When it comes to engaging your child in fun and stimulating activities, sometimes, as a parent, you just run out of steam and ideas. But, you still want the best for your child, whether you’re the one educating them or whether they’re taking piano lessons in New York with a Lessons in Your Home professional New York piano teacher. At Lessons in Your Home, we don’t just know music. We also know kids. And this means for some of our budding young piano players taking piano lessons in New York, we have to know how to keep things interesting for our key demographic- kids! We’ll let you in on some of the ways that we keep kids engaged while learning piano. Parents, take note. You can practice these at home, too!
1. Keep Things Moving
Every parent knows that children’s attention spans are like goldfish. Five minutes on one sheet of music can be entirely too long for most children. We know this, and we know that adding variety to lessons and keeping individual techniques and talking points short and sweet will help kids learn and retain the material without losing interest. We alternate note reading with clapping games to keep kids engaged.
2. Make Lessons into Games
Games are a sure-fire way to keep kids engaged in their piano lessons in New York. Using stickers or legos (or favorite knick-knacks of our students) are great tools for games. For instance- we often ask children to look at a sheet of music and ask them to place a star sticker on the highest D note they see on the page.
3. Explore the Inside of the Piano
This is a really fun one and actually something you probably should not try at home unless you’re an experienced musician. Connecting the dots between the keys that children touch during lessons and how those sounds are made in the piano can be a fun and engaging departure from normal piano lessons. Open up the piano and let children touch keys and see what happens in real-time as they do. Children taking piano lessons in New York often find this exercise stimulating and empowering, giving them a sense of connection to the piano.
You can take this little field trip of sorts to another level by placing items gently across the strings of the piano to change the sound. This can be done without any harm to the piano. The connection that our young students make to the piano when they see what’s happening in the piano with what they’re doing with their own hands is empowering!
4. Incorporate Songs the Child Likes
Whether young students are into Taylor Swift or the latest Disney film, it’s always beneficial to learn about their musical interests and incorporate them into lessons somehow. Children love getting to learn, play, or sing along to their favorite songs.
5. Let Children Bring Special Toys to a Lesson
Children often have safety or security stuffed animals or things that help them stay calm and happy. There’s room for these additions to piano lessons! Alternatively, it could just be the toy of the moment that your child just can’t seem to leave the house without. We use these special toys in our lessons to applaud or engage with your children in ways that encourages them to relax and try new things.
6. “Free” Composition Time on Piano
We like to give children free time on the piano occasionally to allow them to stretch their creative muscles. We tell them to play what they want, to tell a story with the music, and that there are no wrong notes in their story. Having children tell a story through sounds is a great way to reinforce concepts like major and minor chords that have some corresponding emotional weight to them.
7. Make Flashcards
This teacher trick isn’t limited to piano lessons in New York. Flashcards are always a great idea when trying to reinforce concepts. Have your children decorate flashcards as they please and use them at home to practice what they’ve learned in their lessons.
8. Practice Writing Notes and Music
In the same way that children practice handwriting by tracing letters, we can do this by tracing treble clefs, bass clefs, and other musical notes. This helps with their note-reading comprehension and engages other parts of their brain and learning skills.
9. Have a Sing-a-Long During Lessons
Last but not least, we like to sing while we play the piano. We can sing songs we know to help kids learn, or we can make up silly lyrics or nonsensical sounds.As you can see, we like to have fun with our students and we like our students to have fun. With young learners, that’s the goal- when they’re having fun, they’re engaged!Contact us today to find out more about me! I can either come to your home to teach or can also provide online lessons.
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