Beginning Piano Progress!

Woohoo! Today is time for some catch-up posts (I hope), and our first order of business:

Let’s talk about music for a little bit, m’kay?? 

Especially since this is such a glorious time of year to enjoy amazing melodies and instruments. Chica just had a holiday choir performance last week, had another tonight, and we are in the midst of some pretty incredible church services with lots of pomp and circumstance. 

Next week, we’re even having the high school marching band perform at church, and it is such a high-octane, really special service. Unique and beat-driven (obviously), and that kind of thump that rattles your bones. I adore it.

Now. It’s no secret that music has always been central to so many things I enjoyed in both my childhood and now as an adult. And I’m so grateful that my kiddos seem to have a love for it, as well.

The kiddos’ elementary school has a choir for 4th and 5th graders (as mentioned above, and many times before), so this year, Chica was old enough to join, and has been loving it. Like, rehearsal-days-are-her-favorite, kind of loving it. And I have no doubt Chicklet and Little Man will be interested as they age up, as well.

Additionally, the kiddos—especially Chica, probably just as a factor of her age—have always been quite interested in our piano. And I’ve always had a non-precious policy about that instrument in our house. It’s meant to be played. If you’re a kid and want to go in there and bang on some keys—go for it. I mean, please treat it respectfully and don’t beat it up, but I want it to be played (and I have so little time to sit down and do so)!

Now. If I were really on the ball, I might have enrolled them in official piano lessons by now, but the pandemic threw a wrench in that sort of close-contact, in-you-home kind of interaction, and that actually made me pause, take a beat, and think through the process. 

And this is where I arrived: I’ve got many years of piano lessons under my belt and am fairly adept at reading music. I am BY NO MEANS a musical teacher, and I’m not event the most talented pianist in our family (hands down, that award goes to older bro).

BUT. I am perfectly capable of teaching my children at a beginning level, stoking their interest, encouraging them to put in the work at home to learn the basics, and get them well on their way to enjoying it—before I ever need to outsource it and pay for someone else to do it.

It might be different if it were a group activity—but piano is mostly a solo dealio (though I have the BEST memories of playing duets with older bro, and we still attempt it during family holidays most years, to great hilarity and disaster), so it’s perfectly great to learn at home, in your own.

Now. As I mentioned—if I were totally on the ball, I would have done this a long time ago, but as it happened, just before Thanksgiving, Chica made the request again, I dropped everything I was doing at the time, and finally set her up for a bit of learning success. 

I took some time to put masking tape on the actual piano keys with the letter names of the musical notes on them. I figured this was the easiest and most effective way for any of my interested kiddos to come in there and start learning.



And then I busted out the couple of beginning piano books I’d purchased (ages ago) that include music from some of the kiddos’ favorite sources. We have one that includes recent Disney faves like Frozen or Tangled, and we have another that’s actually Taylor Swift songs, because…Taylor. We love her.

One of the books already has the notes labeled with the corresponding letter names, but for any of the others (like below), I wrote in the appropriate letters for the notes on the actual page so the kiddos can have an easy-to-digest bit of sheet music while they’re still memorizing scales. 



I was thrilled to bits and pieces and bits at how long Chica spent in there that day, plucking away at the keys. She was quite determined to get things down in a more fluid order—and to try and start memorizing. It was LITERAL music to my ears. :)







But the best and most unexpected bit is that Chicklet was also super interested, and snagged her own time at the piano when Chica vacated it. :)



In the days a couple of weeks since I assigned the letter keys and set up the music like this, both girlies have gone in there pretty much every day to play a couple of their favorite songs, and Chicklet is doing an awesome job! Just like Chica (*jazz hands*). Plus, I feel like it’s just wonderful hand-eye coordination for life, in general.



In my mind, these earlier years of piano interest are about the simple things:

Learning to limber up your fingers and observe proper piano/finger placement that isn’t so important now, but will be important in the future (when you’re playing more complicated music that has your hands flying up and down the keys). And for that, it’s all about practicing scales and feeling more comfortable with the instrument.

And the second thing at this stage (in my humble opinion) is to simply learn how to read sheet music at a basic level; to understand the bass and treble clef and recognize the notes on the sheet and their corresponding place on the piano—eventually without tape on the keys to guide you. ;)

The rest is just building up from there with songs that might include sharps or flats, or more complicated pacing and notes.

But that’s all for the future! All I care about for the time being is that my kiddos are interested, that they see it’s possible to read music and go play themselves, and the rest will come, if the love holds strong.

So…yay, for the sounds of some beginning piano in the casa! (If only I could remember to schedule a much-needed tuning to make our instrument pitch-perfect, ha).

It really is a JOY to hear it and to see the interest, and I hope (hope, hope) it continues!

Happy Tuesday, peeps.

Over and out.