Let me just start out by saying…teaching piano at home was not something I ever planned on doing.
I toyed around with the idea for about a millisecond a couple years ago but quickly decided it was something that I wanted to let someone else teach our children.
Piano Background
Mark and I both play the piano and find a lot of joy in it {although we will both admit that we don’t play as much as we wish we did}. And it is something that we feel strongly that our kids should learn. I’ll be blunt…playing piano is mandatory in our home {at least for a couple years!}.
As I said before we feel like it can bring a lot of joy but it also is an amazing skill to have that I feel like is diminishing a little. I hardly ever hear of anyone that plays the piano anymore or if someone will “admit” to it, they never feel comfortable playing. We feel like learning the piano is a great skill to serve those around us as well. Plus, it’s hard and it takes daily practice for years and I think learning that kind of dedication yields tons of goodness.
Last year, Jacob started taking piano lessons and it seemed like it was going pretty well for the most part. He was enjoying it and we thought all was well.
Once we moved to Wyoming though piano definitely got put on the back burner. We were about to have our little Lydie and the school year was ending and so I figured I would try and find someone once fall came around.
I could not find ANYONE. Well…I found one place. But they charged $70 a session {not a month, a SESSION!} and there was no way that was going to happen. So I decided to take on the task of teaching piano to our children.
{insert deeeeeeep breath here}
Can I teach piano?
Even though I’ve been playing piano since I was six, I was completely new to teaching piano. I just grabbed the books Jacob left on with his previous teacher and thought we would just continue forward.
Things were moving really slow. At first, I just thought it was because of the big break we had taken with the move and that things would start coming back to him. But after a couple of weeks, I discovered some major holes in Jacob’s piano knowledge. He was completely unable to identify notes and was basically just memorizing the music rather than reading the music.
I found a curriculum {I recognized the books from when I was learning piano!} and decided to pretty much start over again. Some of it is review but so much of it is not. And even though it was kind of a hard pill to swallow to start over, it’s what he needed and it is SO much better to have a firm foundation.
Faber Piano Adventures
We are using Faber Piano Adventures and so far, we are really enjoying it. We have gone back to the Primer Level and I think that is where Jacob needs to be right now.
At first, I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of books recommended for each level, but I have found them to be very reasonably priced and even have found them bundled on Amazon.
We got the bundle core package that includes the:
One thing that I am really liking about this bundle is that it is so easy to use. At the beginning of the lesson book it lists each lesson and what pages to do out of each of the core books. I love that “the work” is done for me!
Additional Books
We did get three more additional books that aren’t necessarily needed but kind of are if you ask me. If your kids are anything like my kids, they need some variety and a little bit of fun. These books immediately give those things.
We purchased:
We bought the Christmas Book for obvious reasons…it’s CHRISTMAS! Plus, I am hoping to put together a time where we can do a little mini Christmas recital / poem reading for family. Learning how to perform is also a very beneficial skill.
The PreTime Piano and Popular Repertoire book are strictly FUN. They solidify all those things that they are learning in the lesson book but with music they are familiar with. Let’s just say…the Star Wars Theme is included in the Popular Repertoire book and Jacob canNOT wait!!!
How We Do Lessons
As I said above, the lessons are all mapped out for you with the core books and that is so nice. Right now, we just recently got out new books, and the first unit isn’t even playing music much at all but just having correct posture, technique, etc. So we are combining lessons a little bit because he is already familiar with those things. We will probably slow down once we get to those things that he needs that reinforcement with.
We have started the first piece in the Christmas book to practice and I let him pick if he wanted to start a song from the Popular Repertoire Book or the PreTime Piano Disney book – he went with Disney!
We picked a day of the week that works for our schedule and we go over all of the material for the week. I am making copies of the parts of the books with activities that he would have to write in so that I don’t have to buy books for each of the kiddos down the line.
Then I just have a cheap spiral notebook that I write down which pieces of music to practice and how many times as well as any extra worksheets or anything he needs to do. Then at the bottom I make a simple chart where he can mark which days he practices {to give him some added accountability}.
Final Thoughts
I think learning piano yields so many rewards and can bless your life and the lives of those around you. As a homeschool Mom it felt really hard to take on another aspect of my child’s learning but I also really get how Jacob learns and feel like this is something we can do together.
So if your on the fence about your child learning a musical instrument – I say, GO FOR IT! You’ve got this!
Elise you are AMAZING!!!! I am so proud of you!!!!
And bless you and thank you a zillion times for getting something other than the Hammond and Czrny books. That is what i was taught from and doing scales, scales and more scales! So boring and never any music that was fun or current.
That is a shame that Jacob was taught so poorly. I’m glad to are teaching him and hopefully he will enjoy it and continue. I agree that knowing how to play the piano is so important. Love Grandma
Haha, I have never heard of those books – but it looks like we dodged a bullet š So far things are going really well, so we are crossing our fingers it continues!