How to Teach Your Toddler Piano Lessons

When I was 5, my parents asked a piano teacher to start giving me lessons. The piano teacher scoffed – I was too young, wouldn’t have the attention span, and wouldn’t have the dexterity. Toddler piano lessons were a waste of time. He agreed to a single session to test me out. After 15 minutes, he got up to leave and told my parents, “we’ll start with 30 minutes, twice a week.”

The single most common question when it comes to learning a musical instrument is, “at what age?” The fact is, that question applies to every early activity. At what age can the newborn go swimming? When can the infant sleep with a blanket? Can toddlers be trusted with child-safe scissors? The answer is, of course, It Depends.

It depends on your child – if you have a kid who shows an early proclivity or interest in music, then explore and nurture that. You won’t know what takes until you provide some exposure…

Before Birth, Exposure to Music

That’s right.  The path to musicality starts before birth.  While the baby is in the womb, play music – any music that’s not too loud.  Though listening to music before birth won’t guarantee a little Mozart, there are a few acknowledged benefits:

• All auditory input received during the third trimester helps in forming neural connections in the inner ear, and the part of the brain that receives sound.  This is why newborns are able to recognize their mother’s voice: they’ve been listening to their mom for months and have learned to distinguish her voice.
• Some studies show that newborns can also recognize simple melodies that they heard frequently while in the womb.  A recognizable melody is more preferred and can be more soothing.
• Babies have been observed breathing in rhythm with music while in the womb.  Technically, there’s no known benefit to this one, but it’s sort of interesting.

While you can buy some BellyBuds, there’s really no need to go that crazy.  Simply play music at home no higher than 50-65 decibels (no louder than a washing machine or dish washer).

0 – 2 Years, Rhythm and Melody

During the first few years, preparing for toddler piano lessons really means creating a long-lasting love for music.  You need to set the stage and a foundation so that when your child is the right age, there’s a desire and interest.  The best and most fun way to do this is with dance parties!  Play some music you like, and dance with your baby.  Provide exposure to different genres and tempos.  Create an environment where music is fun and where the emotional associations are positive.

Rhythm

Family dance parties also start introducing the concept of rhythm.  As you bounce up and down to a beat, the kid begins to feel the punctuated melodies.

When the child is old enough, you can make pretty much anything into a drum.  Bang on the table, on pots, on the dog!  Clap to the beat.  There are cheap maracas and castanets you can shake (just beware that they’ll eventually leak beads).  You can begin counting out the beats as well, though that’ll clearly be less fun than banging on pots and pans.

Melody

Sing songs, especially simple melodic ones such as Twinkle Twinkle, and sing them frequently.  As your baby starts to babble and make sounds, you’ll find they try to follow along with you for these simple, familiar songs.  For example, we sang Rubber Ducky during every bath time.  Every bath time, we were awfully fond of Rubber Ducky.  And somewhere between 1 and 2 years, our oldest daughter started trying to sing along.  When she started speaking, I’d skip a line here or there, and she’d know the words and the tune and try to fill it in.  Have a song for bath time, for dinner, for getting ready for bed.  Each of these moments provides a happy opportunity to create an association that more firmly bonds a melody, and cements those neural connections into long-term memory.

Play these songs at the piano for your kid and sing along.  If you don’t play the piano, you should be able to YouTube the tune and figure out how to one-finger them out.  If you don’t own a piano, consider getting a child-sized one – we strongly recommend the Melissa & Doug Learn-To-Play Piano.  It’s cheaper than a Steinway and, with 25 keys, still gets the job done.  This is a worthwhile investment even if you have a piano, as your child can sit and play it without supervision (which may be necessary at first on a piano bench).

2 – 4 Years, Explore and Toddler Piano Improv

Unless you really do have a baby genius, 2 is probably the earliest age at which you can start lessons in earnest.  That’s because, aside from an interest, the most important element needed for starting lessons is an attention span.  Your kid needs to be able to focus on one activity for 10-15 minutes at a time without distraction, as that’s the smallest bit of time for imparting a bite-sized unit of musical knowledge. (Being able to watch a 90 minute Disney movie is not an indication that your child can sit at the piano for 10 minutes.)  It’s helpful to know and recognize the numbers 1-5, and letters A-G, but at a minimum, without an attention span you’ll be fighting an uphill battle.

There are piano teachers for this age group.  I’ll argue, however, that parents can be the teacher for the first years.  Even if you the parent don’t play the piano, you can learn enough from a guided lesson book to get your toddler moving along.  If you do go with a teacher, note that not all teachers are happy to work with young kids.  Toddler piano lessons require a special kind of love for the job.  You need someone who’s worked with kids before, as patience for this sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight.

Bang!

You probably won’t find it in other guides, but before going into lessons about whole notes and half notes, let the kid bang and make up songs.  The piano should be fun, and banging on the piano is fun.  Let your kid sit on the bench without assistance if that’s possible, just be sure to talk about safety, including not slamming the cover shut.  In banging, your child may discover something that sounds like a familiar song, or may pick a note and just keep hammering on it, exploring the physicality of making music.

Rote Play

There are a few places to go from here.  Some might argue to focus on notation, explaining the differences in note values; others might say to focus on note names, and the association between a note name and the key itself.  Again, I’ll suggest something slightly different: memorizing how to play a song.

This will require a bit of homework on your part, but find a song that uses just 1-3 notes, or make one up, and then teach it to your child.  For example, quarter notes of C-D-E-D-C-D-C.  Make up some words, like, “Rubber Ducky, you’re the one.”  Show your child how to use one finger to play the song, and keep at it.  The goal is to create a sense of accomplishment, as well as a finished piece of repeatable music.  Start with one note at a time, and build up.  Stop and pause and repeat as necessary.  It’ll be slow and painful, but you’ll get there.

There are a few obstacles to overcome with this Rubber Ducky exercise.  First, it’s tough for children to identify on what note a song starts.  Most teachers say D is the most identifiable key, so you need to work on pointing out that key, and if starting on C, explaining how the song starts on the white note just next to the D.  Second, little fingers get tired easily.  It’ll be easiest for your child to use his/her dominant pointer finger for playing, but as the kid gets older you’ll want to try to encourage using other fingers for the neighboring notes.  Third, your child will get frustrated and want to bang again or stop altogether.  That’s ok – this will take time and you need to stay patient and supportive.

Musical Games

You can start giving the keys names.  There are white keys and black keys.  If your child can identify D, then give it a name, “D is for Dog!”  As you introduce more notes, introduce new names or mnemonic animals and take pauses to reinforce and test.  Point out that there’s a dog in each octave, and only 7 white notes that repeat up and down the piano.  Discuss the difference between higher notes and lower notes – there are big dogs at the left end, and small dogs at the right.  Start to explain the notion of rhythm and duration – instead of clapping to a song, hit a note to the beat.  Find ways to create little mini games at the piano, and always emphasize any successes.

The first few notes of Mary Had a Little Lamb, for example, are E-D-C-D-E-E-E.  For our 3 year-old’s first lesson, we went with Elephant-Dog-Cat-Dog-Elephant-Elephant-Elephant. She loved it!  We played “find the dog” and when she started playing cats and elephants instead of dogs on purpose, it became a fun game.  She’s looking forward to the next lesson or practicing finding dogs, or getting through the few notes so we can sing along with the words.

5+ Years, Toddler Piano Lessons

At the point where your child can recognize the letters A-G, which may happen at 5, or may happen earlier, that’s when I’d suggest you can consider opening the book on musical notation.  It’s also when I’d recommend hiring a teacher if you’re not that person.  Learning to read music is no less difficult than learning to read any other language, if not more difficult.  Each note has a name, has a place on the staff, and has a physical location on the piano.  Exploring these relationships is (mostly) necessary to grow as a musician, and it takes a lot of time to convert short-term exercises into hand-eye coordination and long-term memory.

There are a number of resources that can take you to the next level.  Your piano teacher will definitely have a preference.  However, here are some books that we can recommend if you want to continue the toddler piano lessons on your own:

• Piano Safari Repertoire Book 1
• Bastien’s Piano for the Young Beginner
• Teaching Little Fingers to Play: A Book for the Earliest Beginner (a classic!)
• Alfred’s Basic Piano Prep Course Lesson Book Level A
• My First Piano Adventure Book Level A