Piano Lesson Activities for the Youngest Beginner (Ages 4.5 - 6)

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't feel comfortable teaching students under the age of seven when I first started teaching piano.  College professors warned piano majors not to take any students under seven, so I didn't at first. But the demand for lessons at this age was so high, I became determined to find a way to teach this age group!  Now I have a pretty good system down and have developed many of my own teaching techniques to warm up the young beginner to the challenge of playing the piano.

Here's what I've learned about the 4.5 to 6-year old beginner.

Teachers must start VERY, VERY basic...more basic than parents might imagine!  The teacher must assume that the child knows NOTHING:

• The student does not know how to read
• The student does not know his left from right hand (yes, this is usually true at this age)
• The student does not know his finger numbers
• The student does not know the ABCs of the piano keys
• The student will probably not be steady at first and will race/ slow down tempos
• The student may not be able to match his/her voice very well to piano pitches
• The student does not have as much control over the tiny muscles of the fingers as an older student does.  Fine motor skills are not as developed.

So what can the young beginner do?  We as teachers have to select lesson material/activities around what these students can do.  The young beginner can...

• Sing/ chant poems and repetitive songs (pitch will improve with frequent singing with the teacher)
• "Copy-cat" rhythmic patterns
• Incorporate movement into songs  
• Learn very basic, repetitive black-key songs by rote until reading process is established
• Visually identify groups of two and three black keys on the piano
• Be taught hand position and the basics of piano technique
• Color and use manipulatives

So in case you're wondering what I do at those first lessons with a 4.5 - 6 year old, this video will offer an idea.  Of course, it all depends on the student, and some come in knowing more than others.

"Train is Going Down The Track": Teacher-Student Activity for the Young Beginner (4 - 6)

This is my youngest son (5 in October) at his first piano lesson with mom (me) last night. I made up this repetitive chant/rap for beginners (because all 5-year-olds love trains). It's just a little 12-bar blues, boogie-style in C. Little did I know that this would become a top request at my youngest students' lessons (go figure). The idea is to train them to FEEL THE BEAT, and eventually...fall in line with it musically. [NOTE: NO PRIOR PREPARATION HERE AND INITIAL SLOPPINESS ON STUDENT'S PART IS WELCOME...IT'S PART OF THE PROCESS]. He had never heard this before, but you'll notice he's trying to mouth the words and learn the chanting part already. He's also already trying to match my rhythm with the "Choo-Choo-Choo" (they all do...I coach them with my body language). He also matches my shimmy (an unsophisticated word for tremolo) at the end. 

First, I marked a C and G on the piano with hot pink post-it flags. There is no right or wrong answer on his part, and a little chaos in the beginning is ok. I just mark the two keys he needs to play, and he can do whatever he wants with those two keys. The first week (like this) sounds sloppy, but after a few weeks of doing this, kids start to fall in line with the beat and sound more orderly with their rhythm. They'll create their own rhythmic patterns as unique as one's fingerprint with that C and G. They enjoy it as an end-of-lesson activity because there's no corrective action on my part -- NO WRONG ANSWERS -- just fun improvising and being themselves. Please don't gag when I sing the "choo-choos" as I've been sick. Most importantly, it is a fun music-making experience for little guys that makes them want to do more. Can't wait to see what he sounds like after a week of practice with mom.

I will post sheet music later, but here is the basic progression:

• (Intro Material:  F, F#, G7)
• ||:  4 Bars of C7
• 2 Bars of F7
• 2 Bars C7
• 1 Bar of G7
• 1 Bar of F7
• 2 Bars of C7
• (Intro Material for Round 2:  F, F#, G7)  :||

The Importance of Feeling and Finding the Beat Through Listening

At age 4 or 5, just finding the beat can be elusive.  Dance teachers and music teachers experience this first-hand.  We call it "marching to the beat of your own drum."  Students speed up, then slow down.  They're not in sync with the music they're hearing.  It's frustrating!  All music/dance teachers need for students to march to the beat of the music they hear (in dancing), or march to the pulse the group is following (in music).  As soon as possible, students need to have an internal metronome to keep themselves steady when the metronome or ensemble/ director is not present.  

To arrive at this INTERNAL STEADY BEAT, one must become a good listener.  One of the best ways to arrive at this is by letting the musician or dancer improvise within certain parameters.   My parameters here were "just play these two keys - C and G, marked with the pink Post-It flags."  Make up whatever you want, but just these two keys.  Listen, feel the music, and stay with the beat.  It is important for the teacher to be perfectly steady and have faith that eventually, the student will fall in line with the beat.  His beats won't line up with yours on the first few tries with this, unless he is super-gifted in that regard.  But have faith....it happens with more repetitions, and it's interesting to see what rhythmic patterns they come up with!