Kids Music

Teach Your Kids to Play the Piano

WHERE'D THIS COME FROM?

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.

STARTERS, STEP 1:

This step includes some key labels that you can print, cut out, and tape to the piano or keyboard keys. See the instructions on that sheet. It also has your child's first song on the piano using this method: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Cut-out labels for piano or keyboard keys (PDF file) - added 1/30/10

First song: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (PDF File) - added 1/30/10

More coming soon!