Teaching the Kids to Play the Piano

I'm a pianist, and I'm constantly being asked by friends and family when I'm going to start teaching the boys to play the piano. Our two oldest absolutely love music and play with several instruments of their own pretty frequently, but mainly as toys.

But no friend or family has tugged at my heart as deeply as my boys themselves, as they've asked countless times for me to start teaching them to play the piano.

So I've started to work with them, and have started with some ideas from when Suzanne and I were young and learning to play the piano. First, I developed a page with cut-out squares with the basic note names. These squares can be cut out and taped onto the keys of the piano or keyboard. Then, I developed a simple score for what's likely the most popular nursery rhyme - Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It's set up simply to let a child play the keys for the song on their own. Using this method, we're starting with tune. We'll move to rhythm after a few weeks on tune.

Feel free to follow along as I build this out and add to it in the coming weeks and months. Please share this with friends and invite others to explore and use this method too, if you'd like.

It'll all be here: Halbrook.net/KidsMusic. (Also available in the top navigation of the site.)

I tried this out on Thomas tonight, and he had a blast, is enjoying practicing, and is doing quite well. I have my work cut out for me staying on top of creating new pieces for him to learn and practice.

Related posts:

1. Christmas Music Project
2. A Transplant Story