“A piano teacher’s real job is to forward a child’s piano education by making them want to learn it by themselves.”
John Aschenbrenner
Songs Kids Want To Play
Yesterday one of my students’ parents called me and told me to listen to the music being played in the background. It was her son playing one of her daughter’s piano assignments on his trumpet! The song was Fireflies by Owl City. Her son had “stolen” his sister’s sheet music so he could learn how to play the song. He also kept saying over and over “It’s not fair! She gives you cool songs to learn! Why doesn’t my teacher give me songs like this to learn?”
So, with a nod to “the piano-assignment-stealing-brother” I write today’s post. Here is a list of the top requested songs in my studio from the past month:
1. Someone Like You by Adele
2. Fireflies by Owl City
3. Dynamite by Taio Cruz
4. Mean by Taylor Swift
5. Fur Elise by Beethoven
Of course most piano teachers know all about Fur Elise, but if you’d like to teach your students any of the other songs you can stop by any number of websites including musicnotes.com, 8notes.com, and sheetmusicplus.com for a teacher cheat sheet otherwise known as sheet music!
Piano Lessons Are Like TV Shows…
Based on my children’s TV watching habits, I sometimes think that the best parts of a TV show are the commercials. I generally use the commercials as a time to go grab a snack or do some other “thing” before the show comes back on. But, not my kids! They’d rather die than miss the commercials. (OK a little bit of exaggeration). The point I’m making though is they live for the commercials. I guess that’s why companies spend so much money on them. So what does this have to do with piano lessons? Well, just like a good TV show, a good Piano Lesson needs some breaks in between scenes (activities). YouTube is so great for finding music education videos that can be used as commercials during lessons. Of course whatever video you choose has to be entertaining! Here is an example of a video that I repurposed as a commercial just yesterday…
Musicians With Apps
The people who made this video have a great website musicianswithapps.com
It has been very useful for me in finding apps kids love. They review apps for all kinds of instruments and give a rating. They make it easy to find out what the best apps are and even let you know how their kid testers voted and how the teacher voted. You’ve got to check it out! Oh and I use the featured app in my studio – all the kids love it!!!
Fun Practice?
If you are looking for a fresh way to get music students to do repetitions, try Don’t Spill the Beans. This game can be found at any store that has toys like Wal Mart, Target, or Toys R Us and is very cheap. Usually less than $5. This is a game where you try to balance little beans on top of the swinging pot without spilling the beans. I use it to get students to practice troublesome sections several times. Each time they play they get to add another bean. We continue this until the beans spill. It works wonderfully because kids want to put LOTS of beans on without spilling them… and that means lots of tricky passages get corrected!
Spring Time Piano: Take It Outside
Parents and teachers: As the weather gets warmer and days get longer, it’s time to take piano lessons and maybe even practices outside! One fun outside activity for piano is using sidewalk chalk to draw music symbols. You can have students draw them or draw them yourself and have the student identify the symbol as they enter the studio. As other students come to lessons they can name the symbols that were already drawn as well. Of course having a cool treat (like popsicles) or some other prize for “Best Musical Visual Artist” or “Symbol Master” can top off the fun! Check back often for more warm weather piano ideas!
Sports and Music
Yes, it’s that time of the year when sports often take over our students’ lives and piano lessons can sometimes fall by the wayside. So I thought I’d share a quote from author Lesley Bloom’s book, The Rising Star of Rusty Nail.
“Music is an art
but anyone who tells you that it’s not in part
sport would be lying to you.”
Music From Glasses
Sometimes it can be inspiring for a student to “see” their piece being played in an over the top way!
Kids & Keys 