When you send your child to school, you know his or her teacher will have the experience and knowledge necessary to teach a child of that age. They will understand what knowledge they already have in place, what skills are easy for them, and what they are capable of learning in the months ahead.

They teach in a style that’s best for the age of the child in the classroom.

Yet piano teachers have a different story.

They may be working with a 5 year old girl in the morning, and a 72 year old man in the afternoon. Two extremes, each requiring a completely different teaching approach to excel at the art of playing the piano.

As a parent, its important to realize that every piano teacher has his or her own unique talents. They have a strategy to use to teach their students to the best of the ability. To ensure their teaching style matches your child’s learning ability, its important to ask questions about the process before you begin.

As a piano teacher, its important to realize that every age requires a different approach. When you spend your time focusing in on one group, you can quickly discover the little tips and nuances that will make you better at teaching to that age range.

Young children require a certain style of learning. Here are a few things that meet their needs.

Only give them tasks they can succeed at
Children have short attention spans and bore quickly. If you give them too difficult of a challenge, they will quit. Instead, give them small challenges that are easier to achieve and build from there.

Teach by using phrases
If you’ve ever chatted with a child for any length of time, you know that by the second or third sentence, their eyes are wandering, they begin touching other things, they may even get off the chair and begin to dance around. Long lectures are beyond comprehension. They need things quickly to process. At a young age, you don’t need to lecture about the dynamics of piano playing; only provide the steps to achieve the tasks at hand. “Play that quicker” will be better received then a two minute speech on why the composer designed the song the way he did.

Let them think
When you ask a question, don’t jump right into the answer if they hesitate. Give them a chance to think it through. If they are struggling, offer clues to push them forward. Only provide the answer when you see it simply isn’t coming through. Then consider ways to make your questions more understandable in the future.

Play with their curiosity
Kids are naturally curious, and are more receptive to learning when it becomes a game. They like to play. They like to experiment. If you provide them with “what if” concepts, they will be more curious to find the answer. “What if we play these notes together” will press them to want to move to the next level every time.

Experience and reinforcement
Learning to play well comes with lots of practice on a regular time schedule. While a child may not retain all the fancy names for the different terms in music, they will remember concepts with a little practice. Focus in on how they play as opposed to getting the concepts down and being able to pronounce it. The concepts will come in later life; the only important thing today is to give them the love of music.