We all need to dream and to believe that one day our dreams will come true. But without a plan for success, our dreams are unlikely to materialize. The dream of learning to play the piano is no different. Even young students, however, can learn to set goals and take responsibility for their success. Helping your child keep a piano journal is an easy way to start them thinking about how they will bring their musical dreams to life. Follow the guide below to help your child in piano map out a simple plan for success, and see how easy and beneficial keeping a piano journal can be.

My Piano Dream: (Why I want to learn to play the piano.)

Example: I want to play the piano like my grandpa. He?s awesome!

How do I want to see myself in one year?

Example: Playing well at my Spring Recital.

In Two years?

In Five to ten years?

What can I accomplish toward my piano dream this week?

Example: Learn the new piece my piano teacher assigned G Major.

Are there specific goals that will help me achieve this objective?

Examples: Memorize Five-Finger Hand Position in G; Name each note; Identify difficult passages and; Play over these areas in the music many times.

What are some good habits I need to develop that will support my piano goals?

Examples: Set aside a specific time to practice each day; Avoid distractions while practicing, such as television; Tell friends I can play after I finish practicing my piano lesson; Attend my piano lesson with my teacher each week.

Planning to follow through with good habits that support our goals is how dreams are achieved.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

The educational benefits of piano for children rely on their natural learning abilities, so why underestimate your child?s intelligence when choosing piano learning resources. While your expectations should not be unrealistic, neither should you rely on learning resources that are beneath your child?s intelligence. Many of the products I have seen advertised for children could just as easily be used to train a monkey to play a few notes on the piano. Sure they?re easy, but don?t fool yourself or your child. With these methods kids are not learning to play the piano. They?re just learning to push buttons! There is no educational benefit to this. Any kid with half a brain can do that!

Learn to spot this circus act before it confuses your child. It looks like this ?

?Put Stickers on the Piano Keys to Teach Your Kids to Play the Easy Way!?

?Teach Your Kids to Play Piano by Number!?

?Teach Your Kids to Play Piano by Color!?

Even young children can learn genuine musical concepts found in piano and keyboard theory with the proper learning resources. Don?t rely on products that are false or unrealistic, get the real thing. In addition to improved math and reading skills and improved overall education progress, here are five more valuable benefits your children will receive when learning piano using the right tools and resources.

How to ?

1. Set Goals to achieve their music dreams;

2. Overcome worries and performance fears;

3. Become more patient with their learning;

4. Be persistent in their lessons; and how to

5. Take responsibility for their success.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Piano lessons are a great activity for children. They encourage creative thinking, develop math and reading skills, and improve students? overall educational progress, as well as building a fun life-long skill. As a result, over six million children in the United States take piano lessons! One of the choices that parents have when their child is beginning piano lessons is whether to enroll their son or daughter in a private or group lesson. Parents often have misperceptions, or at least several questions, in making this choice.

Q: What is the difference between private and group lessons?

A: Individual lessons are usually thirty minutes in length, with the piano teacher working one-on-one with a student. Individual lessons provide a high degree of personal attention for a student. Group lessons are generally 45-minutes to an hour in length, and consist of between two and four students working with their piano teacher. During group lessons, each student plays their own piano or keyboard and receives both individual and group instruction. Students are introduced to new skills in the group every week and are then given individual playing assignments. They practice these assignments using earphones and the teacher rotates among the students to check on their progress and provide additional instruction.

Q: Don?t children learn more in a private lesson?

A: Not necessarily, and it depends very much on the student. Some children thrive with individual instruction. However, private lessons can also create a dependence that students may have a hard time overcoming, as some children grow to feel that they cannot learn on their own without their piano teacher repeatedly showing them every new thing. To prevent this, successful piano teachers create supportive learning environments that let children know that they are responsible for their own success. This helps children learn how to set goals and that their own effort makes a difference. That?s why, even in a private lesson, students need some time to work independently.

Group lessons are a great way for children to learn, and many children learn faster in a group setting than in individual lessons. Group lessons create a fun and supportive environment, and students learn both from the teacher?s instruction and from each other. It also helps many children to know that other students are learning the same skills.

I encourage most new students who are seven years of age or older to start out in group lessons. However, I have found that private lessons typically work best for two groups of students. First, they can provide a solid learning foundation to very young students (ages 5 to 7) who need one-on-one instruction to help get started. Parents of these very young children sometimes stay with them during their lessons. When children get a little older and have the basics, they usually can transfer to a group lesson. Second, private lessons are appropriate for late intermediate to advanced students who are looking to apply music theory and advanced playing techniques requiring intense instruction and dedicated home study.

Q: Can?t group lessons be intimidating for students due to peer pressure and competition?

A: While some parents may initially be concerned that group lessons create peer pressure and competition, the lessons actually help students feel more independent and confident in piano. Students play the pieces they?ve just had instruction on before they leave the lesson, which helps them feel secure about playing the songs at home. As students often play their songs for each other during lessons, it helps avoid the performance anxiety that students taking individual lessons can feel before recitals. Plus, students generally find that working together with other students increases creativity and fun! Over time, experience has shown that most children learn more in small group lessons because these lessons encourage independence and build confidence, which is a strong foundation for success not only in piano lessons but in the other areas of student?s lives.

Copyright 2005, Cynthia Marie VanLandingham

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Have a child in piano lessons who wants to compose their own songs, but is having trouble getting started. Does he or she try to make up their own melodies on the piano? Piano Students often think they have to be Beethoven or Mozart to compose their own pieces. It?s not true. Here are five tips to help piano students begin to compose their own songs. Share it with your piano student at home. Or maybe you?d like to try your own hand at composition.

1. I can?t think of a tune or anything to write lyrics about.

Every piano student has a source of song. You just have to know where to look for it. I recommend that students who want to compose their own music keep a ?Piano Memory Box.? This is a special place to store keep sakes and mementos of special personal experiences they want to remember in the future. I made one of these for my son when he was a young piano student and he still uses it as a senior in High School. When he was little I suggest he put things in it like photographs of special memories, a ball of cotton dipped in his grandmother?s perfume, a little jar of dirt from a special vacation spot we liked to visit, or the school paper he wrote on ?What I Did This Summer.? Over the years he has put lots of things in this little box. Recently, I happen to notice him throw in some ticket stubs to a move he saw with his girl friend. As he grows into a man I hope he?ll remember to take a look back inside this little box whenever he?s looking for a source of song or inspiration, and remember who he is. Oh, there will be some sad memories there as well, but this too is the stuff song writers are made of. Just look back at your own history of experiences to compose a song that is meaningful to you.

2. I don?t know how to get started.

Songs are just poetry put to music. Start by writing a poem. Once you have your poem, white another short statement that summarizes your message. Use this as your chorus. If students can manage to do this in English Class they can do it in piano.

3. I don?t hear any music in my head.

To hear some music in your head, start singing your poem or playing it on the piano. Think of the tone and spirit of your poem. Is it funny, or beautiful, or stormy? Then start creating your melody by asking a question. Then respond to it by giving an answer. This is referred to as a call and a response. The ?Call? sounds unfinished, and the ?Response? completes the musical idea. This will be your first verse.

4. I can?t figure out how to put the music together so it flows.

Take your first verse and call it A. Then create another call and response for your chorus. We?ll call this B. Write as many verses as you want to. Here is a simple option for putting your song together. A/B/A

Here?s an example to show you how easy this is.

A: Verse Call ? Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Response ?How I wonder what you are.

B: Chorus

Call ? Up above the world so high,
Response – Like a diamond in the sky.

A: Repeat Verse

5. I still can?t think of a melody for my poem.

If you still can?t come up with a melody, try this. Create a variation on the simple melody above. This will help you begin to hear and understand how melodies are created, using the call and response technique. To hear more complex variations on this childhood melody, find a piano CD with some of the many variations on this theme composed by Mozart.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

"My 6 year old daughter really loves the piano and wants to learn to play, but when I try to help her she gets very upset with me. What should I do? Help!"

The piano mom who asked this question has jumped into a Lion’s Den that I call the parent trap. If this is you, don’t feel bad, I’m the angel who can help you out. But first, let me explain how this trap works.

When parents move out of the parental role and into the role of piano teacher, young children can become confused and anxious. Why? Because, the expectations of children are that Mom and Dad will always play a specific role that protects their emotional security. Because children must have their emotional needs to feel loved and secure met before they can learn, they may refuse to allow a parent to be the piano teacher, even when they want to learn. And surprisingly, the child who really wants to play the piano may resist a parent’s help even more! So, how does a parent get out of this trap?

Be supportive without being in control. From the time your child approached the age of two they have most likely been sending you the same conflicting message over and over: I need you – Let me do it myself! Get used to this because it doesn’t really go away when kids get older. To deal with this parents get two choices. They get to be in charge, or they get to be in control. But parents can’t do both, they have to make a choice. Now you might be thinking this is some kind of a joke. These choices are the same. Not so – they are very different.

Being in control requires parents to make all choices for children without their participation in the decision, such as when to practice, what songs to learn, and how fast they should progress. The problem here is this ignores children’s need for independence. To gain control, students may actively resist practicing at the appointed time and become angry, or become very passive, claiming they are just unable to learn new skills.

Being in charge recognizes children’s needs for independence but provides needed support and guidance. It allows children to make choices among options you identify for them, which lets them do it themselves while still receiving needed protection. To stay out of the Lion’s Den, enroll your child in piano lessons with an instructor who follows an authoritative teaching model and continue this model at home.

Authoritative Model Teaches Ownership and Responsibility

• Parent/Teacher is in charge of setting appropriate consequences for their child’s behaviors. Child is given choices to make reasonable decisions within protected limits where they can learn from their mistakes.
• Child learns to take initiative and trusts their ability to make intelligent decisions and to act responsibly.
• Child learns to be assertive and can ask adults for information and guidance, but accepts ownership and responsibility for their decisions.

How can parents get out of the Lion’s Den and support their young in piano at home?

Jump Out!

The easiest way to jump out of the parent trap is to reverse roles. For example, after your child comes home from piano lessons, ask them to teach you what they’ve learned, because you want to learn it too! This lets your child be in control as they share their special piano knowledge with you. Kids can’t resist this. It’s just so much fun to be the teacher, and children love to reverse roles! Your young teacher will probably even correct your playing, and tell you that you’re doing it all wrong, especially if you play their song perfectly! So, be wiling to make a few silly mistakes that your little teacher can have fun correcting. Just don’t get defensive. I can guarantee you’ll get a lot of mileage out of this strategy that keeps piano moms and dads from falling into the lion’s den!

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com for my Piano Adventure Stories for Children These exciting Piano Adventure stores for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her passionate, new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Children love following along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary’s piano studio in Musical Acres Forest. Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading Little Bear’s Musical Garden and Little Bear’s Piano Goals.

For a wealth of f’ree information and piano music online visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources Don’t Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

The Law of Focus ? What we focus on gets our attention.

At the beginning of the piano journey, like any new and exciting adventure, our energy and enthusiasm levels are high. As parents, our focus is solely on helping our children achieve their piano dreams. Writing down the goals and dreams that first motivated you to give your child the gift of piano lessons provides a reminder that will keep your energy focused over the long term.

The Law of Commitment ? Commitment is the glue that holds our priorities in tact.

Start by committing to provide the financial resources necessary to ensure your child?s piano efforts are not in vain. In addition to lessons, this includes the purchase of an adequate piano or keyboard to learn on.

The Law of Encouragement ? Follow the Rule of Seven to One.

Give your child seven encouragements to every critique. And remember, if you use the word but in your sentence, it doesn?t count. Here are a few examples you shouldn?t try to follow. ?She practices, but not enough!? ?He plays, but only what he enjoys!? ?She likes music, but she can?t sing a note!? Statements like they aren?t effective. Here?s the message piano students need to hear — ?Your effort matters and it makes a difference.? This is accomplished better with pure encouragement. For example, ?Cool! I like the way you?.. (Period, end of sentence.)? Use and instead of but. For example, ?I really like listening to you play, and I never get tired of hearing you practice!? ?Wow! That piece is sounding really spiffy, and it just keeps getting better! By the recital it?s going to be awesome!?

The Law of Character ? The best way to love children is with character.

To do this, remember that your child is a different character than you are! View him or her as an individual, and give them the resources needed to develop their musical potential.

The Law of Perspective ? Not all complaining is meaningful.

Just because your child whines about practicing, doesn?t necessarily mean that they don?t like piano or want to learn to play. It just means they?re human, like the rest of us. Sometimes I don?t feel like cooking, but I like to be creative in the kitchen. By redirecting my focus to what?s important to me ? my family and the value of sitting down to a meal together ? I gather energy to accomplish my goal and enjoy the reward. When your child complains about practicing, redirect their focus to their goals ? why they wanted to learn to play the piano in the first place! Was it the pianist they listened to with delight at a concert? Or was it a friend or relative who plays piano well and inspired them to want to learn? This will help your child find motivation and redirect their energy to piano again.

The Law of Fun! ? It?s fun to keep your sense of humor !

The point of music is to lift the spirit. My students often want to be a little silly at their lessons and let some of their creativity out. I can?t even count the number of silly songs I?ve made up during lessons. Use piano as a way to connect with your child and have more fun together! Over the long run, adding creative fun into the mix of hard work, courage and persistence is the best way for students to achieve piano success.

There you have it, Piano Parents – The keys to the Piano Kingdom. Now go out and support your child in piano!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Children in piano lessons often have ideas about learning to play that come from television, the movies, and well, their own imaginations which are not accurate. To make sure your beginner in piano lessons has realistic expectations help them to focus on the basics ? simple things that make a big difference. Here are five simple things that will make a big difference to your beginner in piano lessons.

1. Attending weekly lessons ? The enthusiasm beginning students have when they start their piano lessons needs to be capitalized on, not forgotten. Students who are excited about starting lessons quickly lose interest when they miss their lessons. This is because they forget what the teacher has already shown them, and when they return to lessons they have to review the same lessons again. Having to stop and start over an over again with the same information because students miss too many lessons is demoralizing and breeds discouragement.

2. Bringing music books to every lesson ? Without their music books the piano lesson has no plan or focus. It ends up being whatever the teacher can make-up on the spot because the music the students need to be following up on isn?t available. When students come to lessons in a haphazard way not bothering to bring their music the result is equally haphazard training that results from an unnecessary lack of organization and lesson planning.

3. Setting aside a routine daily practice time ? Children need help from their parents to set a routing practice time. Parents can help by making sure their student is home at the agreed upon time to practice and limiting other activities that would compete with their lesson practice time. Keeping a routine is the best because it builds the practice habit and that?s most of the battle. At any given time there will be a choice of how to spend that time. When this decision is make ahead of time it is a lot easier for kids to stay focused on their goals.

4. Following the teacher?s practice instructions ? The best way to get some place is to focus on specific goals that will help us achieve our dreams. Each piano lesson assignment will require specific learning and playing strategies that will make learning easier. By following the teacher?s instructions students will make much more progress, much faster. For example, singing the note names as they are played and keeping eyes on the music, not looking down at the hands.

5. Attending piano recitals and activities that set important learning goals – Goals are important because they give us direction and something to work toward. Without goals the idea of time management is just an empty word. Recitals target specific learning goals that will help piano students achieve their musical dreams. Focusing on those goals helps students manage their time in order to be prepared for their recitals.

By following these five steps to a good piano start your beginner will make a lot of progress in their first year of piano. This foundation of good habits, knowledge and skills are what students need to achieve their goals and go on to reach their musical dreams.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Muscle Flexibility is important to playing an instrument such as the piano. This allows a student to play easily, with finger spring, wrist flexibility and control. But surprisingly this important element of playing doesn?t begin with the fingertips. It starts in the large muscles of the back, shoulder and upper arms.

Think back to your science or anatomy class. Remember that skeleton guy standing next to your teacher?s desk, waiting to be used as an example? Well it?s time to pay attention in class, because this boney guy has some valuable tips for piano students. All of the parts that make up your collar bone, shoulder blade, upper arm, forearm, wrist, hand and fingers are connected and operate as one skeletal and muscular system. You remember how that tune goes: ?The head bone?s connected to the neck bone, the neck bones? connected to the collar bone?? Well it?s true. So use this important lesson from your science class to get some bounce your piano step. Begin by using your large muscles at the top of this system so your fingers can do the walking with a spring in their step!

Follow the steps below to begin using your muscles correctly for piano.

Step1 – Sit up tall on the piano bench and imagine that your neck is stretching up to the ceiling from the top of your head. You should feel a sense of buoyancy in your posture. Arch your lower back.

Step 2 – Swing your upper arms out from your sides until your hands are flat (kind of like a birdie getting ready to flap its wings.)

Step 3 – With your forearms above the keyboard, reach out to the piano until you can feel stretch in your muscles all the way back from your shoulder blade.

Step 4 – Keeping your hands in a rounded position, stretching each finger tip down to the keys. Play G, F, E, D, C. Shifting the weight from one finger to the next with a little ?spring in your step.?

Step 5 – To get from one hand position to another or from one octave to another, bounce and land. Allow your finger to jump out of the first position by lifting at the elbow to bounce and land in the new position.

Step 6 – When playing a scale or run of notes, play the first note lightly, then spring out of the second note into the next one. This transfers energy and weight from one key to the next easily.

Keep following these simple steps and you?ll soon see how easy it is to get around the keyboard with a spring in your step. Then you?ll get an A in science ? and piano!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

To unearth keyboard treasure and access musical potential, imagine a globe of the earth, or download the Googleearth program on your computer. Find the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere, and the equator. Now locate your city or town by typing your address in the find box and clicking on search. Watch as the view of the earth narrows as the locator flies across the globe to your home town, one location on the earth.

Now visualize the grand staff of the piano. There is a top staff for the high notes, a bottom staff for the low notes, and in between the two staves is some white space where you will find a note with a short line through it – Middle C. This is the equator of Piano Land. Can you find the North Pole of Piano Land? Sure you can. It’s the highest note on the piano keyboard. The South Pole is the lowest note on the piano. There are 8 C’s on a full size, 88-key piano, but only one of these is Middle C. Just as your home town is one location on the globe, each line or space on the Grand Staff is one specific key on the piano. So you see, the Grand Staff is actually a map of the piano keyboard.

To unearth a great source of keyboard treasure, begin visualizing the keyboard while reading notes. Without this connection many students who can read notes fairly well still can’t find them on the piano. That’s why note reading books or notespellers can be ineffective. To overcome this learning gap students need to visualize the keyboard by keeping their eyes on the music, not always looking down at their hands, once they have the hand position. This simple, down-to-earth habit of keeping eyes on the music makes learning scales, chords, memorizing music, music theory, and note reading much easier. A keyboard in the imagination is a powerful tool. Piano students have a world of musical treasure waiting to be discovered – Google it, by keeping your eyes on the music!

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com with this link Piano Adventure Stories for Children My exciting Piano Adventure stores for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her passionate, new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. In these beautifully illustrted, inspirational stories children follow along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary’s piano studio in Musical Acres Forest. Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading Little Bear’s Musical Garden and Little Bear’s Piano Goals.

For a wealth of f’ree information and piano music online visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources Don’t Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

Children are often curious about the pedals on the piano when they first come to piano lessons. There are four common questions inquiring, young musicians want to know about the pedals. Here are the first three.

? ?When am I going to use the pedals??

? ?How come your piano has three pedals and mine only has two??

? ?Why does your piano have pedals? My keyboard doesn?t have any??

Below are definitions of the three pedals on a traditional, acoustical grand piano. From left to right they are the una corda pedal, the sostenuto pedal, and the damper pedal.

1. The una corda pedal ? Una corda means ?one string.? It is generally called the ?soft pedal? because it adjusts the piano action so the hammers only strike two of the three strings and the volume is reduced.

2. The sostenuto pedal – Sustains (or holds out) only the strings of the keys that are already pushed down.

3. The damper pedal – Lifts the dampers so all of the strings continue to sound even as more keys are played.

The above definitions, however, will need to be simplified a bit for a 6 year old. Teachers usually start by showing young students examples of how using the pedals changes the volume or sound as the keys are played.

If your child has a keyboard without any pedals you can purchase a sustain pedal for it. This would be a great idea as the sustain pedal is the first pedal students learn to use. If you have an acoustical piano with only two pedals, don?t worry about it. These are the Una Corda Pedal and the Damper Pedal. The Sostenuto pedal is rarely used but is nevertheless nice to have when needed. However your child in piano won?t miss it.

Here is one more important question children almost always ask about the pedals at their first piano lesson, ?How are my feet going to reach them!??

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You?ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f?ree internet newsletter so you can download f?ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com