I've just started teaching piano at a local secondary school. I went in to meet the students for the first time today and have discovered that a couple of them are having keyboard lessons rather than piano lessons as they only have a keyboard at home. From what they've told me about lessons with the previous teacher it sounds like the keyboard lessons were very similar to piano lessons but without some aspects of technique. However, I'm not entirely sure what to do next with them. Does anyone else have experience of teaching keyboard? And if so, do you do similar things to your piano lessons or do you have a different curriculum? When I think of keyboard lessons I imagine teaching technology, which I would be useless at!

Strictly speaking keyboiard is extremely different, as it implies using the built-in chord function. So you need to concentrate on using the right hand for melodies and not teach the left hand "notes" as such; more initial work on how exactly your own keyboard functions - where the split point is, how to turn it on and off, how (if at all) to get single-fingered chords, how (if at all) to get chords without the accompaniment pattern, and so on.

I've heard it said before that using single-finger chords is really just a cheat method. If you'd said that to my Dad, who could play over a dozen instruments but was good on the accordion (though he played it upside down because he was left-handed) he would have spit feathers - accordion players had been using singlew-finger chords for a century before electric keyboards came along. I'm a great advocate, I think you can learn a lot of musicianship from them.

What material are they already using?
I'm not a keyboard teacher but a previous piano teacher of mine was.
At the start he used a piano tutor to cover note reading (yes, both clefs) and other basics like good fingering practice.
A chord based piano method can be a good starter. they can learn the tunes without rhythm first and it has the advantage of learning how the chords are formed rather than the single fingered method where playing one (or two) notes gives you the chord. I'd only reluctantly go down the single fingered route with students who want to mess around with some tunes but don't really want to learn much more than they can by rote.
As long as they know your limitations with the technology and if you are happy enough with that at a very basic level it can work ok.

A great website on teaching Keyboard;

http://www.keyboardcourses.com/

Th record function on some of the more expensive Keyboards is worth getting to grips with. You can 'step record' a chord accompaniment and save to memory sticks etc etc.

I have an all bells and whistles Clavinova. I recently went to a demo lesson at a Keyboard shop and watched a teacher play a Clavinova. He had pre-programmed the chords and then played full piano style with the accompaniment - really impressive.

Alfred Music Publishing have a Chord based piano tutor book.

You need to establish whether or not the students are actually using the auto-accomp (as described by Linda) or just learning piano music on a keyboard. If it's the former you obviously need to learn how to play and teach electronic keyboard which should not be too difficult if the students are at an elementary stage and you are an experienced pianist. You'd need to get hold of a keyboard from somewhere and I'd suggest you buy Kenneth Baker's Complete Keyboard Player book 1 and teach yourself. Also look at the site recommended by Hotair - it has loads of resources.

However sometimes 'learning keyboard' just means the student is doing piano music on a keyboard. If that is the case it won't be much different from teaching piano. However, students practising on a keyboard might not be very interested in classical music and may want different sort of repertoire.

Many thanks for all the replies. The impression I've been given by the students is that they were just having piano lessons on a keyboard, rather than making use of the extra features a keyboard has. I've had a look at the website Hotair suggested (thank you for the link ) and it looks really helpful so I feel more confident now about what I could teach. I know that a couple of students would rather have piano lessons but only have a keyboard at home, so maybe once I have built up more of a relationship with them and the school there would be some way of communicating with the parents about the possibility of getting a piano. I'll see how it goes!

I have a couple of pupils who only have keyboards. At first I just taught them exactly the same as my piano pupils, same tutor book etc, but without the dynamics obviously (although we discuss it and I get them to have a go during lessons) Once they are at the scales and broken chords stage I get them doing chord accompaniments in the left hand and move on to keyboard books which suggest the drum beat they should set the keyboard to do and which give just the right hand tune with chord symbols (A7, Cm etc.)

These days, if pupils only have keyboards at home, and they or their parents have no intention of upgrading to either an acoustic or digital piano, then I simply teach them keyboard instead. Whilst a keyboard might be OK for pupils in the very early stages of learning the piano, particularly if they want to try it out before paying a lot out for another instrument, it won't last them very long.

I teach mainly keyboard as opposed to piano. I use the "Progressive" series of books, both the young beginner and the regular beginner. They're not great and a tad expensive but they do go step-by-step through the basics. (The Kenneth Baker book moves far too fast I think.) I also use the London College of Music "Key Tutor" and adapt my own material from piano books. But I never, never teach keyboard like a piano - it is a completely different instrument and should be treated as such.

I think the most important thing is that the teacher makes absolutely clear to the student the difference between learning piano and learning electronic keyboard as a discipline in itself so that the student can make an informed choice. However in my experience as a peri in a secondary school, you are almost certainly going to encounter students who have a keyboard but want to or are learning a piano based technique - as in the situation described by Tres. I personally see no problem with this. This type of student may well not want to go down the route of classical piano and it's actually quite an interesting challenge to devise a pop/rock or jazz based course. There is the additional consideration that not all portable keyboards have auto-accomp.

I agree that Kenneth Baker's book moves very fast - I was recommending it for a piano teacher wanting to learn the basics of keyboard rather than for a student - but the more updated version has some good stuff in it and I have occasionally used it for teenagers and adults with plenty of extra material thrown in.

Thanks again for all the replies- there were some really helpful suggestions. I have now had the first proper lesson with the students and have figured out who wants to move to piano lessons and who wants to stick with keyboard lessons. One of the girls who will be carrying on with keyboard took her Grade 1 exam in the summer. Can any keyboard teachers out there suggest what material they would use next?