The Best Preschool Piano Method

by john aschenbrenner August 13, 2023

The best preschool piano method gets your child excited about the piano. Forget about reading music. At this age, you are selling the sizzle, not the steak.

There is no single piano method that is best for every preschool child. Unless it lights a fire in your child's mind and makes them want to play the piano, it is useless.

One should speak perhaps in terms of an attitude or approach. Using a fixed method is unwise, especially for this age group. Every individual child will require a different combination of approaches to unlock their enthusiasm for the instrument. What works for Peter almost never works exactly the same way for Paullete.

Piano Is Easy

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Find What Excites The Child

The best method I've found is based on the child's enthusiasms, rather than a pedagogical roster of tasks that must be performed. Thus your vision should not be the swift accomplishment of tasks, but a proper, realistic diagnosis of the child's current skills.

For example, without a sound knowledge of left and right, and up and down, a child will be lost in even the simplest explanation of reading music.

Basic Skills Are Fun To Learn

Luckily, these skills are fun to teach and learn, and are easy to grasp if broached with patience and gamesmanship. The next skill you will find the preschool child needs to learn is fingering, long before reading music. Don't make the mistake of broaching reading music before the child has developed the proper physical skills.

The skills needed are familiarity with their fingers and hands. Fingering first, reading later. Preschool children are very shy about using the thumb as the leader of the hand, most already being equipped with "index finger dominance." So considerable training is required to begin to familiarize the child with the concept of different fingers doing different tasks.

Try a song on our online piano

I'm A Little Teapot

| 1 * 2 | 3 * 4 | 5 * * | 8 * * | 6 * * | 8 * * | 5 * * |

Age Makes All The Difference

What may seem instantaneous to an older child or an adult can be mind-bendingly difficult for a preschooler. Much of this has to do with the state of the two hemispheres of the brain, and their relationship.

Preschool kids are just barely starting to have the two halves of the brain communicate with each other.

This lack of hemispheric coordination is the underlying reason for many children's discomfort with reading music. A prudent teacher looks to these "hidden reasons" for the child's piano behavior.

Be patient, or wait until they grow more. A piano method that patiently takes into account the child's brain development would be the most child friendly.

To a preschool child, piano is simply fun, or it isn't.