This year I began teaching Kaden how to play the piano. I took a year of piano lessons when I was a kid and taught myself the rest. So I was a little at a loss as to where to begin. I decided to go with a color-coded note system. I am very pleased with the results. The color coding made it possible for him to begin playing recognizable melodies almost immediately, which was really fun for him. As we have started each new song, I’ve introduced new concepts like how the notes are counted, what a rest is, the treble clef and bass clef, etc.
What I’ve been most happy to notice in Kaden is that music seems to come naturally to him. He’s done particularly well with the timing of the notes. He knows which notes go fast and which ones get held longer. He also pays attention to the emotion of music. He will play some spontaneous little melodies and decide if they sound happy or sad or if that’s the “scary part of the movie.” He played with one finger for a long time when he first started. After seeing someone on TV playing the piano one day, however, he decided to use all his fingers and has never gone back.
So this next year, I am preparing to begin teaching him formal piano lessons. This has been quite a journey, researching good curriculum, and learning how I can teach many of the concepts in a way he can understand. I’m developing games and exercises that we can do to learn all the various concepts and putting it together in an order that each concept will build on the last. I didn’t know anything about teaching piano, so it’s actually a lot to think through. I’m planning the whole curriculum now and will begin in January.
We really believe that it’s important the boys have special skills academically, physically, and musically. Whatever their areas of interest are, we want to help them identify those areas and hone them. Musically, I think piano is a great place to start because it’s a good base for musical theory. We also believe it’s important they grow up experiencing music being played in the house, so even though we have no time whatsoever, we’re committed to starting to play musical instruments again. I’m re-teaching myself piano again after many busy years of not playing, and Christian is desperately trying to find time to learn the guitar and his special love, the bass.
