Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum any game recommendations for very young students?

I am motivated to post this because I recently accepted a new student that is and 4 close to 5. I was relucttant at first to take him because I have had a very trying experience teaching a 4 year old in the past. In that case the child was not able to concentrate or listen to my directions for about 75% of the lesson. With this new student I gave him a trial lesson and he did remarkably well by comparison. His only true distraction from the lesson was he would reach to touch some foamy material that was on top of the piano from time to time.

So can anyone suggest a game that is music related for a child that age? I would like for him to think of the lesson as a fun experience and I am still a little nervous teaching a child that young for fear that I will lose his attention. Or if there are games for slightly older children the ppl can recommend..I teach many 6 year olds. Thank you and I have been really enjoying this forum since I found it months back!

At 4 years old, he's barely out of the toddler stage. You need to change up the activities every few minutes, since you can't expect him to sit at the piano for an entire lesson.

My first suggestion would be to find another 4 year old that can share a 'partner' lesson with this student. Also, involve the moms in each lesson. Perhaps schedule the lessons for 20 minutes, twice weekly.

Activities to do during the lesson: singing, marching around the room, using manipulatives such as scarves, hoops, tambourines, rhythm sticks, balls, and perhaps a gathering drum. You should do activities that use the large muscles and not focus only on the fine motor skills (which usually come later).

Faber's My First Piano Adventure series is really designed for a bit older child, but you could sing the songs and get some ideas for activities.

Some teachers use Alfred's Music For Little Mozarts series; Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear might keep a 4 year old's attention.

Good luck. I love teaching 4's but they are truly a whole different ball game when it comes to teaching.

Hi Melodian,
I have a couple of 4-5 year old students and am finding that they enjoy activities away from the piano such as the ideas dumdumdiddle mentions above, and here are a couple others:

have the child put a music/keyboard puzzle together.

cut out music alphabet letters and have him put them in order, on top of a cardboard keyboard you have laminated.

I got these and other ideas for youngsters from www.susanparadis.com

you can download and print out
her materials.

I am in the same position, as I have accepted to start lessons next month with a sibling of one of my students. She's slightly over four, so I've been looking for resources like that.

I was also researching the kind of "ear before eye" philosophy that goes behind Suzuki and other programs for the little ones, so I came across this book
No H in Snake: Music Theory for Children by Michiko Yurko a teacher associated with the Suzuki method. The book has quite an extensive preview in Google books, so you can get a pretty good idea about the games, which sound fun.

The short description of the book:Based on the universally respected concepts of Shinichi Suzuki, this teacher's text was developed to aid young students in learning music theory while learning to read music. 168 games are presented with illustrated step-by-step suggestions.

Thanks for the tips. Another 4 year old in the mix seems like double the trouble though ... I have my hands full with just one. I am using Alfred's course for young beginners i have never tried the little mozarts book. I will look into it.

Thanks very much for your response...i will check out the link.

You can also have lots of fun with large, colorful foam dice. Roll it to identify finger numbers (if it's a 6, they get to choose) and play a note that many times with the correct finger. You can also use dice numbers for ear training. Have them listen to the number of times you play a note, and then show you on the dice what the number is. Or, by flipping a coin (heads = up, tails = down) you can step up and down the keys based on the coin and the dice combined. Example: the dice rolls a 3, and the coin lands on tails. Start from middle C, and step 3 notes down, then name the note. Any review or drill should become a game for them.