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Why Delay Reading Music?
Why delay reading music? To allow the child to get used to the piano without the burden of reading music at the same time. It’s like asking, “Why delay learning algebra?" for your three year old. You delay learning algebra until the child has other mathematical skills already in place, upon which algebra is based.
Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division precede algebraic concepts. Reading even the simplest of musical notation requires several mental skills that your child, depending on their age, may or may not have in place.
Piano Is Easy
Intellectual Skills And Riddles of the Piano
1. You must have a firm grasp on the abstract idea (and execution) of left and right, including left and right hands. 2. You must be able to order symbols and events, sometimes horizontally (sequentially) and sometimes vertically (simultaneously.)
3. You must understand more than a dozen types of symbols, many only slightly different from one another. This must be memorized. There's no "help" page.
4. You must look at a page of symbols and make countless decisions about them. Are they different, are they the same? Are they going up, are they going down? I need the answer right now.
Add to this the necessity of using a particular finger on a certain note. Fingers are also named and numbered, and you have to remember that. Add to this the need to name the notes you play. There is a musical alphabet (A through G) that starts on the letter C, to add to the confusion!
Add More Skills On Top And Then Still More
The above list is only the right hand, and is hardly an exhaustive list. Essentially, I don’t want to scare you, as a new teacher or parent, before you even begin. Hopefully, you can see the folly of starting piano lessons assuming that the child will be able to negotiate all the above skills on the list, right away.
Most kids lose heart and hope that they can ever do it, much less have fun with it. Since the list is so long, the conventional teacher begins right away drilling. They drill the material into their young charge’s brains.
Some survive this, a very few. Of those few, almost none enjoy it. And why should they?
Let Kids Play The Real Game
It’s like playing baseball with a pretend ball. You can go through all the motions and it will never be as exciting as the real game. What is the real game? Making music, however crudely, however childishly. The mistake teachers make is to fail to distinguish between making music and reading music. They are not the same, not by a long shot.
To read music is not necessarily to make it. Making music is a joyous, wordless, rather inexplicably spiritual pursuit. Reading music is the province of the librarian. Being a pianist is more like being an actor who interprets a script. How can you get your child to start playing music at the piano?
Choose Songs They Know And Love
First, choose simple songs that they know. Unless the song is recognizable to the child, it is useless as a teaching tool to generate enthusiasm. Next, let them play as many familiar songs as possible, using whatever instinctive fingering they choose.
Don’t bother them with fingering before they have decided that piano is fun and they want to do it. Exploring rhythm as an entirely separate issue. You can try exploring rhythm in a song they know, such as Jingle Bells.
Have them sing the song with the correct spaces, and then have them try it at the piano. Don’t labor over this issue. There is so much to learn before you get to rhythm. A pianist is required to handle up to eight times the information that a flutist or cellist must.
A pianist must learn to be an information manager more than any other instrumentalist. When your child is fired up about the piano, and can play many songs by ear and number, they are a more likely candidate for reading music.
They may be more likely to continue, and take a more serious interest in the piano and music in general.
REFERENCES
Reading Music
What Comes After Numbers In Kid’s Piano
You Say Read, I Say Play
Reading Music for Kids Step By Step
The Basic Piano Curriculum for Kids
The Transition From Numbers To Notes
Preventing Kid’s Struggle To Read Music
Resistance To Reading Music Is Age Based
Stay Sane Teaching Kids To Read Music
Helping Children Read Music
Helping Your Child Find Middle C
What Kids Understand About Sheet Music
An Effective Strategy for Kids Reading Music
How To Read Music For Kids
The Battle To Read Music
Stickers for Reading Music
Why Is Middle C So Important?
What Comes After Numbers?
Start With Numbers, Then Read Music
Start Kids With Numbers, Then Read Music
Helping Children Read Music
From Numbers To Notes
Why Kids Resist Reading Music
How To Help Your Kids Read Music
Start With Numbers, Then Read Music
Beginner Piano Sheet Music for Kids
Don’t Start With Reading Music
Easy Piano Songs Sheet Music
Piano Letters
