Practicing piano

[UCF612]

My 6 yo just started piano lessons (he's had 2 lessons so far). I'm curious as to how long and how often I should be requiring for practice. So far I've just let him practice as long as he wants 2 times a day. That usually averages out to around 30 min a day. Is that too much, too little, just right?

 

Second question, any ideas for helping him learn the location of the keys? The teacher wants him to be able to find C (or whatever) and tell her it is the left hand side of the 2 black keys (or whatever). He's having a hard time remembering. I realize some of that will just come with time but he wants to be more successful with it. I do believe he has some working memory issues that might be playing into it. Today we started flashcards but that's so dull. Any better ideas!? Or just leave it to time and experience?

 

Thanks! This is out first adventure into instrument practice/lessons!

[MrsRobinson]

My dd started piano at 6 yo using Faber's My First Piano Adventures series.

 

I couldn't find time to get her to the piano 2x per day. I set a timer for 30 min and if she made it to 20 min, I was happy. I would praise and give her the option to stop or noodle around without me directly supervising.

 

Sounds like your ds is learning with a different program, maybe? Iirc, she learned middle c and then learned the whole music alphabet starting at middle c then continuing c,d,e,f,g,a,b. Her teacher had her say that 2 times forwards and backwards b,a,g,f,e,d,c morning and afternoon every day to me. Then he (or the book, can't remember without looking at the notes) applied it to the rest of the keys, showing how the pattern repeated itself.

 

There were a lot of exercises on the keys like "stair climbers" "riding the escalator" where the notes went up and down. "Here comes the bride" over and over across the whole piano. That sort of thing.

 

He also had her do balance and coordination excercises. Touch your nose alternating hands. Stand on one foot and do something with your hands. There were several of them i am forgetting, atm. The practice, repetition, and away from piano exercises paid off. She really knows her way around the keys like second nature now.

 

I can grab her old books if you have more questions or if this was confusing, ha!

Edited April 18, 2016 by MrsRobinson

[Bluegoat]

At that age I looked for 10 or 15 min a day, but a lot was really about how well they were paying attention.  I ad to sit with them at that age.  ETA - I was more looking to get a habit of practice and make it fun, than have long practices.

 

The program we used taught finding C like this  - find the two black keys close together. (C# and D#)  D is in the middle of them - D is a dinosaur, and those two black keys are the dinosaur den.  C, who is a Creepy snake, lives right next door to Dino D, in alphabetical order.  Once they can find the Cs middle C isn't too difficult.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Bluegoat

[ScoutTN]

My kids started piano at 7, but we did about 15-20 minutes/day 7 days a week at that point. 

I sat with them for practice the whole first year and about halfway through Ds' second year.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by ScoutTN

[UCF612]

I told him that since he knew where C was he could easily find the other keys by moving up or down.  The teacher told me she absolutely did not want him doing that.  Oops! I felt bad for telling him that but I thought it made sense! 

 

Sounds like we aren't far off in practice time.  Thanks!  

 

I will have him do some balance and coordination exercises, he'll enjoy that!

[maize]

For helping him learn key locations: can you use white and black paper to make a giant representation of the keyboard on the floor and have home practice running to the location of a key when you say the name or hold up the letter on a card? Later on you can do a similar exercise with a giant staff made from masking tape or sidewalk chalk to teach him the location of notes on the staff.

 

I find that getting the whole body moving helps immensely with memory.

[MinivanMom]

When my kids were starting out, I would tell them to practice each song 3 times rather than giving them a length of time to practice. It helped encourage them to stay on task and finish quickly since there was a set number of times to play rather than just trying to run down the clock. 

[UCF612]

For helping him learn key locations: can you use white and black paper to make a giant representation of the keyboard on the floor and have home practice running to the location of a key when you say the name or hold up the letter on a card? Later on you can do a similar exercise with a giant staff made from masking tape or sidewalk chalk to teach him the location of notes on the staff.

 

I find that getting the whole body moving helps immensely with memory.

Love this! Thank you!

[Hobbes]

My daughter is 8 and had been taking lessons for 2 years. Generally, she is given a certain number of times to practice a piece or scale each day and she is quite responsible about it, so I don't usually time her practices. Today she asked me to time her (not sure why) and it was 12 minutes and then a bunch of paper theory work - which would have been another 10-15ish mins. She had more theory and fewer pieces than usual this week. Usually I hear her playing for closer to 1/2 an hour.

 

1/2 an hour was my required practice time growing up (I didn't hit higher grades), so that's a general target in our house.

 

At 6, she tended to do about 15 mins and that worked well for focus and progression.

[Sarah0000]

I like the method used in the Hoffman Piano Academy videos which are free on you tube. I can't remember exactly which lesson, but its probably entitled piano street. He tells a little story to help identify the keys by sight.

 

We also have a folding paper keyboard guide that I got from Amazon. I use to have DS move a little action figure on the keys according to what notes I was calling out, like "Quick! The volcano erupted and only the C keys are safe! Have Spiderman jump across on only the C keys!" This was useful because then he didn't get distracted by playing music on the actual piano, plus it was something we could do anywhere.

[Kiara.I]

My teacher didn't give a time frame for practicing, but told him to practice each song 5 times.

I didn't understand why....

 

Until the the first time my child crossed his arms and stared at the floor instead of practicing his songs.  "15 minutes of practice" sure doesn't do much if the child isn't even touching the keys...

[UCF612]

You guys are awesome! I'm definitely going to try these things out.

 

So far I haven't officially times his practices. She asked him to "practice each song 3 times correctly." So he does that, which sometimes takes a few extra play throughs to do perfectly. Then we practice naming the notes. I was just worried we were totally off base with practice but I think we're on the right track. Just going to add these fun activities for learning the keys.

[El...]

I teach piano lessons.  My favorite book on practicing, right now, is this one, because it is full of fun ideas for making practice effective and because it has comical illustrations with each one.  My dd8 read it for her own entertainment, and is trying some of the ideas. 

 

http://smile.amazon.com/Until-Youve-Done-Your-Practice/dp/064640265X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461034983&sr=8-1&keywords=not+until+you%27ve+done+your+practice

[musicianmom]

*

Edited May 21, 2022 by musicianmom

[basketcase]

Little stuffed animals (finger puppets work great) - he can put them on C or on all the Cs on the piano. You can place them around the piano and ask him to only grab the ones on Cs. And so on. Make it as fun as possible to practice. I expect 15-20 minutes of practicing at that age, including any writing or memory work.

 

Remind him at the beginning of each practice session where C is so that he doesn't have stress about remembering. It will definitely come in time. Piano is a marathon. It's easy to get very excited and want things to progress quickly, but it's gradual development. Just keep at it!

[zarabellesmom]

My daughters both practice 15 minutes or so a day. It's probably time for the oldest to practice a little longer but she's making good progress and really enjoys it. I hate to fix something that isn't broken.

 

ETA: My youngest started with the violin and had 30 minute practices (in retrospect much longer than she could focus). She ended up hating the violin... Was it because we forced practice for longer than she was ready? I'll never know. What I do know is that she was really really good at it for someone her age and I cried (privately) when she told me she hated it and didn't want to do it anymore. She's never once complained about playing the piano. If your son is happy doing what he's doing and he's learning than you are probably on the right track.

Edited April 19, 2016 by ZaraBellesMom

[SKL]

With my kids, it was easier to get them to practice longer when they were younger.  They had fewer other demands.  At 5yo they would practice piano and guitar about 30 minutes total, about 5 days per week.  At 6 I think it was more like 15-20 minutes, 4x per week (piano only), unless they were preparing to play in front of the church.

 

If your son wants to do more, I wouldn't stop him.  :)

 

I think the key location skill will come with time.  It is going to vary greatly from kid to kid, just like reading skills.  You want to keep it fun, so I wouldn't push it too hard.

Edited April 19, 2016 by SKL

[MrsWeasley]

I find using the length of the private lesson a good indication of how long the child should practice. When my daughter first started piano at seven years old, I expected her to practice for half an hour, just like her lesson length. My six-year-old has been playing violin for two years. When he first started, he had twenty-minute lessons and practiced for twenty minutes. Now he has lessons for half an hour and practices on average 45 minutes a day. A LOT of that time, though, is spent on review, polishing things he already plays easily. I wouldn't expect that long from a beginner at that age. Daily practice is more important than length of practice, IMHO. Another thing that will help with knowing how long to expect your child to practice is to get specific assignments from the teacher.

 

This is how I daught my daughter (at 7) her piano keys: https://www.musicmotion.com/Games/piano-races-game.asp 

 

It was fun and worked for us.

 

ETA: I found that teaching a kid to find D was much easier than C, so we started with that note and then worked our way to memorizing the other notes. I know that's not how most people do it, but that's how we did.

Edited April 19, 2016 by MrsWeasley

[Bluegoat]

I find using the length of the private lesson a good indication of how long the child should practice. When my daughter first started piano at seven years old, I expected her to practice for half an hour, just like her lesson length. My six-year-old has been playing violin for two years. When he first started, he had twenty-minute lessons and practiced for twenty minutes. Now he has lessons for half an hour and practices on average 45 minutes a day. A LOT of that time, though, is spent on review, polishing things he already plays easily. I wouldn't expect that long from a beginner at that age. Daily practice is more important than length of practice, IMHO. Another thing that will help with knowing how long to expect your child to practice is to get specific assignments from the teacher.

 

This is how I daught my daughter (at 7) her piano keys: https://www.musicmotion.com/Games/piano-races-game.asp 

 

It was fun and worked for us.

 

ETA: I found that teaching a kid to find D was much easier than C, so we started with that note and then worked our way to memorizing the other notes. I know that's not how most people do it, but that's how we did.

 

Yes, that is what we did too.

 

In fact they had an animal that corresponded to each note, and a song for each animal and why it lived there near the other animals, and a separate song for why it lived where it did on the staff.

[LMD]

I just put a sticker on the C. And reinforce every time how to find it. Kids tend to love the music alphabet and go from the lowest key on the instrument (A) and cycle through A-G over and over up the keyboard.

 

As for practice, short, fun and frequent is better than longer once or twice. 5-10mins, 5 or 6 days a week is better than 30+ mins once.

[Heart_Mom]

There's a story that you can use to teach this. The D is a dog in a doghouse, and his two friends are Cat © and Elephant (E) .... 

 

The story goes on from there and it was easy for my children to remember the notes. 

 

I didn't watch this whole video, but I think that this is a link to something similar ... http://www.true-piano-lessons.com/piano-notes-chart.html

[SanDiegoMom]

We made flashcards and the kids had to find the note and they got a jellybean or m&m each time they got it right, and lost one (they didn't eat them til the end) when they got one wrong. Then there was lightning round, where you have 30 seconds to get as many as possible.  I just always worked it in around dessert time, so that was their dessert:-)

[UCF612]

You guys are seriously awesome!

[Homeschoolmom3]

10 minutes here for my 4 1/2 yr old. I would say at 6 yrs. good practice for 15-20 min daily would be sufficient!

[IsabelC]

Don't stress! Unless you're a Tiger Mom and want your kid to get through a piano book every few weeks, it really doesn't matter much if he practices for hours or only practices for 10 minutes. At this age/stage, you should be aiming to:
1. Develop a practice habit. (Opinions vary as to how many days a week. I'm in favor of practising every day, but some people prefer to have one or two days off, on lesson day, on the Sabbath/family day or on a day that's super busy with other activities.)
2. Get him practising happily (or at least accepting that it's practice time).
If you can make it so that he works on the piano every day (or most days) without resistance, because practice is just something you do (and it's sometimes fun!), you're doing well. 

Also, bear in mind that the number of minutes at the piano each day isn't as important as what he does and how he does it. Because once you have gotten him into the habit of practising regularly with minimal complaints, you will be helping the teacher to school him in the skills effective practising. Effective practising is very rarely as simple as "Play everything on your list three times", or "Play stuff until 30 minutes are up"; as he progresses with his music, he should also be learning a variety of practice techniques for various challenges he will encounter.

Edited May 10, 2016 by IsabelC