How to Keep Young Piano Students Excited about Music during the Summer

I have a four year-old student who has only had two lessons with me and they have now left for a two-week vacation. Her mom asked me what they could do during their trip to keep the excitement high but most important, to make sure what she learned during our two lessons was retained.

I suggested some apps and worksheets but felt inspired to write a post because this is a question I receive frequently from parents.

First of all, if you feel the student can handle some new pieces and concepts with their parents’ guidance, go ahead and give them instructions on what to practice every week. For example:

Week 1 - Lesson book page X, theory book page X, technique book page X

Week 2 - Lesson book page Y, theory book page Y, technique book page Y

Don’t forget to remind the parents that almost every lesson book page has a corresponding theory, technique, performance, etc page and they will be able to find those at the bottom of either the lesson book pages or the complementary book’s pages.

Supplementary Materials

If your student has a particular weak point, you could  explore some of the worksheets available for download or purchase at lesson plan marketplaces like Teachers Pay Teachers or Lesson Plan Pro.

My four year-old student is just learning her finger numbers so I suggested to her mom to visit The Plucky Pianista and download her Froggy Fingers worksheet. I’ve used it with my most recent new students and have had a ton of success. If your student is more into games, Susan Paradis has a couple of them for learning finger numbers. My favorite ones are:
Firefighter Finger Numbers
Finger Number Bingo
Colorful Fingers

I have also created a set of flashcards to practice finger number recognition and placement on the keyboard.

Free iPad Apps

I own and iPad and and iPhone so I haven’t been able to try out the apps available for the Android platform.

Rhythm Cat

This is great for beginners to feel the beat internally. Students have to wait for the count off and tap the green button for the necessary duration. Each level has an accompaniment to make the exercises more interesting.

                         

  

StoryBots: Tap & Sing

This app includes a few free songs and you can buy some more through the app. There are 15 “bots” and they each play a different pitch. When the player is ready to play the song, one bot will light up and raise its hand to let him know to touch it. It’s a fun version of a light up keyboard. The app offers the option of having the bots sing the pitches on “la”, note names or solfege syllables.

  

The Blob Choir

This is a bonus one. It’s a silly ear-training app to introduce tonal memory. There are three “blobs” and their “king blob”. The three blobs sing three different pitches and then the king blob will sing a pitch that matches one of the blobs’; choose the correct one and move to the next exercise.