Mozart in the Making

The first note I learned on the piano was G. The G right above middle C. I can see the page of the book in my mind. John Thompson, or whoever it was, had a song made up of all G notes. Over and over. And then I’m sure we moved on to the other notes. I’m sure because I know them too!

This weekend, we got a piano. I’ve been searching Craigslist since the summer and finally was able to get one in our price range that didn’t sell before we got to it. Henry’s brother, cousin and cousin-in-law helped him move it into the house Saturday afternoon.

“I love it.” breathed Natalie.

“A Pinano!” exclaimed Ainsley.

It wasn’t in the house more than an hour before Natalie said, “Teach me to play the piano, mommy.”

Um…. Okay. Where to start? I am not qualified to teach a child piano. Especially without one piece of sheet music available.

I started, “Playing the piano is a lot like reading, you have to learn how to play small stuff before you play big stuff. And you have to learn each individual note before you can learn to play a song. Just like you learn the alphabet before learning to make words.”

Natalie nodded and drank it all it. Okay, mom, now what?

I went over how there are 7 notes in an octave and how they repeat themselves over and over all the way up the keyboard in a pattern. How if you can recognize the pattern, then you can locate the notes. We went over their names…. Natalie loved how they are the names of the alphabet, A.. B… C… D… E… F… G.

I then explained that each hand has a job. The right hand plays the melody (we had to go over what a melody is) and the left hand plays the fun parts (chords, arpeggios, etc.). And, every finger has a job too. The third finger on the right hand plays the E, the thumb plays the C.

Her eyes glazed over.

I quickly played Mary had a Little Lamb with my right hand to demonstrate its job. Then I played it again with my left hand playing arpeggios with the coordinating chords to show her its job.

Her eyes lit up again.

I explained she would now learn how to use her right hand. By the end of the lesson she was excited to play Mary had a Little Lamb for daddy. And she kindof can. But that’s not the important part. The important part is she had fun. And she gained confidence.

Now I’m off to find some sheet music on the internet. We need to learn some sight reading to get this done right. Agh!