I have been asked several times over my years of piano teaching experience to work with very young children (3, 4, or 5 years old) and I have developed a strategy that has proved to be both effective and fun for both the student and myself. Please let me know your thoughts either by commenting here or via my website at www.michaeldentonpiano.com.
I have outlined here four vital areas essential to my success as a piano teacher in San Jose, CA for very young children. They are:

1. Initial Consultation
When parents of a very young child ask about their child taking piano lessons, I always ask, "Are you willing to take things slowly?" I tell every parent that I don't want to be the guy that kills their child's love of music in any way, so I will be taking things slowly and making sure they are having fun in the process.
This may involve a greater financial obligation on the part of the parent as the very young child will take longer to exhibit note-reading abilities, for example, than an older student would within the same number of lessons.
Most parents have already thought through the idea that, because of their child's tender age, the child will learn at a slower pace than if they were to wait to introduce them to formal lessons. However, it is important for me to address the issue, as it lays the groundwork for the style and substance of my teaching.
2. Style and Substance
In working with the very young child at the piano, I make sure to change the scenery often. I may start with them on the piano bench, legs dangling, finding Middle C, then all the other C's, etc., but we will soon get down from the piano and color the sets of 3 black keys on the page or circle the quarter notes, for example. Then it is back up to the piano to play the song, "Two Black Cats" on the set of two black keys.
I make sure that I am in tune to the student's level of interest, cognitive abilities, and "wiggle-ness" and I adjust accordingly. I do not let the student determine what we do next, however. If they are asking to do something else, it is a clue to me to switch things up soon, but I don't let them give up right away when something is slightly more difficult.
Obviously, in order to keep a very young child motivated during a piano lesson, I must spend time preparing my studio with them in mind.
3. Preparing the Studio
In anticipation of the very young student's arrival, I make sure I have a full box or container of crayons, some extra white or colored paper (for drawing notes, a piano, the keyboard, letter names, etc.), a set of child's instruments that don't require a mouth to be on it (tambourine, maraccas, clapper, xylophone, small drum, etc.) a small table or workspace (or your piano bench may have to suffice), stickers geared toward little non-readers (no words, Dora, Disney princess, Thomas & Friends, animals, etc.), and method books geared toward the very young beginner (Bastien's "Invitation to Music" series is excellent, among others).
While the initial consultation is my main "selling point" to the parents of the very young student, it is important that I have regular progress reports with them as the lessons continue.
4. Progress Reports
Keeping the parents in the loop about what you're doing with their child and where you're headed in the lessons is as important if they're sitting in your studio during the lessons as if they're waiting for the child outside. I can never assume that just because a parent is present during the lesson that they automatically understand the scope and sequence of lessons with a young child.
I make sure to praise any forward progress the child is making and let the parent know at least once or twice a month how I perceive their child's overall participation level and grasp of the concepts being presented. I review with the parent some of what I've done during lesson times (again, even if they have been present during the lessons), and let them know what I was trying to communicate.
If the parent is practicing at home with the child, my progress reports include information on how the parent can better guide the child during the week ahead.

I hope that these four areas are helpful to you in teaching very young students. In addition to comments here, I would welcome further comments and questions via my website, www.michaeldentonpiano.com, where you can also see more information about my private piano lessons in San Jose, CA. Thanks for reading!

Michael, I'm curious about #4 in particular. I like parents of very young students in the studio for every lesson, because they are going to have to supervise very carefully the work at home.

Hi Michael, thanks for starting this topic.

I teach students from age 4 to 40+... and I totally agree that kids from 3 - 5/6 are in a category of their own. I have learned to require the parent to be part of the lesson for at least the first 4 lessons, if not more. I explain everything to them during the lesson. I found that, in the process of listening to having things explained again, the child can benefit as well. I write detail practice guides for the parents as well.

I also vary the lesson every 5 to 10 minutes. Besides doing some paper/theory work with crayons, I also sing the songs they are playing with the note names while stepping on the beat with them. Sometimes I have the child leap left right while they are singing the notes as if they are dancing on a keyboard. Sometimes I have the child run from left to right while I play scales from low to high etc... I have bean bags, percussion instruments...to teach rhythm skills as well.

I agree that it is essential for the parent to know that everything goes a bit slower with the young child, and it's more important that the child understands the concepts than rushing them forward.

I have a little complaint about some current method books though. I don't like some of the piano methods that avoid using the staff and just put notes in blank pages showing up and down. In my experience that doesn't really help the child to learn. Any opinions?

3-5's are a whole different ball game than your typical piano student who usually begins piano around age 6 on up. Even developmentally, each age has its own unique challenges and characteristics.

Three year olds are still considered toddlers. Their attention span is very short. Even preschoolers typically cannot sit still for a traditional private lesson.

My philosophy is that kids this age need to 'experience' musical concepts first, rather than teaching them. Children at this age learn through natural play. They feel what a quarter note is like by marching, tapping rhythm sticks, etc... way before I draw and explain what a quarter note is.

Also, taking child development classes and workshops on how young children learn is a must.

Regarding the parent sitting in on the lesson: definitely! Not only the does parent sit in on the lesson but he is an active participant, doing most of the activities that the child will do.

Faber's Piano Adventures will be coming out with a new 'Preschool Piano Adventures' series sometime (it's been in the R&D stage for several years now). Their 'My First Piano Adventures' curriculum is excellent; designed for 6 year olds, I believe, but I've heard positive things from teachers who have used it with late 4's-5 year olds. I would highly recommend it over Bastien.

Whilst not necessarily supporting the exact way any method book does this, I think the idea is good, even essential. It introduces the general concept that in musical notation pitch is notated vertically. Blindingly obvious to you and me, but like any concept it has to be introduced - it's not inborn - and with small children the simpler the better.

Small children 3-4-5-6 can not cope well with the full grand staff - so the preparatory things of what direction is the music stepping - is a basic and good thing to establish fingering and just a few letter names on the piano.

First of all knowing finger numbers on at least the RH is essential to all beginning music - whether pre-charts or one staff writing.

Some methods use one line to establish a starting place, placing a whole note on the line, and stating finger 3. Then they place a whole note on what would be the space below asking the student which finger will you play? Then a whole note on the space above the line note, asking which finger will you play.

This is teaching that notes move up and down the keyboard and on the music lines which also have spaces. Then the two line example is used making possible 5 notes (space-line-space-line-space) which is a handful.

The notes only moving higher and lower from the first note are another way that students see the "Up" and "Down" of note movement from finger to finger. The info in the center of the note might be the letter name or there might be a finger number above the note head. Usually this idea works through a 5 finger position in each hand by using LH and RH, fingering, and quarter notes, half notes and whole notes.

At any time that a student is not following notes moving and changing directions, a bright orange marker that you draw dot-to-dot on the note head joining the row together (maybe use a ruler) will begin to show the movement better. The student should draw some of these in preparation of doing work on his own.

We often just assume the kids can read the page when words appear. Not so! Even some 6 year olds with some school experience are not always ready to do so.

You are working with children and forming thinking skills - you cannot assume they know automatically. The more you can put on the page in explanation - pulses - finger numbers - note names - up/down/the same - steps - skips - while instructing the better your student will follow.

I like pre-charts with just fingering LH/RH indications and -'s which require holding. The least common denominator is a TA which establishes a steady beat and the way I write pre-charts creates that steady beat according to the eye movement which focuses on the finger number for information. This is quite a bit of thinking skills for young children to do. Actually I ease everybody (any age beginner) into using the piano keyboard with precharts.

RH
______________________________________
LH 4 1 1 4 4 3 3 4 4 is the beginning to BINGO.

I can't draw this song completely here since it doesn't format.

Happy Birthday is another good song, familiar to all.

For young kids, I would start simply, such as "Hot Cross Buns" or "Rain Rain Go Away" - both of which use only 3 RH fingers. Hot Cross Buns show conjunct motions (steps) and Rain shows (skips) - disjunct. You can drop a few words in now and then that will surface later in future lessons.

I think starting with a staff is difficult. I prefer to start with a good keyboard orientation and then to provide graphics for the hand location on the piano. The music will be heavily fingered for every note to start, then we will use just one number on repeated notes, then we will start dropping the finger numbers that play themselves easily. Before you know it you have 9 notes of the keyboard (fingered and named and playable - the Middle C Position).

So I get them moving on the keyboard first - listening to sounds, singing lyrics where they automatically learn phrasing as we mark the phrasing in on the page, we put pulse marks for any note that is uncertain.

Now they are ready for the music staff and will be able to make sense of it since they have already experience in pre-charts what they will be expected to do on the music.

It just moves us through the beginner level so very quickly that I will never change the way I start students. I don't purchase methods - only supplemental music of my choice - and kids get to and through elementary level as fast as their reading and physical reactions to their thinking are well coordinated.

I don't think methods teach the kids how to think through the tasking processes as the time is beating through the music - I hated the start and start/stumble/mistake/"wait!"/stab of the kids when I used method books. Such unmusical sounds and such insignificant little lyrics adding up to little. In pre-charts they use music they have heard and are familiar with for the most part, although I put a lot of music in that they don't know and haven't heard before.

This really works fine - it builds rather than subtracts - and it seems effortless to the kids and musical at the same time.

So many teachers who have not explored this kind of a start will throw up that noses or eyebrows in horror saying that it's not reading music. But, it is...it is the presteps to reading music, the confidence building, the giving information in an as needed format when it is needed. Then after you graduate to the supplemental books, the skills are there for retrieval.

I have lots of felt tip colors and color coding is a large part of the process, and I write on blank paper to draw my own graphics or diagrams. The kids do this too. It is so much more secure than just reading about it in a book. My students actually create their own lesson books and my assignment pages write instructions every step of the way.

I think of what we are doing as creating pictures/symbols in their heads and showing the required thinking and required moves that make the seeing and doing accurate. Would you call this musically programming their brains?

I wonder if anyone else does these kinds of preparatory things.

Betty

Hi Betty - I like the idea of color markers and making their own method books, etc. I think you definitely made music fun and piano-playing child-centered! Just wondering - let's just say one of your students started when she was 4. At what point would she be able to sight-read a piece of music with both thumbs on middle-c, stationary, in in 4/4 time, c major? i know we're making a lot of generalizations here (one of my students came in at age 5 knowing all the note names of both clefs and where the notes are on the staff and she's of course an exception!) but i just would like to learn from your method a bit more. thank you!

To answer your question wouldn't really tell us anything much except about the stage of readiness the child had reached. You can hammer things all you like, but if the child has not reached the stage of readiness (for things like reading) then you would be far better spending your time with singing, rhythmic activities, movement. I'm a great advocate of developing reading skills, but the concepts have to be there first!
Short answer - it would depend on the child.
Some are ready to read at 4. Some, no matter what you do, are not.

We’ve had this all out before ... teaching the very young (3, 4, 5) to play the piano.

But what seems to have been overlooked by Michael Denton (and others) IMHO is that the tiny tots are illiterate (can’t read and write) and absorb all (or most) of their learning through their ears (at the imaginative stave of loving Mum and Dad to read them bedtime stories) ... as such, all learning should therefore be aural orientated (imagination) ... with no over-bearing pedantic attempt to labour the application of alphabetic letters to a stave ... one of the reasons why the Suzuki approach catches on so well with the small fry ... pity it doesn’t work so well later, when sight-reading hits the fan.

But for my money, I only accept students who have started to learn to read (and preferably write too at 6, 7, 8) ... until then, don’t let parental ambition for their offspring spoil their magical early years of having fun just playing.

My first 2 five year olds could already read, so that helped. They are now age 6 and reading level 1, surpassing the progress of two 7 year olds. From the first lesson one 5 year old pointed to the words in the book "She's the piano teacher" and "They're twins". I'm now teaching a 5 year old who has not learned to read yet...just been a couple of months but so far so good. I probably won't take another 4 year old. I agreed to one sibling...letting parents know I think it's too young but that I'm willing to give it a try (since it mattered so much to them). He is progressing but he is a handful compared to 5 year olds. For just one, it is OK, but it's way more work dealing with a 4 year old.

How do we get so many sub 5 year olds that play so well?

Children's brains are so pliable at such an early age that they are capable of learning more than we imagine if they are exposed to music, encouraged, taught and interested.

But it probably has to come from the home.

Here is one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6rKcXavcyc&feature=related

Hi, Pipa, it's nice to meet you here.

Truthfully, I would not work with a child unless they are able to sit on the bench and focus for at least 5 minutes at a time, and then for it to be 3 or 4 periods of focusing on what we were doing. To me, if a piano lesson does not transfer to the student doing something mental and physical immediately at the piano I am not going to be doing it as background or preparation or whatever you want to call it.

From the time I meet the student he has to be able to build finger impulses, begin to shape the hand, and to be "serious" in his approach to the piano in that he listens, asks questions, and does what we are working on to the best of his present ability.

I do not play games, use puppets, tell stories but I do work with their imagination and their level of life experiences and I say things in the way I think they understand and relate.

The fun things we do are relevant to the lesson as it comes up and develops based on what is happening in today's lesson.

If I child keeps going in and out of fantasy in his remarks I try to bring him back to what we are doing and capture his attention again. Too much fantasy too many times just is very hard to deal with. I have had fantasy in older kids, teens and adults and it does not compute to the learning of the keyboard - I think it is often "escape mechanisms", "manipulation", and "immaturity.

If the behavior and interest is genuine, I am willing and ready to teach a young musician. But, the biggest consideration is always his physical size and motor skill development. A child with floppy arms and loose connections is not able to deliver what we are talking about as piano lessons.

I don't understand the reason for the early, early start when we are able to work with 6 years olds and build more significantly and faster, with 9 year olds being even a better subject to work with.

I've always noticed that little, little kids get lots of applause for anything they "play", but as children grow older that applause becomes less and less even though the music the older child is so much more difficult.

To me that's an indication that we want our kids to be bright and capable and to please us. I think early lessons are more about the parenting then they are about the child needing a piano experience at this time.

If it's singing, dancing, actiing, art, body movement and exploration and discovery of music in general, I'm all for it. But, I am not for the keyboard orientation and approach to playing the keyboard until the child shows that he is really capable and ready to advance to it.

I think we live dangerously in that it is possible to turn a kid off for life toward music study if we frustrate and over whelm or ask him to do something he can not do yet.

At the same time, a student with interest, beginning with eagerness and potential is likely to go as far as he can take his music and that would be to the grave.

I have written about my method "Piano Power" a lot in the forum since June 2007 - you may be able to search on some of the things I've said. If you care to pm maybe I can provide more materials for you.

Because I don't want to work with little ones, does not mean it isn't being done with the best of intentions. I think the evaluation is to be made when you see where the instruction has led to. I would be eager to hear of successful experiences with very young children.

Like the oath to practice medicine, we should do no harm.

Betty

I once car pooled with a kindergarten teacher close to retirement age. She told me that there had been a major change in children coming in since her earlier times, forcing her to change her program. This new batch knew their alphabet from Sesame Street and educational toys but without being able to truly relate meaning to the letters. They could spell memorized letter groups by rote. At the same time they had poor body coordination, and poor sense of space because they had not done what toddlers and preschoolers used to do. She got them crawling in, under and through things and did lots of physical activities.

She described perseveration: a child doing a pre-writing activity by painting a giant A on the easel which requires a slanted up, stop, slanted down. Some of the kids were going up but didn't know how to go down. They had not incorporated a sense of space by using their bodies in space. If this was 20 - 30 years ago, how about now?

The reason I prefer to work with younger students is because of the foundation of ear training that young ears absorb like a sponge. As children get older, the ability of the ear gets less and less.

For me, it's not about getting a 5 year old to churn out piece after piece. It's about a total musical experience, the piano being part of it. It may be true that a child who starts at age 8 could cover more material than a 5 year old and therefore, eventually they'll both be at the same place.... in the repertoire book, that is.

However, my 9 year olds who started at age 5 will have had several years of ear training as a foundation that makes learning other musical concepts much easier. The younger students 'internalize' musical patterns & rhythmic patterns. Because singing is a strong component in my teaching, we sing legato and staccato long before we are playing legato/staccato.
Transposing and improvisation also tends to come easier for my students who start at a younger age.

When many kids are just beginning to learn their first instrument (our schools offer band at around 5th grade), several of my piano students decide to take up the violin, flute, guitar, or even voice. The early years of piano/keyboard lessons are a huge asset to their success in other instruments.

Keystring, funny you should mention things like that!

I see big changes every few years in incoming students.

Lately, I've noticed what difficulty the younger ones have in holding a pencil and how they are uncertain of where to start a letter or a number on the page. I'm seeing pencil movement that is very inefficient and some things starting at the bottom going to the top, and then working backwards to the left side...as penmanship skills go...these kids will never have them. It's also not fluid which means they will gravitate away from writing by hand and hit the computer keyboards as fast as possible.

I remember a teacher telling me that my oldest child's penmanship was not a problem as he'd use a computer keyboard anyway - how true this was. However, he was left handed and had permanently injured two fingers in an accident and I wanted him to spend some time working on writing that was rounder, wider and larger. I did not win that one and he still prints very small letter by hand. His siblings all have rounded, cursive writing, and 2 have done calligraphy. (My kids are now in their 40's).

I am concerned about all the short hand and minimal words in facebook and other places. Not to mention cell phone and their how they are used as a tool in conversation over and over. Calls are about nothing, just chatting, and we talk on them while driving down the street. How smart is any of this? When did socialization become the focus of our lives? And, we do it with minimal words. Something is missing I think. We aren't giving much attention to what we are doing.

I, personally, haven't had a letter by mail in the longest of times, and my correspondents were family members older than I. All I get these days is junk mail and bills and a little holiday mail and letters which I treasure. One friend sends a birthday card to my husband and to me. Everything else comes in by email, even phone calls have become minimal at our house.

When I see so many piano websites with registration right there before you know anything about the teacher or the studio, it also makes me concerned. It's upfront and not the least bit personal that people are choosing their piano teacher. They assume that we are all the same and offer the same and charge the same...one is as good as another. I don't think that's a valid thought.

I was watching a tv show (HGTV) with Mike Holmes who does repari when a contracter has swindled a homeowner, charged a huge amount of money for a job that was much cheaper to do, left a mess, out of code, dangerous to live in. He goes in, demolishes what the contracter did, replaces everything to a high standard. He's a marvel and I've watched him do this many time. Each story I see, I think, why wasn't the homeowner more cautious. Today he told of a website that has signed up contracters all over the country and customers hire the contractor sight unseen to do a job based on what the website says: beautiful pictures, glowing reviews, all the dream home stuff. Then the local contracter, who is not the website owner is assign the job. Money is paid up front. Kiss your money and your sanity good bye and be prepared to cry and get angry. Great show!

Parents really aren't being cautious enough in their piano studio inquiries. They just want to have an open door for their child to start and they want it to be fun and every body smiles constantly. Right. Children's story endings - every body lived happily thereafter.

The little kids are watching us and waiting to be just like us when they grow up. I wonder if we will recognize ourselves in them. We were the role model.

Betty

I can see where you really mean this because of your expertise in early childhood music education. I'm confident that you do a good job of working with children and building the love of music.

But, I can do the same and have for many years where my students took on other instruments with other teachers - some remain in piano, too, others switch to their band or orchestra instuments. Some went into jazz at school - I've produced a number of jazz keyboard players - and some piano accompanists for chorus and church and such. These were their ideas as to how to use their music. I'm thrilled when this happens.

One of my daughters plays piano, sings, plays clarinet and flute, her daughter had 6 years of piano with me, has played viola, trumpet and loves french horn. Once when tthis daughter was about 12, we went to a music event where she was invited to try a folk string instument (dulcimer, I think it was). She sat down, strummed a little, listened, and picked up on how to play songs on it immediately - I thought it was a huge happening in her young life. It's joyous when young musicians can do things like this - which is step forth confidently with curiosity.

I think it's as much about showing them proper attitudes and improving their inner conversation with themselves as much as it is about the music making. If we can empower them to feel confident and curious they will have a minimum of reluctance in anything they face in music. I think there needs to be a big portion of attention to what the child is thinking and facing in his inner world. Music is often a therapy that makes things very possible adding new dimensions to all areas of our lives.

It's nice when parents want music in their child's life - it's even better when the children insist on having it in their lives too. Those are the kinds of students I attempt to awaken and I think they follow their music teachers as though we were the Pied Piper or Mary Poppins.

Dumdumdiddle first: I was heartened in reading what you do. It sounds like the whole child is involved and all parts of music as an experience, not a 5 year old narrowly learning to play the notes on a piano.

Betty: The kindergarten teacher's observations were about what was happening in the home, and it was this mostly cerebral education that concerned her. The conversation happened before I had children, and it taught me the importance of play, imagination, and using the body freely. I had never considered that crawling around as a toddler can affect being able to draw a letter of the alphabet later on.

Don't be fooled by teens texting in shorthand. They've got a sophisticated vocabulary we didn't dream of, and can choose modes of language at will. With the contractors on the Internet and such, there is lots of room for posturing and illusion. We just have to be all the more careful and do our homework, including in regards to piano teachers. Cell phones and the rest: they are tools. How do we choose to use them?


Have we the knowledge to inquire properly and even know what we're seeking? In that respect, these forums are wonderful.

KS

I like this approach, why not teach youngsters so that you avoid all those most annoying problems later! Some examples: lack of even pulse, pausing at barlines, bars that are too long or short, not noticing wrong notes... I've worked with 6yo's and only a few 5's. It has been easy to get these kids to copy, say, read and even write rhythms using from 16ths to whole notes.

Singing is so valuable at younger ages. Singing in parts with the piano where both the rhythm and pitches are different seems to be very useful. Holding your own part at a young age allows a child to begin to experience that very pianistic skill of being able to hear and monitor 2 parts at once.

Also, by singing a child can learn to copy the legato, staccato, portato, 2 note slurs of words and their combinations. Rhythm might originate in the body, but a lot of rhythmic patterning comes from language. Sing "Up up up jumped the little green frog".
"up up up" are sung very short staccato, "jumped" and "frog" are staccato, the-little-green-frog is slurred. Children really focus on the feel and the length of the syllables, and can imitate it on piano directly from the sound.

Once I move kids on to playing piano (rather than pre-piano), every piece has a singing part with interesting or funny words, and it often isn't in the piano part. In a lot of my beginner songs the piano part is a bass line, or chordal part, and they sing over the top. They can all do this (we're talking 6 and 7yo's now). In some pieces the piano part moves between melody (with the voice) and harmony (voice is alone again).

All this counterpoint and vocalisation from the start seems to help with a sort of fluency and flow. Where I've started kids on a method instead, some fluency seems to be missing, something is slowed down. So I usually go back and learn lots of these songs, but that seems to be less powerful than doing it first. Hmmm don't really know for sure, need to get a few more years of teaching behind me.

I'm still experimenting and developing my materials for this. Most of these students are not from musical families and get no help or supervision from a parent. My 'system' may have saved some of them from drifting away through slow progess or just not getting it. Hope so. I'm off topic by now... but I'm passionate about this stuff

This thread has been very interesting for me. We just started my 4.5 y.o. in piano lessons that very much seem to follow the approach mentioned. Formally, the studio follows the Kodaly method. Each child takes a 30 min. group "theory" class and a 30 min. private instrument lesson each week. For the little kids, the "theory" class takes the form of an informal, fun kindermusic class with same age peers. After just one class, I already see my son's singing more on pitch than it ever has been, and I can imagine how this will help his early piano playing. In the piano lesson portion he is learning familiar songs with words (to start: one, two, tie my shoe). He came home from the first meeting with his teacher (not even a real lesson) knowing how to play a full song. It has been amazing to see how excited he is to go to lessons! It is really creating the foundations of a lifelong love of music.

Welcome to the forum!

I am happy to hear about you and your son! It's a breath of fresh air! Will you consider posting more about your experience in children's music education as time goes on? And, we'd also be interested in your adult beginner experiences, too.

You thoughtfully provided some unique information for us. And, I must say I am quite opinionated about really young beginners, so it's probable that I will learn some interesting things from your perspective as a student yourself and as a mother of a young child.

Thanks so much!

Betty

Betty,

Thank you for the warm welcome. It is certainly fun to be learning at the same time as my son. Several times already he has heard me practice and wandered into the piano room wanting to practice his stuff, too. I enjoyed observing his lesson today. He loves to write and draw, and his teacher was able to incorporate that into the lesson (writing finger numbers on a picture of a hand, drawing notes, etc.). I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

But for my money, I only accept students who have started to learn to read (and preferably write too at 6, 7, 8) ... until then, don’t let misplaced PARENTAL AMBITION for their offspring spoil the magical early years of having childlike fun just PLAYING.

And what more exciting, magical and special world to play in is music! Music as discovery; singing, moving, drawing, illustrating, making cool sounds, feeling and dancing, pretending to compose... Sitting still on a bench and reading each note in order to press correct key with correct finger - yeah that would not be fun (until child begins to ask for this). Yes this sort of preparation does create a very musical kid that will probably do well at piano (making parents proud) but it's not all bad. They can then enjoy the deeper satisfaction that comes from making music with the piano.

Kori said:
"It has been amazing to see how excited he is to go to lessons! It is really creating the foundations of a lifelong love of music."
And that really is what it is like! You can't get them to leave at the end of the session, you have to push them bodily out the door, and I am not exaggerating.

btb you are wise to not accept them into normal piano learning until they can read, any earlier and the slowness and impossibility of it can put them off music. I refused to teach the younger ages until I had figured out/researched what would work well, then decided that this is an area I would like to work in. The Wiggley Stage is not for everyone

i'm a parent who started his son on piano a few months ago, just before his 5th birthday. it's gone well so far. i'm not sure every parent paying for lessons is looking to pad their child's resume for college.

we started out with a month of lessons just to see whether he enjoyed it. now the teacher is using the Faber pre-reading series which has been great (not that I have anything to compare it to). it's digestible for a 5y/o but he's also aware that there's a Book B and Book C and that he can get better and better.

i'm sure it's a lot of 2 steps forward/1 step back at this age but i think people underrate what a 5y/o can load.