Piano Lessons For Kids
Piano lessons for kids is a fantastic way to introduce young children to begin to understand music and how they interact with it.
Often parents do not believe their children are capable of quite a lot. They are their babies who could do nothing when born but suddenly in a few years have learned to walk, mastered a language, know how to manipulate parents to get what they want plus an enormous range of other impossible things. Could you as a parent Wizz around a mobile phone like a four-year-old can?
Why would children as old as four years not be able to master the piano or keyboard? children have an amazing advantage over adults. Children do not know they can’t do it. Kids think they can learn to do anything. Adults lost that advantage years ago.
How do piano lessons for kids work
With children it is important for them not to be put off at the beginning by overwhelming them. some teachers are anxious to impress parents with their knowledge and push children too fast.
Every child is different and needs to find their own pace. It is not about the teacher it is all about how the child learns.
Lessons need to be structured to allow a child to learn in steps one by one. If it takes more than one lesson to learn something, then it takes more than one lesson. If a child does not understand something which is ignored, then it will slow future development down and worse put the child off learning forever.
Parents role
The parents’ role with piano lessons for kids is especially important with small children. such as four-year old’s who have not mastered counting and their alphabet.
Over the years I have taught piano to children whose parents have been incredibly supportive of their children and sometimes too supportive.
When a child is introduced to something new it takes a few moments for them to assimilate it in their brain before carrying out the task. Parents understand it immediately and often grab the child’s hand to force them to do it quicker.
Is this because they are disappointed in their child, because they are embarrassed because the child appears slow in front of a teacher? I don’t know but I do know it frustrates the child and slows down their learning. The piano and music are complicated and need understanding slowly. Learning to be a brilliant pianist takes time, in fact many years if you want a child to be amazingly brilliant.
How to choose kids piano lessons
There are four general types of piano lessons. The first is a local private piano teacher. I see this as the best method, providing a good one can be found. Most are good, and others can be overly strict. Find a good one and piano lessons will be a joy.
The second method is taking piano lessons at school. If the teacher is good and can put sufficient time into lessons, then this method can be as good as a local private tutor.
The disadvantage of this method is that the child would come out of a normal class to take the lesson and would need to catch up for the lost lesson.
Online lesson courses can be good or bad. some are fixed courses that are purchased, and you are on your own, others can be exceptionally good with support and offer a reasonable method of learning the piano. Some offer full support as they have invented their own system of learning the piano. These are very popular; my concern is as the methods can be propriety then the student may need to learn music properly afterwards. Why not learn it to begin with? there are some advantages as a lesson can be taken over and over until something is fully understood. This is a distinct advantage over even private lessons with a local teacher.
The fourth method is online live lessons. This method offers lessons as good as with a private tutor. The teacher can see the student playing and the student can see the teacher demonstrating everything.
I see this last method second to the local piano teacher.