Teaching Methods For Beginners Learning Piano
A good piano teacher should always be able to devise lessons to suit any pupil.
Because we all learn in very different manners this is very important.
Many people are visual so will find that they are able to take in information in written form and will be good with theory and notation, where as others will e good a listening to the sound of the music and have a good ear.
Someone else may be completely tone deaf or lack natural rhythm.
Lessons should cater for strengths and weaknesses.
Children and adults also need to be treated completely differently.
A child has a much shorter attention span to an adult and so if the lesson isn't kept interesting then you will lose their concentration very quickly.
When teaching kids I have several tricks that I use to keep them focused one of which is to ask them their age and then get them to play a scale or part the same number of times and asking them to call out the numbers at the same time.
I also have a large furry dice that they roll and again this is fun and they have no problem then play a part the same number of times as the number on the dice.
Children respond to simple games like this and learn much quicker.
I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve that I call on to use with kids.
I also believe in having structure to teaching beginners so I separate the lesson into 3 chunks and rotate the order each week.
This is my typical structure for a lesson: An hour breaks up into three, 20 minute sections so I may first start off with scales to warm up with, then have 20 minutes concentrating on the piece of music that the pupil is learning and finish off with 20 minutes of theory.
Adults are quite happy to just plug away in this manner but children are a different prospect.
I quite often have to play musical games with kids and then they always need a reward, such as a gold star on their book or let them play something they enjoy and are good at.
I find that practicing scales in lessons is very productive especially if you find a scale that a pupil is good at and likes.
You should then encourage them to play this in all keys.
Arpeggios are a really good way to help with difficult stretches and are very good for finger positioning.
Because we all learn in very different manners this is very important.
Many people are visual so will find that they are able to take in information in written form and will be good with theory and notation, where as others will e good a listening to the sound of the music and have a good ear.
Someone else may be completely tone deaf or lack natural rhythm.
Lessons should cater for strengths and weaknesses.
Children and adults also need to be treated completely differently.
A child has a much shorter attention span to an adult and so if the lesson isn't kept interesting then you will lose their concentration very quickly.
When teaching kids I have several tricks that I use to keep them focused one of which is to ask them their age and then get them to play a scale or part the same number of times and asking them to call out the numbers at the same time.
I also have a large furry dice that they roll and again this is fun and they have no problem then play a part the same number of times as the number on the dice.
Children respond to simple games like this and learn much quicker.
I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve that I call on to use with kids.
I also believe in having structure to teaching beginners so I separate the lesson into 3 chunks and rotate the order each week.
This is my typical structure for a lesson: An hour breaks up into three, 20 minute sections so I may first start off with scales to warm up with, then have 20 minutes concentrating on the piece of music that the pupil is learning and finish off with 20 minutes of theory.
Adults are quite happy to just plug away in this manner but children are a different prospect.
I quite often have to play musical games with kids and then they always need a reward, such as a gold star on their book or let them play something they enjoy and are good at.
I find that practicing scales in lessons is very productive especially if you find a scale that a pupil is good at and likes.
You should then encourage them to play this in all keys.
Arpeggios are a really good way to help with difficult stretches and are very good for finger positioning.
Source...