Precursor Skill Piano Games

by john aschenbrenner August 5, 2023

Lesson 28: Precursor Skill Piano Games

A precursor skill at the piano is a skill necessary to learn before you attempt a more difficult skill. For example, reading music has many precursor skills. To read music you need to know, at least, left from right and up from down. A child who is unsure of these two concepts will not be ready to read music comfortably until you make the child familiar with these ideas.

Age Affects Skills

This is irrelevant for an eight year old. But try it with a five or six year old and the result will be entirely different. Don’t assume your student has these skills. I observe a child at the piano, and the only thing I’m silently looking for are the child’s limitations, for these will tell me which precursor skills we need to fill in before proceeding to the standard curriculum.

Here are games and skills that, for the younger the child, you will almost certainly have to refine before moving forward. Every child is different, and has a different set of needs.

Left Right, Up Down

Determining left and right is crucial to the child’s understanding of the keyboard. Whenever the child seems to succeed at something, I play a short flourish, followed by a glissando going up. A glissando is when you run your finger over the white keys, playing every note rapidly as you move up or down. At the end of the glissando, the child must play the highest key on the piano. After they do, I repeat the glissando and ask the child, “Was that up or down?”

If they don’t get it, figure out ways to get them to see that, at the piano, up is right and down is left. Without that simple skill, the child is crippled at reading music.

Games for the Piano

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Conflicting Rules Of Sheet Music

Understanding of this concept is further complicated by the fact that in sheet music, up is NOT to the right, but UP, and down is NOT to the left, but DOWN. This is the opposite of the piano keyboard. Music is full of seemingly conflicting rules that confuse children. Learn how to simplify it without impeding their further progress.

Try another game: Play a three note (triad) chord, and ask them, “Which is the LOWEST note?” It takes a while but kids like the guessing game aspect. Remember, it is impossible to name chords and manipulate them unless you can identify the relative positions of the three notes, bottom, middle and top. Because of this, kids must understand which is the bottom note of a chord.

Fingering

The precursor skill for fingering is awareness of fingers. You’d be amazed how some children are thoroughly confused by their fingers, while others have instant wiring that makes them “get it” without frustration. It depends on their stage of brain development, not on their intelligence. You have to find where they are in the stages of growth of the two hemispheres of the brain before you attempt the most basic skills at the piano.

For example, the younger the child, the harder it is for them to get the idea that piano finger patterns start with the thumb. The piano requires children to differentiate between their fingers to an unaccustomed degree.

Suddenly The Thumb Is Dominant

This is difficult for a child because the index finger is always dominant, not the thumb. You don’t scoop peanut butter with your thumb, you do it with your index finger. But at the piano, the thumb is the captain of the hand. Obviously, that is sometimes untrue, but for learning fingering in the beginning it is a reliable rule for kids that will be broken later.

I usually let the child dominate with the index finger for a while, but make gentle fun of it, call them the “One fingered pianist."

Make Kids Aware Of Their Fingers

The effect of these comments is to make the child aware of their fingers, in a non-pressured way. Awareness first, then skills. You must properly prepare kids for certain skills. I find that children always learn the skill you require when they are properly prepared. The hard part, for the teacher, is that preparation may take years, so be prepared to be more patient than you have ever been.

The good news is that if you make the task small and easy enough, all children throw themselves into the game and end up learning the rudiments of piano. I’ve never found a child who could not be helped in this way.

COURSE ONE: TEACHING TOOLS

#1 TEACHING CHILDREN’S PIANO

#2 WHAT A CHILD SHOULD EXPECT FROM PIANO LESSONS

#3 WHAT IS FINGERING AND WHEN DO WE USE IT

#4 PIANO BY NUMBER AND OTHER STARTING METHODS

#5 THE FIRST PIANO LESSON

#6 MINUTE BY MINUTE PIANO LESSON

#7 TOYS AND ACCESSORIES FOR FUN PIANO LESSONS

#8 READING MUSIC FOR KIDS STEP BY STEP

#9 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORST AND BEST TEACHER

#10 A CHILD’S CLASSICAL MUSIC LISTENING LIST

COURSE TWO: TEACHING BACKGROUND