I found that doing the Suzuki Piano method worked really well as a daily 5-minute activity because:
1) You don't have to teach reading sheet music right away with the "ear" approach.
Reading music is a weakness of mine, and I wasn't sure of the best way to teach a 4-year-old how to read music. But the Suzuki Piano method actually advises against reading sheet music in lessons at first, so I gravitated towards this method to teach piano. To quote the teaching points of the Suzuki Piano Method in Volume 1:
"The pupil should always play without (sheet) music at lessons. This is the most important factor in improving the pupil's memory. It also speeds the pupil's progress... In learning his mother tongue, the child begins to read only after he is able to speak. The same approach should be followed in music... Music reading should be taught only after the child's musical sensitivity, playing skill, and memory have been sufficiently trained... Even after they have acquired the ability to read music, the children as a rule play from memory at all lessons."
2) The length of the lesson depends on the child.
This worked really well with our 5-minute learning philosophy as toddlers have such short attention spans. Suzuki Piano Method in Volume 1 says:
"If the small child is able to concentrate only for a short time, it is better to shorten the lesson time. At one time the lesson may be only five minutes, at another, thirty minutes."
Once Little Mr. repeats the part of the piece he's learning 3 times, the 5-minute piano lesson is technically done and he's free to either continue practicing, play whatever he wants, or be done. Perhaps 50% of the time he chooses to be done already, but the other 50% of the time he chooses to practice the piece he's learning, practice another song he's trying to figure out how to play by ear, or reading the simple sheet music to play a song he wants (in our case the sheet music has the letters on the notes that he can match with the stickered notes on the keyboard as we haven't actively worked on reading sheet music yet).
Online Suzuki Piano method resources for parents:
Even if you aren't an expert piano player (I know I'm not!), these online resources made teaching piano to my toddler much easier:
This YouTube channel goes through how to teach the first piece, Variation A of Twinkle Twinkle Little star. First learn the right hand, then the left hand, then both hands together. You can then use this same method to teach Variations B-D, along with all the other pieces in Volume 1.
If you don't have the book, here are all the pieces in Volume 1. This is also a good resource if you do have the book but aren't quite sure how a piece is supposed to sound. This playlist was also a good one to play at breakfast time, right before his 5-minute piano lesson.
Stage 1: Playing by ear from memory (without reading sheet music)
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE REACHED: Able to clap the rhythms of piece they will learn (eg. 0:35 seconds into the video Variation A of Twinkle Twinkle Little star)
ACTIVITY RANGES FROM: 2-5 minutes
MATERIALS USED:
Optional: "Suzuki Piano School Volume 1" book
For each piece, have your child master the right hand part first, then master the left hand part, then work on both hands at the same time.
For a more in-depth description of the Suzuki Piano method and lesson examples, you can watch this playlist by Miller Music Studios. To adapt this to the Taylored 5-Minute Learning method, I did the following for each 5-minute piano lesson - usually he would be done much faster than 5 minutes:
1) Have your child listen to the piece they're learning.
In our case, I play this Turk Piano Studios playlist while the kids are eating breakfast, which is right before his 5-minute piano time.
2) Show your child how to play the first part of the right hand of the piece.
You can do this by putting your hand above theirs and pretending to press down on each key with the correct finger while your child actually presses down on the right keys. In our case, I taught just the first line of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Variation A for the first 5-minute piano lesson. Sometimes he would ask me to hum or sing the tune to help him play it, showing that he was relying on his hearing rather than sheet music to help him play the song.
3) Have them repeat this part 3 times as their 5-minute piano lesson.
Help your child play the first part of the right hand 3 times for one lesson and continue these 5-minute lessons daily or as regularly as you can. Your child will need less and less help from you until they can play the first part all by themselves (or in Little Mr.'s case, he'll ask to play it by himself without help!).
That's it for the 5-minute piano lesson! Here's how I continued our piano lessons once Little Mr. mastered the first part of the piece:
* Teach the next part of the song once the previous one is mastered. In our case, once Little Mr. mastered the first line of the song with his right hand, I taught him the second line of the song for him to practice in his next 5-minute piano lessons. Have your child practice both the first and second line for the 5 minute piano lesson until they master the second line too. This way, your child masters the right hand one part at a time (we split the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star variations into 4 parts - the 4 lines of the song). Keep teaching them the next part of the song once they've mastered the previous part until the whole right hand part of the piece is mastered.
* Teach the left hand, one part at a time. Once the child has mastered the right hand, the 5-minute lessons can include both:
1) Playing the right hand part of the piece 1-3 times.
2) Starting to learn the left hand part by practicing the first part of the left hand 3 times during each lesson. Once they've mastered the first part of the left hand, start practicing the second part of the left hand, until all parts are mastered.
Here's an example of a Taylored 5-minute piano lesson where Little Mr. has mastered** the entire right hand part and the first part with the left hand, and he's now learning the second part with the left hand:
**It's common for kids to start to forget what they've previously mastered once they start learning a new song, so it's important to keep practicing what's been previously learned.
* Practice playing both hands at the same time. Once your child has mastered both the left and right hand parts separately, have them start practicing playing both hands together.
Now they've learned the whole piece! You can repeat this structure for the next piece in the "Suzuki Piano School Volume 1" book (all the pieces are also in this Turk Piano Studios playlist).
When I start teaching Little Mr. how to read sheet music, I'll add a "Part 2" to this series that focuses on how to teach reading sheet music in 5-minute mini lessons!
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