How to Teach your Child Piano

Most parents dream of rearing musically inclined kids and make music prodigies out of them. If you are among these parents who have that musical dream for their kids, most likely the first thing you would think of is how to teach your child piano. Learning to play the piano is as basic to the field of music as learning to add and subtract is to arithmetic. However, many parents would delay teaching their kids the piano because of their kids’ age—but the truth is, even toddlers can already start to learn to play the piano.

Children are most often capable of learning piano and beginning lessons as early as age three or four, depending on their attention span. However, all children are not the same in this respect. Just because a child is not able to concentrate enough to get started at this age is not necessarily an indication that he or she will not be able to concentrate successfully at a later time.

There are techniques and programs available for introducing even younger children than three or four to the general concept of music using the piano. These would normally not be considered traditional piano lessons, but more an introduction to sound. The duration would be much shorter than that of a traditional half hour lesson. If not overdone, this can be effective in giving them a head start in their transition to full out piano lessons at a later stage.

An essential step you have to understand in learning how to teach your child piano is to set a progress plan. A good and flexible plan is important in learning how to teach your child piano because it gives you and your kid a timeline of progress and improvement. Among others, you have to consider your kid’s age and willingness to learn. Definitely, you wouldn’t want to deprive your kid of fun in playing toys common to his age, otherwise it will be a problem in the long run.

In understanding how to teach your child piano, it is important to consider a child’s playful nature. You may start to introduce a toy piano and let your kid play it as much as he or she wants. Letting your kid face a grand old piano in his first playing lesson will definitely NOT help. Kids are fond of colorful things and the like—make sure you integrate this developmental characteristic in learning how to teach your child piano.

Along the way, you will notice your kid starting to develop his liking and fondness of playing the piano. Once this becomes evident, you can move further in discovering how to teach your child piano. At this point, you can start introducing metronomes, basic rhythms and the like.

Realizing how to teach your child piano is supposed to be fun and the most important thing to remember is to consider that you are working with a kid! FUN and PLAY should always be part of this task.

Photo Credit:Philippe Teuwen