The Piano Education Page - Tips - Your Child and Lessons
From: http://www.unm.edu/~loritaf/pnotchld.html
Retrieved: September 20, 2001
A large number of questions that we get are about our
opinions on when a child is deemed ready to begin lessons.
While there are no hard and fast rules, there are some pointers and signs
that you can use to determine when your child is ready to begin lessons.
One cannot magically deem a child to “be ready” for
lessons at any given point. More
important is the idea that the child needs to be tuned into music from early on
– from the age of 1 day is a great starting point.
It doesn’t matter if you want to start a musical genius or if you
simply want your child to be delighted with the wonderful sounds of serious
music. Perhaps the single easiest and best thing you can do to get your child
ready to begin lessons is to expose yourself and your child to lots of
classical, jazz, and other forms of musically sound and well performed music
together. An appreciation of good music will help get and maintain your child's
interest.
How wonderful for the child to be hearing the music of
Bach's Violin Sonatas or Partitas, to Chopin Etudes, Mozart's The Magic Flute,
or Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony as well as the jazz/improvisational sounds of
Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, George Shearing or Gary Burton! One does
not need to have to spend thousands of dollars investing in a huge CD
collection; having a radio station tuned in to the sounds of the great classical
and jazz composers is an excellent way to develop knowledge and appreciation of
good music. With rhythmic patterns, harmonics, and melodic ideas already well
established in the child's musical ear, the segue into lessons will be an easier
process because the child can see a well-defined goal for the lessons.
There are varying opinions as to when a child should
"officially" start lessons. Give a good deal of thoughtful
consideration to the fact that, the younger the child is when beginning lessons,
the more involved the parent will have to be with actively helping out with
practice time, attending the lessons and being positively involved during the
lessons. Generally, the child should be able recognize numbers 1-5, and
understand the correlation between the numbers on the page and the finger
numbers. If the child knows the alphabet letters of A through G, that is all
that is required from a beginner. Most beginning books will spend a lot of time
reinforcing these skills, so don't be too concerned if the knowledge is not
always perfectly articulated.
Your child should be able to sit still for about 10-15
minutes while focusing on having fun at the piano. Under no circumstances should
you expect a little one to be able to sit for longer than 10-15 minutes at a
time while keeping a strong focus on any one musical concept. If your child can
do these things, chances are you can start meaningful lessons for the child.
Many parents get very frustrated because they expect their child to be able to
concentrate for a longer amount of time. The child simply cannot, and lesson
time and practice time becomes pure torture.
There are many musical concepts that can be taught via
moving physically up and down the piano, playing notes at the highest and/or
lowest parts of the piano for example, going up and down the keyboard saying the
letter names of the notes aloud, going up and down the piano finding all the
groups of two and/or three black keys, or finding the individual natural keys on
the piano. Rhythm can be approached in a very active manner, having the child
clap their hands and/or march in time to certain rhythmic notation. If your
child's teacher doesn't do these things with the child, you can talk to the
teacher about them or do them yourself at home before the studio lesson.
There are of course exceptions to any and all claims of
appropriate starting ages for children. I have had excellent students start as
early as just under three years old. Others were not really ready until later.
Don't let your expectations and desires be the sole determinant of when the
child begins lessons or how fast you feel they should progress. The most common
frustration of the parents arises because they have forgotten that their child
is taking the lessons and doing the practice. Remember, the child is a child,
not a miniature adult. Your child's teacher must also recognize this seemingly
obvious, but often overlooked, fact of life. When you interview the teacher for
the first time, observe carefully the level of patience the teacher shows with
your child and the ability of the teacher to generate interest in the child. If
the teacher can't accommodate your child's needs and individual nature, look for
another teacher.
Although having an acoustical piano is not mandatory for
the beginning student, it certainly is beneficial to have for the child to
experiment with and create. If money is a factor, there are many places that
will allow a person to rent an acoustical piano (not a grand piano per se). If
you choose to get an electronic keyboard initially, the keys need to be the size
of a normal standard acoustical piano and touch sensitive, because nearly ALL
beginning methods DO introduce dynamics such as forte (loud) or piano (soft)
after a few lessons. Make sure the
physical practice space has adequate lighting, ventilation, and a solid, secure
seat. One can often find piano benches at estate sales, garage sales, etc., if
your piano does not already have a bench. If you have an acoustical piano,
please make sure that it is in tune; having it tuned twice a year will help.
Remember that much of the life of a child is devoted to exploration of new
things and concepts, so the more you can make the home situation like the
studio, the more the child will be able to indulge his exploration instinct at
home.
It's important to keep an open dialogue going with your
child's teacher about how he is progressing in lessons. This is true for
children of all ages, but especially for really young students. If, after some
lesson time has transpired, your teacher feels it is best for your child to stop
lessons for a while and wait a bit before restarting, it generally best to
accept that advice, rather than force the issue or create a negative experience
for your child. Wait six months to a year before restarting lessons. In that
event, no one has failed and it doesn't mean your child will never be ready to
begin lessons. Nothing negative should be thought of the concept of waiting a
bit to restart lessons. In the meantime, keep the music flowing at home, let
those notes continue to be heard. Then you can restart your child's lessons a
little later with the child still having an interest and desire to learn.
If the previous exposure to music has been going on for a
long time, and if the parent(s) have reasonable expectations for their child
taking lessons, it should be a positive and life-long endeavor for all involved.
Always feel free to communicate honestly and openly with your child's music
teacher, if there are any misgivings or questions about what should be done, or
if things are not going as smoothly as one would wish. However, please keep in
mind that most of these discussions should probably be done away from the child,
perhaps setting up a separate time for a phone consultation or personal time
with the teacher sans the child.
Many successful musicians regard their parents' influence
and inspiration as the most important in sparking their own interest in serious
music. Whether or not your child makes a career of music, your efforts in
bringing the world of music to your child will make his or her life fuller and
happier. You can help your child learn faster and enjoy lessons more by doing a
few simple things:
- Become Involved With Your Child's Piano Training. Discuss with your teacher the kind and degree of involvement which makes the best sense for your child. Should you attend lessons and, if so, how often? Should you supervise or coach practice sessions and, if so, how should you go about that? Communicate often with your child's teacher to monitor progress and learn what you can do to be helpful to the learning process.
- Encourage Your Child As Much As Possible. Be sure to praise effort as well as accomplishment. Even if your child does not learn as fast as another, in the long run, hard work will determine the final result. There is no better way to bring about the hard work than to reward the effort. Try to express interest in what your child is doing, even if you are getting tired of hearing "Chopsticks". Encourage your child in every way possible to perform for family and friends in relaxed settings.
- Avoid Negative Criticism. Most of us respond better to thoughtful, loving help than undirected criticism. If your child seems uncooperative, it may mean that they need more help, encouragement, and support. Punishment is usually not a long-term solution.
- Make Sure Your Child Knows That You Consider Music a Serious Commitment. Schedule piano practice time for your child just as regularly as you do Little League or soccer practice. See to it that practice sessions are as free as possible from distractions. If the piano is in the living room, try to limit access to the living room during your child's allotted practice time. If your child has not practiced for some reason, do not cancel lessons. If you find the child's interest in lessons waning, the best thing to do it to discuss the problem with your child's teacher; often, this can be solved with proper stimulation and supervision by you and the teacher working together.
-
Provide As Much Cultural Enrichment As Possible. The experience of
listening to music without the pressure of having to play the notes correctly
can add greatly to your child's
appreciation for music generally and lessons in particular. Go to
concerts with your children whenever possible. Introduce your children to
the works of the masters by playing the
music in your home. These days, computer technology,
especially the advent of CD-ROM disks, has made it possible to
explore great music in a way that is fun for the entire family. If you
have a CD-ROM drive equipped computer,
try any of several different CD-ROM's of this type.
As we have said elsewhere on The Piano Education Page, it
is important to choose a teacher who can not only teach your child how to play
the piano, but provide musical enrichment experiences like performance
opportunities (home concerts, recitals, and competitions), encourage access to
professional music concerts, and develop an overall appreciation of and interest
in serious music. What may not be so apparent to parents and students is that
these extra activities represent a major commitment of largely unreimbursed and
uncompensated time and money for the teachers and organizations who make them
possible. This fact of life is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that
only a small fraction of teachers make them available at all, precisely because
of the time and financial burdens required to bring them about. Thus, the task
of bringing these activities into being falls disproportionately on a few active
and committed teachers. Even if your child's teacher doesn't actively support
such enrichment experiences, your child benefits from the efforts of other
teachers and volunteers who do the extra work to put on a competition or
recital.
You can have a major impact on the quality of the music
education your child and other children receive by volunteering your time and/or
contributing money or goods to support such enrichment activities. Volunteering
can take only a few hours of your time a year, but can be of tremendous help to
already overburdened teachers and organizations who run such events. Such
volunteer service generally requires no special training, but can be critical in
producing the best possible experience for your child. It can also be a lot of
fun for you!
For example, by volunteering to provide and handle
refreshments offered to students at competitions, you can not only make the
competition more fun and enjoyable for your child and other children, but take
some of the load from the teachers who must run the competition itself. You can
also serve as a monitor, receptionist, or usher for the competition. When your
or another teacher mounts a studio outing to the symphony or other performance,
offer to drive and chaperone a car full of kids. You'll get to see the glow in
the kids' eyes as they experience their first professional performance. If your
teacher does recitals or home concerts, you can lift a major burden from the
teacher by offering to organize refreshments or a bring-a-dish dinner after the
recital. If your time is limited, we can say without fear of contradiction that
monetary contributions to your local music teachers organization will be greatly
appreciated and well-used to enrich your child's musical training.
These are just a few of the ways you can help. Getting
involved is easy. Just talk with your teacher about how you can help in the
studio's activities or call the local music teachers organization to volunteer.
Your piano teacher should be able to give you the phone number of a contact
person there, as well. If these kinds of activities aren't readily available
locally, talk with your teacher about the possibility of starting them with your
help. If they are available and your teacher doesn't participate in them,
encourage the teacher to participate and to volunteer as well. We think you'll
find that you'll enjoy helping to better music education for all the students in
your area.
It's very common for kids, usually about the time they
reach the middle school years, to
begin to temporarily lose interest in their piano lessons. If they are allowed
to quit lessons, they usually regret it in later years. It is possible to get
your children through this difficult period without having them make a decision
they may later wish they hadn't made and for which their young age and limited
experience ill prepares them. We firmly believe that, while kids say they know
what they want at Jr. High and High School levels, they really don't know
exactly what they will be missing by quitting the study of the piano. We have
had many adult students who kick themselves for having quit and now realize the
folly of their choice made as teenagers.
One thing that often works well in keeping kids in piano
lessons is a tit-for-tat agreement to continue lessons in exchange for some
privilege or reward (sometimes known as "positive reinforcement",
sometimes known as a "bribe"!). Such rewards need not be monetary or
material. For example, a possible "contract" might be allowing your
daughter to get her ears pierced in return for her continuing piano lessons for
3 more years. Similarly, you can
reward good lessons and participation in recitals and contests, irrespective of
whether your child won.
Many teachers will also help this process by rewarding
students with special things. Some teachers will take the student and their
parents out to dinner after a contest to celebrate the experience. Others will
have "team" T-shirts made when a group of students travel out of state
to compete in a contest. Your teacher can also help by gearing repertoire,
within limits, towards your child's tastes during those difficult years.
Gershwin and Chopin may appeal to teenagers a little more than Bach or Beethoven
and can be musically and educationally just as valid as learning goals. Because
social development and acceptance are so important during the early teen years,
ask your teen's teacher to try to arrange opportunities to participate with
other teen's playing chamber music, duets, or any other musical group activity
which stresses classical training. This would not normally include high school
band participation, unfortunately. The guiding principle is to find ways to make
the musical experience as fun, exciting, and new as all those other activities
that compete for a teenager's time and interest.
Whatever reward system you choose, make it clear to your
child that this must be a good faith agreement between you, the parents, and
your child. Regular practice and attendance at lessons are every bit as
important to the child's fulfillment of the contract as your allowing the
privilege. For this to work, the child has to know that if they "welch"
on their end of the contract, you will not trust them in similar situations in
the future and they will lose those privileges they might otherwise have gained.
Such an arrangement not only helps keep your child in piano lessons, but also
builds character and responsibility for their future.
Despite your best efforts, your child may refuse to
cooperate. Should you force the child to continue lessons? Every situation is
individual, so we can't tell you what to do here. However, in this event, careful consultation with the child's
teacher is called for. The teacher may be able to rebuild interest by changing
repertoire, using computer teaching tools, setting up opportunities for playing
in groups with other children the same age, or other incentives based on the
teacher's knowledge of your child. Simply allowing the child to quit lessons is
usually not the best way to handle a resolutely uncooperative child. Such a
decision should only be taken as a last resort and involve extensive
consultation with the teacher.
Finally, a word just for you parents: hang in there, it's
worth it! Give yourself a pat on the back that you recognize and are dealing
with the issue. Chances are your children will thank you when they get a little
older for encouraging them to stay in lessons.
You can learn faster and easier if you do a few simple
things. These suggestions are not time-consuming and easily carried out if you
schedule time for them in your day on a regular basis. The most important thing
to remember about practice is that it's not the amount of time you spend, but
how well you use the time that counts. If you practice several hours a day and
simply repeat the same mistakes each time through, you have not practiced
effectively.
- Take the time to read your assignment book. The specific assignments and practice suggestions are intended to assist in practice.
- When practicing, make sure that the environment is free from distractions and noise. Turn off the TV, put the answering machine on, and give yourself a quiet environment to work.
- Make sure the music is legible and well-lit.
- Set aside a specific time each day for your work at the piano and stick to the schedule. If you are a morning person, practice in the morning. Avoiding or delaying getting to the piano will just make you run out of time.
- Unlike studying for tests or exams, piano practice cannot be crammed in at the last minute or day before the lesson. Plan the time to do practice every day.
- Don't try to learn a piece all at once; take it in sections and practice a section until you can do it without mistakes three times through. Then move on to the next section. Remember the value of taking a section slowly, making sure that you play all the notes correctly and that you count through difficult sections. Worry about playing to tempo when you have the notes and the rhythm right. A very valuable way of knowing whether you've learned a piece is to learn it well enough that you can play either hand independently starting at any place in the music. When you can do that, you can begin to work on being musical with the piece.
- Learning a new piece of music is hard work. Reward yourself after a good practice session by playing a familiar and favorite work just for the fun of it. Think of this as the dessert after meal.
- Above all, don't simply repeat mistakes. Use practice to work out mistakes, not to reinforce them by continually repeating them. When you repeat mistakes, they are just that much more difficult to get rid of later.
- Take the suggestions from your teacher seriously. After long years of training and teaching experience, chances are your teacher's suggestions will prove successful, if followed.
- If possible, participate in concerts and recitals at your teacher's studio, even if only to audit. So much can be learned by performing yourself and listening to others perform. Attend as many recitals and concerts as possible. Given the large number of musical organizations sponsoring concerts there is ample opportunity to hear music. The more music that you hear, the more of an idea of the musical concepts you can get.
- Read biographies of composers, performing artists and conductors. Also, rent movies that are related to the lives of musicians. There are so many wonderful movies and books readily available, that really no one has the excuse not to know more about the composers, their lives and music. If you can't find the time to read books, classical CD's and records usually have useful and interesting information about the composer, the musical structure and ideas expressed, and the performers in the recording.
-
Obtain a musical dictionary. The dictionary will give the meaning of the
Italian terms (for example, Allegro vivace or Molto espressivo) which are used
in the score to indicate how the piece of music should be played and how it
should sound. You'll find your playing of the music will improve faster if you
understand how the composer meant the music to sound in the first place. You can
also get this kind of information here from The Musical Reference Shelf.
The benefits of music training for cognitive development in
children are well-demonstrated and extensively documented. Given the natural
affinity of computers and music, it is not surprising that visitors to The Piano
Education Page often ask us about how they might use a home computer to develop
their children's (or their own) interest in music. It is actually quite easy and
relatively inexpensive to use your computer to provide a fun way for kids to
learn about, appreciate, and even play music. In fact, if you want your children
to learn to play the piano, you have an especially good set of options. While
the computer will never replace a quality, dedicated teacher, it can be a huge
help with lessons, both in providing training and drill and in broadening the
child's appreciation for music as a whole.
Music software generally doesn't require "big
iron" to run. If your computer can run modern games, chances are it has
more than adequate power to run the overwhelming majority of music software.
Even if the kids are using your old "clunker", they probably have
enough hardware to run most of the software. Any 486 class or better machine, so
long as it has at least 8 Mb RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and sound card and speakers is
adequate. Some very good music software will even run well on a 25 MHz 386. If
you have an older computer with a less-than-realistic FM-synthesis sound card
and tinny speakers, you might want to consider upgrading the sound card to a
wavetable-type and the speakers to ones with a separate subwoofer. You'll find
that this upgrade will make a HUGE difference in the quality of sound you can
get from the computer; it can be done for under $100. In our view, there is no
inherent reason from the standpoint of the hardware capabilities to choose a
Macintosh or an IBM-compatible, though you will pay more and have a lesser
choice of software if you use (or buy) a Mac. If you would like to learn more
about how sound and music are generated on the PC, see our article, Creating
Sound and Music on the PC on our sister site, Muzine.
Although much of the available music and piano software
will run without a MIDI keyboard, virtually all of it is easier to use with a
keyboard. In addition, if you or your kids want to try your hand at composing on
the computer, you'll almost certainly want a keyboard.
While it's possible to spend over $1000 on a full size digital piano
keyboard, you probably won't want
to make that kind of investment unless you plan to use it as a temporary
substitute for an acoustic piano. Fortunately, there is another acceptable route.
Several commercial piano teaching packages offer a reduced size (4-5
octaves) MIDI-compatible keyboard as part of the hardware/software system. The
MIDI keyboard is simply plugged into the MIDI/joystick port of your sound card
or into the serial port interface. We have reviewed one such package, whose
software is also very good, here on The Piano Education Page. You can find
additional information about MIDI keyboards and piano teaching software in an
article we wrote for our sister site, Muzine, and in another article on digital
keyboards here.
You can use software on your home computer to enjoy and
increase your knowledge of music, aid in learning an instrument, indulge your
creative impulses by actually writing and publishing music on the computer and,
finally, just to have fun with music. Each of these areas is represented by
large numbers of software programs - too many to adequately review here. Our
article, Choosing and Using Music Software in the Studio and Home, has lots of
great tips on how to choose the right software and how to get it up and running
efficiently. Generally speaking, we think you'll find that most music software
is good to excellent, both in usability and pedagogical soundness. It's usually
easy to install and get running. The only "tweaking" you're likely to
have to do is, occasionally, some minor adjustment of your MIDI configuration
settings in Windows. If you're on a tight budget, there are many different music
software shareware packages, several of which we have reviewed on The Piano
Education Page, that you can download and try for free before you commit to
purchase. Most commercial music software programs also have free downloadable
trial versions available (see our reviews for links to many of them). For more
information on music appreciation software, see another of our articles for
Muzine. For in-depth reviews of
many different types of music software packages, read The Piano Education Page
Software Reviews.
Many teachers use computer teaching labs in their studios.
Most run standard off-the-shelf software available to everyone. Although a
computer can't be seen as a replacement for a teacher, you can use your computer
to give your children some of the same advantages that the best teachers provide
with their computer teaching labs. It's easy and your kids might even thank you
for doing it!