Before your child heads towards making a new beginning, you would want to give him/her a good start off. In order to cover all the essentials for a good start of piano lesson for your child, we recommend you to go through this page and get all the help to prove yourself as a well-prepared and knowledgeable parent. This early learning is definitely going to shape up the entire learning curve of this instrument for your child and giving a good start for your little one will enhance chances of a fully nurtured growth. So go through this entire checklist and make sure that all the tips and toes are covered for first lesson of your kid.
Parent’s Checklist for Kid’s First Piano Lesson:
1. Get him/her a piano at home:
Whether you are sending your child to a piano training class or to a private instructor, you should have a piano at home too. Most of you may be hiring private instructor who would be visiting your house for piano lessons or may be teaching them through online lessons. For all cases, if you wish your child to progress in learning, you should carefully review and select the best piano for kids to practice at home.
2. Consider different options:
Depending upon your preferences and budget, you should consider various options. You may get a grand acoustic piano or a portable digital piano; it truly depends upon your personal circumstances. For a real grand stuff, you should have a particularly reasonable place in house and along with budget. A grand piano can give your child better harmonics and touch than a digital piano but a digital one has other perks including features like varied sound options, recording options etc. If you wish to opt for a digital piano, go for one with weighted touch sensitive keys, pedal action, comfortable height adjustable bench and music stand.
3. Have the best piano instructor:
Carefully select a piano instructor for your child. Hire a professional and interview him/her about skills. You should also enquire about how he would be arranging learning sessions over coming weeks and months and what goals he would be accomplishing with your child. Hear his students play or you can even ask for an audition lesson with your kid in order to evaluate his teaching and piano playing skills. Teacher must be competent performer and should have musical education too. He should be certified to give lessons. The approach of teacher should be positive towards making your child learn and must be teaching with enthusiasm and love for this instrument.
You can even opt for group learning lessons where a group of children along with your child may learn piano playing skills together. Such sessions give your child a chance to explore his skills and learn more in a competitive environment. However, a one to one session gives your child individual attention. Whether your child would learn best with an individual learning or in a group lesson? You can only answer this question best according to your child preferences and comfort zone. So make a decision keeping all aspects in mind.
4. Avoiding placing piano at a place that is hidden away:
If you place the piano at a hidden dark place that is usually ignored and is distant from other family members, you child may not feel like practicing as he/she may feel lonely at that place. Moreover avoid placing it in TV lounge/room as others watching TV would be a distraction for your kid’s piano lesson.
5. Preparing your child for piano lessons:
Before your child begins piano lessons, you must make sure that the child is well prepared for learning this musical instrument. He/she must have knowledge of alphabets A, B, C, D, E, F, and G and must be able to differentiate between right hand side and left hand side. Before they begin learning sessions, practice with them for these alphabets along with right/left terms. You can play various games with them for a better grasp.
Also make sure to encourage them to play this instrument well before they take their first lesson. By playing around with a piano, they will become more familiar with the instrument’s layout. They may even get a grasp of the placement of keys and may get familiar with varied sounds they produce. This would prepare your child for his/her first lesson and they will feel more confident.
6. Encourage your kids to make new discoveries on piano:
When you witness your kids making new discoveries over this instrument, talk about it and encourage them. Many of you may witness your child to explore and experiment new sounds, picking up tones etc. Just notice them and talk about it when you think it is appropriate. There is nothing better than a foundation that child lay by himself. They may not be aware of particular terms for their discoveries and you can talk to them about exact terms and expressions.They may be curious to know about some symbols and if you are not aware then just Google the term or symbol and tell them its true term and meaning. If they already know terms before their lesson begins they will feel more familiar to these terms and ideas when their teacher will introduce them. This would make taking piano lessons easier and more fun for kids. You would need to put in emotions, right attitude and confidence in your child that would make them more confident and expressive pianist.
Conclusion
By following these tips, you are not only making your child prepare for his/her first piano learning lesson but when they already have their hands over piano and know basic terms, it is going to save their time and would make way for quicker learning. The more confident they would feel at distinguishing between various terms and symbols and thus would be able to cope up well with their lessons. Moreover parents need to be an active and supportive part of their child’s piano lessons and this is essential for grooming of a professional young pianist.
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