piano right now. There are three sets in this series (A,B, and C) and by the time a student goes through all of them, they are ready for level one of the Piano Adventure series (and have a great musical foundation!). There’s a writing book that goes along with the lesson book so that students can do fun activities and learn theory concepts as well.

Piano Adventures Primer – This is good for a student who is already reading and is ready to jump right into learning the piano without a lot of other supplemental activities. The layout is clean and easy-to-follow. I usually use this along with the corresponding Technique and Artistry book to help students develop good technical habits right off the bat.

Flashcards-in-a-box – This is my favorite set of flashcards. I love using these with students and try to develop fun games that will make it exciting to learn the concepts, terms, symbols, etc. You can find some specific game ideas in my book, 5 for Fun!

Premier Piano Course – This is a newer series that I enjoy using for some students. It has appealing music, is similar in teaching method to the Piano Adventures series, and also includes an At-Home book with a fun story and specific practice suggestions for parents who want to work with their children. It moves a little faster than some of the other methods, so I recommend this more for an older beginner, but I could see even just getting the At-Home book and adapting the practice ideas to whatever else you’re using.

If anyone has other suggestions, please feel free to share, especially if you’re a parent working with your own children!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

I’m finding more and more that the best approach to teaching good practice habits is to take the time to have the student model them in the lesson. A lot of times we look over a new (8-measure) piece and see if they can tell which measure will be the hardest. Then we start with that measure and master it until it feels easy. Or we start out clapping and counting, or air-playing the finger patterns, etc. It takes more time this way, but usually neither the student nor the parent really “gets” it if you just tell them what to do at home. They have to observe and experience it so that they actually understand what it should look like when they practice.

Here are a few other links that you may find helpful:

• 13 Ideas for Parents to Prepare their Young Children for Piano Lessons – This is specifically geared toward parents helping prepare their children for lessons, but you may find some helpful tips for practicing, too.
• Fun and Easy Musical Activities for Young Children – a video clip with similar content to the above post.
• Music Lessons: The Parents’ Perspective – a collection of articles by parents on ideas for helping their children with practicing.
• The Penny Practice Game – The Penny Game is one that I use with a lot of young students and encourage them and their parents to use at home, too.
• Another Fun Practice Game – a fun practice idea for young students that another teacher shared with me.

It is amazing what a difference it makes for young children when they have a dedicated parent who attends lessons and practices with them during the week! I would love to hear any other ideas from teachers or parents on how to develop good practice habits for young students.

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

A handful of my studio parents attend every lesson, so I see them all year long, but for those who don’t, this is a great opportunity to catch up and make sure we’re all headed in the same direction. It also gives them a chance to voice any concerns or share ideas for working more effectively with their child(ren). I really love spending this time with the families and would highly recommend it for any teacher!

Here are a few links for free forms that you are welcome to download, adapt, and use in your own studio:

Year-End Evaluation Forms – this is a generic form that I use for every student. It takes a good bit of time for me to do this, but it is so helpful to think back over the past year and be intentional about future planning.

Year-End Student and Parent Questionnaires – a sample form that I used several years ago.

2011 Year-End Parent Questionnaire – I like to tweak the forms a bit each year to solicit specific feedback. This is what I’m using for the parents this year.

2011 Year-End Student Questionnaire – this year’s version.

As tempting as it is to get defensive when someone disapproves of a policy or decision, usually the best course of action is just open communication. I don’t ever want to be unfair to any of my students or their families, but sometimes our perception of what is fair differs greatly from one another. These wise words found in Romans 12:18 are great to keep in mind! “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” My goal is to promote peace and understanding. The issue of make-up lessons is a difficult one for many of us. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it recently and thought I would share with you the e-mail that I composed in response to the family I mentioned above:

Dear [Family],

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me and let me know about your concern with the studio policy regarding make-up lessons. One thing that might be helpful for you to know is that the monthly lesson fee factors in not only the regular lessons, but also the group classes, recitals, additional opportunities, lending library, and various other overhead costs (insurance, professional association fees, taxes, etc.). I reserve the specified lesson time for each student as set by the studio calendar at the beginning of the year, and I am committed to providing every student with a comprehensive music education. One of my goals is to provide a great value for every family, which is why I put in so much additional time to plan events, work on creative projects for the students, help them with compositions, and so forth.

As I mentioned to [parent], my policy is that I will gladly offer canceled lesson spots to other students who would like to schedule a make-up lesson for a lesson that they have missed. If I know that you are interested in scheduling an additional lesson, I will keep that in mind and let you know when I have a cancellation. Sometimes families feel that the additional lesson would be beneficial; other times, due to schedules and other responsibilities, people prefer to just skip the lesson and resume the following week. Also, for those who are interested in doing a lesson long-distance, I offer Skype lessons by computer. This has worked well for extended vacations so that students can still benefit from the weekly accountability and new assignments. I’ve even done a lesson over the phone before! In short, this time is yours, and I’m willing to get a lesson in however we can.

It would be nice if I had the flexibility to re-schedule lessons whenever a student is unable to make it (sickness, vacation, weather, etc.), but since I don’t have that much time available, I’ve set in place the current policies (as posted on the studio website). And since my income for lessons is derived from working with the same student over a period of time, I can’t just offer refunds and fill unused times with one lesson at a time. These studio-wide policies apply to every family, and I make it a point to be fair to everyone in maintaining the same standards. Again, my hope is that you will always feel like you’re getting a great value for your money.

Hopefully this will help give a little more explanation about why the policy is the way that it is. Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well. I love your family and having [child] as a student, so I want to be sure that we are able to communicate openly and understand each other. Also, here are the times that I mentioned to you that I know I have available right now if you want to schedule an additional lesson: [times]. Let me know if you want to take either or both of those slots. I can also let you know if any others become available.

A couple days ago, I was catching up on music blogs and was thrilled to find a link on Sandi’s blog to this article about make-up lessons written by a parent: Make-up Lessons From an Economist’s Point of View. Ultimately, as Independent Music Teachers, we have the freedom to establish policies and run our businesses in the way that works best for us and the needs of our studio families. Some teachers may not mind offering make-up lessons whenever requested, but I suspect that most of us would be better off (for the sake of ourselves and our students!) adhering to a no make-up lessons policy.

• Musical Beginnings – thoughts about determining your child’s interest in music and helping them get off to a good start with formal lessons.
• Now What? – thoughts about finding the right teacher.
• Practice, Practice, Practice! – thoughts about establishing an effective practice schedule and maintaining motivation.
• Skipping School for the Sake of Music – thoughts about how to handle conflicting demands between school and music-related activities – from great relationships to difficult teachers to homeschooling.

This is an ongoing series, so I encourage you to check it out for yourselves and consider sending the link to parents in your studios!

One of the things I’m always trying to think about is ways to add value to the families in my studio. Of course, I need to make enough to pay my expenses and run a business, but I want them to feel like they are getting a great deal for their money. So, here’s an idea I thought of the other day when I was contacted by the mother of a little girl who is on my waiting list. She was hoping to get her into lessons this fall, but I ended up not having an opening for her, so they’ve decided to wait until next fall. The thing is that her daughter is so excited about starting lessons NOW.

Instead of just waiting a whole year and risking the loss of some of her enthusiasm, I thought it would be cool to offer some sort of Piano Lesson Prep Course that the mom can do with her daughter to start giving her musical experiences. The Mom really liked that idea, so I sent her the Pre-Piano Camp Package that I put together this summer. She can print off the student workbook and use the lesson plans to help guide her daughter through the course. I’m so excited to see how this works! If it works well, it’s probably something that I’ll list on my website as an extra studio “perk” – families who want to sign up their children for beginning piano lessons will have the option of receiving the Piano Lesson Prep Course to use as a fun introduction to music and the piano.

This particular mom is a pianist herself, so I know she won’t have any trouble utilizing the curriculum. But for those parents who don’t have a musical background, I think I would put together an easy reference sheet with things like a picture of the piano keyboard with the names printed on it, definitions for basic music terms, etc. It seems like it would be a fun way for the parent and child to start the learning process together. I guess we’ll see how it goes with this first family and then go from there! I’d love to know what you think, especially those of you who are parents. Would something like this be of interest to you if you were enrolling your child in a new activity?

The information Dr. Hannaford shared from her research was absolutely fascinating! I am familiar with some of the studies regarding a baby’s capacity to hear sound even while still in the mother’s womb, but I was in awe of the specific statistics that she shared. The show is a short 15 minutes or so in length, so it’s a quick listen, but I think every parent, musician, and teacher will benefit greatly from it! You’ll have to let me know what you think.

Filling out this little section really forces me to think through where I’m headed with each student, and how I want to see them develop in the year ahead. It’s incredibly helpful to do this at the end of the year when their accomplishments and weaknesses are still fresh in my mind. Sometimes I list more generic goals/ideas like, “Combine creativity with structure and discipline to make greater progress” and then these lead into more specific goals like “Check into Keys to Success books as a possibility.”

Then I use this information later in the summer when I’m doing more intense planning for the following year to help develop appropriate goals and select new repertoire. One of the benefits of doing this is that it gives the student, their parents, and me a vision of what the student can accomplish in the next year. This is very motivating for all of us and provides good incentive for ongoing practice through the summer!

Develop a solid internal pulse as a good foundation for rhythm in music:

· Clap or tap to the beat as you listen to music.

· Play “pass the rhythm” – while sitting, clap, tap your legs, tap your head, etc. in varying patterns and have her imitate you and try to keep right on beat so that you can go back and forth with different rhythms without pausing between them. (hopefully that makes sense! Harder to explain that demonstrate J )

· Give her a baton (or some stick that could work as one) and try having her “conduct” to music she listens to – you could even try teaching her actual conducting patterns! Try having her emphasize the downbeat so that she can develop an understanding of the organizational structure of music. (As an aside…I find that this is one of the hardest things for students. I play music and have them try to find the downbeat and identify the time signature. This is very challenging for almost every student. Doing this with clapping or tapping would be an easier way to start than with the baton, though.)

At the piano:

· have her go up and down the piano playing all the groups of two black keys, then all the groups of three black keys

· have her play all the Ds going up and then down or down and then up (I find that D is easier to start with, because it’s the white key in between the two black keys) Once they’re consistently accurate with D, I move on to C, then E, then F, G, A, B.

· learn steps vs. skips on the white keys. (I play a game with two dice that I made – one has “step” and “skip” on alternating sides; the other has “up” or “down” on alternating sides. We place a little game token on a starting key and roll both dice. The game token gets moved according to the dice and we see who can be the first to get to a designated ending key. My young students love this!)

To develop finger strength:

· learn finger numbers and take each finger for a walk (by tapping it by itself on a flat surface)

· do “finger o’s” – press each finger (one at a time) into the thumb and count to 10 and try to not let the knuckles on the finger collapse. (I often will use my fingers to try to pull a student’s “O” apart, testing it to see how strong it is. They love this!)

To develop music reading skills:

· If you can get a dry erase magnetic board and some markers and magnets, you can do a ton of stuff!

· Draw lines representing the staff – place a magnet on a line or space and have her identify it as a line or space note. Then you give the directive and have her place it.

· Place a series of magnets and have her identify up or down or repeating. Then let her arrange them.

· Place a series of magnets and have her identify whether they’re stepping or skipping on the staff.

· Once she’s consistently accurate with this, you can try transferring it to the keyboard – place the magnets in steps going up or down and then tell her to start on a certain note and play the next ones in the direction that the ones on the board indicate. (I usually just start with three magnets and then gradually increase the number as they grasp the concept of reading musical notes.)