Is there any recomended age for starting to teach Keyboard playing for a kid? Or are ther any special signs that will give you a clue that your kid is ready to learn solfege for keyboard playing.
I am having trouble with my grandson when trying to teach the names of the notes. There was an excellent exercise i once saw on internet moving your fingers one key higher each time but only once he watch me. After that each time i want to do it again for him to practice with all his fingers he will not give me the time and will go and play with ONE FINGER.
Maybe he is not mature enough?
I will appreciate knowing about the experience especially of those that have kids learning keyboard playing At what age you started and if it was with any particular method.
Thanks for your comments.
Hi,
I think kids can and should learn musical instruments from a young age, remembering that just being allowed to touch a musical instrument is the first step in the learning process.
I used to teach piano, among other entertainment disciplines. I have found with little ones that they can become overwhelmed when they feel there are expectations of doing an exact thing in an exact way - such as these notes in this order using these fingers. It requires so many things for them to think of all at once, and it can cease to be fun so they switch off from it and tune out of the lesson.
There is nothing wrong with him playing the exercise with one finger. He is still getting the benefit of hearing the tune, recalling it in order to play it, listening to the sounds he is producing and getting a feel for the touch of the piano.
I would suggest making a game of it. See if he can do it with this finger, then this finger instead and so on until he has tried them all, see if he can play it just using two of his fingers, then these two instead etc. He will become more and more aware of his individual fingers through games like these. Once he has more control over his individual fingers he will feel more confident adding the other factors of playing particular notes in particular order with particular fingers and because it will now be easy, he will relish in his achievements.
Remember the piano is an instrument of creative expression and it is just as important to foster the creative impulse as the techniques of fingering and reading, let him have fun and let him guide you in what he wants to learn and just keep laying the foundations.
I hope this helps.
I had the same questions about my child starting to learn piano. I felt like kids should be encourage to play with instruments from day 1, literally. But the question is when are they ready to start learning the keys and how to put together a song. I read this article www.associatedcontent.com/article/441294/piano_lessons_determining_the_perfect.html. It talks about other skills your child must have to learn keys like the alphabet and simple 1+1 math concepts. I know in my experience kids can acquire these skills around 3ish. Many website advertise piano lessons from 2+, but I think just allowing children to have fun exploring and experimenting independently before 3 yo is more effective.
Always keep in mind that you should really teach enjoyment, love, fun, respect, joy, etc. - when teaching anything to anyone. The rest will come. You should teach your children to LOVE to play all the instruments you can get them access to. Teach them to LOVE math, reading, etc. That is almost all that will be required for them to take over from there! (Obviously, you can and should “teach” these “skills” from the earliest age possible (before birth even!).
As far as being able to tell when they are ready to start learning the actual technical skills that will enable them to play more “sophisticated” music (hopefully of their choice…or yours…): try every so often to demonstrate very simple tunes that they have hopefully heard before (or not). And do occasionally show them - if they let you - physically how to play with one two fingers OR occassionally steer them into the proper techniques involved (proper drum stick handling for instance). But easy does it and always keep it as fun as possible - no pushing, no expectations - until they are ready and willing to exert their own expectations upon themselves. Teach them what the want to learn - the instruments, songs, etc. - and hopefully you can lead them to the most joyous use of their “talents” - a different instrument, more sophisticated tunes - whenever they let you know when they are ready. Time spent enjoying the instrument is what you are looking for not progress. Progress will come after they have decided to take the instrument up as one of the great loves of their lives!
Best of luck
James
Thanks to everyone for your words. Sometime I have to control myself, maybe because being a grandma i want my grandson to know all the wonderfull things and music is one of them. Your word James really center me and you are right, all that we (my grandson and me) do together is to have fun and have a great time being together and showing our LOVE and RESPECT for each other.
Today I bought knew straps for my acoredeon. I will start playing again after many years and leave the keyboard more for him because the accordeon is too heavy.
Thanks again to all of you and Karma for your advice.
I believe music should be introduced as early and often as possible, the same time as they are learning to speak, because the brain is so expansive and receptive at that phase of their development. We have children as young as 2 and 3 playing Beethoven in minutes and loving it, as long as they know their colors. But I agree 100% that the environment of learning should be full of love, respect and fun.
We have had some spirited discussion in this forum, with lots of curiosity and different points of view. We don’t shrink from that, we hope to learn from it and take the best ideas and bring those tools to our homes to help our children grow.
With that in mind, we shared the free report on “Is Music a Birthright?”(http://www.brillkids.com/ext/partners/ebook-free-download-2.php) that gives some perspective the challenges of learning music, and their roots, some of which was brought out in our discussions. SoftMozart has some similar, more in depth articles on the origins and challenges of traditional music notation as well, the summary of which you can see in this thread (http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-music/information-about-music-history-and-theory-every-parent-should-know/new/#new). What I also added, in a different section, to try and give some perspective of the range of approaches and choices, is a series of posts about the four common approaches to learning piano (up to now). I believe that our methods, both Hellene of SoftMozart and Piano Wizard Academy, begin to shape a “fifth way”. What is important to appreciate is they were both developed in response to something that was not really working, in the context of the limitations of the other approaches, trying to compensate for those gaps and yet leverage their strengths. Though each method has its advocates and champions, including Hellene and I for our own, and those advocates can be as we have seen quite passionate and compelling, NONE OF THESE APPROACHES IS PERFECT. We do strive to honestly “perfect” our process every day, with more and more knowledge, and this forum has been I think very fruitful in its exploration of the options. Here is my latest contribution to that conversation.
Below is the link to that section of the forum.
I don’t know how many parents are following all this, but I can tell you if you are, you are now MUCH more knowledgeable about both the challenges of music education, and the pallet of options available, and I hope it helps you all find your own unique solution to your children’s needs, and leads to a less dogmatic, more practical, efficient and fun way to bring music into their lives.