WHY PIANO STICKERS WORK FOR CHILDREN
The BLUE stickers define the location of the FIVE lines of the musical staff (the FIVE lines are the "musical staff") and the RED sticker defines the location of Middle C.
The stickers reduce uncertainty about note reading to a minimum.
With the stickers in place, kids will fumble much less at reading music, and you can get more done than just finding notes on the page, like playing music and exploring the piano.
CONCENTRATE ON MIDDLE C AT FIRST
The first step after applying the stickers is to make the child aware of the circular symbol for Middle C, which is the circle in the drawing below with the little horizontal line through it:
You need to look through some pages of music and help the child identify the graphic symbol for the note Middle C (the symbol directly above this, the circle with the little line through it.)
Click here for a page with lots of Middle C's for kids to hunt and find
Make a game of it, saying "Who can point to Middle C on the page first?" and then let them win every time after a few tries.
Play some games in which the child sees the note Middle C on a page, and then has to play it on the piano keyboard, finding the white key with the RED sticker.
All that is necessary for quite a while is for the child to be familiar with three basic elements: 1) the location of Middle C, 2) the location of the lowest of the five lines, the first blue sticker, and 3) the location of the second of the five lines, the second blue sticker.
The reason for this is that all piano lessons for beginners concentrate on the note Middle C and the five white piano keys directly above that.
It's not necessary to name the notes, nor is it necessary to make the child use a certain finger to play a certain note.
In fact, naming notes and using certain fingers (at first) actually deflects kids from the REAL task, which is to become comfortable with finding the relationship between the five notes on the page and the five keys on the piano.
WHY PIANO BY NUMBER FIRST?
You stand a far greater chance of success at reading music, which is, after all, the real goal, if you first make the child comfortable with playing the piano using a simple, transparent and immediate method such as PIANO BY NUMBER.
Then SLOWLY begin to introduce the elements of reading music using the careful steps outlined above on this page, or in our fun book for kids, I CAN READ MUSIC.
I CAN READ MUSIC (Individual Book)
Individual 50 page illustrated book and removable stickers
(A copy of I CAN READ is included with every Book Package order.)
$19.95
