When is a Child Ready for Piano Lessons

Not every young child will be ready to begin piano instruction. The maturity level of young children varies greatly. Girls generally are better coordinated and exhibit better dexterity than boys at an early age. Before rushing headlong into piano lessons, parents should ask themselves questions concerning their child's readiness level:

1. Does he show an interest in learning to play the piano? Perhaps he tries to pick out melodies on the piano, or perhaps he sings well. He may also just enjoy listening to music.

2. Is his attention span long enough to practice at least fifteen minutes at a time?

3. Does he have fairly good coordination of his small muscles? If a parent has taught him to draw letters, numbers, or to write his name, is he able to handle a pencil fairly well? A parent who has taught a child any of these things probably will be willing to help him practice.

4. Does he take instruction well from the person who will be helping him at home? This could be a parent or an older sister or brother.

5. Does the child receive a great deal of satisfaction from learning new things? Is he eager to learn?

If a significant number of these prerequisites are missing, it is recommended that piano lessons be started later when conditions are more conducive for learning. The readiness age will vary with each individual child.

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Tone Color

Varieties in tone color at the piano are produced by different kinds of touch, unequal distribution of power both in tones struck simultaneously and successively, differences in the moment of attack and release of tones, differences in the degrees of legato and staccato in sustaining tones, different uses of the pedals, and in other ways too subtle to discuss at this point. Still, in coloring the tone quality of piano playing comes largely through repeated experimentation at the keyboard, listening intently to the results of different ways of laying the same passage and contrasting passages. Careful observation of the playing of others and of the effects which they produce is a most helpful practice.

Above all, tone coloring is the result of aesthetic imagination, which conceives an effect and strives to realize it. The teacher should strive to stimulate his pupils to expressive playing through coloring the tone quality of their performance in accordance with the spirit of the music. The use of songs in the early study of piano playing is a great help in this work. The songs express mood. The children may first sing them so that the mood is reflected in the vocal tone quality. Then they can strive to color the playing with the same tone quality. Such imaginative coloring of the tone serves as the best background for the later more technical approach to the subject through varieties of touch, dynamics, phrasing, and pedaling.

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Parental Support of Creative Practice

Home assignments usually take for granted some kind of parental supervision. Many parents oversee the practice of their children, and have assumed the responsibility for timing the practice periods and seeing that the student is kept consistently at a routine. While this method sometimes is effective, not infrequently it degenerates into a system of policing that is irksome to both the parents and student. Few things are more dispiriting to a student's progress and enjoyment of music than the constant nagging of parents to make him practice his home assignments. Besides, parents eventually tire of supervision, and there are few, naturally, who have the patience, tact and influence over the student to carry him along year by year until he has reached the point where his own interest prompts him to keep up with sufficient practice. Additionally, the quality of enforced practice, with a ticking clock as a constant reminder, is seldom going to bring the best results.

Parental Cooperation

One of the first essentials to the success of creative practice is to make the plan clear to parents. So much stress has been laid for years on the necessity of parental supervision of home practice that parents expect to be called upon to assume this responsibility. It is often difficult for them to keep away from the child and leave him to his own devices at the piano. Parents should be urged to leave the child alone with respect to home practice. The following forms of cooperation are ones the parent should give, and are vital to the success of creative practice.

Best Place for the Piano

The piano should be available to the student whenever he feels like playing it. This is not always easy - sometimes the piano is in the living room where the student's playing disturbs others; sometimes visitors interfere with the student's freedom of action; sometimes in winter it is hard to keep the room well heated at hours that suit the child's convenience; sometimes a tired father or mother is disturbed by the student's playing. Conscientious parents can work out the most satisfactory solution possible under the circumstances.

The piano should be placed where there is enough light to read music and learn the keyboard both during daytime and evening. If at all possible, a separate music room, free from family gatherings, visitors, cell phones, television, and other interruptions, and where the student can go at any odd leisure times, is an ideal condition.

Let the Child Correct His Own Mistakes

Parents often find it extremely difficult to refrain from giving help and suggestions when the child makes mistakes. They might hear or see the child doing something contrary to their own experience as piano students, and are naturally anxious to offer assistance. But such help is exactly what the student should not have. He needs to develop his own interest and initiative, learn to detect his own errors and find his own ways of correcting them. He will find his stimulation in piano lessons. A student should be so engrossed with the music he is working out that the urge to practice comes from within. The spirit of emulation (see earlier blog post) will help motivate him to perfect his practice.

Other Home Music Projects

There are many music projects that interested parents can start, that serve not only to stimulate the student's pleasure in music study, but also to make the home a center of interest that will carry over into his whole life. Reading matter on musical subjects of interest to children should be abundant. The child's room can be decorated with pictures of musicians or musical subjects, chosen by the student and arranged as planned by him. A music cabinet can be available, where he can be encouraged to organize his music. Attendance at concerts and recitals should be planned, with advance preparation by reading about the repertoire or hearing the music on iTunes. The use of all of these will contribute to the growth of the student's musical culture and his musical life. They will vitalize piano study by associating it with the broader world of music.

For more information about piano lessons NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.