Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Teaching Lessons

I'm going to start teaching lessons in about a week. I will be teaching a freshman and a 4th grader. How can I make my first few lessons clear? I'm not really sure what to do with the 4th grader. Any suggestions?

Amy:

With all due respect: If you don't "know what to do", why are you going to be teaching a fourth grader? At any age - but particularly with younger children - it is important that a person's initial exposure to music be a positive, exciting and insipiring one. What are you planning to do to make it so?

What does your teacher recommend that you do? It seems that that would be a good place to ask your question - for a start.

Regards,

I was going to try to do all the things that my teacher had me do when I was just starting but I'm not really sure how to handle the first 2 or 3 lessons.

I didn't answer your question though...
To make it interesting for me, my teacher let me use crayons on just about everything! I would pick a few colors and color each note a different color to learn to read the music. I would also color my dynamics, phrasing, and color the notes that I played with my left and right hand at the same time. I was planning on using flashcards to learn things like reading notes, symbols, words, etc.

hi amy
all the best. i taught some pretty young children for a year sometime back and i am not exactly crazy about kids (but we don't always get to choose our students. somehow, i survived and so did most of them. the first lesson may be quite daunting when you're teaching for the first time (it was for me)so just make sure you're prepared and have chosen your material well. don't be discouraged if the first lesson doesn't go as well as anticipated. subsequent lessons have less possibilities for disaster. i'm not in the best position to give any advice but i've realised two things about teaching children:
1.they need to feel good about themselves so give lots of encouragement.

2.their interest can be sustained if they feel that they're making music:

play simple duets with your student. depending on the learning abilities of the kid, concentrate on between 3-5 notes of the scale for the very first few lessons. if you're working with just 3 notes, it's easier to start with c,f and g cos they make up the most fundamental chord progression. that way, you can get the kid to play a simple bass line while you play a melody over it;
bring a simple percussion instrument into class and get the kid to use the instrument instead of just clapping its hands to a certain rhythmic pattern. in fact, get it to add percussive sounds to a specific rhythm while you play a simple piece. wood blocks are quite fun and there are these castanets that have "animal faces", quite macabre but kids find them cute.

once again, good luck.

Belacqua:
Welcome to the forum! : ) Thank you for the reply! I really like the idea of the percussion instruments!
AK:
Thanks for the advice! I will definatly use it!
You have both been very helpful and I will keep you posted!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Amy:
[QB]Belacqua:
Welcome to the forum! : ) Thank you for the reply! I really like the idea of the percussion instruments!

you're welcome.
have fun!

Hi Amy.
I've been teaching for about a year now, so I still remember how terrifying the first few lessons can be.
I notice that you didn't mention any specific books you would be using to teach. The fact that you don't seem to have any specific curriculum to follow may be contributing to your fear. I don't know what's available in the States, but I use the Faber & Faber Piano Adventures series.(Sorry if I sound like an ad) Each level has Lesson, Theory, Technique books etc. and all the concepts are introduced in a clear and logical manner. Many teachers in my area use it.The kids seem to enjoy it, which is the most important thing.
Of course, you can deviate from the lessons according to the needs of the individual student, but as someone already said, it is important to have some kind of lesson plan to guide you.
Good Luck.

I do have methods. For my 4th grader, I am using the method that I started with which is the Bastien. For my older student, I am using John Thompson's adult piano course.

Tomorrow is my first lesson and I am going to concentrate on the way to sit at the piano, finger numbers, and the high and low ends of the piano. I also hope to get started on the first song in the book. It just uses two notes with quarter and half notes. I think that the student understands quarter and half notes but if not, I will have to cover that too. That will be plenty to keep us busy since the lesson is only a half hour. I will let you know how it goes!