Can I teach my kids piano?

[Peplophoros]

Ok no flames from real musicians please, but honestly, can I teach my 5 and 7 year old basic piano using a text? I had 10 years of piano as a kid/young adult. I can read music reasonably well, but obviously have never taught and don't play much now.

 

Let me have it! (and yes, I'm expecting you all to tell me I'm just going to teach them bad habits). Right now dragging the kids to lessons and the expense is more than we can handle this year.

[Roadrunner]

The biggest reason against teaching it yourself is proper touch (how your stroke keys, technique...). I have seen so many kids who have had years of lessons and accumulated bad habits. It's harder to relearn how to play that learn it right first time around. Also, make sure are you teaching phrasing from the beginning. If you can do that I don't see a reason why you can't teach.

[Paula in MS]

Yes, you can teach them. I am a piano teacher, if that matters. I would recommend either Alfred Premier or Piano Adventures. The Premier books have technique books that go along with them. This will really help if you haven't played in a while. They are very good. You could also make use of the CDs. This would help them learn how things should sound.

 

The best thing you can do, though, is to sit down at a piano yourself and start playing again. It will all come back to you. If I can teach my daughter Latin with no prior knowledge on my part, you can tackle piano with your background. Ten years of lessons is a lot, and your kids are very young.

[Beth S]

I've taught our five kids (stopped at high school). If you have a good relationship with them in homeschooling, this is just an extension of that.

I basically sit next to them every time they practice. Big time investment, but it eliminates all that "bad habit" problem. They progress much faster as well.

The first easy books are just teaching note value, notation, etc. Not too tough.

 

If you are feeling inadequate, you could periodically have them play for a piano-playing friend (likely the church pianist) who can give you some tips.

I think, too, that you will have fun brushing up your skills.

 

I just used the same books I was taught with. If one of them ends up really, really excelling, you could then choose outside lessons.

[learningmama]

My First Piano Adventures is a great series if you wanted to try it on your own.

[alisoncooks]

Ok no flames from real musicians please, but honestly, can I teach my 5 and 7 year old basic piano using a text? I had 10 years of piano as a kid/young adult. I can read music reasonably well, but obviously have never taught and don't play much now.

 

Let me have it! (and yes, I'm expecting you all to tell me I'm just going to teach them bad habits). Right now dragging the kids to lessons and the expense is more than we can handle this year.

Well, I hope you can... b/c I have even less experience than you & I plan on trying next year! :D

[6wildhorses]

Yes, you can do it! Piano Adventures completely walks you through the process and even has videos on their website to demonstrate technique. I use the Piano Adventures lesson book, artistry book, and performance book for each level along with Theory Time workbooks. At the Primer level I have used various books to capture interest (The PA Primer book is not as exciting as the rest of the series IMO), but once they hit level 1 I am sold on Piano Adventures. My daughter is 6 and we do piano as per her interest. I have a slip of paper that rests behind the keys with the note names, and I write the note names on her music. So far she loves "Piano Discoveries," "Teaching Little Fingers to Play," Faber and Faber's PreTime Piano Series, and especially Progressive Piano Book 1 (this comes with a CD they can play along with). Once her fingers develop more strength, I will teach her fingering. I let her use what fingers are comfortable, and she is building her strength by doing so. She also has a colorful theory book that I think is also Progressive Piano.

 

I did not like piano as a child and really have no natural talent for it. I do wonder, though, if a series like PA had been around when I was younger if I would have enjoyed it more, but who knows? I am a singer, though, and have been able to transfer my musical skills to the piano (for example, crescendo, legato, staccato, theory, etc.). The past few years I have learned to enjoy the piano, and I have really worked to improve my skills. It has been so valuable for my children to see me play and to observe the process of learning an instrument. My oldest daughter is 9 and loves the piano and has what I consider a gift. (This must have skipped a generation, as my mother and grandmother were incredible.) I actually started teaching her when she was 4 because she wanted to learn, but after the primer level material she was just not ready to move forward and she has taken long breaks from piano. I don't force music, but they are exposed to music in so many ways, and they see my husband and I enjoying music and performing, so they always seem to come back to it, much to my joy!

 

I have successfully taught piano at a private school and now to my kids and my daughter's friend. I think the most important thing behind technique (you can't play well with stiff fingers or if you don't know what note to play) is passion! If you have a passion for music and for sharing it with your kids, plus in your case you've had many years of lessons yourself, all you need is a program to walk you through teaching, and PA does that. My goal is to keep growing myself, so I can take my kids (at least any who desire to) through the entire PA series. After that I will find a teacher who can take them beyond the method books. The bonus of teaching my 9 year old myself is not only that we are sharing it together, but that I am always available to help. We do have a set lesson time each week with her friend, so she is also sharing it with her friend, and they motivate each other. She practices on her own throughout the day because she loves it, and you can tell by the way she plays. I don't require practice hours, but if I notice she hasn't been practicing her pieces for the week, I will mention that the lesson is coming up.

 

To me it's like teaching my kids to read. I love teaching them to read and giving them that life-long skill. I love sharing music together and building that life-long skill together too. It's something we can always share, and I love that.

[Amy Jo]

I have been. We use Mrs. Stewart's piano and once in a while I have them play for Grandma, who plays/tunes/formerly taught/everything else pianos. She thinks they are doing well. I stay ahead of them in both their book, and I also work on the Alfred adult books.

[catz]

I usually think this is not the best idea for most people. But if you played for 10 years, you certainly have the background to do it! I'd give it a go if I were you. If you have a child that adores it and leaps fast, you may want to switch to a picky teacher sooner rather than later.

[G5052]

Yes, I did for several years, long enough for one of mine to fall in love with it and for one to say that he wasn't interested. So I let that one quit.

 

Then we switched to a teacher that we were able to barter with for lessons, so I paid $5/month (yes, really). That worked well for three years, and then the teacher developed health problems, and we switched this year to a well-known teacher with a large studio. Piano competitions went extremely well this year, and I don't regret the financial sacrifice we're making at this point.

 

So certainly you can indeed get them started. At a certain point though you may find that you will want to switch to a professional, but as I found, sometimes you can even barter!

[Lara in Colo]

I recently found this online : http://www.freepianolessons4kids.com/index.html

 

There is a minimal cost for materials

 

I am seriously considering this

[FairProspects]

I have taken piano for 15 years and I didn't attempt to teach it to my kids and I'm glad I didn't. When we started lessons, I realized there was so much about technique that I would not have thought to teach because I had played for so long that it was just ingrained in me. I could easily have handled music theory and all that, but with stroke technique I would have definitely created bad habits.

[Critterfixer]

I'm teaching my two boys their primer. But we are all three of us going to take piano lessons from an outside source this fall.

What I am working on teaching them is that knowing how to play the piano is something that they can take into their adult life if they choose to do so. I get a lot of joy out of simply having our piano, playing it for the boys when we sing, and just using the music to relax in the evenings. The boys started out thinking that it would be just more "school" with Mom, but now they are finding that knowing a little bit is giving them the tools to invent and enjoy. So I hope that the little bit of teaching they have gotten from me will go far into making sure they see the piano as something that they can play with and love, instead of only seeing it as another thing to learn.

[katilac]

Sure. I think you should refresh your skills before starting, and work on 'lesson plans' to some extent rather than just sitting down and starting, but overall, yes, certainly.

 

I googled 'how to teach piano' and got a bunch of hits that look helpful. Doing some research and planning will help you avoid the things FairProspects posted about (not thinking to teach certain techniques b/c they are ingrained, etc).