Lesson IV

Welcome back - Lesson IV is quite similar to lesson III in that we will be working on twinkles (with our right hand).

Take a bow.

Lesson III

Lesson three is so exciting because we get to really tackle the first twinkle! Once your child has mastered the rhythm of Twinkle Variation A, you can now teach her to play the whole song. make sure that you listen the the twinkle, look at the music, become proficient in the rhythm as well as where the notes are. This is not difficult to do (hopefully) and if you have questions, please post them!

Here are our four skills for this lesson (all pertaining to Twinkle Variation A):

• Twinkle Var. A

1. Hand position while playing the rhythm
2. Tickled Ivories
3. Which notes to play?
4. Spider hand

1. Playing the first note of the song with correct rhythm and correct hand positioning is difficult. Be patient with your child during this skill development. Play the first note for him and ask him to repeat it with a baseball hand. If he does it well, reward him with a sticker.

VIDEO OF GOOD TWINKLE A HAND POSITION

2. This second skill is related to the first: we'll be working on tickling the key with our first finger on our favorite note. The notes love a good tickle - not too hard and not too soft! Stickers for good tickles!

VIDEO OF TICKLING THE KEY

3. Once the minutia is out of the way, we'll start teaching the notes. You may start with just the first part of the song (since there are three) or you can go right ahead and teach the whole thing - use your child as your guide. Also, feel free to show these videos to your child to reinforce what you are teaching.

VIDEO ME PLAYING TWINKLE VAR A.

4. Now teach your child to move her fingers like a spider would move his legs. Kids love this technique!

SPIDER HANDS VIDEO

As you've probably noticed, this is a short lesson but a VERY important one. We are starting technique and using our material (the first twinkle) as a catalyst for it. So this week we will only be practicing our technique, but doing it while playing the first twinkle, make sense?

Take a bow. Good!

Practicing:

1. Baseball hand
2. Tickling Ivories
3. Spider hand

Practice time should remain about 15 minutes per day.

Lesson II

Welcome to Lesson II! Hopefully, your child had a fun time this week practicing her sticky and lazy sounds!

Take a Bow.

Before we get started with the lesson, review with your child what we learned last week. Briefly touch upon sticky and lazy sounds. Then, make sure your child can point out the favorite note. Make sure during the lesson to be vigilant about no noodle backs and great hand positioning.

Here's what we'll be working on today:

1. Hand Positioning and Posture
2. Scale in c major
3. Meet Quarter
4. Pepperoni Pizza

1. Hand positioning and posture are so important that they will be on our lesson plan every so often. Positive reinforcement is the key - tell your child that in order to earn a sticker, you must catch her doing great things like having a straight back and a baseball hand.

2. The scale in c major consists of five notes that start an octave above middle c. C lives under the two black notes and has a nose. Sometimes, we have to work diligently on this seemingly minute point. Many children just feel overwhelmed trying to find the right note to play. If your child falls into this category, don't worry! It usually take about a month.

Remember that lazy loves this song so we need to make it sound like him. We simply play the notes c,d,e,f,g,f,e,d,c, or 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1. One common mistake is playing the fifth finger once on the way up the scale and once on the way down - make sure your child does not do this because it is a hard habit to break. Each time your child can play the scale, give him a sticker. If he's trying really hard but can't quite get it, give him a sticker. Remember, this is the first song your child is learning from you on the piano so it may take some time.

3. Our first rhythm! Meet quarter, he hasn't cleaned off his face in ages so he's all dirty. but that's okay because this way, we can always recognize him. Moms and dads, make sure you pronounce the word quarter with a hard T. We want quarter to have a hidden rhythm in there (setting the groundwork for sixteenth notes).

Here is what a quarter note looks like: Let's clap him!

Good job! Now clap two in a row (quarter, quarter). Now, three... Now four. Give your child a sticker for doing a good job!

4. Now it's time to start our twinkles. To to forewarn you, the twinkles are tough. I know some adults who would have trouble with their tedious rhythmic differences. The key to understanding them quickly (getting them over with quickly, rather) is listening. I cannot stress it enough. Listen, listen, listen. Then listen some more. Ambient listening is just fine. Put it on during dinner, during bath time, in the car, be obsessive.

Since you've been listening so well, you know exactly what the first twinkle sounds like. I like to put the rhythm "pepperoni pizza" with it. As you'll notice, there are six syllables (notes, in this case). However, there are only four beats: the first two beat have two notes the last two beats only have one each.

Try to get your child to play and clap this rhythm many times during your lesson. Get him to play it with finger number one on our favorite note. As always, stickers for positive reinforcement!

Practicing:

1. Scale in c major (starting on our favorite note)
2. Clapping quarter
3. Pepperoni Pizza (with finger number one on favorite note)

Take a bow. Well done.... high five!

Lesson I

Take a bow: you and your child will start and end each lesson with a bow. Stand up like a soldier with your hands firmly to the side. Bow slowly from the hips.




Welcome to your first lesson! Every child will love this method because it based on fun and friendship. I strongly encourage parents to find other moms and dads who also want to teach my method because I feel so strongly about group lessons. A group can be even two kids!

First of all, we need tools. Have stickers, LOTS of stickers! This positive reinforcement will take your child's attention away from you being his or her disciplinarian and more on the accomplishment of learning how to play. Next, because this is the Suzuki method, you will need Suzuki Book I and its accompanying CD. Please try to listen to the CD every day- start to finish.

We will be going through the entire Book I with the right hand only. After the melodies are learned and the right hand is passed off, we will go back to the first twinkle and add the left hand. This is a painstaking process but trust me on this. Your child will gain a melodic dominance in his or her right hand this is crucial for more difficult material, and the best part is that it will become second nature.

Please try to read the entire lesson before attempting to teach your child. Even if you have no musical background, you can do it! Just be sure to listen to the CD and follow my method - your ear will become trained just like your child's. Please feel free to ask questions in the comment portion of this web site - I will be checking them daily.

Here is your lesson template. Based on the lesson, you will hand write the four skills we will work on during the half hour.

























We will be working on four things today:

1. Posture
2. Hand Positioning and Finger Recognition
3. Sticky Staccato and Lazy Legato
4. Favorite Note
   

1. When looking for good posture at the piano we should look for right angles. The feet should be supported to create a right angle at the ankles, again at the knees, hips, and elbows. This can be achieved simply by placing a foot stool under the feet and a large, sturdy book for the child to sit on. One of the most challenging things when teaching a child good posture is keeping his or her back straight. What I do to keep it fun is talk about noodles. When the child's back is curved, I tickle her back from the bottom up and say, "You have a noodle back!" She usually sits right up and she never feels reprimanded. Every time you catch her with good posture, give her a sticker. This should happen once every seven minutes or so.

2. Hand positioning is paramount and must be taught with patience and fortitude. It will be natural for your child to want to get strength when playing a note by positioning his hand like this:












This way, this child feels his hand has made a good sound - which it probably did. The obvious long term challenge is using his fingers to play a song rather than just one note. Here are some ways that I have found success in getting the hand position I need.

• Make a table with your hand: Put mashed potatoes on the table (top of the child's hand), some turkey, some gravy (for some reason the children really love Thanksgiving food). What happens when we let the table tip over? All the food falls off! We can't have that, make a table that is strong and holds all of our nutritious food.

• Hold a baseball: This simple tactic works almost every time with boys. Also, I found a product I really like. It's called a "Crush Ball" and fits most hand sizes ages 3-7. Put the ball in the child's hand and let him look at it. Next, put his hand up to the keys to see what his hand looks like in the right position. Now have him grab it and pick up some notes.
  
  
  
  
  
  Picking up notes with the crush Ball

If holding a baseball doesn't work - use fruit. You can use imaginary fruit first. Ask him to hold an apple. Now ask him to hold a watermelon. Which is the best piano hand? If you would like to use real fruit, I would suggest using a small orange. Using fruit is fun but it's drawback is that it can only be used for visualization rather than the crush ball which can be used to pick up notes. Give him a sticker for when he has good hand positioning. But be sparing with them because we have finger recognition as part of "getting to know our hand."

Finger recognition becomes very important for... ever! I still use these skills when trying to find the best way to play difficult scales and chords. Just to be clear, finger number one is your thumb; finger number two is your index finger, finger number three is your middle finger; finger number four is your ring finger; and finger number five is your pinky. I like to introduce finger recognition with a song. This song is set to the tune Frera Jacues:

Starting with the thumb (one thumb talking to the other): Number one, number one, how are you, how are you, very well I thank you, very well I thank you, run away, run away (putting your hands behind your back when the finger runs away). Number two, number two, how are you..... etc. etc.

Another great way to instill finger recognition is to put your child's hand up to your own (like a mirror) and show him by tapping your fifth finger and have him repeat it, then your fourth finger, then your first finger and so on.

Music for Little Mozarts has great beginning theory books that offer coloring pages and other games to help reinforce all that your teaching your child!

3. Now that we have control of our bodies (a term I use often) we can now meet some musical friends who live inside the keyboard. My friends live in each and every key on the piano. My first friend's name is sticky staccato. Do you want to meet sticky staccato?

Now let your child play any note she wants but make it sound sticky. Ask her to take her hand away so fast because sometimes sticky likes to hold on to her fingers. Have her play two sticky notes in a row.... now three, now four..... until you get to six. Have her play six sticky notes in a row and give her a sticker for each time she can do this.

Now we get to meet sticky's best friend. His best friend is really different than he is. Do you have any friends who are really different than you? Guess why he's different; instead of being really sticky with lots of energy, he's really lazy. His name is lazy legato. He's so lazy that he likes to hold on to notes for a really long time. Do you want to meet lazy legato?

Let her really experiment with these two very different sounds. When she plays them well, give her a sticker. When you teach the first scale (scale in c major) you can say that lazy really loves the song because the notes are long. Or, when you teach the first twinkle you can tell her how sticky loves the song because the notes are so short and sticky.

4. I instituted the favorite note because children weren't learning things like middle c in the first few lessons. I use the term favorite note because this is the note most of our beginning songs start on. This note is an octave above middle c. Every time your child can find it, he should get a sticker. I have many way of finding the favorite note but try to just get your child to find it without any learning tools at first.

(C is off to the left of the two black notes.... he has a nose)

Make sure that you practice all these skills enough during the lesson to fill up the entire sticker portion of the lesson template. Save these templates in a three ring binder - the kids love to see the pages one after the other.

Practicing assignments:

1. Sticky/Lazy
2. Control of our body (Posture and Hand positioning)
3. Favorite note.

Give stickers for adequate practicing - each practice session should be about 10-15 minutes this week.

Take a bow - slow and steady. Good Job!