Mikes Music Room – Music Articles

Let’s assume that you have the requisite musical education, regardless of your age, to teach a child the basics of the piano.

With that requirement in hand, no small accomplishment itself, you are ready perhaps to embark on a career of piano teaching.

“But wait,” you say! “Won’t I need a few other things to become a piano teacher?”

That is true, you’ll need a car and a studio, a piano or perhaps two.

But we’re not here to consider the physical nuts and bolts of piano teaching. We’re here to consider the psychological requirements for sitting with one child, a half hour at a time, again and again, day after day, showing them how to play the piano.

If you’ve guessed some of the qualities already, let me enumerate the most important:

1. Don’t even think about being a piano teacher if you don’t really love kids. I mean “love kids” on those days when they’re tired and hot and sticky and in a bad mood and don’t want any more education right now, thank you. That’s when you’ll really be tested. So unless you have an affection for kids and an understanding of how hard it is to grow up, don’t bother to become a piano teacher. The children will know who you are the moment you walk through the door, and they better like you a lot.

2. You will require the patience of a block of stone. If you’ve ever herded cats, you’ll have an idea of how difficult it can be to grab and hold a child’s attention, even with a great big noisy piano at your disposal. I’ve witnessed kids who took years, literally, to figure out the basics of the piano such as fingering and reading music, but if you wait long enough and keep trying, you can do this with any child. The key is to let them set the pace, at least on the surface. By this I mean that if they need to fool around for a few moments, it may be more productive to go along with it, even encourage it, so that they are able to blow off a little steam. Then they are ready to work because they know you will let up when the pressure is too much. It’s simple child psychology.

3. A sense of humor will get you 10,000 times more results than a gruff attitude. Gruffness and disapproval are two qualities that I utterly banish from my manner while with a child. It’s THEIR piano lesson and I need to go at their pace, aware of their mood, always on the lookout for that momentary opportunity to press their musical knowledge forward. You will get a lot more done by using the little spaces in between the fun. Let them be happy, sing, make up songs, then when the moment is right, they’ll be ready for your next point.

4. You had better love repetition and have an almost biblical ability to disguise a simple task in a thousand and one different ways. No child accepts blind repetition gladly. If you disguise it as a game, they will adopt it wholeheartedly. Let me give you an example. Recently I instituted a game using a pair of dice, or a single one. Kids call it PIANO DICE. I teach the child six songs, like Jingle Bells and Star Wars, etc, and then number the songs from 1-6, writing this list down on a post-it which I put on the piano. The child rolls the dice and then has to try to play the piece with the number on the dice. Not play it perfectly, but as well as they can. It’s an excellent opportunity to point out a fingering idea, a wrong note, a pattern in the keys that might help them. And the kids respond, because we go on to the next roll of the dice right away, not dwelling on the piece but trying to get the entire list more clear in their minds. That is an example of disguising repetition as a game.

In closing, let me give you the image in my mind that allows me to start each piano lesson with a child and make them happy about it: I imagine the child before I arrive, having their own happy day. And then magically I appear. I say to myself that whatever has happened to ME that day is irrelevant, and all that matters is how that child feels about THEIR lesson on THIS day.

And I resolve that no matter what, that child is going to feel GOOD about playing the piano on that day. It doesn’t matter if they have practiced or not, if they are in a good mood, or if they make great progress. It matters only that they sat at the piano, gave it their best try, enjoyed it, and were praised for their honest efforts.

It’s my job to make their musical education a happy one by accurately gaging their mood and acting appropriately. It works every single time.

By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press. Visit http://www.pianoiseasy.com and see the PIANO BY NUMBER method.

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner

I’m a manufacturer of piano methods, so although what I say may seem self-serving, it also bears the weight of a lot of experience.

I’m not going to refer to any specific products, but rather examine some of the things you may wonder about along the way to your purchase.

1. What does the site offer you in terms of samples? By this I mean an actual view of what you will receive. There needs to be a simple explanation with drawings or photos that lets you imagine exactly how this product will be used. I say this because there are many products out there that offer miracles and quick learning, but just as many sites do not show ANYTHING describing exactly how their product will achieve these miracles. Frankly, I wouldn’t buy any educational product such as this if I can’t actually try it online, for example, with an online virtual piano.
2. What sort of contact will they offer you? You may need help or want to return the product. Look for a prominently displayed 800 number. You shouldn’t have to search for it. Send an email, ask a simple question and see how long it takes them to reply. You want a company that is small enough to serve you personally, but not so big that they do not offer real customer service.
3. What is their return policy? Is it readily displayed? If there is none, you can safely avoid that company.
4. What age group is this product appropriate for? This is a little harder to answer, because the answer varies widely according to the product and the age of the child you’re shopping for. If it’s, say, a piano method using colored marks to delineate the notes, is this method perhaps more appropriate for a very young child who cannot even find numbers or letters? If the method uses letters, make sure your child understands how to find the symbols for the letters. If the method uses numbers, does your child have facility with lower numbers such as 1-10?
5. Is there a link between the “starter method” and the real task of reading music? For example, let’s say there’s a piano method that uses dinosaurs to delineate the keys (Sticker with Brontosaurus is Middle C, sticker with Tyranosaurus is the next key, etc.,) That may be a good method hypothetically, but once you discard the “dinosaur” method for reading music, what good has the “dinosaur” done the child? Theoretically, it would seem none, but there are hidden benefits to almost any starter method at the piano: if it succeeds, it has introduced the child to the instrument happily, with no frustration and an added sense of self esteem for playing fun songs everyone knows.
6. Does the method involve fingering? Fingering is the means whereby the five fingers of each hand are numbered for easy reference. The truth is that very young kids, even up to age eight or so, have trouble coordinating their fingers, and, while they must someday address the issue, to thrust it on them in the very beginning is often a recipe for disaster. Look for a method that is simple, and the younger the child, the simpler and more transparent the method should be. Better to go slowly in the beginning and make the child feel a success than to rush into complexity and confuse and frustrate the child.
7. Does the method or product involve computer software? Some starter methods nowadays involve the usage either partially or exclusively, of computer based systems or software. While these things may seem attractive at first, you should be aware that in my experience children find computer learning software for piano and music profoundly boring. That’s right, boring. They’ll use it a few times and then quit. There is really no substitute for the old fashioned method of trying to play music on a musical instrument. For one thing, the piano requires a type of dexterity unrelated to keystrokes and mouse-handling. It’s not that musical concepts can’t be communicated through software, but rather that there is something more satisfying about the feeling of sitting at an instrument instead of a computer monitor.
8. What are the educational credentials of the creator of the method? Music is a very technical art, and thus the method you select should ideally be created by someone with an accredited track record in terms of education, teaching and performance. See if this is posted anywhere on the offering piano method site.
9. Is there any way to have your child try it online before you buy it? This will give you a good idea of what their reaction is going to be. You’d be surprised how many methods keep you in the dark so you are forced to buy it to try it. Look for the sample pages and try online.
10. What is the slant of the method, and does it fit the personality of your child? Some methods are marketed to appeal to you as a parent, offering conventional values such as achievement and excellence. Others suggest that you have fun with the piano, and not worry so much about recitals and traditional educational values. My advice is to err on the side of fun: better to have a piano method be fun and have your child learn less than have the piano method be rigorous and not child-friendly.
11. What about group lessons? While not strictly within this discussion, it is an important point. If you want simply MUSIC activity for preschoolers, groups would be a good outlet. I have several preschool music groups that I lead, and you need a group for general musical fun. But I have also taught group piano lessons, and would have to say that they are not as good a choice for children for several reasons. First, piano lessons require nothing but personal attention from the teacher, and that’s all but impossible with a group. Second, piano lessons, even fun piano lessons, require concentration, and no matter how well organized, there are many distractions in a group environment.

Take the time to comparison shop, and above all, use email and phone to ask questions. Piano teaching is a complex field, and you’ll need to be well-informed to make a good choice.

By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press. Visit http://www.pianoiseasy.com to see the PIANO BY NUMBER method.

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner

Many parents wonder,