Learning to play the piano

It has been almost 2 years since Pinky started to take piano lessons. It was such a beautiful day in October 2011, when I took my little 3 years old girl to meet her new piano teacher. It was an exciting day….well just 15 minutes that fell like an hour. Pinky was more excited about exploring her teacher’s house, music room and the goodies table. However, it was the beginning of our music experience. With time, we have been exploring music games, music websites, practicing charts, practicing silliness, etc. Because of Pinky’s age, to learn how to play the piano, so far is a challenged adventure. But, when we take the time to look backwards, it is a valuable experience for both of us.

Actually, she is learning the music theory, and here is an activity we came up to get her to focus: water bottle caps music notes! Hands-on-music activity following the Montessori method inspiration. You can use this with the staff written on paper or to put then on each piano key. On the second photo we were practicing the Yankee Doodle song.

One of the website we love to visit is Free piano lessons for kids with Mr. Hoffman. We love to watch the free videos on YouTube and then practice. He has a great lessons curriculum available to buy, but some lessons are free plus you can subscribe to the newsletter with very useful resources. Mr. Hoffman is really great!!!! So far, I am planning to buy his lessons in the future. Disclaimer: I am not receiving anything, just sharing what we love and took sometime to find! Here is Pinky doing one of Mr. Hoffman’s lessons:

To learn how to play an instrument is really serious work, but at the end music will fill your life. Plus it is 100% better for the brain development than videos games or televisions…..!!!!

Are your kids learning to play an instrument? At which age do they started? How do you make practice fun for them?

Thanks for any advice!