A piano lesson from Mr (6)

Mr (6) has been learning piano for about three months.

On a visit to Wellington,he was very excited to have the chance to play for me and more importantly show me what he could do!!

Feet ran down the hall – he just wanted to get those fingers on the keys, he flicked open his book, flattened it in a hurry (after showing me some colouring on it) and away we went!

He showed me he was up to do, re, mi, fa, sol and could find those notes all over the piano. He was so excited he hadn’t even sat down and was happy playing anywhere on the keyboard.

He pointed out the notes and rests and played me Snow Flake and Frog among other pieces. He played separate hands and then hands together “you’d find this really hard” hard he said. He asked for some help …do do do shush (rest),each shush was executed with a nod of the head- he knew his stuff!

We spent ages going through his book and he was enjoying telling me all the things he knew. I showed him my piano book (a piece I am playing in a concert in 2 weeks) and he asked about the notation in the bass- where to find it on the piano.

With his  playing, the enthusiasm was fantastic- fingers sometimes got mixed up and crossed over each other and sometimes the notes weren’t 100% but he was into it and loving those bars with the rests to make it tricky.

I asked him if he wanted to see how a piano worked- best question ever !!

He jumped off the piano stool and couldn’t wait. I lifted the lid and sat down myself. Here he was on tiptoes as close as he could fit holding on looking in. We talked about the hammers, and what happened inside when I played a note , then lots of notes really fast (white notes) and then black and then black and white. 

Next we talked about the sustaining pedal and it was like a light went on.  Questions were being fired at me , “do it again, do it again” he said. Then came lots of questions about the other pedal- he was so little he couldn’t really see what was happening inside but he could hear it.

“Now me try” followed next with an avante garde performance of notes all over the keyboard and total concentration on the sound that was being made. 

He had to get his parents in so they could see how good he was too! He was loving it.

He even wanted to know about the lid that I put down over the keys and what that did and why (when we finished).

Later on in the evening he asked if he could play the piano again and spent quite a while by himself tinkering away – singing do do do shush with pedal on and off and having a ball.

This is how he left the piano complete with finger marks and a (sort of ) closed lid (good attempt  Mr (6))

So what did Mr (6) teach me?

I really want to be treaching piano again, and when I do… I am going to build in a session on how the piano works for each pupil

Thanks Mr (6)!