Oclef Q&A: EP007 - Can I teach my seven year old sister how to play piano by myself?

Published: July 24, 2018, 3:46 p.m.

\u201cCan I teach my 7 year old sister how to play piano by myself?\u201d - Peterson Normil \xa0 Yes.

  1. Be consistent\xa0- practice 6\u20137 days a week for 10\u201315 minutes a day. Doing 1 day a week for 1 hour will not work out.\xa0
  2. Focus on reading- Get her several books (piano adventures, Alfred, Hal Leonard) and have her constantly focus on building a visual vocabulary of intervals. Reading by interval instead of note names will promote independence and also help her start with the right habits. She shouldn\u2019t read by note names, although knowing the names of notes is important.\xa0
  3. Make it a bonding experience\xa0- Focus on her personal growth and don\u2019t make it about perfection. Allow her to make tons of mistakes and try to help her develop a system of auto-correcting by learning to recognize what\u2019s right and wrong from her reading practice. Spending all week on getting one piece right may feel right, but the long term effects of always doing that doesn\u2019t work out.\xa0
As a bonus tip - having her watch videos and copy what others do or simply having her play pieces that are too difficult will be the fastest way to get her to quit. \xa0 If you want to see a parent who doesn\u2019t know music teaching his child, here is how our methodology works. It\u2019s based around parents teaching music to their kids while teachers teach the parents how to be a step ahead. \xa0 Good luck! \xa0 The tortoise always wins, Julian