Oct 15 2008
Rockin’ the House
Earlier this summer, I had heard about the Seattle Suzuki Institute’s fantastic musical programs for very young children. I wanted to sign up my daughter for one of the classes, since she loves singing and doodling around on the piano. Unfortunately, the Institute’s classes are very popular and there was a lot of competition for the few spaces available. Claire didn’t win a spot through the lottery held prior to each term.
I decided to take matters into my own hands. I do know how to play the piano. As a teaching assistant for a college music theory class, I’ve even taught people the basics so they could play a song they loved and one they composed. My students were adults, readily capable of grasping abstract concepts. That’s one thing. Teaching young children is an entirely different matter. I know NOTHING about teaching piano to young children. The difficulty seemed much greater since one of my kids is not yet a fluent reader.
One day, as I was bulldozing a pile of toys in my son’s room, my gaze fell on the color-coded xylophone. Inspiration hit. It would be so much easier to teach Sam and Claire how to play songs if I could just tell them to press the green key or the red key. How could I color-code my piano keyboard, short of painting the keys? Easy! I colored a set of garage sale stickers and placed them on a nice range of keys. I then marked a couple of cards with the appropriate sequence of colored dots to play two of their favorite songs: Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
The moment of truth arrived. Would the system make any sense to them? It did almost instantly.
Now, I have to research how to take them beyond this, so they can continually expand their repertoire. I don’t want to make it a high-pressure exercise. It has to remain fun. Discipline can come later.
It’s adorable how Sam uses the markers to show Claire which note she’s on. How amazing to hear her play Twinkle Twinkle with confidence! Great job, Claire!
My mother in law did the same thing with her organ for my kids!
Thanks FW!
That’s so cool, Yvonne! I wish it had occurred to me earlier to try this
How cool! Good luck to you and to them!
When I was in high school, I was asked to teach orchestra classes at our local Montessori school, and one of the first things I did was make color-coded scales for them, with colored spots on a sample fingerboard to go with it. Color seems to work really well for that (and fit in pretty nicely with the rest of their montessori curriculum).