Teach my son fun piano lessons 3x a week

... The seeds have been sown. We just have to keep at it. Tonight he asked for his piano lesson! We’re still on the first book, but now we’re at two hands. Also, now that his hands are bigger, he can reach the keys better. I read a good piece of advice that said you should ask your child to perform concerts for you rather than nag them to practice, so I’ll try that.

And I haven’t even done 3 times a week. But we just did 30 minutes (and he was engaged the whole time) and his finger control is so much better. This, again, is with practically no actual lessons—but it gives me great hope for progressing through this workbook we have. He’s almost to the section on using two hands together.

For the first time we got three lessons done! The last one (last night) went really well, with no meltdown. It’s a lesson for myself as well, in just 15 minutes you can accomplish a lot and you don’t have the resistance of thinking you have to spend an hour or more at something. I just set the timer and go!

Hung it by the piano. We’ve done two 15-minute lessons this week. The progress in just a handful of lessons is pretty amazing. I probably won’t have time tonight to do it with him, but I want to have the visual stimulus of the calendar and stars so we can both see that we’ve done the lessons. The last two lessons he sort of broke down in the last three minutes but I let him freak out and I just kept calmly on task. Even though he realized he hadn’t made it all the way through he proudly put his star on the calendar. I figure there will be good days and bad days, might as well give him credit for 12 minutes of progress rather than punishing him, since I want this to be fun for us. Another good thing is we’ve cancelled cable so there is already less TV watching for everyone in the family.

...and I was amazed that he actually could play the first piece. This book I was recommended is great. The Bastien method. He was reading the notes (there are just two) and remembering the rhythm perfectly—and the words (though I’ve got my fingers crossed that someday he’ll be able to sing in tune. Unfortunately, he may have inherited his daddy’s poor pitch along with his great rhythm and dancing skills. You can’t win ‘em all.) The goal is 15 minutes a day. He was so proud of himself, and we applauded him heartily. Later I noticed him counting his fingers on the dining room table. I’ve got to keep the momentum going.

It was actually better than the first one, which I had done about a month before and found a bit frustrating (frustrated with myself and with him). I limited it to 15 minutes. I need to get some gold star stickers and put them on a calendar posted near the piano so we can remember to do our lessons every few days. He’s just about 5, and he certainly can sit still. But it’s the “making it fun” part that’s tough. These days you talk to so many parents who have started their kids at 3 and 4 at things, and I worry that mine, who’ll turn 5 tomorrow, is late entering the game. I mean, I know he’s not, but sometimes you wonder… I really want him to take dance lessons too, since he’s such a good dancer. No, no, I’m not a stage mom. I promise.