How to Teach Kids to Identify Up & Down Notes by Ear in Piano Lesson

Video Transcript

"Play that for your kids. Ask them, did it start going up or down? You may get black stares, for five or ten minutes. Play it again, somewhere over the rainbow, Sing it to them, it helps also. And, see if they can sing it back to you. What you're teaching here is the, the idea of going up and down and I know that we've discussed this before. And, you will be surprised, you may have already discussed it in fact, with your kids. You will be surprised, that, that, that's still a problem, for some kids. Some kids have it immediately, they have the idea of up and down, they can translate up and down to the keyboard. Some kids just don't, and that's o.k. But, and you can help them develop that sense. Sing to them, play to them and constantly be asking them, did I move up or down? Did I move up or down? Did you move up or down? Have them sing to you a song that they know in school, have them sing to you Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, did that move up or down? Blank stare! Because it doesn't move up or down. It stays the same. It's sort of like a trick on them, but that's the second thing that you're teaching. Once you've got up or down, you need to acknowledge the fact that sometimes music doesn't go up or down, sometimes music stays the same. Again this has nothing to do with the notes on the page, this has nothing to do, really yet, with how it looks on the Piano. It only has to do with how it sounds. See if they can close their eyes, see if they can dance it. Somewhere over the rainbow. Their probably going to make their arms go from low to high. These are all tricks to get the sense into their head. What does it sound like? Does it move up or down?"