Music Education with Papa
Yesterday, while all the ladies were out bridal dress shopping, Lukey and I had some nice quiet time at the house. Naturally, we ran some trains on Lukey's layout while it was so quiet in the house... four different trains to be exact. That was fun.
We then headed to the kitchen for some lunch.
After lunch, we knew the ladies would be back home before long so we didn't want to jump into anything time consuming. I then had an idea... I asked Lukey, "do you want to learn how to play a song on the piano?"
He enthusiastically replied, "YES!" while jumping up in the air like a little jumping bean.
First, I attempted to teach him something simple... where to sit in reference to the piano... how to identify that middle group of two black keys. I doubt he'll remember this but he seemed to understand and it was his first introduction to this concept.
Then I figured we'd start with trying to play something simple like "Jingle Bells"... this didn't go so well. He was not understanding the concept of tones going up or down and how that relates to the keyboard. He couldn't even tell me which direction two tones were going... up or down?
"Okay, no problem," we'll have to go even more basic... rhythm. After all... the piano is actually a percussion instrument and music really is about rhythm.
"Let's start with rhythm."
In the years while I was teaching piano, I would always go back to the basics of rhythm whenever a student had difficulty with a passage or phrase. I would go so far as to pull out drums so the student could play the rhythm on drums without notes getting in the way... over and over... until the rhythm was no problem whatsoever. Then, we'd go back to the piano.
I had Lukey move to his right on the bench while I moved around to the other side and sat on his left. I explained that I'll play a rhythm on the black keys and he can play whatever he wants using only the black keys. As an example, I played a simple rhythm with my left hand on my end of the keyboard and played a crude melody with my right hand of just hitting random black keys focusing on rhythm more than a true melody up on his end of the keyboard.
I moved back down to my end of the keyboard and started playing a two-handed rhythm... I told him to have at it... he timidly played on his black keys... very timidly... very softly... barely audible.
I let this continue for about three or four minutes before saying, "C'mon Lukey, I know you can play louder than that!" He started playing a little more loudly and gaining more confidence.
After about five minutes he seemed to get into a rut so I decided to change up the 'voices' on my keyboard... for instance, I set up a funky bass on my end of the keyboard and a 'synth saw lead' on Lukey's end... He found this amusing and it put him at ease enough to try a few new things.
Then I changed it up again... I said, "Let us go to Jamaica, mon!" and changed the keyboard to steel drum voices... he thought this was amusing and we played like this for a few minutes.
We eventually played through all sorts of electronic keyboard voices and, by now, Lukey was feeling the rhythm and playing some cool melodies on the black keys up on his end of the keyboard. It was time to add some drums behind us...
I added a rather simple beat underneath us but stepped up my own bass rhythm and this prompted Lukey to attempt adding some vocals out of the blue! Well, rather than singing it was more like a rap while he continued to play his melody on his black keys.
So, Lukey rapped a line while playing... then I rapped a line while playing... trying to make each other laugh by what we chose to say... eventually, I changed my rap to melodic song... Lukey followed suit. And, he did this while continuing his melodic rhythm.
After about twenty minutes of the basics of rhythm, Lukey was pretty impressive... especially for a four year old! He eventually found a nice groove and started playing in thirds rather than just random bunches of black keys. I didn't even recommend this... he started playing thirds on his black keys all on his own.
After a half hour at the piano, I decided that we should quit while we were ahead. Besides, at this point my spine was hurting pretty badly.
It was a great first lesson in music and Lukey was very excited and proud of himself!
We then headed to the kitchen for some lunch.
After lunch, we knew the ladies would be back home before long so we didn't want to jump into anything time consuming. I then had an idea... I asked Lukey, "do you want to learn how to play a song on the piano?"
He enthusiastically replied, "YES!" while jumping up in the air like a little jumping bean.
First, I attempted to teach him something simple... where to sit in reference to the piano... how to identify that middle group of two black keys. I doubt he'll remember this but he seemed to understand and it was his first introduction to this concept.
Then I figured we'd start with trying to play something simple like "Jingle Bells"... this didn't go so well. He was not understanding the concept of tones going up or down and how that relates to the keyboard. He couldn't even tell me which direction two tones were going... up or down?
"Okay, no problem," we'll have to go even more basic... rhythm. After all... the piano is actually a percussion instrument and music really is about rhythm.
"Let's start with rhythm."
In the years while I was teaching piano, I would always go back to the basics of rhythm whenever a student had difficulty with a passage or phrase. I would go so far as to pull out drums so the student could play the rhythm on drums without notes getting in the way... over and over... until the rhythm was no problem whatsoever. Then, we'd go back to the piano.
I had Lukey move to his right on the bench while I moved around to the other side and sat on his left. I explained that I'll play a rhythm on the black keys and he can play whatever he wants using only the black keys. As an example, I played a simple rhythm with my left hand on my end of the keyboard and played a crude melody with my right hand of just hitting random black keys focusing on rhythm more than a true melody up on his end of the keyboard.
I moved back down to my end of the keyboard and started playing a two-handed rhythm... I told him to have at it... he timidly played on his black keys... very timidly... very softly... barely audible.
I let this continue for about three or four minutes before saying, "C'mon Lukey, I know you can play louder than that!" He started playing a little more loudly and gaining more confidence.
After about five minutes he seemed to get into a rut so I decided to change up the 'voices' on my keyboard... for instance, I set up a funky bass on my end of the keyboard and a 'synth saw lead' on Lukey's end... He found this amusing and it put him at ease enough to try a few new things.
Then I changed it up again... I said, "Let us go to Jamaica, mon!" and changed the keyboard to steel drum voices... he thought this was amusing and we played like this for a few minutes.
We eventually played through all sorts of electronic keyboard voices and, by now, Lukey was feeling the rhythm and playing some cool melodies on the black keys up on his end of the keyboard. It was time to add some drums behind us...
I added a rather simple beat underneath us but stepped up my own bass rhythm and this prompted Lukey to attempt adding some vocals out of the blue! Well, rather than singing it was more like a rap while he continued to play his melody on his black keys.
So, Lukey rapped a line while playing... then I rapped a line while playing... trying to make each other laugh by what we chose to say... eventually, I changed my rap to melodic song... Lukey followed suit. And, he did this while continuing his melodic rhythm.
After about twenty minutes of the basics of rhythm, Lukey was pretty impressive... especially for a four year old! He eventually found a nice groove and started playing in thirds rather than just random bunches of black keys. I didn't even recommend this... he started playing thirds on his black keys all on his own.
After a half hour at the piano, I decided that we should quit while we were ahead. Besides, at this point my spine was hurting pretty badly.
It was a great first lesson in music and Lukey was very excited and proud of himself!
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