How to tune up a musical ear in young piano beginners? by Piano Comics

In this video you can watch a 7 year old piano beginner that started piano lessons 6 months ago. Although she is a beginner I made her play an easy piece-song with lyrics that she learnt fast. I didn’t use many keys because I also wanted to use this piece with preschoolers so the notes are 3 and all consecutive. There are 2 phrases, the 1st one in major and the 2nd one in minor ( the 3rd key goes down by a semitone ). Also, in this piece we worked on 2 different tempos ( slow and fast ) and 2 different dynamics ( loud and soft ).

The student had already some knowledge with major tonalities since she’s been learning some major scales. She has also learnt the alterations so the e flat key that is in the 2nd phrase was not ‘unkown’ or new to her.

To be honest, I didn’t intend to use this song as a game/exercise for transporto to different tonalities. And in general, I avoided this exercise with piano beginners for many years because – mistakenly – I thought the kids would fall short. From curiosity – and tiredness since the student wanted to play this song all the time – I asked her to play it from a different key. And it was simple. Because they have to play 3 keys in a row, the only thing that’s left is to decide whether they’ll play a white or a black key. And in the 2nd phrase the 3rd note that changes/descends is easy to find, as if the finger goes by itself somewhere near the 2nd key. From the movement of their fingers just before they touch a key – if you watch closely in the video – I believe you will understand how their ear is ‘commanding’ the fingers which key to play.

 Try this song, I really think that even young piano beginners will be able to tune up their ear. The benefits are plenty with the most important one being the tuning of a melodical and harmonical ear. And this is one of the most prescious bases we can and should give our students, no matter which instrument we teach them.

You can download the piece- song ‘Lady Bug’ by Piano Comics in the end of this post.

More material for beginners and young little pianists for music theory and basic piano skills you will find in ‘Workbook Sheet Music’ for piano beginners by Piano Comics.