At the age of 5, children can start learning to play musical instruments. You can teach piano to your 5 year old kids if they have an interest in this instrument.
Before teaching any lesson, you should make sure that your kids are ready to learn piano. Then, it's necessary to make a detailed piano teaching plan.
How to teach piano to a 5 year old? Here are the basic methods you need to know to teach your kids:
- Discriminate between left and right
- Learn the finger numbers
- Know the black key groupings
- Learn the musical alphabet
- Learn how to position fingers
Let's get right into the details!
How Do You Know If Your 5 Year Old Is Ready To Learn Piano?
Some kids can learn piano at a very young age. Others take a few more years to be ready. On average, children of age 5 to 9 will be able to start learning piano.
The children's readiness for learning piano depends on 4 elements. These elements are the child's hand size, manual dexterity, interest in learning, and reading ability.
Hand size
The hand of the kid must be large enough to play the piano. Your children need to place 5 fingers on 5 consecutive piano white keys without stretching.
When the kids can touch separate piano keys with comfort, you can teach them first piano lessons.
Manual dexterity
Manual dexterity is the ability to move the fingers individually to play the piano. Children should wait until they know how to press the keys with each finger to start learning piano.
Interest in learning
Everyone needs to have an interest in the musical instrument to learn well. You want your children to learn piano.
But it's necessary that they also want to learn. If they show no interest in this instrument, learning will be difficult for them.
Kids won't pay attention to any activity they don't like. However, at the age of 5, kids are in the stage of discovering new things. So, most of them will be eager to learn piano.
Reading ability
To play a piano piece, children need to be able to associate the symbols on the page with the keys. Thus, your kids need to know how to recognize musical notes and symbols to learn piano.
What Do You Need To Do Before Teaching Your Children Piano?
If you want to teach piano to your kids, you should make some preparation first. Here are some necessary things to do to prepare for your children before learning piano.
Get a suitable piano for your children
The first and most important thing is to have a suitable piano for a 5 year old. There are many types of pianos for kids.
They have specialized designs to make it easier for children to play the piano. You can choose an acoustic piano or a digital one.
Besides, the position of the piano is also important. You should place the piano in a quiet place, far away from the TV or other things that distract your child.
Have an adjustable piano stool
Your child should have a comfortable sitting posture to play the piano. So, it's necessary to have an adjustable stool.
With this stool, you can adjust the suitable height for your child's seat. In this way, your kid will play music more easily.
Play some kid's songs and sing with your children
You can play some kid's song on the piano for your children. This step will help them visualize the piano performance. Besides, you can sing with your kids to arouse their musical interest.
Bring your kids to the piano performances
You can accompany your child to kid piano performances. Another option is watching piano performance videos with your kid. Watching other children playing will help motivate your kids to learn piano.
Tell your children about your expectation
You should share what you desire with your kids. You can set the learning time every day, and ensure your children will follow this timing. It's better to start with short sessions then lengthen them gradually.
A Detailed Teaching Plan For Your 5 Year Old
You should make a detailed teaching plan with the first piano lessons for your 5 year old. During the teaching process, you need to use appropriate age vocabulary. In this way, your kids can easily understand the music concepts.
You should divide the lessons properly and combine them with warm-up exercises. Each activity should last about 3-5 minutes.
Each session can consist of 8-10 activities. Learning skills in a short time with various activities will keep children from getting bored with the lessons.
How To Teach Piano To A 5 Year Old?
Below are the very first things your 5 year old should learn to play the piano. You can start with the basic lessons like left and right or musical alphabet.
It's better to find ways to make musical concepts easier for children to remember. For example, you can use pictures of animals to illustrate notes. Children will find the lesson more interesting and remember faster.
Discriminate between left and right
If your kids don't know their left and right, you should teach them this first. You can show your child which is the left hand and which is the right hand.
Then, play some left-right games so that your child can remember and distinguish between left and right.
Learn the finger numbers
After your kids can discriminate between left and right, you can move on with the finger numbers. You can draw a picture of two hands on a paper sheet, then number each finger in turn.
Start with the number one on the thumb, and finish with the number five on the little finger.
You can let your child color the fingers with different colors. In this way, the kid can associate colors and numbers to make them easier to remember.
Know the black key groupings
5-year-old children can recognize patterns, so they can understand the black key groupings. You can show them the two and three-black-key groups on the piano.
Then, let them play these notes with each hand. This step can help your kids to recognize high and low registers.
Learn the musical alphabet
In the next step, you can introduce your children to the musical alphabet with 7 notes from A to G.
The order of notes on the piano keyboard starts with C, which is different from the normal alphabet. But you can teach your kids from note A.
When the children have understood the black key groupings, they can point out the note more easily.
You can also illustrate these notes with animals. By associating each note with the name of an animal, it will be easier for children to recognize it. You can divide the notes into 2 groups.
In the first group, C will stand for Cat, D for Dog, E for Elephant, and F for Frog. In the second group, G means Giraffe, A means Ant, and B means Bear.
Then, depending on the positions of each black key group, introduce the kids to these notes on white keys. You can consult this video for more ways to teach notes for children.
Learn how to position fingers
Once the kids can remember all the notes, you can teach them the finger position. Children will place 5 fingers in sequence on the 5 keys of C, D, E, F, G on the piano.
You can find a simple piano piece and show your children how to lay their fingers. Then, they can start playing the first songs.
Some Tips To Help Your Children Learn Piano Better
Teaching piano for children at a young age is quite a challenging job to do. Children love new things, but they also get bored quickly.
So, you should combine games and other interesting activities with your lessons to make them more exciting. Here are some tips to make the piano lessons easier to learn.
Rhythm activities
To help your kids learn rhythms by rote faster, you should organize some rhythm activities. You can clap or tap a rhythm while counting out loud.
Then you require the kids to copy your actions. Remember to prepare some small prizes for the ones who can do the best.
Another rhythm activity you can try with your young piano student is drawing. You say a rhythm and the kids will draw it on the paper or whiteboard.
Learning rhythms is a step to prepare for more complex musical knowledge later. Therefore, you need to introduce them to your children as soon as possible.
Teach the staff partially
Teaching the entire music staff with 5 lines can be too overwhelming for a 5-year-old. Instead, you can let them start with 2 lines first, then develop to 3, 4, and 5 lines. A partial staff also helps children to count intervals.
Take advantage of flashcards
Flashcards are very useful for children to memorize musical concepts. You can use flashcards to teach your kids about notes, finger numbers, or key signatures.
Playing games with flashcards also makes the lesson more attention-grabbing. Besides buying piano flashcards, you can make some by yourself. For children of age 5, it's better to use colored flashcards in a large size.
Sing the music through
Singing can involve the kids in the lesson and help improve their musical ear. The pitch range of most 5-year-old children is from the middle C to the treble G. So, you can choose some music in this range to sing with your kids.
Some Beginner Piano Books For 5 Year Old
You need to choose the right piano books for your children. You should buy books with many colored illustrations and tunes to sing along. You can consult the following piano books for your kids.
Piano for the Young Beginner – Primer A
The Prime A in the Primer Series of James Bastien is a piano book for children of age 5-6. With this book, you can teach your kids the very first piano lessons. The book includes lessons on finger numbers, finger position, and staff notes.
Besides, there are some simple songs for children to practice. Each song has staff with notes and numbers so that the kid can easily play.
You can continue to teach your child the next book in the Primer Series when completing this Primer A book.
Teaching Little Fingers to Play
Teaching Little Fingers to Play is another easy-to-learn piano book for your 5-year-old. Your child just needs one hand to play all the songs in the book.
The songs' melodies are also very simple so that any child can remember.
The book uses colorful illustrations and appropriate age vocabulary to explain the concepts. So, your child will find the lessons easy to follow.
Besides, there are stickers for the kids to label the notes on their keyboards.
Beginner Piano Lessons for Kids
This piano book is for children who have completed the basic lessons. In the book, there are 14 songs with online videos and audio.
In each lesson, kids will learn to play with their right hand first. Then, they will use their left hand's fingers one by one until they can play with both hands.
For better visualization, children can watch the video. The audio has two speeds of fast and slow to make it easier for the kids to practice and play.
Final Words
Above is the completed guide to teach piano for a 5 year old. To teach piano to young children, you will need some beginner piano books and a good teaching plan. What's more important is that you need to spark your child's interest in the piano.
We hope that with the provided information, you can be successful in teaching piano for your kid. Thank you for following this post!
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