How I Structure Piano Lessons with My Kids

This is part of my piano teaching series. It's really important to read each post in order!

Intro: Discusses what the overall goals should be for music lessons

Part 1: Explains the principles of how piano should be taught to achieve those overall goals

Part 2: Draws upon those principles to list the specific skills that need to be emphasized from the start

Part 3: A compilation of additional insights to make their learning effective and fun

Part 4: Shows how it's all implemented by detailing my lesson structure

This is an area of active thought and and evolution for me as I figure out better ways to do things. Ultimately, any way of approaching the teaching of piano that implements the core principles discussed in my other posts and makes sense to the student will probably work great.

GETTING STARTED: THE FIRST PIANO LESSONS
Position. They should be sitting far enough away that their elbows aren't stuck in their sides. Free elbows don't limit movement when they are playing songs that use more of the keyboard. The bench should be high enough that their forearms are approximately level with the ground, which means elbows are approximately at the level of the keys. And they should sit up straight with good posture but relaxed with shoulders not tense. Really, the key aspect of this is comfort combined with an active position so they're ready to exert some energy practicing. Teach them to get in the right position very first every time they sit down to play the piano. This means they will be in the habit of adjusting the bench at the beginning every time.

Technique. There are layers and layers of technique that become more important when they are playing higher-level music. For example, should you play with fingers curved or fingers flat? It depends on the type of playing you're doing. Students can start to learn those different non-foundational techniques when the level of music they're playing starts to require them (not until they're playing at least at a high intermediate level I'd say). And, at that time, they can read whole books about it. A good starting reference book is Fundamentals of Piano Practice by Chang. It's a free PDF if you Google it. Forewarning, not everything he says in it is true, so it shouldn't be the only reference. Having said all of that, there are a few important playing techniques students should learn from the start because these will apply to all piano playing they do. First, they need to keep all their muscles (finger muscles, hand muscles, wrist muscles, arm muscles, . . .) as relaxed as possible and in neutral/comfortable positions. Stress in muscles at any time (either from straining muscles or from unnatural positions) in their playing will worsen their playing, and it's never necessary, even when they're playing loud or fast. Second, they need to have what I call "strong fingertips." Their fingertips should not bend backwards when they press down the keys (i.e., the DIP joints should remain flexed). This is because those lazy fingertips bending backwards kill a lot of the control they have over how far and fast they're pushing the keys down. Help them learn this one by playing one finger many times in a row with a nice strong fingertip, then move on to the next finger. Third, avoid unnecessary hand movements. Economy of motion will enable them to play cleaner all the time. Fourth, use forearm and wrist movements to take some of the load off the finger muscles. For example, slightly rotating (supinating) the wrist when playing a scale from thumb to pinky, and using a forearm up-down movement when playing staccato. These are the major technique things to train them to do early on, and the rest can come as the repertoire demands (generally much later!).

Intro to the keyboard. They first need to gain a good understanding of the structure of the keyboard (organized into octaves, "twins and triplets," find notes based on where they are in relation to those black key groupings) and be able to find any note by feel (no looking!) with either hand. I purposely teach the notes to them in random order so they don't ever rely on counting up from another note they already know. They should be able to immediately find a note purely based on their memorization of where it is in relation to the black keys. They cannot move on to any other skills until they have mastered this one. I also teach them right then what a sharp and flat are (semitone up/down from the index key, which means some sharps/flats are white keys!) so they know all the notes on the entire keyboard, and I'll test them with those just as much as the naturals. From there, it's nice to give them a few reference points, so I teach them to find Middle C, the G on the lowest line of the bass clef, and the F on the highest line of the treble clef.

Flashcards. Once they are solid on their intro to the keyboard knowledge, they need to start doing note flashcards each day. I take the treble clef and the bass clef separately so they can get a good idea of the range/location on the keyboard of where the bass clef notes are and where the treble clef notes are. I have them name the note as soon as they see it, check the back of the flashcard to make sure they're right, then find the note (without looking, of course) and play it. In short: name it, check it, play it. The check it part is important to prevent them from learning them wrong. I also often ask them to describe to me in words where the note is, which requires them to know there are five lines and four spaces. And, importantly, they should be doing their flash cards in random order so that they can look at any specific line or space on either of the clefs and know exactly what note it is without having to work their way up/down to it from another note they know better. This is their foundation of fluent music reading. Kids usually don't know how to do flashcards effectively (like knowing to just learn a few each day, knowing when they should move one into the "learned" stack, and that they should put one they got wrong at the back of the day's stack so they see it again a minute later), so you'll have to teach them. They will also need to start doing key signature flashcards soon too. Notes flashcards and key signature flashcards are the only flashcards I have them do, so they don't have to do any more once they've mastered those.

Hint about notes flashcards: Usually they come with the treble and bass clefs right there beside the note, but I find that students will integrate those clefs into their memorization of where the note is, which means they can't figure out which note they're looking at in actual music when it's not at the beginning of a line. So I used our paper cutter to cut off the left side of all our flashcards so they'll only be looking at the actual location on the grand staff to remember which notes are where.

WEEKLY LESSON STRUCTURE
1. Look at their practice log: This is the very first thing I always do so I don't forget. Make your expectation clear that they should practice six times in between lessons. This is what they need to strive for. But balance that clear expectation with love and understanding when life happens and they don't get all six practice sessions in some weeks. If necessary, this is the time I'll help troubleshoot what got in the way of practicing so they can do better next week. I used to print out a schedule and post it on the wall, but that got annoying, so now I just draw six circles in their lesson book at the top of the things I will be writing for them to practice that week, and each day at the start of a practice session they fill in a circle and then read through the practice instructions I've written.

2. Ear training: I have four specific things I do each lesson. This section only takes a few minutes but it is really fun for them and super important to hone these skills!

1. Absolute pitch test: Before they've heard a single note played, I will test their absolute pitch by playing a B or C and have them guess which note it is. Then I'll play that note in different octaves and have them tell me when I play a different note, which is always a semitone higher or lower for beginners, and I'll make them tell me what note it was. For example, I'll play a B to test them, then after I've told them what note it was, I'll play B's in random octaves, then eventually I'll play a C in a random octave to see if they recognized it was a different note and if they knew it was a semitone higher than the B's I was playing. I make them tell me what the new note is because I believe it's important for them to be able to recognize intervals between notes independent of the octave they're in.
2. Picking out notes from a chord: I will play two or three notes at the same time and have them hum each individual note they heard. Each two- or three-note chord is in a different key. And make it interesting by playing strange chords. Once they're good at even really weird dissonant three-note chords, I move on to four-note chords.
3. Intervals: I play an interval and make them identify it by its proper name. I start by only using the intervals from the major scale (major 2nd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, major 7th, and perfect octave). Each interval sounds different, so focus on helping them recognize the unique sound of each one. Every new interval I play is purposefully in a different key so they're not tempted to figure out the interval based on how far apart the notes are compared to the last interval I played. Play intervals one note at a time and don't forget to mix it up by playing the top note first half the time as well. After they've gotten good at recognizing all the intervals one note at a time, I'll play both notes at the same time. Then I add in all the other intervals that aren't part of the major scale (minor 2nd, minor 3rd, tritone, minor 6th, minor 7th).
4. The Harmony Game: This is my newest addition. I want them to start to be able to hear potential harmonies and be able to sing those. It's an important skill for singing, but it's also important for playing any instrument if you want to be able to improvise or compose. This is the one major ear training skill that was lacking, and I'm so excited about the results I'm seeing with it! First, I make up a simple melody. When they're first starting out, the melody will probably only be a single measure long, and the notes are purposefully played slowly. I will start playing this single-measure melody on loop, and this is what they have to do while I'm playing it. There are four tasks, and they cannot move on to the next task until they've passed the prior one, no matter how many loops of the melody it takes them. Task 1 is to sing along to the melody. I'll usually give them the syllable they should use. They seem to enjoy funny ones like "moo." This first task usually only takes one try. When they pass a task, I give them a thumbs up to signal that they can move on to the next task. Task 2 is to find a harmony that is above the melody. It can be any harmony that works. As long as it sounds cool, I give the thumbs up. No need to restrict and make them think only certain harmonies are allowed. Initially this will take several tries, but it helps a lot if you're playing the notes one by one slowly so they have time to hear what they're singing and evaluate if it sounds good with the note I'm playing on the piano. They are sometimes tempted to stop singing and figure this out in their heads, which is why I have a rule that they have to sing along with every single loop of the melody. This forces them to take risks and sing bad notes, but I emphasize that the point is to sing notes that might sound bad so they can figure out what sounds bad and what sounds good. If they're close to a good-sounding harmony, I will give a hand signal to indicate that they should try that one again to lock it in. Once they pass task 2, I give the thumbs up and they move on to task 3, which is to sing with the melody again. This is to remind them where the melody is in their register so they're prepared for task 4, which is to find a harmony lower than the melody. This is usually the hardest task, but they get it if they keep trying. Sometimes I can tell they've lost where the melody is relative to the notes they're singing, so I'll point to myself, which means to go back to the prior task and sing with the melody again. Once they do that, I give them the thumbs up again that indicates they can go back to task 4. My kids seriously impress me so much with the harmonies they come up with, it's really fun, and I suspect I'll start hearing them singing harmonies to their favourite songs soon too. 
5. The Find-That-Note Game: They close their eyes and I play a random note. They are not allowed to sing the note; they are only allowed to keep it in their brain (to practice retaining a specific pitch in their brain). Then they proceed to try to find that specific note on the keyboard, but I don't let them just start mashing a bunch of different keys until they've honed in on it. I make them name every note before they play it (of course, at no point are they allowed to look at the keyboard), and the challenge is to find it on the second try by hearing the interval between the note I played and the first guess they played. (Yes, this game becomes unnecessary after they've developed absolute pitch.) If they find the correct note and recognize it's the one I played, they win. If they don't, I win. We always play best of three.

For the first three parts of their ear training, I'm at the piano and they're usually sitting in a comfortable chair anywhere in the room, or sometimes they're doing cartwheels and somersaults. It's important for them to be comfortable and free to move about because they're about to sit at the piano for a little while, and it doesn't seem to interfere with their learning as long as they're still engaged. But I do make them come stand next to me for the Harmony Game, and then of course they're sitting at the piano for the Find-that-note Game.

To help develop their absolute pitch, I also commissioned an app to be built! It's called WhichPitch, and--as of the time of this writing--isn't available quite yet on the app store. But it's getting close now, and it should be available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store sometime in 2022.

3. Performance: Next, I want them to get the performance aspect out of the way. This is the part they usually stress the most about, but it's an important part of accountability because they will be more motivated to work hard practicing that week if they know they'll be required to perform the songs for me at their next lesson. I will randomly choose some songs (all of them if we have time) for them to perform. And since they feel pressured with me just sitting there waiting for them to start, I remind them that it's okay and necessary to take some time to do their pre-read routine and mental play it first. The other reason I do this early on in the lesson is because, if their performance ends up being a traumatic experience for them because they didn't practice well, they'll hopefully forget those feelings and be having fun again way before the lesson ends. But I try really hard to be smiling and find something really positive to say after every single performance! This is so important, and it's a big part of being an advocate rather than an adversary (see Part 3). After each performance, I'll ask them what went well and what went wrong (if anything) and we'll talk about it and figure out how they can get better. I'll also make them play the song over again if they didn't keep the rhythm or if I think they could do way better and it will help them be more satisfied with themselves.

4. Show them what they'll practice the next week: We then look through the next week's material and I make sure it's clear to them what they need to be doing. If there are new principles or theory that they might not understand just from reading their lesson books, I'll do a little explanation. The number one goal here is for them have no ambiguity about what they're practicing and learning the next week, otherwise they're unlikely to learn anything. If, on the rare occasion, they showed that they didn't learn anything from last week's material, I will consider having them re-do that material for one more week, but I make sure I understand exactly what went wrong. Did they just not practice enough times? Did I not explain everything well enough? When considering whether to have them re-do a week, keep in mind the importance of continuing to push them forward through the material--they don't have to perfectly master each week's material before they can move on because they will continue to pick things up along the way as they see them again and again. But if it looks like it might turn into a severe deficiency that will interfere with the next skills they will be learning, it's probably wise to have them spend more time on that material before moving on.

5. Extras: Some of my favorite lessons as a kid were the ones where my teacher was so excited about some music thing that he took time out of our lesson to show me--playing me a song he just found, showing the application of a principle I'd just learned, etc. That enthusiasm often made me think, as I was walking home from my lesson, "Man, I'm just so excited again about music!" Do these things as they strike you, and they may do more to motivate your students than anything else.

These lessons often go about 60 minutes, and maybe that just because I'm slow, but it usually takes a while to show them what they'll be practicing the next week and explain the new concepts. I don't feel too bad about this because most teachers who teach theory to this degree actually give two lessons per week--a playing lesson and a theory lesson. But I do always try to keep my lessons as short as possible so they're not super fatigued by the end. I want to end the lesson before they want it to end, which will keep them coming back for more rather than dreading it every time. And once I release them, I'll take a few minutes to write down in their book any instructions I feel they'll need so they can refer to that every day when they practice. For some reason they feel like it's a special surprise when they open up their practice book the next day and see what I've written. What do I write? Usually it's just a list of the things they need to do during their practice session each day: "[Draw six practice circles] 1. Flashcards. 2. Lesson books pages 18-19." And so on. I always add reminders as well about principles they need to focus on that week, such as to make everything they play beautiful, not to look at the keyboard, remember to do their pre-read and post-read routines, keep the rhythm, etc.

As a parent teaching my children, it's very tempting to do lessons at different times each week, whenever it happens to be convenient. But that will almost certainly mean they don't get their lessons as regularly as they should. So we've found that it's important to have an assigned lesson day and approximate time each week on our calendar (e.g., every Wednesday after dinner).

DAILY PRACTICE ROUTINE
I have them do their flashcards at the beginning and the end of their practice sessions. And they work through their lesson books. Practicing piano using the principles I write about is really hard work, so they probably shouldn't be practicing more than 30 minutes when they're young (maybe only 15 or 20 minutes when they're really young), but I don't set a time limit on their practicing length or have them keep track, which I think is very important. I don't want them watching the clock when they're practicing, seeing the minutes tick slowly and painfully by. Learning music should not feel like junior high math class! I want them focused and motivated to carry out all the instructions each day and learn the things they need to learn, which makes for a much more satisfying practice session.

Sidenote: As homeschoolers, we have them integrate their piano practicing into their school day. This makes them way more likely to practice, and it also allows them to do it at the best time for them each day when they have the energy they need to dedicate to it. This is a huge perk of homeschooling, and it's one of the reasons we chose to keep at it. When my kids went to public school, they were always exhausted at the end of the school day and had zero motivation to dedicate to hard work like piano practice, so it was a daily struggle to get them to practice, which sometimes made it a negative experience for them.

YEARLY ORGANIZATION
We usually only do piano lessons during school times. Vacation times are a good excuse to give them a break from piano so they don't get too fatigued from doing it week after week ad nauseam. In general, the goal is to finish one level each year, so sometimes this means we'll do piano during some non-school weeks if it means they can finish off the level before stopping for a while.

I mention this in Part 3 as well, but it's important to regularly mix in some change-of-pace weeks. These are times to have them focus on improving the skills that are under-represented in your method books (typically this would be improv, playing by ear, composition, and sight reading). Since it's something completely different, it's refreshing! And because every skill benefits every other skill, you might find that they come back to their lesson books not only more refreshed but also more equipped to understand the things they're learning. You'll probably also find that they start playing the piano just for fun more often, doing some improv or picking out the melody and chords of a song. I'll either have them do a playing-by-ear week, an improv/composition week, or a strictly-sight-reading week.

Once or twice a year, I also take a break from the piano method books to spend one or two or three weeks memorizing a recital piece. Now is a good time to emphasize again that one of the most important things that determines how much a piano student enjoys playing is how much they like the songs they are learning. So it's essential for you to identify their favourite songs and have them learn those as their recital pieces. Find a version that will be challenging (a little above their current reading level) but that won't take forever for them to learn.

These breaks from the usual routine are refreshing and motivating for them, so I believe they end up learning better and faster because of them.

LEARNING RECITAL PIECES
Most people think memorizing a recital song is best done by playing it over and over and over until it's finally learned, and then playing it over and over some more until it's finally memorized. This is a recipe for them hating the song before they even get to perform it! And it's ineffective. Here's how I have my kids learn recital songs:

Step 1: Analyze the song and divide it up. Analyzing the song will help them recognize the overall structure of it and especially pick out the repeats. This makes it less daunting because they can see that even though, for example, it's 100 measures long, they only have to learn 40 or so. Next, they are ready to divide the song up into short sections for learning. To visually divide up the song into sections, I have them draw a vertical line extending a measure bar line up. Then, when they're learning each section, I have them include the measure before and the measure after in their practicing of that section, which prevents them from stumbling when crossing sections.

Step 2: Start memorizing first. Have them choose the most difficult section of the song and memorize it before they ever play it. Then have them practice playing it from memory. They'll have to refer to the music often to make sure they've memorized it properly. And if it's initially too hard to memorize and play hands together, they should do hands separate and then, when each hand is solid enough that they can play even faster than performance speed with ease, then they can put them together.

Step 3: Do the other sections. Then they choose the next most difficult section and do the same thing. And proceed like that until they've memorized and can play all the sections. They are purposefully done out of order like this so it will be like a prize at the end when they're finally able to start putting together the sections to make up one amazing beautiful song. Practicing the whole thing really slowly is a good way of testing whether they really have it memorized (as opposed to just relying on finger memory to know which notes come next). They also should be able to mental play the whole song from memory since they've learned it like this.

This process is so much more efficient because they're always playing the song from memory, and it's also more enjoyable for them because they aren't tired of the song before they even finish learning it.

There are also performance techniques to teach them, but one of the best things is to get them to do little performances for family and friends before the big recital. Performing in various settings also helps cement their memory of the song in a way that is separated from their usual environment where they learned it. And as long as they understand that they just need to do their best and have fun, they can relax about how many mistakes they make or how anxious they feel since they can't directly control those things. When they're more experienced, the overwhelming desire to show off/share a beautiful emotional song with the audience should silence most of their performance anxiety.

TEACHING THE 'OTHER' SKILLS

You'll probably find that you need to supplement your method books to cover all the crucial aspects of fluency in the language of music. You could accomplish this by finding a book specifically dedicated to each skill, or you could make up the activities yourself. The strategy you choose probably depends on how experienced you are as a pianist. But here are some thoughts to get you started on teaching some of the other skills:

• Teaching improv: An easy start is to have the left hand do a simple and set chord progression (using only chords they've learned already), and allow them to play around with the notes that fit that chord in the right hand. Then have their hands switch roles. Another beginner activity, which also helps them see the chords in the songs they're reading, is to have them add notes to the song they're reading. Use a song that is easy for them to play already so they should already be easily seeing the chords in the song, which makes it fairly straightforward for them to add notes here and there that fit those chords. You can also play a set chord progression for them and have them improvise above that (Heart and Soul, anyone?). A more advanced skill would be for them to improvise along with a song you're playing from Spotify. They would have to first recognize the chord progression the song uses to be able to do this (see the playing by ear section). Another foundational skill to help them improvise well is to learn "stock patterns." These are standard ways of playing the harmony chords. For example, an Alberti bass, or a tonic-dominant-tonic arpeggio. When they know a bunch of those, they can vary pretty easily what their left hand is doing without too much thought, which allows them the bandwidth to be extra creative in the right hand. These stock patterns also have room for changing up the rhythm, changing which notes are included in a solid chord, changing the order of the notes in a broken chord, etc., so there's a ton of variation available. And of course I shouldn't forget fake books, which only give the melody and chord names and you fill in the rest. I have heard there are some good books out there that teach how to use fake books. Regardless of how you do it, they should definitely get some experience playing from a fake book eventually.
• Teaching playing by ear: The first step is to understand the big-picture structure of the song (e.g., ABABCB). Next, they need to be able to pick out the melody and play it. After that, they can start adding harmonies. The biggest challenge is figuring out which chords are being used to support the melody. One thing that will help is getting them to just play the tonic of each chord they think is being used along with the melody. Later, they can add in full chords and other fun stuff, but identifying the melody and the chords used is where everything starts.
• Teaching sight reading: The majority of someone's sight reading ability comes from having amazing music reading skills in general, plus being able to do an effective pre-read routine. But there are other skills specific to sight reading. One is figuring out the art of fudging, which is dropping the less important notes. I don't know of a good way to teach this other than through experience doing it. A hint, though, is to take note of any accidentals and make sure to play those, because they are usually important notes. Another sight reading-specific skill is figuring out how to minimize mistakes by creatively making them fit with the rest of the music as if they were meant to be there. Familiarity with the repertoire in the category, or, even better, how that specific song sounds, can make it way easier too. It's important to emphasize that when you're sight reading, you have to keep the rhythm until you finish the song. No pausing to get a tricky chord or going back a few beats to fix a mistake. Keeping the rhythm until the very end is a way higher-priority goal than getting all the notes right, and if kids understand and do this from the beginning, it will push their sight-reading skills up much faster. I always tell them to keep the rhythm and make it musical. I don't tell them they have to get all the notes right because that's less important.
• Teaching composition: People often start songs but never finish them. A little planning and thought at the beginning can reduce this. So have your student first decide on what they want to convey and also on the big-picture structure (again, the ABABCB thing). Next, they need to decide on the elements of music that they want to use. These are things like key signature, time signature, the rhythms, the general style of music, the cool harmonies they might want to try, the overall dynamics, the chord progression, etc. After they've decided all those things, have them play the whole song through according to their plan. This is improvising, which always includes parts that will work well and parts that will be horrible. After that, they refine by keeping the parts they liked and change the horrible parts. Initially, they probably only need to annotate (or have you annotate) just enough for them to remember the key parts that they like. Song writing, like any skill, requires practice. They shouldn't expect to be churning out amazing songs every time. I have heard a few different famous composers say they would write a song every day, and it was only after a few months or even years that they started to like what they were coming up with. Composing is also a process of discovering what they like in other songs and figuring out why they like those things and then trying to use them. Composing with others is another way to get expand ideas. You can assign them to compose a short song themselves, or you can do it with them a few times first, depending on their ability. Also, some people are strong composers but weak lyricists, and vice versa. So more effort might be needed on one or the other to get good at it, or you can work with someone who is strong in the area where you are weaker.
• Teaching listening comprehension: I'm actually not sure how to do this one. And I haven't read or heard anything helpful on it either. What aspects of listening comprehension are the most important? Figuring out the chords used in a song is important if you want to play by ear well, but I don't necessarily have a process to get better at it other than just doing play-by-ear activities. If you are a composer, figuring out elements you like is important so you can integrate them into your own writing. Maybe the most important aspect is simply grasping how the song's lyrics and music combine to create a mood, which comes by paying attention to it, and which allows you to connect emotionally to the songs that resonate with you.

This concludes my music and piano teaching series. I hope it helps others succeed at helping their children become musicians because music can be one of the richest joys in life!

Piano Teaching: The Skills You Need to Focus on From the Start

This is part of my piano teaching series. It's really important to read each post in order!

Intro: Discusses what the overall goals should be for music lessons

Part 1: Explains the principles of how piano should be taught to achieve those overall goals

Part 2 (this post): Draws upon those principles to list the specific skills that need to be emphasized from the start

Part 3: A compilation of additional insights to make their learning effective and fun

Part 4: Shows how it's all implemented by detailing my lesson structure

Regardless of the method you are using to teach piano, the following specific skills should be a continual focus. They are the core skills that can make or break anyone's effort to become a lifelong proficient pianist. If you haven't read the prior parts in this series, you should do that first--they provide the context for these principles so they make sense.

1. Never look at the keyboard. My very first lesson, I show them how the black keys are grouped into "twins" and "triplets" and help them understand that repeating pattern. I then see if they can find multiple sets of twins or triplets without looking. From this point on, they are pretty much never allowed to look at the keyboard. When they place their hands to start a song, they do it without looking. When they need to jump up an octave or two, they do it without looking. And they get surprisingly fast at it very quickly! Sometimes I'll also show them videos of Stevie Wonder playing, hands flying across the keyboard, to emphasize how unnecessary looking at the keyboard is.

2. Play up among the black keys. This skill goes with the first one. To constantly know where their hands are on the keyboard without looking, they need to constantly feel the black keys. This doesn't mean they have to be playing way up near the fallboard, but at least their index, middle, and ring fingers should be able to feel the black keys.

3. Pre-read routine. How should a student approach a new piece they've never seen before? There is a set process they should be taught to go through every time. First, look at the title and the lyrics to get a feel for the song's emotion. Next, look at the clefs, key signature, time signature, and tempo. Then look through the music itself, especially looking for things like dynamics, harmonic and rhythmic patterns and repeats, potentially tricky notes or rhythms, which kinds of chords are being used, bass patterns--basically all the theory they've learned up to that time so they will be seeing all of it in the music rather than just seeing random notes. Once they've looked through it, they should mental play it once (described more below). After that, they are ready to play the song, so I tell them not to worry about remembering all that stuff they just went through and to trust their brains to remember it for them so they can focus on enjoying the beautiful song they're playing, which will make their playing more musical and their practicing more enjoyable for them.

4. Post-read routine. I usually only have them play a song twice on any given day. After they play it the first time, I have them go through a post-read routine of looking through the song again to see where they made mistakes and to diagnose what went wrong. Then they play it a second time, and the goal is to have fewer mistakes. By that point, they've probably exhausted the majority of the music reading practice they can get from that song that day, so it's time to move on to the next song. I usually only have them practice each song for a couple days, for the reasons described in the prior posts. Fortunately, the piano method I use is designed to give them new songs every practice day.

5. Keep the rhythm. When playing a song, nothing is worse than stutters and pauses for killing the musicality of it. And stutters and pauses are an absolute no-go when you're playing with a band or for vocalists. The student needs to know from the start that, for every song they play, they need to decide their tempo (assuming they can't play it at the recommended tempo) and then keep that rhythm. Even when it's their first time ever playing the song, they need to do this. If they make mistakes, they should play right through them. It's more important to keep the rhythm than it is to get all the notes right. The right tempo is fast enough that it's challenging but slow enough that they can get most notes right, which is often pretty slow for the first few plays through. Determining the right tempo is a skill they'll have to develop. I will often have them use a metronome when I'm seeing them slack on sticking to their chosen tempo, but make sure you don't have them use it any more than how long it takes for them to gain a good understanding of the song's rhythm or it will interfere with them feeling the movement and rhythm of the song.

6. Everything they play should be musical. Even beginners doing scales or reading a brand new song can play musically. The unfortunate typical process of learning songs is to get the notes and rhythms right first, then to focus (if you get to it) on all the other things that actually make it sound like music. The problem with that method is that all they're learning is to hit notes on a piano in the right order for the right length of time rather than learning to make music, and it ingrains in them the habit of playing non-musically. So I remind them often of my expectation that even their scales and their first read-throughs should sound beautiful with dynamics and feeling and all. This is admittedly tough for them early on, but the pre-read routine helps immensely. When they are always playing musically, the process of learning the piano becomes much more enjoyable because they're experiencing beautiful music every time they sit down to practice.

7. Absolute pitch. This is not something that "people are just born with." There's nothing about 440 Hz that is organically connected with our inner ear; rather, some people have just learned to remember what arbitrarily chosen pitch corresponds with what arbitrarily named note. And this means that, for most youngsters especially, it can be learned. I give some details about how I do this in Part 4 of this series. This skill is much more than a party trick! It allows you to mental play any song anywhere. It allows you to compose in your head when the idea strikes you and no piano is around. It allows you to understand the music you're hearing in a more intimate way because you can also hear exactly which chords are being used, which unlocks greater learning potential even just from listening. It allows you to always sing in pitch, and to play a fretless instrument in pitch. That's just a start.

8. Mental play. This is the process of seeing the music in your head and also hearing each note as you play the song in your head. It's a huge skill for practicing memorized pieces in a way that doesn't rely on the oh-so-fallable finger memory, which makes you more reliable during performances. It's also a way to look through music you've never heard before and learn it all in your head quickly before you've even played it, which is incredibly useful whenever you're asked to play something without more than a moment's notice. Even without absolute pitch, everyone can develop relative pitch so they can hear the intervals in their head from their chosen starting note. So, teaching quick interval recognition is part of this. I've heard stories of some of the great pianists who have been known to memorize whole pieces on a single flight and then play it perfectly the first time when they arrive for their concert. If the ability to mental play is combined with absolute pitch, incredible musical potential is unlocked. Integrating mental play into their daily practice is easy when it's part of their pre-read routine.

Check out Part 3 of the series for the other most important things I try to do when I'm teaching.

Strategies for Making Piano Lessons with Your Kids Successful

This is part of my piano teaching series. It's really important to read each post in order!

Intro: Discusses what the overall goals should be for music lessons

Part 1: Explains the principles of how piano should be taught to achieve those overall goals

Part 2: Draws upon those principles to list the specific skills that need to be emphasized from the start

Part 3 (this post): A compilation of additional insights to make their learning effective and fun

Part 4: Shows how it's all implemented by detailing my lesson structure

I believe that, for music teaching to be successful at achieving the goal of fluency in the language of music that leads to lifelong use, there are two pre-eminent goals. The first is to teach effectively. That's what the prior posts have primarily focused on. The second is to make it fun. You, as a music teacher, can do a lot of other things wrong, and those things ultimately won't matter as long as you are teaching effectively and making it fun. All of the points listed below are things I think are important at accomplishing one or both of those goals. I add new ones to the bottom of the list as I figure them out, and I review the list occasionally to make sure I am doing my best to implement them.

Accountability for practicing is crazy super important. Every piano student should have a daily practice log that allows them to check off whether they've done a full practice session that day. And I make it a point to look at it first thing every lesson. I don't have them write how long they practiced because I don't want them to be thinking about the length of time they're practicing; instead, I want them to be focusing on getting a quality focused practice session in 6 days a week, which could take 15 minutes some days and 45 minutes other days. The other part of accountability is making them perform during every lesson. They need to know that they will be required to play for me the songs they worked on that week, so I have them play them every lesson.

Sidenote: I avoid bribes because those have been proven through quality research to take something they're intrinsically motivated to do (or we hope will eventually be intrinsically motivated!) and turn it into an extrinsically motivated thing, causing them to lose the intrinsic enjoyment of the thing. We don't want them to choose to practice only because they want a treat or a prize--we want them to choose to practice because they have a desire to continue progressing and experiencing playing beautiful music.

No mnemonics for memorizing notes. Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (and the others) should burn. A mnemonic adds an extra mental step to identifying the note. First they see the note, then they go through the mnenomic, then they finally identify its name. Instead, they need to be able to know right when they see the note exactly which note it is without any extra mental steps that will slow down their sight reading. People may think that those mnemonics gradually get dropped with time, but they often don't. I know from personal experience, and from medical training, that they become a mental habit. Sure, going through that extra step gets really fast over time, but it's still slower than just sight recognition without any need to mentally go through a mnemonic. So, instead, use randomly ordered flash cards. While sitting at the piano, they should be able to see the flashcard, immediately name it, and then find the note and play it without looking at the keyboard. It will take them longer to learn them, but it's one of the best time investments a young pianist can make. And if flashcards just aren't working, Treble Cat and Bass Cat can, if done right, be pretty helpful iPad apps for them to do in addition to the flash cards.

They should look forward to their lesson every week and come out of it excited to learn the next week's material and excited about music in general. The most important way to accomplish this is you, as the teacher, being full of excitement and energy about piano and music in general. And every time they play something for you and turn to see what you thought, make sure you are smiling and have something super positive to say about it. This has made the biggest difference in whether my kids cry during lessons or laugh and have fun. So remember to laugh and joke with them during the lesson and just enjoy the time you're spending together. Of course, they'll dread their lesson if they didn't practice hard that week, but hopefully the accountability pieces will help with that.

The combination of being encouraging/understanding and concomitantly having high expectations is a tricky one. I want them to know that I expect their best effort, that nothing else is acceptable. So if they don't practice that week or if their practice sessions were ineffective and the didn't end up learning what I think they could have, I don't tell them it's ok, and I make sure I'm clear that I expect better from them. There have been tears. That doesn't mean we can't still have fun during the lesson, but it's ok for them to feel that shame, sadness, and regret that always come in life after we don't do our best at something. I have them perform near the beginning of the lesson to get it all out there and they can go through that (if necessary) early on, and then hopefully by the end of the lesson they'll be having fun and leave feeling excited about the piano again. A big part of that is reassuring them that I know they can practice every day and work hard, and emphasizing the reasons they're learning piano in the first place and also the improvement I've seen in them recently.

Teaching them how to practice effectively is huge. Getting a full practice session in every day is only half the battle--they also need to know how to spend that time effectively. The for-with-by principle applies. First you have to do something FOR them, then WITH them, then eventually they can do it BY themselves. Sitting down with them and giving direct instructions on how to do each part of their practice session is how it starts. Then, after they've learned those things, you scale back how much you direct and let them do some of it on their own but with your frequent directions. And, eventually (after a month or so, probably), they can do it by themselves. But your work isn't finished there! You need to "audit" their practice sessions occasionally (every couple months, or sooner if you notice they're not learning much from lesson to lesson). I will just sit there and not say anything. Of course they act differently when I'm sitting there, but it's still an enlightening endeavor. I will try to look like I'm not actually focusing much on what they're doing by pretending to read on my phone or something, and I'll also furtively take notes on my phone about things I noticed that they should do better and how much time they wasted on different things. The most common time waster is what Adam Smith called "sauntering." It's the moments in between switching tasks where we get distracted instead of just moving right to the next task. After the practicing audit, I will talk to them about what I saw and what they did well and can do differently. And, optimally, I will sit with them the next couple practice sessions and not say anything except to gently remind them of those things if they're doing them wrong again. This skill of knowing how to practice effectively may determine their trajectory of improvement as much as any other thing you teach them.

The find-the-note game. To hone their note-finding skills, I occasionally play a game with them where I point to a single note or chord in a song and they have to first immediately name the notes. Then, without looking at the keyboard, they put their hand on the keyboard and find the right notes and play them. It's practicing both note identification and location awareness.

If they're just getting tired of moving through the piano books week after week, give them a break! This can be in the form of an actual week or two off occasionally, but usually it should be in the form of switching up what they're learning. I have started planning regular change-of-pace weeks in to my lesson schedule to prevent wearing them down like that. What can you have them do? Take a look at which skills are under-emphasized (or not taught at all) in your method books, and have them focus on those things. See the intro to this series for a reminder of the different skills: listening comprehension, speaking (in the four different ways), reading, and writing. The method books I use do a great job covering most skills, but they don't integrate any specific listening comprehension activities or playing by ear activities, so that's what I have my kids do. Another option is to help them choose a couple recital pieces to start memorizing over the next few weeks. Remember, these recital pieces should be ones that they absolutely love! All these breaks from the usual routine will help them be refreshed and more excited about coming back to their regular lesson books, and they will help round out their musical training.

They need experience performing regularly, even informally. Opportunities can include accompanying the family when you sing the opening song during a family home evening, performing a song for friends, and also doing an occasional mini-recital with a few other kids plus friends/neighbours. Performing regularly helps the students be motivated to work hard looking forward to that goal, it increases their performance confidence, and the students remember that the ability to play the piano is a useful skill in our culture. All of these serve to help them remember why they're working so hard learning the piano.

Don't get stuck trying to over-explain things and expect them to understand it perfectly the first time. They'll see it again and will understand better each time they come across it.

Have an end goal in mind, and remind them of it occasionally. The end goal, as I've said many times by now, is for them to achieve basic fluency in the language of music. But how do you know when they've gotten there? You have to look through the method books you're using and figure out at what point you think they will have achieved that. If they are designed well, your kids will be learning the theory and technique along with the songs each week, so its a fairly simple matter of checking the difficulty of songs they're required to read. If they are reading intermediate/advanced songs, that's probably enough. Another hint you can use is simply to look at how many total levels your method books have. The writers of method books tend to stop writing more levels after they've imparted all the knowledge necessary for basic fluency in music, whether they were thinking about it that way or not. For example, the method books we use have only four levels, but by the end of the fourth level, my kids will be playing pretty challenging songs. So, the well-defined end point for my kids is to finish level four, after which they will be allowed to either continue their piano training (starting to focus on the specific kind of playing they enjoy most) or to start learning another instrument. They all look forward to this time! And it turns piano lessons from an impossibly long journey without any clear destination into a clearly defined achievable challenge.

Any endeavor that takes years of hard work to become proficient is susceptible to frustration and discouragement. Remember: more than anything, they need a teacher who can cheer them on, recognize their accomplishments and growth, and just make it as fun as possible during that long long process. Feeling like they're learning and doing well will be more motivating than almost anything else, and much of that comes from the teacher.

If they love a song and it has piano sheet music, splurge to get the official version so they can learn to play that song just like the real thing. Motivation is way higher when it's a song they really want to be able to play. They're more likely to get into that "flow" state of being and really experience the song. And moments like that are the best reward for learning the piano, so they need to experience it as much as possible. Really every time they are required to spend time learning a song by rote, it should be one they absolutely love.

Teach them that the person who composed any given song had a feeling or emotion or idea that they wanted to convey. That is expressed in their notes and notations, and it's amazing to get to hear that by playing the song beautifully as they envisioned it.

Prophylax against the frustration of making mistakes. If a child is a perfectionist or is just generally intolerant of mistakes, you can prevent many tears by reassuring beforehand that, each time they play a song, the purpose is not to do it mistake-free, but rather to get better at reading music (practicing all the skills they are being taught). So making a million mistakes is totally okay as long as they are doing their best at implementing the skills you're teaching them. Tell them to choose beforehand to have a good attitude and have fun doing their best and not to worry about making mistakes.

Teach them one skill at a time. Music reading is challenging because it requires you to integrate many skills all at once. Our brains don't have the bandwidth to focus on many things at once, which is frustrating. But if you help them first become proficient at each individual skill they'll be using in the song they are about to read, that will make things much easier. For example, rhythm is easy to separate out. If the song uses dotted eight notes paired with sixteenth notes, they need to do some counting and clapping practice with other songs that use those same rhythms. The same can be done with articulations, dynamics, chord progressions, bass patterns, and pretty much everything that makes up a song!

Try some variations on sight reading to improve accuracy and quickness. I haven't verified this works, but I've heard some talk of having students occasionally sight read a really simple song super fast to get used to lots of notes coming at you in rapid succession. Alternatively, they can get practice in accuracy by sight reading a difficult song incredibly slow (without any mistakes).

Remind them of the goal of all this reading practice. If you have a child who loves to read books, talk with them about how, when they're engrossed in a great book, they're not thinking about the skill of reading itself--they're just experiencing the story. Music reading can (should) become the same for them. They will one day be able to read difficult pieces effortlessly enough that they are just experiencing the amazing song rather than struggling through (and focusing on) very effortful process of music reading.

Pop quizzes to help develop location awareness. Occasionally I'll ask them to stop what they're playing and not move their hands from the keyboard. Then I'll ask what notes specific fingers are on. I think this will help them realize that location awareness can be a continual thing so that they will start to automatically be tracking all the time where their hands are on the keyboard.

Tell them why you're doing what you're doing. I believe that when the student understands why the teacher is asking them to do something, it not only helps them understand there's a purpose to it so they're more motivated to follow the instructions, but also it helps them stay anchored to the overall purpose of the music lessons and how you're getting them there. This turns them into an active thinker and participant in the process of teaching them rather than allowing them to be a mindless follower of instructions. They will probably come up with lots of ideas that make the process of gaining fluency in the language of music more effective and fun for them.

Be an advocate, not an adversary. To be an advocate means to be utterly confident in their ability to achieve what you are asking them to do. Even when giving correction, an advocate radiates support and knowledge that the student can make those corrections. This allows the student to not stress about things because they know the teacher is on their side no matter how well or poorly they do each week in their lessons. They look forward to hearing from the teacher what they can do better and are confident they can do it. An adversary is one who accuses, one who tells the student what they've done wrong and treats it like the student isn't good enough and isn't trying. They (usually unintentionally) cast doubts on the ability or potential of the student to grow and improve. They are the scary bad guy who the student is stressed to perform for, and that relational context severely hampers not only their growth and self-confidence as a budding musician but also their enjoyment of music as a whole. For me, becoming an advocate music teacher has been a learning curve, and it requires deliberate thought before each lesson to remember how I should interact with them and respond to their mistakes and their successes.

Every song they perform during a lesson, they have to perform it without losing the rhythm. I have found that they start to practice differently if they know that, during a lesson, if I ask them to play a song for me, they are required to play it without losing the rhythm. If they lose the rhythm, even by a couple beats, they have to play it for me again. This doesn't have to be harsh, and I'll try and say things like, "Oh that was so close! I know you can do it this time!" I sometimes have to remind them that I am not asking them to play without mistakes. They can make all the mistakes they want and it's still good enough for me as long as it's not completely noise (Category 0, which I talk about in Part 1) and they keep the rhythm. This is to strongly emphasize the point that keeping the rhythm is more important than getting all the notes right. It builds sight reading skills by helping them prioritize in their minds right from the start that rhythm comes before notes, so if they have to drop a few notes or fudge here and there, that's ok. Chances are, people won't notice most dropped or incorrect notes, but losing the rhythm totally kills the music.

Occasionally have them mental memorize a song and play it from memory. Sometimes it's fun to have them do a pre-read routine on a new song (a short one) that they've never seen before and then take away the music and ask them to play it from memory. I usually don't warn them beforehand. This is a great test to see if they are truly understanding the music when they are analyzing the song, and it's also a great way to make sure they are doing deliberate and thorough pre-read routines.

Their weekly reward: a song. If they are learning the way I have described in my other posts, they are playing new songs almost every day, which is a lot of effort. This pushes their reading level up quickly, but it doesn't allow for much time playing songs that are easy enough that they can really put all their focus into playing musically. The occasional recital songs they learn help with that, but I think giving them the opportunity to choose their favourite song each week to spend a little extra time on is important too. This is fun for them because they enjoy hearing the song, it's a nice break from the mental effort of reading new material all the time, and it helps them regularly focus on playing extra musically. The reward for a good week of practice should not be a treat or sticker--it should be the joy of the music itself, and this weekly song can be that for them!

The five categories of a song. I love exhaustive, mutually exclusive categorizations, and it's helpful to divide a song up that way. If you think about playing a song perfectly, it involves hitting all the right notes at the right times at the right strength for the right length of time. In other words, you have to get four things right: (1) rhythm, (2) notes, (3) dynamics, and (4) articulations and phrasing. Then there's a fifth category, musicality, which is what you use that tells you how to put together all the other four into the most beautiful song you can. Explaining these five things to your students can help them analyze their playing to see why the song maybe didn't sound as good as it could have.

Practicing is different than playing. When they're practicing, they need to focus on getting through the things that they are supposed to practice. After that, they are free to play whatever they want! I am not sure how to encourage them to play in addition to practicing, but a good start is probably telling them the difference between the two and saying that you want them to play as often as they desire. Just make sure they understand that they need to practice first, which will help them enjoy the playing more because the practice session won't be looming over their head.

Model the love of music in any way you are capable. When your kids see how much you love music, they will be more motivated to learn. This could mean sharing with them an awesome song you just discovered, or it could mean you playing an instrument or singing regularly when they're around. Taking them to musical performances is another great way to accomplish this.

At recitals (concerts), don't just have them play songs they learned by rote. If learning by rote is only one way to speak with an instrument, why would you limit their concerts to just that? I think the optimal would be for them to demonstrate their ability to "speak" with their instrument in the four different ways. This means they'd play a song they learned by rote, they'd sight read a song a song you give them right then, they'd get to improvise a song (maybe as part of a duet with the other person playing a chord progression?), and they'd perform a song they figured out by ear. And, I would add a fifth one: they should get to perform a song they composed themselves! It can be extra gratifying for a piano student to hear from people that they loved a song the student created herself. Five songs might be too many depending on how many students are in this concert, but keeping all the songs really short and moving things along quickly could make it possible.

White out the unnecessary fingerings in their music books. Sometimes fingerings are written in the music to help with a tricky fingering passage, and those are fine. But many times, music has fingerings written in all over the place for no reason whatsoever. And for beginner music readers, their eyes will be drawn to those rather than the notes, so they will not actually be reading the notes so much as playing by number. This interferes with their learning, so you need to white out those unnecessary fingerings!

Help them understand the interconnectedness of all the activities they're doing. All the different activities of a complete musical curriculum (as I've described in the earlier parts, the purpose of which is to achieve fluency in music) are mutually beneficial. For example, if a student is regularly improvising, they will naturally start reading music better because they'll be seeing the chords in the music more reliably. Composing has a similar benefit. Learning to play by ear improves their improv skills and their listening comprehension. And so on.

If you are taking on the role of music teacher and parent, it's a lot of work, and that's ok. I have noticed that sometimes it feels like I am spending a big chunk of every week teaching my kids music, and that's okay. Professional teachers only teach each student for 30-60 minutes per week and then rely on the parent to do the rest of the practice supervision and such, but I'm doing both roles with multiple kids. Recognizing that helped me feel more ok about it. And it's way better than not having anything worthwhile to do with your kids! The key, though, is making sure it's a fun and uplifting experience for everyone. If it's harming your relationship with them, no amount of fluency in the language of music is worth that. But hopefully it can not only strengthen your relationships with your kids, but it will also teach them a lifelong skill and give you guys something to do together (playing music) for life!

The sight singing game. Have them try singing the melody of a song for you before they are allowed to play it. It's fun to see if they can get it all correct!

When doing technique activities, they should only play them as fast as they are able to do so perfectly. Every time they play it wrong, it ingrains the wrong movements in a little bit more, so they need to go slow enough to get it right every time.

When learning chords, make them name every note before playing it. This makes sure they understand very clearly which sharps or flats they're playing, and, by extension, which white notes they're not playing. If they can have the notes of the scale clearly understood in their head before they even play the scale, they will learn it much more thoroughly because they will understand it in their mind too (as opposed to learning the feel of it in their fingers without much understanding).

There is a difference between practicing an instrument and playing an instrument, so set up their environment to facilitate self-directed playing as well. Only when students of an instrument start spending time with that instrument in ways they want, outside of the required practice that the teacher has assigned, will they really start to own that instrument. I talk to my kids about the difference between practice and playing, and I encourage them to play any way they want (as long as they're using proper technique still!). I encourage them to figure out by ear their favourite songs, or to pull out a book and sight read some songs whenever they feel like it. Anything! The more they start playing the piano outside of their practice sessions, the better. But make sure it's not done as a means of procrastinating the daily practice session. We recently put a shelf close to the piano dedicated to holding only piano music, and we organized the music by difficulty level. The lowest shelf has super simple music books. The next shelf up has slightly more difficult music. And so on. There are 5 shelves. We put a green dot on the spine of all the shelf 1 books, a blue dot on the spine of all the shelf 2 books, etc. Then we brought them to the shelf and explained it to them. We showed which shelf each child is at, and made it clear that they can pull out any book from that shelf (or any of the lower ones) and sight read that music any time they want. The coloured stickers will help maintain the organization long term. And as they get better, it will open up the next shelf up to them for playing. I remember growing up and not really ever pulling out music books to play for fun because I didn't know which books would be good, so making it really obvious like that will hopefully help facilitate them randomly pulling out a book and playing from it much more often. There is a variety of different types of music on each shelf as well, so there will be music for any mood. And as they spend more time playing just for the joy of it, the more they will enjoy their instrument and be motivated to continue progressing.