USING PIANO BY NUMBER WITH PRESCHOOL, KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE CHILDREN
Preschool
Preschoolers are just getting used to numbers and letters. Many teachers have found that having children identify numbers via the piano keyboard is a fun activity that builds confidence with numbers and the keyboard. It also helps build important motor skills which are just starting to develop.
The most important aspect of using piano by number for preschoolers is to first recognize the capabilities of the child: can the child identify numbers if the graphic representation of those numbers (on a page) is presented to them?
It is one thing for a child to recite vocally numbers as high as they can, but quite another to recognize the symbols for each number. Many children can play any numbered piano key you say to them, but have difficulty playing numbers that they find on the page.
Piano by number builds the abstract skills necessary to decipher symbols, and promotes children's sense of security in successfully deciphering them.
For children who cannot yet identify the symbols for numbers, the piano keyboard is an ideal place to build confidence with those symbols, with the added attraction that music itself produces a "good-mood" effect that is conducive to learning more complex skills.
Seeing the first twelve numbers, 1-12, spread out on a piano helps children to imagine numbers as a sequential ordering device.
Reading sheet music is usually beyond children of this age, although I do play a fun game with them that prepares the process: it's called "Mr. Notey," and kids of this age love it. I pretend that my head is a "note" ( a circle) and that my forearm is a "line" and proceed to go into an elaborate set of hand signals, really quite comic, in which the kids are able to get the idea that a "note" is on a "line" or a "space." Kids this age ask for this game every week.
Probably the biggest secret of teaching music to children this age is to allow kids to be kids while they learn. If you do this, and it requires unbelievable patience and creativity, they will reward you with constant effort, and humor!
The younger the child, the less I expect. If they only learn that the piano is a fun place to be, you've had a major victory as a teacher!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten kids are very ready for games of any kind, and begin to have the skills necessary to put several hand movements together into a group of movements. (Click on games to see some of the games that children of this age will enjoy.)
Children of this age still are most comfortable with numbers, but will tolerate more games preparing the way for reading sheet music. But you must make games out of everything, like "Mr. Notey," above. And back off from teaching sheet music as soon as you see their eyes start to show exhaustion, perhaps 5 minutes at most. Sheet music is fascinating but very tiring for kids this age. Better to expose them 5 minutes at a time than risk exhausting them and making them feel like failures.
With this age you may be able to teach them chords (three piano keys played with the left hand) but usually I allow them to play 2 note chords (two piano keys with the left hand) until it becomes obvious that 2 note chords are too easy.
I don't insist that children play with both hands at this point, that is, chords with left hand and melody (numbers) with the right hand. It is enough that they can make their way through a few moments of a song that I show them, always carefully chosen to allow them to master a simple-enough task.
For example, a child this age should begin to easily have knowledge of the first three chords (three piano keys for the left hand) known as C, F and G. Any child can do this with enough focused, fun repetition.
If a child does begin to read sheet music, be careful to gain complete mastery of the notes of the right hand, say the first 5 keys above Middle C, before attempting to introduce the left hand.
It is my feeling that merely introducing the idea of "lines and spaces" (sheet music) is more than a victory at this stage.
The reason for this is that sheet music is much more of an abstraction than numbers for children of this age. Children gravitate to what is most comfortable for them, and you can bet at this age that it will be "piano by numbers," because it is less abstract than sheet music.
Children who are allowed the room to succeed at "piano by number" no matter how glacial their pace, are perfect candidates for reading sheet music, because they are properly prepared.
Elementary School - First Grade
First graders seem magically wired to try the piano! All the physical perceptions necessary are in place; numbers are no problem, playing with two hands is no problem.
(But if a child has difficulty with playing two hands simultaneously, do not insist, as most kids this age have great difficulty with two handed maneuvers. It is enough to expose them to the idea that two hands are involved, eventually simultaneously.)
With piano by numbers and chords (two or three piano keys played with the left hand) under their belt, first graders are ready to conquer the right hand of sheet music, and engage in a serious study of chords.
At this age kids are emotionally ready to play the game called "happy and sad" wherein the teacher plays chords and has the child try to guess their (the chords) emotional or dramatic quality, happy or sad.
Kids love this silly game, almost like a game show, and never tire of trying to listen and assess the emotional quality of the chord. Earlier than this age, many children seem to have difficulty grasping the idea of a sound (the piano chord) having a certain quality (happy or sad.)
At this point it also becomes possible to introduce "finger games," that is, games that teach a child to move beyond using the index finger. I always allow kids to start with the index finger, if that's what comfortable.
It may take a long time to get a child to use all the ten fingers properly, but it is worth waiting for, especially if in the meantime you are teaching them other valuable things.
Believe it or not, kids will let you know when they are ready to use all five fingers.
I'll tell you the formula for success. It has three stages:
1. Teach the notes, the numbers, get the kids to decipher the commands and play the correct keys as best they can, with whatever finger comes to their mind
2. Introduce the idea of five fingers, slowly, as a game, as a joke. I always say, when they play with only their index finger, "Oh, you were born with only one finger on each hand! Wait! I see other fingers under there, all curled up!" Try that 50 times and they will start using more fingers all by themselves, I guarantee it.
3. Rhythm is best left to last. The only thing I do at this point is to play rhythm games. I never, ever insist on rhythm in a piece of printed music, numbers or sheet.
Don't even think of rhythm in the usual sense for first graders. Better to try simple rhythm games like "fours" that give children the idea of regularity, of pattern, of repetition.
To start the process of learning fingering, I begin with a game called "threesies," in which they play, starting from Middle C; 123, 234, 345 456, etc using the right hand thumb, index and third finger in ascending order. Kids love the complexity of this, but if it is too difficult after several tries, then try something else for a while.
Two more "rules:"
1. Keep coming back to ideas, again and again.
2. Never acknowledge a child's failure to grasp these ideas, just show comic surprise and move on.
Children at the piano have an uncanny knack of showing you an honest effort if the task is not incomprehensibly difficult. Break down complex motions into easily grasped bits. |
