Tag: piano lessons for kids

How to Make Summertime “Piano Time”

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Summertime Piano

Hello Kids and Keys Readers! Today’s post is coming to you from Doug Hanvey, an accomplished piano teacher in Portland, OR. Doug also writes his own blog at www.portlandpianolab.com.

Read on for some helpful tips for getting over the summer piano slump!

Summertime is here! But that’s not good news for every piano teacher. Some students may take a break from lessons, and parents may have to be reminded to start up again as fall approaches. How can you continue to engage your students and their parents during the summer so that the dreaded lapse in practicing – and the possibility that some students might end up leaving your studio, having lost momentum – can be avoided?

Have you ever noticed that the way you ask a question determines the possible answers to it? We could take that question as is, or we could go deeper and ask: How could you make your summer lessons so exciting and fulfilling that they’re not only competitive with all the other fun activities kids can choose, but rise to the top?

If you were a kid, and a long, lazy summer were beckoning in front of you, what would keep you excited about continuing your lessons, and even have you bugging your parents to make sure they’d let you keep going?

Every piano studio is different, and every teacher will come up with ideas that reflect the unique qualities of their students, the area they live in, and other factors. Here are a few ideas to use as starting points for your brainstorming.

Take Your Studio Outside

Summertime is outside time. Why not throw a party in your backyard for your students (no parents allowed) with a digital piano or two, and a long extension cord? Include lots of games, both musical and not, yummy food, and let the students play for each other (but no pressure – only if they want to). Suggest they invite their friends. Once their friends see how fun and cool it is to make music under the summer skies, you may gain a new student – or two or three.

Go on a Field Trip

Take your students on a field trip. Their parents will love you for getting them out of their hair for a day or two. Promise lots of fun – this should be more of a social occasion. They will have a blast hanging out with each other (take a couple of parents along to help you out!) while you visit a nearby city to see a concert or other cultural attraction. Along the way of course, keep them entertained with activities, games and surprises that will make the trip a highlight of their summer.

Get Creative

If you were a kid, what would keep you excited and involved with music during the summer? I think it has to do with the way a child relates to music. Is music something they do or is it something they are?

If music is something we do (like homework) and not something that is part of us – that helps define us – how likely is it we’ll stay motivated to play or study during the summer, or even at all? For better or worse, by the time I was 12 music had become a major part of my identity. Playing the piano, but even more so, being creative with music, was a therapeutic and enjoyable way for me to express my individuality. I taught myself how to improvise and compose (formal instruction came later). But what if my music teachers had actually encouraged me to do so and given me direction?

Baseball is fun, and so is camping, but neither is very creative. If you haven’t brought improvising or composing into your studio, why not develop a summer creative group program? Your students meet together each week to learn about improvising and composing and to play creative music games. (You could even combine this with outside activities like the above.)

Towards the end of the summer you could bring in students from a couple other studios – such as a voice studio or percussion studio – for a fun, creative jam. Students who have written their own pieces can perform them. The kids will have a blast, they’ll make new friends, and they will be dying to continue their piano lessons. They may even be the ones nagging their parents about signing up for the fall, so you don’t have to.

These are just a few ideas for making your studio so dynamic and exciting that the idea of quitting lessons during the summer is simply inconceivable.

How do you keep your students enthusiastic about summer lessons? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Doug Hanvey

Doug Hanvey is a piano teacher in Portland, Oregon. His Piano Lab Blog offers cutting-edge tips and ideas for piano teachers and students.

You may also be interested in reading: 

The Music Store Field Trip

Piano Outside

Summer Piano Shorts: Cool Chords

Summer Piano Shorts: Octaves

Visual Motivation For Learning Scales

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Scales Links

Do you remember learning scales as a piano student? Well I do, and there was nothing exciting about it. As a student I couldn’t see how learning scales would improve my playing or what in the world they had to do with playing songs. Of course that way of thinking is exactly why it is so important to have a piano teacher! Piano teachers know that learning scales improves technical facility at the keyboard and understanding of how music works, how songs are built, and provides us with a wealth of tools for improvisation.

What piano teachers sometimes don’t know is how to make the process fun and interesting for students. So today I’m sharing a tool from my piano teacher bag of magic – Scale Links. Each time a student masters a particular scale, he or she gets to write out the notes of that scale on a colored strip of paper. Then the student glues the ends of the paper together to form a loop. As more scales are learned more loops are added and linked together. The scale links are hung up in the studio so that students get a visual picture of their progress. They also get to see how quickly other students are progressing which of course leads to more practice!

 

Teaching Song Patterns With Jenga Blocks

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Song Patterns With Jenga Blocks

When it comes to learning songs, sometimes words can help and sometimes words just hurt. Kids don’t always easily hear repeated musical patterns when the words change and that’s when words begin to slow down the learning process. Yesterday one of my students was struggling with a mental block while playing “Tucker’s Secret Life” from My First Piano Adventures Book B by Faber. She enjoys singing this fun song and knows how to read the music, but she just kept forgetting where the song was headed. Frustration began to set in. We sang through the song without using the words. I tried to point out the places where we hear the same sounds. We drew shape symbols for the different sections on her music. Nothing seemed to work until…I remembered the can of colorful Jenga blocks! (Actually they are called Rainbow Jumbling Towers – the game is played just like Jenga)

Jenga pattern

The song basically only has 2 parts and an ending that is a variation of one of these. So, I assigned a color to each section then laid the blocks out to reflect the sound pattern. Now my student was able to see that the she should play the first pattern 2 times, then the 2nd pattern 2 times, back to the first pattern 2 times, the second pattern 1 time and end with the variation. Suddenly she was able to play the whole song from memory with no problem! After playing through a few times, I removed the blocks to see if she could still play the song. She and I both were so proud when she was able to play the song without using her book or the blocks.

Moments like this make me know that I will never let go of my music toys!

Mystery Practice Assignments

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This post is about the never ending practice war. You carefully write out assignments in your student’s notebook, slowly explain what you wrote, and you wait 7 days. Then you find out your student didn’t even look at the assignment sheet. You give your student a look of shock or disappointment and explain again why practice is so important. Repeat the steps from the previous week. The cycle continues.

I’m sure most piano teachers are familiar with the practice war and some may even have come to accept it as just a normal part of lessons. Well, the rebel in me is standing up today and saying NO! This has got to stop!

So, I have a proposal for any teacher who is ready to accept the challenge to end the war.

This will take a little advanced planning, but I’m betting it will be worth it. This week I’m giving students a different practice task for each of the 7 days in between lessons. My goal is for them to complete at least 5 of these tasks. If they complete all 7, they get to choose something from my treasure box at the end of the lesson. Here is where it gets interesting  – I will assign and explain a really cool practice activity for the first day like one of the ones in Shhh… Your Piano Teacher Thinks This Is Practice by Andrea and Trevor Dow. The other 6 assignments will be given to the student in sealed envelopes with the message – “Do NOT Open Until _________ “! The day of the week will be written on the line. Before giving the student the assignments, I will be making a list of them in my teacher notes so that I can use that in the following lesson.

I can’t wait to see how many of my students will take the mystery challenge!

Will you join me in this quest to end the practice war? Like and / or leave a comment if you’re on board!

Morning Inspiration – Forever Playing

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This morning my daughter informed me that she noticed I hadn’t been going to a particular student’s house anymore and she wanted to know what was going on with their lessons. (Who has these type of conversations with their 9-year-old?) She went on to ask me if they were still taking piano. I told her that they were not taking lessons right now and she was visibly upset to hear that news. In an attempt to put her at ease and reassure her that this was neither a tragedy nor an emergency, I explained to her that EVERYBODY eventually quits taking lessons just like everybody eventually stops going to school. My sweet daughter thought that was the craziest idea ever and she would not accept this as a fact!

I can tell that this is going to be a very good day!

Get Parents Geared Up For A New Piano Season!

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With the start of a new school year we usually focus on getting students geared up for a new piano season, but have you ever considered having a special kick off event just for parents? Part of my teaching philosophy is that the music studio should be a community of families who are committed to arts education. So, this year in addition to our normal events that involve students and their families I decided to have a Piano Parent Mtg. the week before lessons began.

This gave new and returning parents an opportunity to meet each other, ask questions, and share piano stories. I had a chance to give out helpful information for the year concerning upcoming event dates, fees, curriculum and all the things that we’d be doing in the studio this year.

We even had a chance to do some role plays about practicing at home. The parents seemed to really enjoy getting different ideas on how to handle practice issues at home.

And what would an event be without food? So of course we had refreshments. We even had door prizes for some products that were donated by local merchants as well as a drawing for FREE registration.

The evening went very well, and so far I’ve heard from more than one parent that their child was a little upset about not being invited to the meeting! What can I say, us parents deserve a little time with our friends too, right? Next year I’m going to call a Piano Parent Gathering instead of meeting.

How do you get parents geared up for the start of the new school year? I’d love to hear about it!