I have a little girl of just turned five, the youngest pupil I've ever had. She's a great girl, very intelligent, quick witted, and musical.

However she just doesn't understand the idea of how to play legato.

I've tried all sorts of things, like the notes are a slippery snake, or imagine a piece of string with no knots in, whereas separate playing is a piece of string with knots along its length.

I've asked her to make her hand heavy and pretend she's trying to press through to the floor etc etc.

Yesterday I asked her to close her eyes whilst I played joined up or not joined up and she always got the wrong answer. She's not stupid or unmusical, just young.

Am I asking too much of her? On the other hand I don't want her to start out with bad habits, or put her off her piano playing as she really loves it and is trying to teach her father as she goes along, bless her cotton socks! She's so enthusiastic!

Any thoughts?

I specialize in teaching the piano to the very young (age 3 onwards), therefore I feel that I should give my views on this subject. First of all each child?s physical ability is different. For example we do not force babies to walk before they are ready. Similarly we should not force children, when learning the piano, to play legato (or any other technical issue) initially if they don?t do it easily. Playing tenuto and using arm weight at the beginning gives a much better foundation. You will see as you go on your journey with this little girl, as her hands become stronger she will be able to play a ?healthy? legato. So you are probably asking too much of her at this stage. The legato will come ? it might even take a year, but you are certainly not starting her out with bad habits. If you force young children to play legato initially you are more likely to get them to develop bad technique, for example playing with flat rather than rounded fingers.

Why not demonstrate?

Not a teacher, just thinking out loud...I'm just wondering if getting off the piano stool might help.

So, detached notes. Little jumps around the room. Separated. I'm here - I'm there - I'm not in between.
Slurred/legato notes - I slide from here to there with my feet remaining on the floor and there is no gap in between.

Which might make no difference, because she might still be too young, but it's just a thought of another way of demonstrating the difference.

Walking on the spot side by side, literally, then do same with fingers on a closed piano lid. It works for me anyway
But like goldfish said, I don't introduce this until they have been playing for a while...

I don?t teach this age-group, so this might not work, but this is what I do with slightly older children - get them to turn sideways on to the piano (R hip to keyboard) then start at the top and walk fingers 2 and 3 of R hand down the entire keyboard - just like going for a walk on your 2 legs. Then turn around and face the other way and walk L hand fingers 2 and 3 back up. This gives them a feel for legato (although I wouldn?t bother with the technical name initially). Once this is competently done, and I guess it might take a few sessions with a very young child, you can just get them to face the piano straight on and ask them to walk their fingers up and down sideways. Seems to work for me...

I have often come across this with young children; Experience has taught me that when the hands are strong enough the problem tends to disappear. At the moment I have three six year old beginners. Two can more or less play smoothly. One can't.

I have an eight year old who found it totally impossible for two years and I gave up trying because I didn't want tor frustrate her. Over the past couple of months her playing has suddenly become very much more legato than previously. She has grown physically quite a bit this year and is better co-ordinated all round. I don't think it matters much with very young beginners. I would tend to do some of the things other posters have suggested but very sparingly, just enough to help the child to become aware that this "thing" about legato playing does exist and will have to be tackled one day.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I must admit I hadn't considered 'strength' to be the problem, or lack of it! Although she's quite a chunky girl, not weak.

Anyway, I've decided I won't press lthe issue of legato playing too much, maybe just occasionally mention it now and then to see how she can cope with it. Otherwise, just let it pan out.

The reason I asked was that many years ago, when my 25 yr old son was 4 I started him off myself and he did well until I decided he should go to another teacher because of the parent/child dynamics!

He was 5 when he started with her and she was furious I hadn't MADE him play legato!! I was appalled, I must admit. After about 6 months of him struggling with this teacher I took him back under my wing and he progressed much better.

In fact, both my children always did much better with me, strangely enough...

I'm learning that there are times when you do need to let things go.
I have a just 7 year old student who is not going to play with a consistently good hand position and if I insisted on it he'd never play anything. Sometimes you need to leave some of the technical issues until later and work slowly towards getting these things in place. In the early stages there is so much to learn anyway and aren't the enjoyment of playing and the development of a sense of pulse, rhythm and expressive playing important foundations?

I do the fish swimming through the sea - he doesn't need to take any breaths and he swims very smoothly and without stopping. The opposite is the frog leaping from pad to pad. Then I demonstrate, am I being a fish? or am I being a frog?

Once the difference is understood, I ask them to imagine a see-saw, one side can't come down until the other comes up, so you mustn't let go of the note that's being pressed until it is released by the next note going down

If they forget to play smoothly, I ask 'were you being a fish or a frog?!' they then realise and play again correctly.

Hope this helps, has worked so far for me