I've been teaching for a few years and so far my youngest pupil has been 7 years old. Today I got a call from a lady wanting me to teach her 5 year old daughter. We've arranged a trial lesson and I said we would see how it goes. I'll be using a tutor book with lots of cartoons that works well for the 8 year olds (and their Dads) so I'm sure that will help, but apart from that does anyone have any Do's and Don'ts for me to bear in mind?

Thanks

I enjoy teaching young beginners, but I think it 's important to bear in mind that not all 5 or 6 year olds are ready for one-to-one music lessons. A preliminary meeting is useful (can the child sit still for 5 minutes, or is he climbing all over the room??) If all seems ok, a short 'try-out' of about 4 weeks to decide whether to go ahead now or wait a few terms.

Children of this age need frequent change of activity - watch for signs of boredom and switch to something fresh - rhythm games or even a few minutes moving round the room, matching walking speed maybe. I tend not to have very young ones sitting at the keyboard for the whole lesson.

A tutor book that suits an 8 year old probably will not suit a 5. I would recommend a browse, if possible, and see what else is around. Something like Piano Party is good for this age group, or Alfred's prep course.

Hope it goes well.

When I have a parent of a young child (pre - 8) ask for lessons as their child is showing an interest in the instrument, I suggest that they give it a little time and encourage their child just to "be creative" at the piano. If the child is still as keen after 6 months/ a year then I will give lessons. I had the same policy with my own children who I send to another teacher. Both of them started having lessons when they had just turned 6. My son has sailed through and made excellent progress. My daughter is equally keen with the same amount of potential talent, but her road has not been so easy - she has smallish hands and has a little difficulty with note reading. Her teacher, in consultation with myself, is keeping things really simple - she is still working in the basic hand positions and there is a lot of repetition of tunes. This is working well for her and she is gaining confidence and in time I'm sure that she will make similar progress to my son. Children are all different, irrespective of their age!

Find a fun tutor - (my daughter loves 'Me and My Piano' )and be prepared for it to start slowly!
Ensure the parents have realistic expectations for the early days.

Thanks for the advice.

When the Mum called I told her that I hadn't taught a 5 year old before and that we would effectively be doing a trial for a few weeks. She said that the child has a good attention span, but I guess I'll have to wait and see and like you say vary activities. I've recently started doing marching and rhythm excercises with some of my pupils which they seem to enjoy so I'll do some of that. I might buy one of those sets of flash cards and games etc which I've seen mentioned on these boards before.

Advising the student to wait for a few months seems like a good idea, I might do that next time I get a similar enquiry.

As for tutors I teach Keyboard as opposed to piano so it's just chords with the left hand. So that limits my choice of tutors somewhat. The book I have in mind is the Progressive Keyboard Method for Young Beginners, which you can see here if you like:

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0320155/details.html

With the 8 year olds they are skipping through some of the pages quite quickly so hopefully this will do for the 5 year old. I'm open to the possibility of not using a tutor book at all for the first few lessons depending on how the child responds and their aural skills.

Anything else I should know?

I'm teaching several very young pupils at the moment. I always tell parents that a short trial period is essential and as I charge for 4 lessons in advance, I suggest we do 4 lessons and see what happens. It's usually fairly obvious after a couple of lessons if it's going to work. Some 4/5 year olds are nowhere near ready for one to one lessons, yet others manage very well.
I started a 4 year old last year and we've spent a whole year having 'music' lessons rather than 'piano' lessons - lots of games, singing, clapping, movement, Lina Ng first theory books etc. Just recently the lessons seem to have become more structured piano lessons.
I also started a 5 year old boy a few weeks ago who is concentrating so well that he's already having the kind of lesson I would give to a 7 year old beginner.
Good luck!
By the way, I use Tunes for Ten Fingers, supplemented by pieces from other books - and Lina Ng's theory books are wonderful!

It's interesting, isn't it, how different they are! I saw a 6 year old boy yesterday who's been just a couple of times before - and he was confidently finding Ds,then Cs and Es on the keyboard, and then identified D on the music because it was just above C - great!

On the other hand I started an 8 and a half year old recently - and she is finding the early 'find your way around the keyboard' stuff really challenging. However she managed a line of 'Old Macdonald' by rote.

I second the vote for Linda Ng theory books - my daughter has just finished book 1 for Little Children and it has been a very important part of her note reading and finding the note on the piano improvement, as well as really helping her to establish her knowledge of basic rhythm rules. It's colourful and involves using colouring pencils and stickers and so is a real winner with this age group, particularly girls!

It's been such a success with mine! One little 6 year-old did both of the Books for Little Children and is now on My First Theory Book and her mum told me last week that she went into her room one day to see why she was so quiet, and found her writing notes in her little manuscript book 'to make tunes'.

Like some others I'd generally go for a trial period with under 7s as it's usually obvious fairly quickly whether they are ready.
With under 7s I usually go for an off stave starter as it breaks the learning down into smaller steps.
I have a copy of Dogs and Birds which has been recommended on here several times and though I've not used it yet I would give it a go if starting a 5 year old or a child who was not yet familiar enough with the alphabet.
I think that a big advantage with younger beginners is that they still love repetition so you can get lots of mileage out of each piece and taking time in this way helps to build a firm foundation.

Thanks very much for your replies, I feel a bit more confident now and will take on board what you've said. I hadn't even thought about them not knowing the alphabet, although it seems obvious now that you mention it. 'll check out those books too.

Check out www.dogsandbirds.co.uk - it's a piano tutor book, but there's no reason why you can't use it on a keyboard. The notes are given animal names which hte children sing as they play and they remember far better where the notes are in this way. Also the teacher's book has lots of ideas. You will need to teach concepts of high and low and long and short - or at least check whether the child knows these! It's a good idea to include some improvisation - perhaps against a backing track on the keyboard (I don't know much about keyboards), and playing by ear - check out the National Youth Choir of Scotland's publications Singing Games and Rhymes for Early Years for simple songs to teach them to sing, which you can then play by ear and transpose on the keyboard.

I would do lots of singing and clapping games, playing by ear as well with a very young beginner.
They are usually very good at copying you.

I have used a number of songs/rhymes from the NYCOS Middle Years (National Youth Choir of Scotland) resources. They have 3 books aimed at different age groups - I have the 'Middle Years' one which is aimed at age 7-10 although I have used them with younger children too.

http://www.nycos.co.uk/content/shop/index....q601u6cnd8d8vr6

The Dogs and Birds book recommended is good too, encouraging the child play the range of the keyboard and use their imagination.