Yesterday, I agreed to teach piano lessons to my youngest student ever: a soon-to-be 2 year old.

Then I realized what I had just agreed to.

How on earth am I going to teach a baby to play the piano?

Where do you even begin?

In most situations, I would advise parents to hold off on instructing their pre-school age children until reading and writing skills begin developing, since that is commonly discusses as being the prime time to begin music training.

But my last semester of school changed all of that for me. In my studies, I learned that children learn the most during their first two years of life than they do for the entirety of their childhood. Their brains are sponges and absorb a mind-boggling amount of information. They’re learning how to make linguistic sounds, listen and comprehend the words of others, and move! It was this information that enlightened me:

Exposing children to music from day 1 will allow music to become second-nature.

I began developing an infant and toddler music class. My first participant was my friends 19 month old son.

The first class was highly planned and rigidly structured, with activities, crafts, games and songs. But I discovered that the boy had only one interest… playing with the variety of toy instruments I had spewed all over my studio floor. The best part was that he was still learning so much just through play. He was learning how to play different instruments; that some instruments make tonal sounds and some make rhythmic sounds; some are always loud or always soft and some can be a mixture of loud or soft. If anything, the musical play was igniting his creativity and creating within him a desire to play music.

I’m now preparing a student profile for that same boy (he’s 23 months now). I’m totally drawing from my experiences teaching that toddler class. I’ll keep you posted.

❤️

I began teaching piano a few years ago, after I realized that I had to have some way of supporting myself through college (that hopefully didn’t involve me having to work fast food). Since it was the one skill I really felt good at, I went straight for lessons.

My first student was the daughter of a family friend, and quite honestly just as much of a music geek as I was at the time. I remember setting up for our first lesson just moments before she arrived. My piano teacher had written down starting points on a Post-It note to help me set up our first lesson. It was during those first few lessons in my living room with my tattered square of yellow, partially sticky paper that I discovered a hidden passion for teaching music to the next generation.

That was 5 years ago. I’m now finishing my Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance before I continue on to start my Masters Program in Music Pedagogy. Since my first lesson with my friend’s daughter, it’s estimated that I’ve taught over 200 students (either privately, or in tutoring roles and group classes). It went from something I did for 30 minutes once a week, to becoming my full-time job and the center of every single day. Currently, I teach about 25 students on a regular week-to-week basis.

But the studio is growing, and with each new student comes a brand new set of challenges, needs, and concerns that I have never had to face before. And with the occupation of “piano teacher” seemingly in decline, I’ve discovered the severe lack of blogs and articles dedicated to helping teachers with difficult situations.

The purpose of this blog is to [anonymously] share my experiences with music teachers who may face those same challenges and not know what to do.

Music Teachers have the most magical and wonderful opportunity to forever change a child’s life for the better. We are allowed to speak truth, encouragement, and inspiration into the souls of the future leaders of the world: children.

I’m going to share my journey with you all.

Much Love,

The Piano Teacher