Fun and piano

Last week we had parent-teacher interviews at school. As almost an afterthought our youngest son's school-based piano teacher offered us an interview time too. I'm glad I took him up on the offer because I gained a better idea of his style of teaching and his goals.

This is the first time one of my sons has learned "my" instrument. I learnt the piano from the age of 4 until I finished school at 17. However my teacher was a strict, no-nonsense kind of teacher. Many students were quite scared of her.

For some time my lessons were before school at 7am on a Monday morning. Really tough. But we weren't allowed to yawn! So besides teaching me how to play the piano, my teacher taught me how to yawn without opening my mouth — a useful skill.

But anyhow, my piano education was along a classical line. My 6 y.o. is being taught in a slightly different way. Hard to exactly define, but his teacher is into electronic music and jazz a bit too, so his method is probably a lot more fun. He's encouraging our son to hum along while he plays. He was happy to hear that our son had experimented with playing Jingle Bells with a drum sequence that our Clavinova produces. I'm pretty sure that my childhood teacher would have been horrified. 

It is not easy to teach a lively 5/6 y.o. boy to play the piano. But we seem to be succeeding (I include myself there, because I think he'd be floundering without my help during practises). One way is obviously to keep it a bit fun. And when you're thinking about fun and piano, it is great to take a look at Victor Borge, a comic pianist. Here's a Youtube clip to show you what I mean: