Piano Lessons

Early in this homeschooling adventure I decided that I wanted to teach Sparkle to play the piano. I don't know how to play, but I bought myself a book and taught myself enough to plink out a few simple tunes from the book.

I don't want to shell out the money for the traditional half-hour once-a-week piano lesson for Sparkle. I feel that at this age, I can teach her more cheaply at home. I had several false starts, but I think we have found our stride.

We usually do the piano lesson during Glitter's nap, because the few times I've tried it with Glitter around, it is impossible to keep her off the keyboard. I aim for 5-10 minutes every day, but it's a rare week when we actually do five lessons.

I got the Pianimals series to start, and then got books from two other series on PaperbackSwap. However, I wanted a book with only limited pictures, and without any finger numbers, so I transcribed the books into my own custom book, interleaving the songs from the various books.


I also figured that when I taught Sparkle to read English, I didn't teach Sparkle to read until after she had the alphabet (letter names and sounds) memorized. Why not do the same for piano? After all, it is tough enough to actually play a note without having to figure out what that note is in the first place. So, I made flashcards for each note. I resolved to not introduce any songs until she knew how to read all the notes in the song. I started with one note - middle C, and added new notes as the old ones were mastered. Once we got all nine notes from shared middle C position, I stopped introducing new notes, since it will be a while before she changes hand position. We used to play games with the flashcards, but now I just shuffle them and hand them to Sparkle for her to sort from low to high. Then I reshuffle them and have her play them one at a time.

Once I was ready for was ready to play a song, I showed her the book I had made. I had her go over the song several times before actually playing a note. The first time I had her name all the notes as she points to them. The second I have her count out the beats, again pointing at each note as she counts it. I also try to point out any patterns in the song, such as repeated sections. Only after she has shown that she can read the song does she actually play it.

Once Sparkle has a song down, I'll have her play it several times: simply play it, play it while saying the note names, play it while counting the beats, and play it while singing the words. When she can do all three well, we move on to the next song. On days when I'm tired or rushed, we might just review old songs.

At first Sparkle messed up a lot and got upset when she goofed. I've gradually gotten her to take it more in stride and understand the importance of practice. Now, when she messes up in the middle of a song, she'll scowl, and I'll gently tell her "that's okay, try again from the beginning" and she will. (Most of the songs are only four bars long, so it's no big deal to start from the beginning.) I also think that the note reading drill is really helping her when it comes to learning and enjoying new songs. I've even seen her sneak a peak at future songs in the book and play them correctly.

Rhythm is one of my really weak spots. I tried the CD that went with the textbook with Sparkle early on, as a method of teaching a regular beat, but that was a disaster. However, I recently tried gently introducing the metronome now that Sparkle has much more confidence at the piano. I only use the metronome on songs that Sparkle can read and play without hesitation, and even then not that often.