Teaching children to play the piano: what to do in the first lessons?

Teaching children to play the piano is a systematic process, the initial stage of which is divided into two periods: note and note. What to do in the first lessons? How to introduce a little musician to the secrets of the musical world?

The first lessons in teaching children to play the piano are based on familiarization with the musical instrument, its keyboard and the names of the notes, and on understanding the expressive capabilities of music. 

Specifics of keyboard instruments

Tell us about the history of keyboard instruments. Explain why a piano is both a piano and a grand piano. Show the internal structure of the piano, prove that the sound of the instrument depends on the pressure. Depending on the mood with which the performer touches the key, the piano will respond to him. Let the student be convinced of this – let him feel like he is “playing” from the first lesson. The first presses are an opportunity to introduce the student to the registers and octaves of the instrument. Imagine creating a “musical zoo” on the keys together, placing different animals in “octave houses”.

Introduction to musical performance means

Beginning musicians, coming to their first lesson, already demonstrate musical literacy – they know and identify simple genres of music, distinguish the timbres of instruments. The teacher’s task is not to teach a novice musician to recognize genres of music by ear, but to unravel the mechanism of creating musical works. Let the student answer the questions “How is this done? Why is a march a march and you want to walk evenly to it, but dance to the music of a waltz?”

Explain to the young musician that music is information conveyed in a specific language – through the means of music, and a musician is a translator. Create musical and artistic communication. Play a musical riddle game: the student comes up with an image, and you play the guessing melody and analyze the sound.

Forming a landing behind the tool

Watch videos of children’s piano concerts. Think together about how the performer sits, holds the body and arms. Explain the rules for sitting at the piano. The student must not only remember his position at the piano, but also learn to sit like this at his home instrument.

Learning the keyboard and touching the keys for the first time

The little musician is eager to play. Why deny him this? The main condition for the student is the correct pressing. The pianist must know:

• than pressing a key (with your fingertip)
• how to press (feel the “bottom” of the key)
• how to remove sound (with a brush)

Without special exercises, it’s unlikely to succeed right away. Before playing the keys, teach the student to accurately hit the rubber tip of the pencil with his fingertip.

Many set-up problems will be solved by an ordinary tennis ball in the student’s palm. Let the student play the keys with it – with the ball in your hand, you feel not only the “bottom”, but also the brush.

Learn with your child the famous play “Two Cats” on the keys, but with the correct pressing. Transpose it from all seven piano keys. You will study not only their names, but also alteration signs. Now the known notes-keys need to be found in different “houses – octaves”.

How long it will take to study these topics is up to you, because teaching children to play the piano is an individual process.