Deck the Halls — Late Elementary

Deck the Halls

The other day I was looking for an arrangement of this for one of my students and I couldn’t find the level I needed,  so I wrote one.

Here is a word of advise for non-piano teachers reading this who might want to print it out for themselves or their children. While this looks very easy, playing different melody lines in each hand like I wrote in this piece is a skill that takes a lot of practice for most children.  If they have not done it before, they will probably get frustrated. There are also some finger crossings,  changes of positions, and dotted quarter notes which a lot of first and second year students have not been taught.  I do not suggest giving this to an elementary student in his first year of piano. If a student can play the C Major scale hands together, he is probably ready for this.

Some Thanksgiving Worksheets

Last year I polished up and I posted some Thanksgiving worksheets that I had used over the years. I have so much material on my website that it is hard to find some of the older things, so I am reposting them today. You won’t need all of these, but you can pick and choose what intrests you. I plan to use some of them at my group lessons right before Thanksgiving.

Turkey Notes

This is a quick worksheet for beginners who are just learning the names of their notes. You can also use it to play games or to pass out at a group lesson. Be sure to print in landscape mode.

Funny Thanksgiving Food

I was in a whimsical mood when I made this. (I’m usually in a whimsical mood. I don’t know when I’ll grow up!) If you have some younger students who are still learning their keys on the piano, they will enjoy this. You can also use it with your own young children and let them color the funny food.

Color the Feathers

This is another worksheet that you can use at group lessons or with your own children. Be sure and check out the black and white version if you want them to color the entire thing. This is also something you can give to children who are waiting for  other siblings and have nothing to do.   

Turkey Find the Notes

It is real easy to set your PDF dialog box to 2 on a page and save some paper. Then you can use it for several weeks to see if your student’s time improves. 

Usually Thanksgiving gets lost in piano lessons as we prepare for Christmas so I hope you enjoy the change of pace.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas-Pre-reading

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Last year about this time I posted a pre-reading version of this well-known Christmas song. I had no idea that for many months it would be  the most popular download on my site! I’ve always heard that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But since I post for educational purposes and not commercially,  I have removed the one I posted last year and replaced it with a new one, which you can see above.

In an effort to help students with learning problems, specifically visual tracking problems, and also to help very young students, I changed several things in this new version. I made the note heads bigger, which is quite easy to do in Finale, I color coded the notes. I always use a highlighter to do that anyway in the method books I use.  I added a light yellow background to help the student track which line he is on. While our older beginners without visual learning problems do not need this extra help,  we often forget what a challenge this is for most 4 and 5 year olds. I added art drawn by my talented daughter.

As a music educator with years of experience, I’m not going to get into a fight about pre-reading or the age students should start piano. Let me just say that students who start piano early with a good teacher who knows how to teach preschool children, have a much better sense of musicality than if they had started later. And while a lot of teachers despise pre-reading, when used correctly it is a great aid. Certainly we don’t want to use pre-reading when it is not necessary and we want to get to a real staff as soon as possible.  With my own students the rate varies from a week or two up to almost a year. I do not hesitate to take children with learning problems. Many of them have wonderful musicality in aspects of music besides simply learning to read. In the past many of  these children give up  thinking they could read music or become a musician because they were forced into learning just like our other students. Some of them became successful playing guitar by ear but never learned to read a note. One of the reasons I make so much of my own material is because it is designed for specific students. If one way doesn’t work, we try another.

I asked one of my adorable  students who has music reading problems if he has trouble reading a map. He admitted that he cannot read a map. I told him that I can’t either, but I get around just fine and never get lost. I have learned other ways to get around and I have a good sense of direction. Maps just look too confusing but I can tell you what is on the southwest corner of any intersection for miles around.  I can remember obscure history facts, but I don’t do well in visual memory games.   I had a terrible time learning how to read music, even though I was always several grades ahead in my reading group at school and I started first grade a year early because I was already reading books.  In piano I  could never remember which one was B or D, which one was G or F and ledger lines were torture.  I could not tell if the notes repeated. They seemed to jump around all over the page. Teachers constantly wrote that I was not working up to my potential. I have no idea why I have these odd strengths and weaknesses, but it really helps me understand the problems students have.  Fortunately I did master my music reading problems, and I did very well as a music major in college. Certainly ear training and sight singing were easy for me and music history was a breeze! I could remember who wrote everything and what year it was written.

Many piano teachers never had music reading problems, so they really don’t understand those of us who did. I tell my students  that we have to find other ways to learn to play piano because there are many ways to go about it. From the email that I get, there are many teachers who realize there is more than one way to learn to read music and the challenge is to make it enjoyable and musical.  One day we may unlock the secrets to learning. Today the challenge is not to give up OR to obsess about learning to read music, but to come up with different ideas to produce music literacy and give our students some space.  

The next time you get a transfer student who can play but can’t read, don’t blame the previous teacher. She probably did the best she could; and some students take longer than others. Thank goodness we now realize that piano can be for everyone!

Away in a Manger, Kirpatrick tune, on the staff

Away in a Manger

I had many teachers email me to ask if I would post this version. It turns out that this tune is used in Canada and also with some of the other churches here in the US.  I also have readers in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand who use this tune! It is a small world when we are all united by music and the goal of sharing our gift of music with others. That is why I started this blog, to share and to get to know teachers from all over who take the time to write and let me know how much they enjoy a community of music teachers who like to share ideas. Thanks so much for your emails. It really means a lot to me!

It was no problem to post this because I was already using it  with one of my students who knew this tune.  He hasn’t learned 8th notes yet, but he came back after one week and could play it perfectly. (Before I sent him home with it, we had clapped and tapped the rhythm using Kodaly syllables, ta, ta, ti-ti and also the words of the song.) He hinted he wanted one that was harder. So this morning, bright and early I was at the computer working on a late elementary level with hands together. I hope it will be “hard” enough, but not too hard! You just don’t find this tune in Christmas books here in the US.

By now, if you are starting to get confused by all the versions, I certainly understand, because I am, too.  In my files, I have about 7 or 8 versions and tunes of Away in a Manger and it is very easy to get mixed up. I am going to start calling this the Kirkpatrick version, because, after all, he wrote the tune and deserves the credit.

 Of course, the great majority of my readers want the other version, the one that most of the children here in the US know.  If you want the more popular melody, the one most well known in the US, I posted the pre-reading and elementary levels  last year. Do a search or check  here for the elementary level and here for the pre-reading level.

If you are looking for more difficult arrangements of Christmas music, there are some great Christmas books with wonderful arrangements from all the publishing companies. There are some books with all secular Christmas music, too, if that fits the needs of your students. There are also carefully graded Hanukkah books, too. All of my students who want one get a Christmas or holiday  book and I think it is the highlight of the year for them.

New Staff Paper for Student Compositions

Staff Paper for Student Compositions

Over the weekend I had a bunch of student compositions that I promised  I would engrave in Finale.  It took me a very long time as I shuffled through different size copies that I could barely read. Some didn’t have student names and I had to guess who they belonged to.  As I was working, I reminded myself that a few things would help make it easier:

1. Write their name, date, and the title of their piece on each page.
2. Number each page.
3. Always give their piece some sort of title.
4. Remind  students to always number their measures.
5. Staple their pages together so they won’t get lost.
6. Use pencil, but go over it with a darker pencil so I can read it and photocopy it.

It was at this point that I decided to make some new staff paper for them with a grand staff, bar lines, the measures numbered, and a place for their name, title, and date. I posted it here in case other teachers are interested. Perhaps some of the other web sites on my blog roll have paper like this, and I have to admit I forgot to check. I was working in Finale at the time and this just popped right out!

I’m going to try this out with my students and see how it goes. Over time, if I see some changes that need to be made, I’ll revise it.

There are actually two pages to this PDF. If you don’t want the measures written in, but still want the grand staff, print only the second page.  I also made another set exactly like this with a larger staff for younger children. For those of you who want plain, ordinary blank staff paper, I have previously posted several sizes, so do a search to print out what you want.

Pre-reading Away in a Manger, Anglican version

Away in  a Manger

There are several tune settings for this well-known Christmas carol. Last year I posted the version that is the most popular version here in the United States.  But there are other versions, including the one I am posting today.   This version is also the one most often used in the UK, according to my friends from England. If you are from the Anglican tradition, this is probably the version you know.  

I did some research on this tune. For some reason I thought maybe it was an old English tune, maybe even a folk song. I was surprised to discover the tune was actually composed by a member of the Methodist church here in the United States. How it became the tune used by the Church of England is probably an interesting story! Maybe it was chosen because it is really a lovely melody and very child friendly. Spanning just over one octave, it is easy to sing and play. The lilting melody has no dotted notes and fits the words perfectly. The harmony is charming and I hope to add a teacher duet one of these days.

I tried very hard not to put this in C position, but it really made no sense to force it into another key when the key of C  works out so well for pre-reading this melody. I did have to add a hand crossing to play the A above middle C, but I don’t think that will be too much of a problem if your student started lessons a few months ago. I hope the diagram at the top will help with that.

For those of you who always ask, yes, I drew the pictures including the manger, the hand, and the keyboard in Photoshop. I  engraved the score in Finale.

I have a traditional  score that I’m using with some of my students that is exactly like this, except the notes are on the grand staff . If there is enough interest from the UK, I will also post it here.

La Notación Musical La Notation Musicale

La Notación Musical

There are many readers of this blog who are from Spanish and French speaking countries. I have previously posted German notation and that has been a big hit. I am not an expert on music notation, but I think today’s post  will be helpful for our friends south of the border and across the ocean. Check out some of my posts on games using the music alphabet for ways to use this music notation. Also, let me know if I have not use the correct words!  Please do not post these images on your own website. Instead, you may use a link back to here.  Thanks!

Flashcard Basketball

Cecilly has a new game and she gave me permission to post it here. I have used the nerf basket ball in my studio before and the boys really love it! I like Cecilly’s twist on the game. She always comes up with such good ideas. Here is her version in her own words.  I agree that flash cards are a lot more fun when you make a game out of them.

Flashcard Basketball

You’ll need a Nerf basketball hoop (or something to shoot the ball into),
ball, the piano bench or floor space, and the flashcards.

Mount the hoop on the door and position the bench at the spot where the
student will take their shots from (this is their free throw line so to speak).
Place the flash cards face up randomly on the bench. If you’re using numerous
cards, they can be placed in layers. The student stands at the bench and draws
cards one at a time, but only after answering 4 cards correctly can they take a
shot. Whether they make the shot or not, after they shoot, those answered cards
are set aside and 4 more are answered. Any cards answered incorrectly or
unanswered, can be retaught and then placed back into the mix of cards on the
bench. Allow the student to play as long as you wish, 4 cards at a time. Award
whatever you wish (points, bucks, treats, etc.) for each successful shot.

I played this with 4 different students and we got through about 25 cards or so in
just a minute or two. The kids liked it waaaaay better than my just flashing
the cards to them at the piano for them to answer.

Enjoy!

Cecilly

Colorful Paper Keyboards

Colorful Paper Keyboards

There are so many different things to do with a paper keyboard. There is something different about working away from the piano. Sometimes students freeze up at the piano and can’t even find middle C. I think it has something to do with performance anxiety, since the piano is usually used at the lesson to perform for the teacher. But away from the piano, our students are usually more relaxed. So a paper keyboard is a good tool to work on names of the keys.

There are other uses for a paper keyboard. You can use them at group lessons when you don’t have a real keyboard for students to use. Your students can “play” along with you or another student who is at the piano. Then students can take turns coming up and playing the same thing on your piano. They can practice 5-finger patterns, ostinati, simple duets, ensembles, and intervals, for example.

A paper keyboard can also be used to play games. I don’t have time today to list all the games I’ve played on a paper keyboard, but I hope to have time soon. 

I have made some black and white keyboards in the past, but the one I am posting today have the black key groups in color. I got the idea from a pre-school student who had some trouble keeping up with the other children in a game. By using a color to help her identify her position, she relaxed and was able to do just fine.

I like to make enough keyboards to use at a group lesson. Be sure and set your printer to landscape format. Then laminate, cut on the lines, trim next the the second group of three, and tape the two parts together so that it will fold easily for storage in a pocket folder. I use wide, clear strapping tape because regular tape will split at the fold after a few uses.  Place the first group of three on the left before you tape it, and your keyboard will have middle C in the middle!

Jewel Notes

Jewel Notes

 I like to use a variety of seasonal grand staves in private and group lessons for dictation,  learning note names, steps and skips, etc.

Recently my husband presented me with these stones he found. My husband is not a musician, but he loves all my games and is always trying to help me think of new ones.  I was so excited to get these stones because I love the color and they feel so good in the hand. I promptly made this staff and called it Jewel Notes. The stones are flat on the bottom and sit very nicely on the paper.

I used it in various ways with my group lessons. With one group I played a short group of notes that were stepping,  skipping, and repeating and the students took dictation using the stones. For older groups I made the dictation more difficult.  With another group I had students come and play a short pattern and the students wrote it with their stones. My students shared my enthusiasm for the stones!

There are hundreds of ways to use a grand staff, because, after all, if you don’t understand the staff, you can’t read music. You can use this to find landmark notes, learn the name of notes,  take music dictation, and even just to learn lines and spaces. It can be used with beginners to high school students. This is a great way to review for the ear-training portion of the Texas State Theory Test.

If you want to use this, print it in landscape and laminate it. If you don’t have any little glass stones, make some with construction paper or find something creative. I think it would be fun to have different colors of “jewels” and let the students choose.

On my website I have grand staves for various holidays as well as a plain black one. The idea is you can use seasonal items, such as candy, for your notes. This one doesn’t look much like October, but there is one on my website that is orange and you can use Candy Corn as the notes.

Cover the Key Game

Cards  for Cover the Keys Game

Every beginner’s first challenge is to learn the names of the keys on the piano. I think the fastest way to learn is to make a game of it, such as Cover the Keys. In the past I called out letters and the student would cover them with large plastic tokens that I bought at Staples.   

Recently I decided it would be more fun to select alphabet cards rather than calling them out, so I made some I could  use for a long time. 

To play this game, laminate the cards,  cut them out, and put them in a small bowl.  Laminate and print out one game board for each student. Students take turns  drawing the alphabet cards  and then covering the correct key on the Cover the Keys game board.  I still use my colorful  plastic tokens to cover the keys,  but I made the cards small enough to use as  tokens on the game board if you would rather do that.

In an individual lesson, I play along with the student.  One of my students is  just learning the notes, so I had to help her out.  After playing the game a few time, I didn’t need to help her because she had learned all the keys. How’s that for quick learning? When you take turns drawing the cards  there is an element of luck involved, and she was tickled to actually beat me!

If you play this game with a lot of students, be sure to print enough of the alphabet cards, especially if you use them as tokens.  I’ve actually never used the wild card, but since there was a space, I made one. It is certainly optional, and depends on how much time you have to play the game.

If you notice, I have the keys grouped into two and three black key groupings. If they learn that the group of two starts with C and the group of 3 starts with F, it helps them learn the keys faster. You can go to the piano before or after you play the game and have the student play CDE and then FGAB all the way up the piano. Little children, especially, need to relate the game board to an actual piano!

If you want an European version of the music alphabet, please send me an email and I will send you one. Tell me what you would like on it.

Five Little Pumpkins Pre-reading

Five Little Pumpkins

One of my beginning students knows this song, but he hasn’t learned to read on the staff yet. He saw the “on-the-staff” version and I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to play it. To give him a little treat, I wrote this pre-reading version.  Before you print it out for your students, please make sure they are old enough to follow the notes on the page.  This is longer than most pre-reading music and I didn’t want to make two pages, so there are a lot of notes packed into one page.

If  you want to use this with a student, here are my suggestions.

1. Sing the song together for several weeks so that your student knows it. Tap it out on the fall board. Do motions with it. Use rhythm instruments. Trust me, if they don’t know this song, it is going to be difficult to follow on the page. Remember, I wrote this out for a child who can already sing it.

2. When he knows the song, you are ready to teach it on the piano. I broke it into 2 lessons and only worked on the first four lines the first week. 

3. Young students will have LOTS of trouble  following all the repeated notes. All the quarter notes are really supposed to be eighth notes, of course, and there is a reason repeated eighth notes are beamed! So get out your trusty pointer and point to the notes to help the student follow the score.

4. Of course, some of the students are capable of playing this by ear, or partly by ear, so go for it! The days where piano teachers didn’t want students to learn to play by ear are over, thank goodness.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t learn their notes, but nowadays we want a balanced approach.  

This is a pre-school song, so your older elementary students will find it babyish. Go with your instincts. If you want the on-the-staff version I posted last year, here is the link.

For all the teachers who are curious about the artwork, I drew the pumpkins and grass in PhotoShop. I wrote the notes in Finale and imported the score into Photoshop where I changed the color of the notes and added finger numbers.

Ask a Composer Questions

At Compose/Create, a blog I read a lot, the wonderful piano composer Kevin Costely is being  featured.  There is a lot of biographical information about Dr. Costley, an interview with him,  and a review of some of his pieces.

This is a great way for your students to connect with a composer. My students have submitted a lot of questions for Dr. Costley. It has given us a chance to talk a little about composing and to get to know my students better.

One of my students’ favorite is Mighty Eagle. You can actually listen to Mighty Eagle at the FJH Website. Click here and scroll down the page to find Mighty Eagle. There you can see the link to listen to it. It is a dramatic piece that really catches the imagination and makes students sound very impressive! Both boys and girls like it, especially middle school age students.  

You have to get your questions in by Oct. 6, so start asking your students today. There are so many resources available to us as teachers. If Dr. Costley and Wendy are willing to spend some time making this available, lets support their efforts.  All of our composers are so busy, it is hard to find time to feature this kind of direct involvement.

Invert These Triads

Invert These Triads!

Now that your students have used  my funny posters to learn how  to invert triads,  they need a worksheet to try it themselves. I agreed, plus I love to draw these things. I am very attached to my NoteBoys™, although, I have to admit some of my younger students don’t “get” it. My middle school and older students love them.

I suggest you laminate this worksheet so students can practice drawing more than once. Younger students or students who have difficulty with the concept can use colored dry erase markers. I found a nice set with felt erasers at WalMart.

What are some of the more difficult music theory concepts that the NoteBoys can help by using humor to get the idea across to students? Send me an email if you have any ideas. Thanks to Wendy at Compose/Create for this idea!

Inverting triads in the bass clef

Inverting Triads in the Bass Clef 

Back in March I posted a humorous poster to teach students how to invert triads.  If we use color, we find that students understand the concept a lot better because they can see the notes move up and can understand inversions better.  I like to use humor  because when students later “forget”, and they usually do, I remind them about the NoteBoys  and  it all comes back to them. When they have a piece with inversions and are having trouble, I pull out these posters.  Also they have to learn inversions for the Texas Theory Test and these help with that, too.  

 Wendy, from ComposeCreate , suggested I post another design in the same series with the triads in the bass clef. If you use both posters with a student, you can show them how the fingering is different in each clef. You can ask the students to write in the fingering on each post and they are more likely to remember it.

In my studio, these posters are laminated and are sometimes on the table so the students can read them while they wait. This way they sometimes they learn about inversions before I formally introduce them. I also have some fine point dry erase markers and ask the students to write in the fingering. This way I don’t have to use so much printer ink and paper.  Besides, they look so nice when they are laminated.

You might have to try several dry erase markers to find one that erases well on your laminated sheets. I use some very inexpensive ones with little felt erasers that work perfectly.

 To print this new poster, click on the link under the picture above and when you get to the next window,  select download.

You can find the PDF for the March post here. Another poster in the series is here.

Win a set of Wendy’s new hymn books

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might have read about my review of Wendy’s new series of traditional hymns. The music is really nice. Hal Leonard put a few selections on the promotional CD they just out to music teachers.

Well, Wendy is running a contest to give away all 3 books, worth almost $30.00.  If you post a comment on her blog you will be entered to win all three books. You can also blog or tweet about it and you will be entered again. Go to her website ComposeCreate to enter. 

If you have a blog, write about it and you will be entered, too. Hurry, the contest ends midnight, Sept. 18th.

If you win, let me know!

Some organizing help

 

If you read this blog often, you know I am a big fan of Wendy Stevens, who composes, teaches, and maintains the website ComposeCreate.com  I have reviewed several of her books and pieces.

Well, Wendy likes to use the material that I post here as well as make her own graphics and worksheets. The  reason I mention them is because Wendy sent me some pictures of how she has organized the fish cards I’ve been posting. She gave me the great idea to put the cards in groups, so we can easily use just the ones we need with each student. That will save me a lot of time sorting through all the cards to pull out the ones I need. The students who might enjoy this game the most are probably too young to know all the notes, anyway. She put them in zip lock baggies and them made nice size labels with instructions. Check out her website if you are looking for more cute games, too. Go to the tab for Wendy’s Piano Studio and there will be a menu of her game ideas with pictures,  flash cards you can print out, and all kinds of teaching things.

New Fish Rhythm Matching Cards

New!! Fish Rhythm Cards that are more challenging!

To those uninitiated to the joys of fish flash cards, these may look just like all the other’s I’ve posted. But they’re not! The others were too easy. With the first ones I posted all the student had to do was match colors. That might be fine for the very young or brand new beginners. But once they know their notes they need something more challenging. So I changed the color and a few other things to make the game a little more difficult. For those of you who printed out the other version (like I did) and found it too easy, try this one. I guess we are keeping the color ink companies in business, LOL. Don’t forget to see if you can find a cute fishing pole at the dollar store. If not, the students like the handmade ones, too. Or don’t bother to use a fishing pole if you don’t have time. Just play matching games.

Happy fishing!

Composing articles by Wendy

Rhythm Memory Game

If you want to read about some great ideas and ways to get your students composing, go to Wendy’s site and read up about composing with students.  Not only is she a wonderful composer, but she actually does everything she writes about so you know they are student tested and you can actually use her ideas with your students.  She also writes in a way that is easy to understand, which I don’t always seem to be able to do!

She has many blog posts on how to teach composition to students, including questions from her workshops. If  you are not quite sure about how to incorporate composition into an already busy lesson, use some of the tips she posts.

The picture in my post today is one of my young students learning by playing a game. When you make a game of something, students really learn and remember!

Piano lessons “just for fun” continued

My Practice Incentive

In my last post I wrote about parents who want their children to take piano “just for fun.” While I agree that most parents, including me, want piano to be fun, there are some downfalls in that attitude.

1. Parents may think it is not necessary to make a child practice if piano is just taken for fun.
2. Most children will not practice without parental oversight.
3. When students don’t practice, piano lessons can become unbearable and definitely not fun.
4. If lessons aren’t fun because the child hasn’t practiced, piano isn’t fun and the child begs to quit.

Of course, all potential piano parents aren’t this way. Most parents know the value of practice and will do their best to help the child find practice time. But occasionally I run into a parent who says they don’t really care about making progress, they just want piano to be fun.

Educate the Parents

First, a teacher must educate the parents at the interview in ways that the parents can understand and relate to. From the very beginning we should pleasantly remind parents  they will have the responsibility to make sure their child practices. If they are not ready for that responsibility, then maybe it is not the right time to start piano. The teacher must carefully explain that taking piano will not be fun if the child does not practice.

The teacher needs to explain that children will not practice piano on their own and it is very unrealistic to expect that from anyone under 13 year old for extended periods of time.

You can explain that in school music programs such as band, students are graded on their practice. That is a powerful incentive and will motivate many students to practice on their own. However, private piano is not a school subject and it will be put  behind everything else if the parents do not make it a priority. Parents can relate to this because they can remember the powerful incentive grades hold over students.

Teachers need to remind the parents how uncomfortable unprepared lessons can be in a way the parents understand.

“What if your child is given a part in a movie with her favorite star. She is so excited! This is going to be so much fun. She only has to learn her lines for the day. Of course you will sit down and help her go over her lines. When the big day comes she is ready and does a great job. She loves acting!”

“But what if she doesn’t learn her lines. Things are uncomfortable, she flounders around, and she is terribly embarrassed. The fun day turns out to be miserable. Your child tells you she never wants to be an actor. It’s not fun.”

If you explain it that way, maybe your parents will not want to put their child in an unprepared lesson week after week.  While this seems obvious to us, many parents never think of how the child feels when she can’t do anything in her lesson. There is nothing fun about it.

There are other things you can go over with the parents in an interview. I have read about famous pianists who, to this day, thank their parents for making sure they practiced daily.  Some parents are surprised to find out that many great pianists also played soccer and other activities and didn’t always want to practice. Many say they wanted to do anything but practice until years later when they became serious about music.

I have heard parents say that practicing is between the teacher and the student and they are not going to get involved. Parents need to be told that the piano teacher has no control on getting the child to practice and even short practice sessions are better than none.  

Finally, the teacher should mention  the studies that show the benefits of early musical training. To make the most of these benefits, the child should be making progress and learning new things. If a child does not practice she will not make progress, she will not have fun, and she will be another one of the children who started piano for a while and quit. The benefits of piano study assume that the child is learning new things and new ways of thinking.

Teachers have to be sympathetic with trying to fit practice into a busy schedule, but that is another topic entirely.

Piano teachers can help the parents understand that piano will be fun if the student is prepared and moving along in a progressive fashion. If we can get the message across in a positive, friendly and enthusiastic manner before the first lesson, we will go a long way in keeping more students in piano and bringing more musical joy to the families in our community.