what is the scope for teaching Piano to 5-6 year old children who refuse to even sit still at the piano ?

Question

what is the scope for teaching Piano to 5-6 year old children who refuse to even sit still at the piano ?

Calling all piano teachers !
What is the scope of teaching piano to very young children who refuse to curve their fingers and refuse to sit still at the piano ?

How do you determine the teaching objectives at each piano session and the scope from where to where, and what piano techniques when all they want to do when they come to class is play.
Even when You devise musical games and the children don't really take it seriously,how do you handle children who are loud and boisterous and shouts in your ear instead of speaking to you ?
And What are the sort of musical games you can play with them to ensure the teaching objectives are met ?
How do you enforce discipline without caning these children?

Your opinions please.
Thanks

Answer 1

Do they have 5-minute attention spans?
Then let's see how many ideas we can come up with, and then multiply by 5.

1. Play bichordal songs while the student, sitting at the bass end of the keyboard, plays do and so on cue. "Found a Peanut" is good.

2. Little kids' attention span isn't really shorter than ours, just different. I find that they won't complain a bit if you ask them to run through an activity in all 12 keys. It's easy to run through a song in all 12 keys on an Omnichord, but the piano keyboard might also be good. Don't be surprised if a child wants to play a bichordal song in all 12 keys every week.

An adult student, on the other hand, would go bananas.

The two keys to a young child's attention are one: complete matrices and two: role reversals.

I once had a 3-year-old student who played all 12 major chords on the Omnichord while I sang her name and played the notes on the bells. Then she did the same thing while I sang "Mommy" and a third time while I sang "Daddty." Then she went through the minor chords three more times. Then we switched places and we went through all 12 keys six more times while she played the bells and I played the chord organ.

3. Play compositions in which the child has an ostinato part.
Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodin, and three other Russian composers got together and composed a real masterpiece, which they gave a title beginning with the word "Paraphrases." You can order it from sheetmusicplus.

4. Tcherepnin composed another goodie, entitled "Exploring the Piano," which was published by C. F. Peters and is available from sheetmusicplus.

If you run low on duets of this nature, compose your own. I just finished arranging some very simple and very short Korean songs for this purpose. If you are interested, let me know and I'll put my scanner to good use.

5. Try some simple melodic dictation, using very few notes. Spoken intonation is good for this purpose. Using only mi, so, and la, ask the child to play something like "I was just kidding," "I'm gonna tell on you," or "Why are you mad at me?"

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, here is my sociolinguistics term paper:

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Two- or three-note snippets are easy for anyone, even little kids, to transpose into all 12 keys. Be sure your students get involved in transposing early, before they even learn that transposing is SUPPOSED to be difficult.

Again, I remind you that little kids like role reversal. I hope you won't be offended if the student reads the utterance and asks you to play it.

6. Since 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16, there are 16 possible 4/4 rhythms using quarter notes and/or eighth-note couplets. Make a deck of 32 playing cards, with one pair for each possible rhtyhm.

This deck is good for playing concentration. Use only a part of the deck for each game, though. Otherwise, the game will last forever.

7. When the child seems to be able to distinguish the rhythms by sight, play old maid. If a third person is present, invite that person in the game. Without looking, take one card out of the deck at the beginning of the game. Neither you nor the student will know what that card is until the end of the game.

8. When the student knows the rhythms well enough, play go fish.

9. Using manipulative quarter notes and eighth note couplets, have rhythmic dictation exercises.
I hope you don't feel insulted if the student turns this exercise around.
I also hope you don't feel frustrated if the child rearranges the notes according to whim. The child is still learning.

10. Take the scores of the songs in the child's repertoire. Run them through the copy machine or scanner and make 2 copies. Cut up both copies and make playing cards. Now you have another deck for concentration . . .

11. . . . old maid . . .

12. . . . and go fish.

That's 12 ideas.
12 x 5 = 60, so that's enough for one hour!

After you get comfortable with teaching preschoolers, you will find the preschool parents more annoying than the preschool children.

Answer 2

In my opinion, a child who acts like this is taking advantage of your good nature. Either he/she doesn't really want to be there, or he/she is enjoying the experience of having an adult authority figure at his/her mercy! Kids at 5-6, depending on how much preschool/kindergarten they've had, are still in the process of transferring authority from parents to teachers (before they start school, their parents are the only authorities they know; after they start, they come to recognize teachers as authorities too). My guess is that this child has not been made to understand that a piano teacher "counts" as an authority figure.

I recommend that before the next lesson, you have a joint "conference" with the child and his/her parent to discuss the problem behavior. Be very specific about what is acceptable and what is not without being accusatory toward the child. It may help to give the parent some advance warning that this is going to happen and to reassure the parent so he/she doesn't get defensive; believe me, lots of kids do this. Some classroom teachers I've known have their classes come up with rules for behavior at the beginning of the year, and that may work with this child -- if he/she helps to make the rules, he/she will be more reluctant to break them.

After the conference, have the parent stay in the room for the entirety of the lesson. The parent is paying you to teach their kid piano; it's in both of your best interests to make sure that money isn't wasted! My guess is that once the child realizes that the jig is up and that the parents are behind you, the behavior will stop.

It may also help to request that the parent be present while the child practices. If the child isn't practicing and getting better, some of the behavior may be meant to distract you from finding that out. In any case, five or six years old isn't old enough to self-police when it comes to practicing. The parent needs to be very involved or it won't work.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I'm no piano teacher, but you have to command respect and the only way to command respect from a five year old is to earn it.
They are not going to sit still and they are not going to shut up unless they know it is not going to get you riled up.
That is the way with children.
They know how to push buttons and get out of doing nearly everything under the sun.

It is my opinion that if the child is not interested in the piano you shouldn't force them, however they are not my children.

Play something on the piano for them that they would recognise. If it is something they like, they will want to know exactly how you did it. If it is something they don't know, they will be unmoved.
Ask the parents what the children love most on television and get the sheet music for the theme song. When they ask how you did it and if they can, tell them that once they know the right buttons to push, they can start learning that song...

Answer 4

Without caning them? Hmmm.....It's been so long.........Ritalin?

But seriously, folks, the ol' 1234-4321, meaning rote repetition, NOT the feel-good "musicality" or "hear the beauty".

Muscle Memory, Rote Repetition, not "You need to feel important". Do you want to Teach? Teach.
Be In Charge. Do not be afraid to Discipline. Do not fail to Mentor. Intentions do not take the place of Leadership. Dammit, stop whining and Lead! Your children will thank you. A recently released study has asserted that children who have a musical training background can have a better adult life, vis-a-vis the bucks.

If you feel that you are incapable of Leading, ask a real teacher for guidance.