Musicing

I’m trying to teach my own children to play the piano without forcing them to practice. I’m calling their lessons “music time” instead of something more formal and I’m trying to make the entire process fun. For part of the time I play accompaniments and let them improvise on either black keys or white keys (Eb blues for black keys and I, vi, ii, V7 on white keys). They like that. Then we play tunes that I teach by rote (copy what I do) or I have them figure it out on their own. Our oldest son is 7 and can play quite a few tunes this way. Our second son is 5 and he can play Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Our daughter is 2 and she likes to play along while I play and sing some of her favorite songs like “You Are My Sunshine” or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” The idea is to socialize them to play the piano–that by seeing me, their mom, and older siblings playing, they will develop the desire to play. Then, when we sit down for a lesson, we make it informal and kind of like we are just making music together. I have come to believe that learning to make music should be joyful at every level; I don’t think that enjoyment comes only after much difficulty. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how the piano lessons are going.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS