Piano By Numbers Book
Piano Is Easy
A Piano By Numbers book is a good choice as a child's introduction to the piano. The standard method is to have the child start reading music right away. But kids find this a boring process. The reason for this is that the music in conventional piano books consists of fake exercise pieces that are completely unknown to the child.
A better approach is to give kids familiar songs to play. Piano By Numbers is a child-friendly starter system that allows kids to get an immediate start at the piano.
Start With The Stickers
Just put the numbered stickers on the piano keys and you're ready to play. Kids can play music far more difficult than what they can read from notes. Thus reading music is a poor starting platform for kids. You can see all of our Piano By Numbers products here. Here's a sample page from one of our easiest kid's books, Piano Is Easy.
Sample Page
Kids Respond To Stickers
Children understand numbers from a very early age. So using it as a starting musical language, to be replaced later, is a wise move to get kids started.
Try a song on our online piano:
Twinkle Twinkle
| 1 1 5 5 | 6 6 5 * | 4 4 3 3 | 2 2 1 * |
Get a Better Start At The Piano
Children have a happier start if the initial experience is smooth and trouble free. Complexity can come later, when the child is engaged with the piano.
Allowing a child this "grace period" at the very beginning pays huge benefits later. They will have more confidence to tackle the battle of learning to read music.
A good start leads to further interest.
Where To Go From Numbers
Once you have established that piano lessons are a fun exploration of familiar songs, you can move slowly to start reading music.
I would suggest that you present a proportion of music reading to fun and games of about 1 to 5. In a 30 minute lesson this means 24 minutes fun, six minutes reading music.
In between the music reading, use piano games to maintain a convivial atmosphere.
Reading music is mentally exhausting for kids in ways that adults may barely understand, so different is the level of development of our brains.
Things that are easy for adults (doing different things with each hand) are excruciatingly difficult for kids whose brain hemispheres are not yet fully connected.