I've just had my piano lesson and my teacher wants me to teach a 7 year old; i've said i will. I've never taught in my life and don't know how to go about teaching a complete beginner on the piano. Just wondering what you teach on a beginners first lesson? I'm only on Grade 5 myelself!

Thanks in Advance

please reply!!!

I don't play piano......... but I suggest you ask your teacher for guidance.

Ditto...or you can check out the threads previously posted on repertoire for young beginners.

For a seven year old, "Tunes for Ten fingers" Pauline Hall, "Me and My Piano" Waterman/Harewood, and "Play Piano" Alan Haughton all give a structured approach. My own seven year old prefers the Haughton, and I'm having success with another using "Me and My piano" . I tend to use "Tunes for ten fingers" for slightly younger pupils. For pupils 8+ my current favourite is "Piano Time" Pauline Hall.

For first lesson I do the following:-

Tell her what number each finger is for each hand. Get her to move each finger independently (if she can't do this she may not be ready to learn)

Show her how to find middle C - either it's to the left of the group of two black notes nearest the middle of the piano or (more laboriously) count how many notes it is from the bottom of the keyboard

Get her to establish a good hand position with thumb on middle C and encourage her start using fingers 1 to 3 or 1 to 5 if she is ready

Show her middle C on the stave

Show her some crotchets, minims and semibreves and clap each with her (don't mix them up yet)

Give her a short, simple tune to practise, using finger numbers rather than reading music. Obviously she will need to read music and identify notes soon, but I personally think its important a student goes home from first lesson able to play a tune - it will boost her confidence and enjoyment

That should be plenty for a 7-year old. Check how much she has remembered next week before going any further.

Hope this helps. No doubt somebody else will add anything I've left out!

Liz

When first finding notes on the keyboard I start with D because this doesn't need awareness of left or right/up or down. It's in the middle of a pair of 2 black notes.
After finding all the Ds I ask what they think the next note might be...never had anyone get it wrong yet.
When we get to G I stop and work backwards from D, writing note names on to a keyboard chart as we go.
This way They discover how note names go from A to G and then start again.
With younger children I don't expect that they remember all the notes at this point, it just shows them how it works.

thanks alot for the help! much appreciated!

Finger numbers are evil - I agree with Sbhoa though - some good advice there!

You say you only have Grade 5.. How old are you? Why does your teacher want YOU to teach this pupil?

you might want to cast your eye over the 'Teaching at 17' thread on this board too.

Good Luck
Ax

Actually, teaching beginners is the hardest. Why someone whose highest achievement to date seems to be a Pass at Grade 4 should consider themselves qualified in any way to teach is beyond me. More to the point, why should their teacher be recommending this?! Like Margaret on the 'Teaching at 17' thread, I've had to pick up the pieces of too many young pianists who've got off to a rotten start, through no fault of their own - locked wrists, for example, are quite hard to free up, if the child has never been made aware of wrist articulation. There's a bit more to it than'note'finding', reading Middle C etc.. Would the 7 year old be getting a fair deal, one wonders? My advice to kierenh would be Don't even think about doing it yet.

I'm relieved to know that I'm not the only one with this reaction. !

I've just been up at the RNCM for a couple of days and yesterday I did a pedagogy session with Year 3 and Year 4 undergrads who are pianists. Several of them have been spending the last 12 weeks teaching complete beginners from local inner-city primary schools and have already been encouraged to 'think out of the box' (ie away from the 'find middle C and this is a semibreve' tutor books).

They saw me teach 175 children (not all in one go! - five groups of 35) the previous day. I only had these children for 35 minutes at a time so it was a bit of a scramble to try to produce a good lesson

One of the students told me yesterday that seeing what I had done with the children had been a revelation to her - that she had never really understood the relationship between pulse and rhythm before and that the way I had done it with the children had 'made the penny drop' for the first time!

The students were so interested and so receptive and were asking many pertinent questions. It was clear that what I was doing was making them think about teaching the piano in quite a different way.

They are all encouraged to learn about the many different approaches to music education and to be, at the very least, aware of different ways of teaching and how to tackle the various problems that their pupils may have.

So - yes, I wonder very much how someone with Grade 4 piano can really teach effectively. As Helen says, teaching beginners is the hardest. 'Oh, they're only 7' is a cop-out!

When starting to teach an instrument for the first time, the only experience one has usually had is how one was taught oneself - so obviously this is what one uses at first. And of course, with experience one changes and adapts and discovers - BUT please, please, please, if you are going to teach, go on courses, open your mind, eyes and ears to the experience and knowledge of others and learn, learn, learn yourself.

If a conservatoire piano student, who is near to starting to teach, has never (by her own, very honest admission) truly understood the relationship between pulse and rhythm for herself, let alone know how to develop that understanding in a pupil, then what hope has someone with grade 4 got?

Sorry, again I'm not attacking anyone in particular. I'm just so concerned that there seem to be so many young/inexperienced people embarking upon teaching with little understanding of 'the big picture'. Yes, of course you have to start somewhere - but please just be aware of how much there is to learn. Teaching is both an art and a science and none of us ever 'crack it' completely! There is ALWAYS more to learn...

Precisely. Someone who has passed grade 4/5 should be receiving lessons, not even contemplating giving them. I too have had to pick up the pieces of children who have been badly taught by so-called teachers who are teaching because they can't do anything else.

I found Alan Haughtons 'Play Piano' series hugely helpful, especially with such young children, as they need something to keep their interest. the little characters are so sweet! I know where to get a free copy of book 1 if you want, then there are books that continue on from this.

Happy Teaching!

I started teaching at 17, but under the supervision of my piano teacher. At the same age, I was also gaining experience by teaching Sunday school, 'shadowing' my clarinet teacher, teaching my younger sister the piano, and observing as many experienced teachers as I could. I continued with 1-2 pupils throughout my music degree, then did my PGCE. I now teach 56 students (including 2 groups of recorders) and feel that I specialise in correcting poor technique. By the age of 15 I knew for sure that I wanted to spend my life teaching music. Being able to start so young is a great opportunity as long as you do your homework, ask for help when you need it, and perhaps get your teacher to advise you.