Category: music lessons

Which Guitar Is Cool?

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This post, while not about piano teaching is about kids and their perceptions of musical instruments. In one of my preschool classes a few weeks ago the boys were fighting over these two guitars. Everybody wanted the red one. When I asked them what was wrong with the blue one, they told me it was OK for the girls but it wasn’t cool enough for them. Wanting to know more, I asked what was so cool about the red one. They said, it has fire! If you’re interested in more about musical instrument stereotypes, head on over to http://arcticbassplayer.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/its-only-4-strings-dealing-with-music-related-stereotypes/#comment-80. Reading that post inspired me to share the picture above.

Nail Wars

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When I was a teenager,  like many girls I started growing my fingernails. To me they were beautiful! The only problem was that I was a piano player. By that time I had played piano for 8 or 9 years and I never knew that long nails didn’t belong on piano hands because I never had any long nails. It just so happened that by this time I had had several different teachers and I had only been with the current teacher a short while. Needless to say, when she told me in no uncertain terms that I had to cut my nails I thought she was being mean and I ignored her.

She told me all the reasons (blah blah blah) why long nails were trouble for piano players:

1. They interfere with proper technique. Long nails prevent the fingertips from coming in contact with the piano keys, thus preventing the player from playing with the     appropriate touch.

2. Long nails create a clicking sound that interferes with the music.

3. Long nails can get caught between the piano keys. When this happens, the nail can break and that hurts! Also, the musical flow is often interrupted because the player must stop playing to retrieve her finger from in between the keys.

4. Long nails make it nearly impossible to play fast.

5. It’s just not practical to play with long nails.

Besides the fact that I was operating with a teenage mind and didn’t want to cut my nails, this teacher and I had not yet built a solid relationship. (Actually that would take another 15 years or so to happen!) The bottom line is that I had no intentions of letting her tell me what to do with MY nails and I DID NOT CUT THEM… until a long time later when I got tired of trying to navigate long nails on the piano.

Fast forward to the present – Now I am the piano teacher and I have pre-teens showing up to lessons with nails that are not only long, but to further complicate things –  they are purchased! This always happens every year with at least one student. The most recent incident happened just this week. Looking out the window in my teaching studio I could see my student and her mom headed for the door. Instead of the usual smiley face and bouncy walk, the girl was in tears and the mom was clearly angry. So I braced myself with my special invisible piano teacher fire extinguisher and opened the door.

The mom immediately showed me her daughter’s hands and explained that she was unaware that her daughter had put on these long nails just prior to the time for the lesson. She also told me to be sure to let her know if those nails interfered with her playing. And with that Mom was out the door! And there I was with an angry, kind of embarrassed pre-teen who didn’t understand what was so bad about having such pretty purple nails! Actually she was really upset about the fact that her mom had caught her before she could put the last nail on her thumb.

So… I patiently listened (Yay me!) As I listened I saw myself in her position and so I was able to validate her feelings. I intentionally left out the sermon about why piano hands should not have long nails because in that moment it didn’t matter. Instead, I shared my story with her about my teacher wanting me to cut my nails and I was honest with her about how I felt about it at the time. Then I showed her my nails. They are manicured and polished, but they are piano playing length short and they are beautiful. I let her know that it is appropriate  – expected even – that she should want her nails to look good. It’s especially important for us piano players because people are looking at our hands and fingers all the time. I mean, when is the last time you took a video of your student or child playing the piano without showing her hands? I didn’t even tell her that she had to cut her nails. She will realize this in time. The last thing I did was ask her if I could take a picture of her nails so I could put it on this blog. She was happy to model her nails for me even though she knew that the picture was going to be used in a post about why piano players don’t have long nails.

After our talk we went on to have a wonderful lesson and when her mom returned she found her daughter smiling and bouncing like normal.

So what to do about girls and long nails?

Well if your daughter asks for long nails, don’t buy them or give her money to get them. Instead take her to the spa/salon and let her get a manicure (short nails). You could even suggest adding a pretty design as well.

A trip to the spa/salon could even be a reward for piano practice!

Secret Practice

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  As we get close to Spring Performance time I am modifying what practice looks like for my younger students. They will be given the wonderful job of presenting a concert at home for family members! We’ll brainstorm ways to really ham up the performance with costumes, tickets, and maybe even snacks! I will tell them 1 or 2 songs that have to be part of the concert and they can add others if they like. Then at home they will give out invitations to their concert which can be printed here. There are two versions of the invitation. The first has a picture on the cover that they can color. The other one has a space for them to draw their own picture. Inside each invitation is a space to write the titles of the pieces they will play. You can download the files by clicking the images above. Once you print the file all you have to do is fold the paper in half horizontally and then fold again like a card. Presto! Instant kid concert invitations and a practice sessions with no tears!

If you want more ideas about how to make practice fun for kids see “Don’t Practice, Play A Game”

Hot Cross Buns For Easter

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Hot Cross Buns For Easter

This may be a little too late for today, but you can still share it with your piano players since most piano students learn to play Hot Cross Buns. This is a link to a site that posts videos that teach kids how to cook. Just click the link above or go to spatulatta.com to watch the video recipe.

Do You Even Listen To Music?

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While teaching piano lessons to young children I have learned that one VERY IMPORTANT question to ask parents who inquire about lessons is , “Do you listen to music yourself?” Another equally important question is “Do you listen to music with your child/children?”

I am often amazed and disappointed at how many kids start taking piano lessons and do not consistently intentionally listen to music or have music played in the home. How can you get excited about playing music if you never even hear music? The most rewarding music making experiences come from being able to play familiar songs. That requires having songs that are familiar to the student. When a student can come to the lesson and say, I’d like to learn how to play this or that song, or I heard a song over the weekend that I really like, then the lesson can get really fun really fast! And of course if the student is practicing music that others in the family enjoy, it definitely makes the practicing more bearable. So in addition to finger exercises and piano pieces, I often make listening to music part of my students’ weekly things to do for piano. There are many great resources for finding music to listen to. Here are a few:

Go skating!! You will hear hit songs back to back while enjoying skating.

Go to the movies!! Again, you will hear hit songs and also classical music sometimes. You will hear orchestral works and piano music.

Go to church!! A choir might sing, or praise team, or even a famous guest artist. And of course you can see musicians perform live!

Go to a concert!!

Go to a musical!!

Go to your basement, or wherever you keep your old music collection. Have your kid / student listen to some of these. You will be surprised at how much they enjoy it. If you have especially skeptical kids, just pop some carefully selected songs in your CD player or ipod. Look for titles that have been remixed and your kids will be so shocked that the music they thought was new is really old!

Of course you can always simply turn on the radio!

Whatever you do, by all means expose your child to some music everyday!

Don’t Practice, Play A Game!

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I know very few kids (if any) that get excited to practice, but I know a lot of kids (almost all) that get excited about playing games. That gave me the idea to change my assignment sheet from piano homework to My Weekly Practice Games. Using this sheet the student gets to choose which game or games they’d like to play during the week and circles them. The teacher can also choose specific games as well. All that’s left to do is to write the name of the song you want them to use for the game. There is also a space where the student / parent can check off each day. You can download a copy by clicking here or clicking the image above.

Boys and Piano

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Finding songs that interest my boys in piano is very difficult. Thankfully, by the time they reach 12 or so they sometimes have words to describe the type of music they want to play. Such was the case with one of my students recently. He has been learning to play Fur Elise (at his request a full 2 years after I first suggested it to him). As he had been getting very good at playing it I figure I should start preparing for what the next song would be. So I simply asked him what he would like to play. He told me that the only songs he liked right now are Fur Elise and The Snake Charmer. Then he thought about it and said, “I like them because they are mysterious. I like anything that is spooky and/or mysterious.”

It was like a secret code had been revealed to me. Certainly I could find spooky and mysterious.

So, this week I presented him with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. He happily played this short arrangement from www.gmajormusictheory.org

Another hit with the boys in my studio this week was the Perry The Platypus theme from Phineas and Ferb. We adults know this tune as the theme from Peter Gunn or The Blues Brothers.

Other winners are usually

The Pink Panther

We Will Rock You

Star Wars Theme

Easter Egg Surprises

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Here is a quick activity that can be used in the piano lesson or as a piano assignment to be done at home! To use it in the piano lesson, you will need 12 plastic eggs, a sharpie or other permanent marker, and some candy. On each egg draw a staff, add a treble clef or bass clef and draw a note. I used treble clef space notes since my students have been working on these lately. I also made one egg for each space note as a quarter note, half note, and whole note since some kids struggle to grasp the concept that ANY note can be a quarter note, half note, or whole note. You can have students hunt for the eggs around your studio or randomly pick one from an egg carton or Easter basket. If they can correctly identify the note and its value, they get to open the egg and keep the prize inside!

As an at home assignment, kids can draw the notes themselves and write the letter name on the back. A special prize can be given for completing this assignment.

What’s In The Box?

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This beautiful box was a gift to my studio from one of my piano families. When I got it I thought, “wow so many possibilities”. In fact so many ideas about how to use it in the studio ran through my mind that I still don’t know exactly what I’ll use it for. All I know is that I want it to be something everyone in the studio can use and look forward to. Maybe it will be a mystery box where I keep spontaneous awards for miscellaneous accomplishments during the lesson. Or maybe it will be a suggestion box. Or maybe it will be a surprise activity box that the students get to do at the beginning or end of each lesson! Hmmm. Can you help me out with more suggestions?