How do u teach little kids piano?

caffeinatedcatholic:

I connect with kids soooooooo easily idk, rule one is make sure they’re comfortable with you. Kids love to talk, I always try to find things in common with them or find a way to help them get more excited or motivated about music.

The youngest I teach is 6, and she loves bringing her stuffed animals to lessons so she has an audience. So I learned all their names. She likes to draw so at the end of each lesson I save back 5 minutes so we can have a small drawing contest. We normally draw something about the music we learned (I always lose bc my Beethovens are too grumpy).

Aside from that, give them lots of breaks. They have a lot of Think in tiny Bodies and they need a break to wiggle a bit before they can focus some more. You really have to tailor the course to each individual.

The next oldest is 7, and he loves vintage cars like crazy and I know nothing about that. So when we take breaks, i ask him to teach me about cars. He goes to car shows with his dad and he also gets like 5 subscriptions to vintage car magazines. He’s so smart.

I play a lot of video games and my youngest brother is 11 so I kinda have an in, knowing what younger kids are into, but really the key is just getting to know the kid. They havent been exposed to a lot of popular music, si my #1 way to get them excited about music is to ask what their favorite TV shows are and we learn the theme song.

After they’re comfortable with you and you know them, teaching notes on a staff is super easy.