Piano lessons from home

Not having lots of money growing up didn't really bother me too much. Like I said in my first post, I gained innumerable blessings because of the need I to be resourceful. But there's one life perk that I felt like I had to miss out on because money was so tight- lessons. All lessons: piano, dance, voice, sports.
Luckily I had a mom who instilled within me the desire to grow and learn under any circumstances. Because of that I really soaked up any and all instruction and teaching I could get my hands on. When we had our music elective in elementary I did my very best to develop a skill for reading music. I took the elements I learned home and did my best to replicate them on our untuned family piano. Over the years I've been able to teach myself enough to play basic songs and hymns.

Can they read? Then they can Play!

Now that my kids are old enough to read I think it's time to teach them the basics of piano lessons. When I started out we didn't have enough money to sign them up for official piano lessons so I taught them on my own. At this stage in their ability it's super simple to walk through the steps in the book with them.

I'm sure they'll get to a point when my teaching abilities won't cut it anymore and I'll need to get them to a real teacher. But until then I get to learn right on along side with them! The books we use are easy to follow and have fun pictures. I make sure to

reward them with tons of praise, stickers and small prizes as much as possible to keep it fun!

I love this special one on one time I get with my kids!

Mom's part

I found tons of great tips on teaching your own children piano lessons and compiled them all onto one of my pinterest boards- "Piano" I especially like the pin with free lesson plans.

Just make sure to approach piano lessons in a positive way that shows how much of a priority it is to you. I announce that "it's Kaylan's special music time, everyone keep quiet and let her focus!" By keeping all the other kids out of the way (except during "concert time" at the end of each lesson) it keeps the distractions down.

Consistency is also super super important!

Mom's can practice too!

To develop myself more fully I've rented several books from the library on piano performance. I was very impressed with how much I could learn with just a few minutes here and there. Lots of the books included practice exercises that helped me develop the muscles in my fingers better and taught tricks on finger placement for faster runs. (Wish I took a picture of the great music theory books I just returned.)

Music is an incredibly important and useful talent to develop. I don't think lack of money should be an excuse for not giving it a try!