Teaching a 3-Year-Old

[fleetfingers]

I am scheduled to meet with the mother of a 3-year-old girl who would like her daughter to begin piano lessons. She has agreed to attend lessons and assist the child in practicing at home.

My initial ideas are:

1. Have shorter, more frequent lessons
2. Have the mother play Cds at home of the pieces she will be learning
3. Let her explore at the piano and wait for teaching moments
4. Teach by rote, using words to help her remember the melodies
5. Win her over with stickers and lots of love.

I have a three-year-old daughter, and the above ideas are what I've been implementing at home with her. So far, it's going well. I am hoping to try the same things on this other little girl, but what if she doesn't respond the way my daughter has?

Has anyone else taught someone so young? Any advice? Would I be crazy to take her on as a student?

Also, what should I look for in terms of 'readiness'? I think I know, but I would like to hear what others have to say about it.

Thanks!

[lostinidlewonder]

One thought that comes to mind when teaching the very young is to NOT have their parent/guardian in the room while you are having the lesson. I tend to find that they play up a great deal more and become more shy when their parents or guardians are in the room.

I used to use hand puppets to teach rhythm and beat and would call the puppets by those names. While listening to music we would clap beats and rhythms, I think this kind of skill is essential for the young mind, the bare basics. I tend to not enjoy teaching any children younger than 6 since the majority of them simply have zero attention span.

[cryswhite]

Try using Alfred`s Music for Little Mozarts.

[ingunite]

Three years sounds like an awfully early age, the best known child prodigy examples notwithstanding. Is she one, by any chance?
I know children who can read at the age (I am not kidding), but are still being toilet trained. Does she attend a preschool?
She probably would have fun, but no necessarily learn piano in the traditional sense. Teaching rhythmic patterns with hand puppets sounds like a great idea. I think that grasping the concepts regarding keyboard layout, use of more than two fingers, or even reaching the keys, might be a bit too much. Even if she learns these things, it would probably take much longer time than it would if she started a couple of years later.
At this stage there is good chance of turning the piano lesson into sort of Mommy and Me or Kindermusic extension, which incidentally are great programs.
But it is just my personal opinion, needless to say.

[ladypianist]

Hello Fleetfingers. One so young as three. such a blank slate. In my fifty plus years of teaching i have only meet one child who truly could benefit from lessons at that stage of life.  Granted I havent taught any beginners for more than 20 years, perhaps things have changed. Mostly I would say it is not what you teach but what you dont teach . Keep there foundation pure. Allow no bad habits, either physical or mental to develop. Study there thinking if you can.  The thinking is everything.  Do they look at the piano with wonder.  Do they try to make a beginning of something.  Usually the answer is no . Keep them out of trouble until you see that.

With fond hopes for your teaching endeavors, Lady Pianist.

[fleetfingers]

Three years sounds like an awfully early age, the best known child prodigy examples notwithstanding. Is she one, by any chance?
 I think that grasping the concepts regarding keyboard layout, use of more than two fingers, or even reaching the keys, might be a bit too much. Even if she learns these things, it would probably take much longer time than it would if she started a couple of years later.

Do child prodigies begin lessons at age three because they are prodigies? Or, are they prodigies because they began lessons at age three? 

You bring up a valid point, and it is one that I have wondered about. If you wait until a child is 5 or 6, they will learn things a lot faster than a 3-year-old. So, is there any value in starting them so early? I don't know the answer to this, and it's essentially my question. Ladypianist, if you could elaborate on the one young student you had who did benefit from early lessons, I would love to hear about your experience.

My own daughter can play Twinkle with her right and left hands, separately. She can also play Variation A of Twinkle from Suzuki Book 1. She also plays Honeybee, hands separately. She has progressed from banging on the piano to thoughtfully moving her fingers around on the keys, trying to make music. It's been about 7 months, though, and it has been a very informal and slow process (I never initiate a lesson - I only teach her when she approaches me).

I am happy with her progress, but - again - if she were 6, she would have had RH Twinkle down after one lesson. But who knows? Maybe something will click and she will start to take giant leaps in her learning, and at age 6, she'll be playing Clementi Sonatinas.

I have yet to meet with my prospective student, but I am anxious to see if there is any interest on her part to sit at the piano with me. I appreciate everyone's input so far. If I do decide to go ahead with it, I am sure to return with more questions about teaching the very young. Surely, some of the talented pianists on this forum began at age 3. Maybe they have some insight, too.

[go12_3]

As I recall, I used to play on a little toy piano before I was 5 years old, but
I didn't truly learn to read the notes until I was in elementary school, 8 years old.
I think if a child is around music, that the parents play piano and so forth, then
age 3, perhaps might tinker on the keyboard if interested. Mostly play by ear.
 Some children may be gifted at a young age, and I wonder about that myself, if my parents had me take formal lessons which I never did have for I was mostly self-taught until in college for 2 years as a piano performance major.   It makes us wonder about the "what ifs" later in our lives while we are learning music...

[m1469]

I would call myself a fairly "adventurous" teacher in that, I am willing to take on a very wide range of students and each of them being in varying circumstances and points in their lives.  I have also never fired a student, despite the fact that I am occassionally hugely frustrated by some of them.  This fact really turns things into an experiment sometimes and I have been fairly surprised by those results as time has gone on.  Over the years I have taught one 2 year old, several 3 year olds, a few 4 year olds, numbers of 5 year olds, aside from the regular "plethura" of 6-8 year olds and up (to no limit).

I currently have a few five year olds, one 3 year old, and a 12 year old who began lessons as a 4 year old (with different teachers until nearly a year ago) with early and biggish success as that young musician.  Each one is and has been *very* (unbelievably) different from one another.  As a matter of fact, even though I believe in the individuality of all people, the most huge variation in learning styles and general approaches to music and piano (and life) is in these young ones, versus most people with more maturity it seems.  There is something very different about ages 5 and down, and then each year within that.  There is a time I would have considered myself as a kind of "expert" in dealing with these ages in general, as I've had a rather gigantic life-experience in various settings working with these age groups.  When it comes to piano lessons, every lesson is pretty untold for me and is very dependent upon this person sitting with me that particular day.  

My 3 year old has learned more now about the piano itself and about rhythm in two formal half-hour lessons (in two weeks) than one of my 5 year olds has (the biggest challenge I've ever had, btw) in about 3 or 4 months (that's actually not an exaggeration).  Granted, my 3 year old very well may learn more in the next year than many of my students, but who knows for sure.  I've definitely learned to just watch how things go and have never been able to put my full-court press on any student.

There are a few huge differences with this 3 year old so far than most:  1) Sheer willingness  2)  Innate love/desire  3)  Eager to please and participate.

Though I don't view learning as an actual straight line, I definitely have a blueprint of concepts I'm working from, which I want any pianist/begnner to understand.  In that sense, I don't expect anything less or more necessarily of my youngies, however, I have had to remember that these concepts need to be broken down further when dealing with youngies.  If I break it down the right way though, the ability for a child to understand whatever that concept is, is not necessarily any slower than older students; it's just like slicing their food smaller or so, and since they can take in the smaller bites easily, they may end up eating more than somebody else taking bigger bites, so to speak.

I currently believe that there is mainly one most fundamental aspect about learning so young which is perhaps the biggest advantage over starting older:  Bond with the instrument and with music.  When it comes to actual skill, I believe that can be learnd later, but to have a lifelong bond with the instrument is something irreplaceable.

[ingunite]

That is very thoughtful and insightful post. Thank you, m1469.

[fleetfingers]

Yes, thanks for your comments, m1469! I found them thought-provoking and helpful to my situation.

The characteristics you listed of your 3-year-old student are great ones to look for when I meet with my prospective student. I am going to keep them in mind. And, bonding with the instrument at such a young and tender age is a great point. In fact, it may be all the inspiration I need.

[m1469]

I am happy to take part in a nice discussion .  I wanted to add one thing regarding your first meeting and my description of my 3 year old.  In our very first, introductory meeting, she actually *appeared* to be not listening to me.  It appeared this way because she couldn't keep her hands off of the piano and was playing around with it almost the entire time.  She was absolutely absorbed by it and enthralled and I could see that it wasn't just that she was not listening, but that she actually couldn't hear me over the noise inside of herself as she sat in front of this instrument for perhaps the first time.  Her parents were slightly mortified and I had to assure them that this was in fact okay with me, because I really needed to observe her carefully and figure out how to get through to her while actually cherishing her obvious interest in the instrument.  There are, of course, little tricks that each individual responds to best, which I'm sure you know in having your daughter.  One of them is to just take my index finger and gently press on her shoulder to create a precise sensation (while softly saying her name) to jolt her attention just enough for us to have an interaction together along with the instrument (I use that very sparingly).

The following two lessons she came back each time, eager to show me right off that she knew how to do the things I had shown her before.  Sometimes in the middle of our exploration, she would randomly "interrupt" with observations aloud of things in the room or what her day was like or what character was on her shirt.  While these moments may not seem to fit into formal learning, I actually see them (especially early on in our interaction together) as opportune moments to show her that I care about her, to listen to her, to respond to her, that she can trust me and open up to me, and then to take that attention back to something musical.  I am looking very carefully for how persistent I can be with her, and at some point, I expect her to listen to me, too, even if she has something else to say.  I'll persist with my idea, assuring her that she can tell me what she needs to or can do what she wants to after we do this one thing, and she believes me.  She'll do what I ask and as a reward can do or say what she wants, and then I direct the attention back to something musical in the same way as with the random interruptions I allowed before.

[fleetfingers]

One thought that comes to mind when teaching the very young is to NOT have their parent/guardian in the room while you are having the lesson. I tend to find that they play up a great deal more and become more shy when their parents or guardians are in the room.

I used to use hand puppets to teach rhythm and beat and would call the puppets by those names. While listening to music we would clap beats and rhythms, I think this kind of skill is essential for the young mind, the bare basics. I tend to not enjoy teaching any children younger than 6 since the majority of them simply have zero attention span.

Thanks for these ideas! I used finger puppets last week and she LOVED it! She was able to make her puppet "dance" accurately to the rhythms.

Also, you are right about the mom not being in the room. Well, she is on the other side of the room, but her daughter is unaware of her presence. It's nice because I have the girl's attention, but the mom still gets to observe. Initially, the mom was sitting right next to the piano and her daughter was shy and clingy.

[ongaku_oniko]

Do child prodigies begin lessons at age three because they are prodigies? Or, are they prodigies because they began lessons at age three? 
You bring up a valid point, and it is one that I have wondered about. If you wait until a child is 5 or 6, they will learn things a lot faster than a 3-year-old. So, is there any value in starting them so early? I don't know the answer to this, and it's essentially my question. Ladypianist, if you could elaborate on the one young student you had who did benefit from early lessons, I would love to hear about your experience.

I think this is the key. Genetics is one thing, but I still believe that the environment plays a MUCH MUCH bigger role than genetics.

Not only is classical music good for a child's brain, but learning rhythm, and coordination is vital to the development of a young child. Perhaps a three year old does not have such a long attention span. Perhaps he won't learn as fast as a six year old. But I'm sure that after having music lessons at three, he'll learn a lot faster than if he didn't. And not just music, but in anything. Everything is interconnected, if a child has a lot of brain exercise at a young age, he will be better off than most people.


That's what I think.

[lostinidlewonder]

Thanks for these ideas! I used finger puppets last week and she LOVED it! She was able to make her puppet "dance" accurately to the rhythms.

Also, you are right about the mom not being in the room. Well, she is on the other side of the room, but her daughter is unaware of her presence. It's nice because I have the girl's attention, but the mom still gets to observe. Initially, the mom was sitting right next to the piano and her daughter was shy and clingy.

Lovely to see that you are making progress teaching the very young, they are a real joy to teach and you can play lots of games and have fun, but it can be quite tiresome when you are low in energy. I really have great respect for kindergarden/preschool teachers! Playing these musical games is very educational for these young minds, it also exercises our own mind as we teach the bare basics of music in creative ways.

I have found singing nursery rhymes, clapping, using sticks to tap together to make sound, getting away from the piano itself and teaching music away from an actual instrument, this is how we should approach the earliest of musical education. Sure get them to play on the piano but separate it from their main musical education. The young child needs to be treated differently, we must assess their beat and rhythmic ability, and their ability to hear different sounds, loud soft, angry happy sad, different tones etc. I found most of my lessons with young children revolve around learning a lot of nursery rhymes, this works well because most of them have experience of them in other educational institutions and family. Another idea is to get them to start on a xylophone before a piano, get the children to use mallets to stike out notes, sometimes using a piano is too complicated for the young child to control, they need something larger to begin with, that is what I have found at least, they can get a good sense of how going to the right notes get higher and going to the left they go lower, also they can learn about different strengths to produce different volumes.

[raisinbrahms]

This has been an interesting thread for me to read, as I have been working with a 3 year old for the past couple of months.  It's challenging to say the least  but every once in a while, I'll hear that something I have taught her in a previous lesson manifested itself in some creative way.  For example, her mom yelled at her one day at home, and the little girl responded, "FORTE!"   

I teach the 3 year old in a private half-hour lesson, and we are working primarily out of Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts series.  Since she has little finger coordination, we use the stuffed animals that come with the books to tap out rhythms on the black keys.  I even have Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear "talk" to each other and give each other high-fives.

I would say we spend only 5-10% of the time at the keyboard; the rest is spent doing rhythm games (little drums/tambourines are wonderful), working with flash cards, coloring in the workbook and identifying musical symbols, listening and identifying high/low, loud/soft...you get the idea. 

The key to survival for me has been to have more activities planned than I will actually use, and having them all revolve around a particular concept or two I am trying to teach that day - 3 black keys, quarter note, or whatever.  I have two four-year-olds that I teach for a whole hour  and I do the same basic thing - plan ahead and have activities that use different areas of the room. 

It definitely requires a different set of skills than the ones I use in teaching my older and more advanced students, but seeing the little ones actually learn some musical skills is pretty rewarding.

[love_that_tune]

When i began playing the piano it was because it was always there and my mom played.  My one year old grandson who can barely walk comes right up to the piano when I play and reaches up and plays along with wide open excited eyes.  I was giving his mom a voice lesson and he started imitating holding one note with aaaaaaaaaah.  People often ask me when I started the piano.  I frankly can't remember ever "not" playing the piano.

I worry about helicopter moms/dads.  I like to observe for myself whether the child is drawn to the piano or the parents are just in a hurry.

I studied with Ray Dellovo, who was a fabulous teacher.  He was very bitter about his childhood being taken up with practice and not getting to play baseball like other boys.

I have had a few five year olds who love to "compose" at the piano.  I play a game of making up a song about their day. 

In short, I guess it is very organic for me whether the student is ready.  I've had the same issues with 40 year olds.

[cranston53]

I recently turned down giving lessons to a three year old.

They have no need to sit down in front of a keyboard at that age. There are many group classes that teach singing and general rhythm - which will be more enjoyable and sociable.

Can I ask if the parents are musicians?

I have a two year old boy at the moment, and I am making a concious effort to not teach him a single thing or impress upon him the idea of having to play the piano.

[fleetfingers]

I understand that you wouldn't want to force a young child to play an instrument. Funny that this thread was brought back to life, because I had a lesson with my three-year-old student this morning and I'm having an issue lately with her mom being too pushy. I explained from the beginning that I will only teach her daughter if she wanted to learn and that she should never make her practice or have any expectations. I encouraged the mom to let her play whatever she wants at the piano at home during the week. She agrees to do that, but struggles sometimes with expectations and cannot help but push her daughter to play the pieces she's learning in lessons.

On the other hand, playing the piano isn't something that little children need to be "protected" from. There is no harm in suggesting or enticing your 2-year-old to play the piano. I have an 18-month-old and he wants to sit on my lap and play piano with me every now and then. He bangs on the keys with delight, and I let him, but sometimes I'll take his fingers and help him play something simple. He'll be interested in that for a short time, then pull his hand away and bang again.

True that piano-playing is not a sociable activity, usually, but so what? Neither are reading and coloring. A child should develop the ability to concentrate, and parents should help the child to gradually increase their attention span. Learning to play the piano is a great way to do that. I have two 3-year-old students who have learned to play quite a few things with right and left hand, know which keys to start on, know which fingers to use, play with correct rhythm, and can even name the names of the white notes on the keyboard. They sing along and they love it. But they don't always love it, and you have to be careful not to push too hard. Keeping it fun at that age is important. I have to admit that some days I regret having taken her on as a student; but, there are those other days when she is smiling and playing something that I worked hard to teach her and it makes me feel so good. It's challenging and requires patience and creativity.

[lostinidlewonder]

... I will only teach her daughter if she wanted to learn and that she should never make her practice or have any expectations. I encouraged the mom to let her play whatever she wants at the piano at home during the week. She agrees to do that, but struggles sometimes with expectations and cannot help but push her daughter to play the pieces she's learning in lessons.

With young children you can often use reverse psychology to easily change their opinion over things. How you do it needs to be personalized for the individual child but certainly well chosen words can change a child's view on things very easily since they really have not much experience with regards to discipline. I think at the early childhood years like 3-6 you can impress upon the student really the foundations for proper discipline. It also depends upon how the parents raise their child, some parents are very "soft" and submissive to their childrens needs, in this case you have to usually do the same or the child will be freaked out in the lesson. You can slowly edge in discipline into them but if their every day life at home they can get away with what they like, then you really wont have much luck unless you have daily lessons.

Parents who are strict with their children, it will often benefit the student if you also have the same strictness in lessons. Guide them through difficult tasks, challenge them and set them up for how to practice every day. Involve the parents in detail in their childs study habits and ensure that they know how to actively help them and encourage them.

I often have to parents aside and discussed how it would be effective to teach their young child. Often I tell the parents who are very soft with their children that if the child works without discipline and without consistency their progress will be slow (which is ok, but you won't get your moneys worth out of the lesson then), also their learning habits for school will generally follow the same path. I like the parents to realize that no matter what task their child undertakes, whether it be music, family interaction, house duties, daily routine duties etc etc, it reflects how they would do other things in their life. So if a young child learns piano and get frustrated and angry and does not want to practice when things gets difficult, other things in their life also will be viewed in similar light. For example, if they have difficult relationship with their siblings or parents they are unable to deal with it effectively. If the student is excessively shy and introverted during a piano lesson, often they are the same in other situations. Some parents simply do not have the discipline or time themselves to ensure their children work consistently and this is fair enough because when you live with someone 24/7 things are not as easy as they seem! But it only gets more difficult as they get older and many parents will admit to this.

So as teachers we have a critical task when dealing with young children and it is so important that unfortunately many young minds are ruined by bad teachers and thus really their whole life might be stunted because of it! It is a frightening fact, but teachers really can ruin a young students progress in life, it is not something that is really discussed enough within teaching circles/institutions. I think being too hard on a student is always wrong, but also being too soft is equally as wrong. Young children should first and foremost enjoy learning, it should be fun with lots of games, but at the same time they should understand that there are some times where we need to stop having fun and do a little work. This is a critical step in their understanding of discipline and something I think needs to be taught as early as possible.

One thing I noticed with one of my young students is that the parent would always tie their shoe laces, put on their socks etc. I said to this student, I think that you are a big boy and you can put them on yourself can't you? He just smiled at me shyly, so I asked him to show me how well he can tie his laces. So we spent the first few minutes watching him attempt to tie his laces. He did it very well and I said he can do that all the time without mums help and next time it would be fun to show mum how clever you are! Then I ask him if he made his bed neat and tidy after he finished sleeping and encouraged him to take responsibility to make his own bed. I mentioned to his mum that I wanted him to do these tasks which she really understood how it connected with the other things he did. In music he had to do a lot on his own, so to practice doing these activities he had to make changes in his every day living.

I found that this indirect teaching helped the young minds learning on the macroscopic level. Sometimes a tutor can find something out about a young children lifestyle and aim for development in those areas which often have much greater effect on the young minds development than developing them within a small box (art, science, piano, etc).

Self confidence is something that should be instilled within children as early as possible, there really is no age requirement. Even an infant, if you give them what they want all the time without letting them understand that they will be ok without now and then, then as they grow into a young child these traits can often carry on over. Parents who run to their infants as soon as they cry or make the slightest noise will teach the infant that crying will always get them attention immediately. Parents who let their baby's cry for a little while before going to them often teach the baby to settle themselves down by themselves and not depend on the parent unless they really need it.

[binghamtonpiano]

I recently turned down giving lessons to a three year old.
They have no need to sit down in front of a keyboard at that age. There are many group classes that teach singing and general rhythm - which will be more enjoyable and sociable.

I recently did the same thing. No one has addressed the issue of possible physical damage to the hands of a child that young. At age three, the hands are not developed enough in muscle or tendon, and trying to teach them to play at that age can actually injure them. I agree that programs such as Kindermusik or Mommy & Me are highly beneficial, and give children a great head start on lessons when they are a bit older.