Is your child taking up piano lessons for kids? If so, then it’s best that you provide your child with ample support so that he or she would be able not only to master the art of piano playing, but to appreciate its values as well. Learning to play the piano at a young age helps a lot in a child’s formative growth, as they not only develop a better sense of hearing and mind-body coordination, but as well as learn and practice discipline, concentration, patience, and achieving excellence.
But learning to play the piano doesn’t have to be serious, especially for kids. In fact, they become more eager learners when they are given pieces that they can relate to, as these help them feel like they are just having fun.
While most piano lessons for kids are held in music schools or with private tutors, you can also provide practice pieces for your child. Among the highly recommended pieces that they can use are:
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
This nursery rhyme is probably the easiest to practice for kids, and it is at the same time the most common in terms of melody. Other nursery rhymes have been played to this tune, thus making it more familiar to kids. And yes, it is easy to play because it makes use of repeating notes, allowing young students to take remember how they sound like.
An easy tutorial for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” can be found here.
- Itsy-bitsy Spider
Another favorite nursery rhyme that’s highly recommended for piano practice is “Itsy-bitsy Spider.” Just like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” this song also uses note repetition, and it at the same time provides a good variety to finger playing.
This nursery rhyme is also recommended to adult learners because they get to practice moving their fingers around the keys. While the song uses the same notes repetitively, the positioning of the notes is far from each other, thus your hands will have to move from one key to the next. This is a good exercise especially when you are preparing for more complex pieces to play.
To learn how to play “Itsy-bitsy Spider,” here’s a video tutorial.
- Are You Sleeping (Brother John)?
If you want to give your child a piece that’s a little bit complex to practice, then a “Are You Sleeping?” is a good choice. This is a canon song, meaning that its lyrics and melody can be played in any part of the tune while it is simultaneously playing. This means that even when the song is already playing on the second verse, its lyrics on the first verse can still be played and follow the same tune.
Music teachers recommend this song to young learners because it makes them practice both hands on the keys. They also get to learn the purpose of the left and the right hand when playing the piano in order to produce a harmony.
To learn more on how to play “Are You Sleeping,” check this out.
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
“Mary Had a Little Lamb” is also an effective song for beginners, both kids and adults. It also makes use of only five fingers of one hand, and the notes to be used are placed very close to each other. So yes, if you are after learning the positioning of the keys and their corresponding notes, then this is a perfect song choice.
To play “May Had a Little Lamb,” click here.
