How to Give Piano Lessons

The piano is one of the world's oldest known musical instruments, and can be dated all of the way back to 1700. Many kids today only associate the piano with classical music; however, the piano is present in all genres of music played now, including rock and hip hop. Learning piano is a good way to understanding all musical instruments and notation. Here is some guidance on how to give piano lessons.

Instructions

1. Teach your students the location of the keys on the keyboard. Show how the piano is set up in smaller groupings of keys known as octaves and that the notes are in the same order for every octave, starting with the note C. Locate "middle C" for the student, which is the C note in the fourth octave, directly in the center on the piano. From there, have them play every key in order in the fourth octave, starting with C and ending on A.

2. Explain to your students the presence of sharp and flat notes on the keyboard. Show them where the black keys are located in each octave. Explain that a black note's name can change depending on if you are moving from left to right on the keyboard, or from right to left. Left to right means that you are going from a lower note and then hitting the black key, which will be a higher note; this is called a sharp. Have them locate "middle C" once again and show them that going from "middle C" to the black note next to it is called "C-sharp" because the black key always takes the name of the key that preceded it in the direction of movement on the keyboard. Explain this further by having them hit the D note in the fourth octave, and then hitting that same black key that was called "C-sharp." Explain that since they are moving down the keyboard, the black key is now a lower note. This same note here would be called "D-flat." This concept can be confusing, so make them go through all the black keys, from one direction and then the opposite direction, telling you what the key's name would be and why.

3. Teach your students an easy song to play, based on the small amount of information they should now know after step 1. One of the biggest problems most piano teachers have is that they bombard the student with too much technical information too fast, without allowing the student to see true applicable results. Showing them how easy it is to play a song after the first lesson will allow them to have something to show for their efforts and make them want to continue learning. Have them play a piece of the "Mission Impossible" theme song, which is simply the D note twice followed by the F note and then the G note, then back to the D note twice, ending with the C note and then C-sharp, all in the second octave.

4. Start showing students how to read musical notation. Show them a standard musical scale, which is five parallel lines; do not have any notes placed on the scale yet. Go through and explain the note that each line represents and then the common sentence used to remember the position. The five lines, starting with the bottom line and moving up, are E, G, B, D, F: "Every Good Bird Does Fly." From there, explain that the spaces in between the line will also represent a specific note, these being F, A, C, E, which is simple to remember because it spells "Face." Go through pointing to different lines and having your student tell you what each note is written on each line or space.

5. Explain and show how each type of note (whole note, quarter note, eighth note and so on) will look when it is written. Then show on the keyboard that when they see a whole note symbol on the E note line of the scale, it will be held for a certain amount of time before it is released. Go through all of the note types, allowing them to hear the length for which each type of note should ring out for.

6. Add in exercises that require students to use their left, or non-dominant, hand. This will be difficult for most students at first, so make sure they have a good grasp on the previous steps' material before adding the presence of left handed playing. Begin by simply having them play a section of music with their dominant hand, while keeping a one-note continuous beat with their other hand.

7. Continue increasing the difficulty of the pieces of music. Once they have an understanding of musical notation and the key located, it just becomes a question of practicing until they can move smoothly through pieces of music with both hands simultaneously. They will now have the backbone for playing the piano; the rest will be their own ability and motivation to get better.

References

• Teaching Piano