I'm using My First Piano Adventures for the first time. I have two new pupils using them and it's the first time I have taught under sixes.

I have some questions though.

For one thing - I seem to keep setting myself too much to get through in a lesson. We only have 15 mins and I am always rushing. If I slow down I think I will only get to cover the pieces they have practised and one new one. Does that seem like very slow progress to others or is that reasonable?

The other thing is - I wonder if I should keep them doing the earlier pieces for longer. I have tried throwing in an earlier piece to keep it going - such as the Doughnut Dips - but is this necessary? Should I just move on, as I would do with an older child on my usual primers?

Doubting myself a bit here. I know progress is going to be very slow with the youngest pupils and I have warned the parents that it is about learning rhythm, listening skills etc at this stage, but I still feel anxious to see more results and it worries me!

I have a tendency to want to cover too much too.
No reason not to stick with the same piece for longer if necessary.
I find that it can be useful that younger children in particular love repetition.
You can cash in on this by doing different things with the same piece.

When I have my youngest pupils in this age group, I aim for 1 piece a week. You can judge whether 2 pieces can be managed or not - some weeks you'll do 2 pieces, but then you'll have quite a lot to listen to the next week, and it'll unbalance the lesson a bit (I find). I think you will automatically know when you can increase lesson time and do more in a lesson.

Many children of this age group are like sponges and absorb lots of information quite quickly, but I find reinforcement is good so we might keep a piece as a 'party piece' to play for visitors, and so we need to play it again in the lesson occasionally to see if it still works.

I also do little singing exercises, clapping exercises, and finding the note on the piano exercises as reinforcement. If we have a few minutes spare at the end of a lesson, I might suggest pupil plays through his new piece again to make sure he knows what to do when he gets home.

I use these books a lot, but I teach 30 minute lessons on them. Two things are essential - I ALWAYS have a parent in the lesson, often standing or sitting with us, so that they know exactly what the child has ben learning and can practise with them at home (a principle borrowed from Suzuki). And I insist that they play the disc at home, so that even on days when maybe the child is not disciplined anough to settle to formal practice, they will hear the music, and quite possibly decide to play. Even without playing, the sound of the music will sink in.

With most of my little ones I really motor through the first lesson, getting as far as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We might not get so far the next week, but this depends on how well they have progressed durng the week practising with their parent. I don't always wait until a piece is perfect before moving on, but will usually start the lesson from about three pieces before where we left it, and will have progressed usually by about two pieces. Playing through all the earlier pieces should be happening at home, though if they seem not to be understanding at all, sometimes I will go back.I use a lucky dip methjod halfway through the book and again at the end, so they know they need to keep these pieces going.

Thin gs like the hand shape and the arm movement, although I teach them from the beginning and reinforce them all the time, are not going to come naturally until they are ready to, but it's been rare that a child will get near the end of book A without being able to achieve these things at least after being reminded.

I use the Hal Leonard books with this age group and tend to only learn one or two new pieces each week. It might seem slow progress to us as teachers but actually, now that I've taken a few through the process I've realised that this speed suits them. I also work through the accompanying theory workbook which breaks the lesson up a bit to create variety and it means that they have a real understanding of the music and notation.

Of course, there are the exceptions, when a child appears who obviously is very bright and picks pieces and new ideas up very quickly. At which stage of course they work faster, and tend to be very grateful adn enthusiastic if you lend them other books that they can work through as well.

I aim for one or two new ones a week and usually do the old ones for two weeks i.e. one week to learn it and another to polish it up, play it quicker etc.

Sometimes I skip a piece, especially if I feel we're doing well. Occasionally I skip several doing, for instance, every other piece.

I try to keep older pieces going if they've got a good accompaniment - I think this is a good rhythm and musical training and duet playing is fun.

In the lesson, I also often try and do the new stuff first. Then you;re sure you've covered what you've got to.
If I don't hear one of the old pieces, it;s not really a problem.

I also often learn one slightly bigger, more impressive piece (usually by memory) which I'll spend a couple of minutes on each week and will take maybe 6 weeks to learn - it gives them something fancy to impress parents with and varies the skills being learnt.

Firstly, I would agree that 15 minutes a week is rather on the short side, even for this age group. With my reception/Year 1 starters, I tend to give them an initial 10 week series of 20 mins to see how they get on, with the option of going on to half an hour after that. So far, they've all opted to go on to 30 mins, and it works very well. This gives them time to get up from the piano stool, do some walking/rhythm work and so on. Of course, it's important that the activity is varied within the lesson, and is not totally book based. They would get nothing like as rich a musical experience if they were retstricted to 15 mins, and explanations of new concepts woudn't have enough time ( for me!) to be introduced.

To give you an idea of progress, I have 2 that are coming to the end of their 1st 10 week series - they also had a couple of 'try-out' sessions before that, so 12ish weeks in all - and both have got on to the 'crotchet' section ( yes, I change the name in the books) and Dinosaur Music Night, which they'll play at our Piano Party next week. The elder girl, now just turned 6, is ready to go on to the CDE sections. The younger boy, who was 5 in May, will have some extra reinforcement on finger numbers, LH/RH etc from Hal Leonard, which I used a lot before Piano Adventures came along, and still use as supplementary material.

I think even 4 year olds can manage more than one piece a week, and the earliest examples in Piano Adventures can hardly be described as 'pieces' anyway. I have found that progress becomes much faster once they have completed the 'A' book. For example, another of my present students started in the month of her 5th birthday, and 8 months later had nearly finished Book A - I remember her playing 'Snack Time' and 'Wish I Were a Fish' at last year's Piano Party! She then romped through Books B and C, and this year will be playing 'The Haunted Mouse' from PA Lesson Book 1 ( among others). I do think these books give an excellent foundation, and wish that they had existed when I first started teaching. As well as being pedagocically sound, the music is interesting and engaging for both student and teacher - a bit like when 'The Cat in the Hat' appeared, after years of Janet and John and 'Look Dad look. See the dog jump' and other such doggerel .

Are you also using the corresponding 'Writing Books' - which have plenty of activities, listening games etc that don't involve writing?

Hope you continue to enjoy teaching this age range, and using these books - but I'd think about extending the lesson time.

Thanks so much for all the great replies everyone. I feel more reassured.

Helen - the 15 minute lesson time is only for the first half-term or so. It means I can get an idea of how much concentration they have before going for 30 mins. I agree - it is quite short - I think the next little one I get I will say 20 mins initially.

Yes I am using the writing book too.

Thank you for giving such a detailed outline of how fast children have got through the books. It's helpful to have something to compare to at this early stage.

dolce@piano - thank you for your tips. I always want to do the new stuff first -but I find that the kids are often champing at the bit to show you what they have done in the week. I'll try to distract them and get in the new stuff first as that's a much better way round.

angelvoice - I use Hal Leonard as well and have a bright 6-7yr old just started on it at the moment. Thanks for your advice.

Linda - I do ask the parents to supervise practise and normally have them sitting in on the lessons for the youngest ones. Unfortunately, the 4 newest pupils I have at the moment are 2 pairs of siblings, so although the parent is there, they are keeping the other child occupied during the lessons. I write notes for them in the homework book though - outlining the purpose of the piece and any important points and scribble directions on the music too.

I hadn't thought of suggesting that they put the cd on every day regardless. One of my pupils apparently puts the cd on for himself and dances to it. How cute!! He's very much the youngest I have - not in age, in development - but his sense of rhythm is spot on!
I'll be advising parents to put the cds on in future. Great tip. Thank you.

Susie, thanks for the advice. For older ones I use Me and My Piano and have a lot of extra stuff with singing and clapping, listening and rhythm games which I put in. The Piano Adventures has all that built in, so it means we do tend to be focussed on the book quite a lot. You are right - it's a case of trusting my judgement as to when they are ready for more. I just need to calm down and take a slower approach. I've tried to rush too much.

sbhoa - glad it's not just me! Good point about them not minding repetition.

I had two of my newest ones at the end of Friday. I'd read through the advice above and took a much more relaxed approach. The eldest - who is on Hal Leonard- was very excited to be keeping one piece for another week - so that proved sbhoa's point about repetition. I took more time over the exercises, just gave them one new one along with a couple of older ones, and felt a lot more chilled and in control.

Cheers everyone,
morceau x

One way to decide if you're going at the right pace is to ask the pupil which is their favourite piece from their tutor book. They will often choose one of the very first pieces " because it's easy", which I take as a message to slow down a bit !

Mine always choose the Monster Bus Driver

If there's anything I've learned in my years of teaching, it's a) that children love repetition and b) the more I do this job, the 'slower' I go. I think, by 'slower', I actually mean, 'more thorough' because I reinforce skills and concepts by the children meeting them in a variety of different ways and contexts.

And not everything has to be new, or stretching. We all need periods in the lesson of mental rest/relaxation, and an easy or familiar piece or activity can provide just that.

That's a good point, it's not slow it's more thorough. Someone above also suggested going over the same material in different ways. I'll keep that in mind.