keyboard stickers

[ada]

I have just bought little ABCDEFG stickers that you put on the keys to help a six year old beginner I am casually teaching.
 
But I'm wondering whether these are a useful tool, or if they are too much of a distraction and the kid will become dependent on them. 

What do the teachers out there think? Is it better to learn the keys independently? Or doesn't it matter?

[pianochild]

I am not a teacher, but i dont think you should use them. You could mabye for the first couple of lessons to get started, but not for long as the child will rely on the stickers. When i started learning piano, i didnt learn the notes properly, i just relied on "memorizing" my pieces at home. When it came to gradings and sightreading, i wasn't very good. I had to practise sight reading for ages!

[instromp]

Im not a teacher either but when i first started learning i took a marker and marked the key from middle c to its octave.I think thats a good method to use, but maybe a student may get independent on that .But since i didnt have a teacher, when i started teaching myself i picked it up quick with the marked keys, then i just wiped them off.But when school was open, my teacher didnt use stickers or markers, he used   "John Thompson's Teaching little fingers to play" book, that's a good way instead of using stickers i think.Well that's my 2 cents in on it.

[sarahlein]

Why create a crutch and then worry about how to get rid of it? In my (not-so-long) teaching experience I've found that normally all six-year olds can cope with learning 7 notes using simply the keyboard's topography and touch!

In any case before you decide whether to go ahead and use them or not, have a look here for some better methods:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,6704.msg66174.html

[ada]

Thanks for your replies. I suspected as much. The thing is that the kid thinks they are really cool (or maybe she's lacking confidence) and won't let me take them off.

They also drive me crazy when I play the piano because of the feeling of the edges on my fingertips!

Think I'll just leave them for a few days and then make a big fuss and say now you are so clever you don't need them anymore 

[counterpoint]

The problem with keyboard stickers is: they only help you, when you look at the keys -
but you're supposed to read the notes from the sheet.

Perhaps it would be much more helpful having an image of the keys with the names of the notes written on it on the sheet itself.

[pianochild]

The problem with keyboard stickers is: they only help you, when you look at the keys -
but you're supposed to read the notes from the sheet.

Perhaps it would be much more helpful having an image of the keys with the names of the notes written on it on the sheet itself.

Or you could stick a poster of a keyboard on the wall above the piano? That way you can see it but find the keys by herself

[counterpoint]

Great idea, pianochild!

So you don't have to draw the keyboard image on every page in the piano book 

[pianochild]

yes!

[matthewb]

I teach piano by ear and I don't use stickers.  I think it 's important for students (no matter the age) to learn the piano just as it is.  Otherwise, the use of stickers is distracting and will hinder the student's learning.  Just my opinon.

[counterpoint]

I teach piano by ear

Thats interesting!

How do you do this? Don't you use printed music?
How are your students learning new pieces?

[stevehopwood]

There is so much rubbish talked about creating 'crutches', or the need for children to become self-reliant, or how vital it is the children do not come to rely on ............ , (where ............ = whatever particular activity the poster hates).

It seems to me that the useful posts in this thread came from the originator, worried that she(?) might be doing harm, and matthewb for showing some flexibility. The rest are just banging on about their own particular hobby-horse.

Allowing a small child to succeed is what really counts. The methods used to do so are many and varied. If stickers are involved, then so be it. So what if the kid becomes reliant on them for a while? It is unimaginative to think that that this crutch will be needed for ever. The kid himself will demand their removal as soon as he grasps the keyboard layout for himself and perceives the stickers as childish.

Show some flexibility, folks. It is the kid's success that counts here, not your own personal prejudices.

Do I use stickers? No. I practise a couple of hours a day myself, and have 50 or so pupils. They would be a *** nuisance.

Would I use them if necessary? You bet. And I would go to the trouble of sticking the wretched things on before he came and removing them after he left. I want him to succeed - it's my job.

Steve 

[ingagroznaya]

Steve,
you have not seen otherwise healthy 11 years old playing a piano wearing plastic gloves with names of the keys written on it. She has been playing for three years in the same C position. ALWAYS wearing those gloves.
I've met her at some point where I thought " I've seen it all". Boy, was I wrong!

You are too positive about life, Steve dear .

[stevehopwood]

Steve,
you have not seen otherwise healthy 11 years old playing a piano wearing plastic gloves with names of the keys written on it. She has been playing for three years in the same C position. ALWAYS wearing those gloves.
I've met her at some point where I thought " I've seen it all". Boy, was I wrong!

You are too positive about life, Steve dear .

That is one of the funnier things I have read for a long time. What a glorious mental picture that presents me, ingagroznaya 

Whacked on a head a few times to many perhaps?

Steve 

[ingagroznaya]

Surely not by me. That was a day when I walked out of the room drenched in sweat. I was not teaching that poor thing.
She was a happy normal child otherwise. Oh, let's move on to another subject. It was a very scary thing!

[gyzzzmo]

stickers on your piano, thats just blasphamy....
As soon as you notice your student cant seem to remember where the 'c' on the keyboard is, drown student. I started taking pianolessons when i was 4 years old. Even i could remember where the 'c' was :p



PS, other methods to get rid of your student are allowed too

[amanfang]

Well if you decide to use them, make sure you label them correctly.  I was somewhere and saw an old piano, and they keys had been labeled with a black permanent marker (ivory keys).  Unfortunately they were all off.  Middle C was labeled D.  All 88 keys were labeled incorrectly.   

[stevehopwood]

Well if you decide to use them, make sure you label them correctly.  I was somewhere and saw an old piano, and they keys had been labeled with a black permanent marker (ivory keys).  Unfortunately they were all off.  Middle C was labeled D.  All 88 keys were labeled incorrectly.   

I do some piano teaching at a local school on a Monday night. The piano is used for class lessons during the day. Monday is a 'performance' day.

My first job when I get there is to rub off the letter names that kids have written on the keys. Tonight was a classic.

Three different lots of letternames for each key - every one wrong 

[timothy42b]

Sure, use the stickers.

But wean the child. 

Remove one letter a week.  Make a game of it.  Can't go wrong. 

[bernhard]

Every piano already comes from the factory with stickers telling you which white key is which note. They are called "black keys".

And they have the further advantage over stickers that they can be found by touch -  so you donīt need to look at the keyboard.

Have a look here for more information:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4461.msg41580.html#msg41580
(Looking at the keys: Good or bad? exercises to help finding notes by touch. Good contributions by Chang).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.