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Just wondering if any teachers have ever put on a beginner's piano workshop. I have an outline, and some ideas for handouts. THe usual beginner lesson concepts will be presented, such as proper posture at piano, finger numbers, layout of the piano, brief exercise on quarter notes, half notes, whole notes. I plan to have all attendees play two songs by the end of the workshop. I have no idea what the age range of the participants will be. I appreciate any ideas you can provide to keep the presentation interesting. I've spent at least half a week on google with absolutely no hits at all on how to present a workshop like this.
Piano teacher, BA Music, MTNA member
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Why do you want to present a workshop like this?
Teacher, Composer, Writer, Speaker Working with Hal Leonard, Alfred, Faber, and Australian Music Examination Board Music in syllabuses by ABRSM, AMEB, Trinity Guildhall, ANZCA, NZMEB, and more www.elissamilne.wordpress.com
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What is the age range? Having a class of 6th graders and 2nd graders probably won't work very well. Also, I think just having one class would not work out too well. You'll want to cover too much and not enough time for them to really build upon concepts. Why not do a camp where you can teach over a period of a week?
Also, will each participant have a piano to play on? If they're not sitting at an instrument, they may get bored with theory and mostly talking. It may seem too much like school.
I don't think it's a bad idea all together, but I do think some concepts should be sorted out first before going into details:
1) Your target audience. Chances are you will have parents of 4 years olds calling, along with some 6 year olds, and perhaps a 10 year old or two, maybe even an adult. You will need to consider the learning ability of each age group that you may get, and work out a lesson plan for each. When you advertise, be sure to offer the classes with those age ranges in mind so that people know right away if it's a class for them or their child.
2) As I said before, you may want to consider offering this class as a camp, or once a week for 2 months or something. That way they really get a feel for piano.
3) It is better to have too much planned than not enough, and as you go along, you'll get a better idea as to how much you can actually fit into the time allotted. Just don't get frustrated or upset when you don't accomplish everything. Do the things that you really need to cover that day first, and then have other activities to fill the time if needed.
4) The younger they are, the more moving around they'll need to do and the more varied activities on the same concept they'll need.
5) They're there to play piano, and so you may need to figure out a way that each student can sit at a piano, even if you have two sharing one.
6) You will want to have rules that are very clear from the start: No playing while you're talking, raise your hand, etc. You determine what rules are important for you, and just make sure they don't become too long. No more than 5 should be good.
Anyways, your goals will help you to plan what to do.
private piano/voice teacher FT ![[Linked Image]](https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/gallery/42/thumbs/2529.jpg) ![[Linked Image]](https://forum.pianoworld.com//gallery/42/medium/9342.png)
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Not sure what your reason is for doing such a workshop.
Are you doing this as an free incentive class go get students to sign up for lessons?
Music School Owner
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Elissa and Dumdiddle, yes I am presenting this workshop at a music store to hopefully attract more students. The store gets a ton of mall traffic, so it may serve as another tool to pique interest through a group class, rather than going through the initial paperwork of registering.
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What is the age range? Having a class of 6th graders and 2nd graders probably won't work very well. Also, I think just having one class would not work out too well. You'll want to cover too much and not enough time for them to really build upon concepts. Why not do a camp where you can teach over a period of a week?
Also, will each participant have a piano to play on? If they're not sitting at an instrument, they may get bored with theory and mostly talking. It may seem too much like school.
I don't think it's a bad idea all together, but I do think some concepts should be sorted out first before going into details:
1) Your target audience. Chances are you will have parents of 4 years olds calling, along with some 6 year olds, and perhaps a 10 year old or two, maybe even an adult. You will need to consider the learning ability of each age group that you may get, and work out a lesson plan for each. When you advertise, be sure to offer the classes with those age ranges in mind so that people know right away if it's a class for them or their child.
2) As I said before, you may want to consider offering this class as a camp, or once a week for 2 months or something. That way they really get a feel for piano.
3) It is better to have too much planned than not enough, and as you go along, you'll get a better idea as to how much you can actually fit into the time allotted. Just don't get frustrated or upset when you don't accomplish everything. Do the things that you really need to cover that day first, and then have other activities to fill the time if needed.
4) The younger they are, the more moving around they'll need to do and the more varied activities on the same concept they'll need.
5) They're there to play piano, and so you may need to figure out a way that each student can sit at a piano, even if you have two sharing one.
6) You will want to have rules that are very clear from the start: No playing while you're talking, raise your hand, etc. You determine what rules are important for you, and just make sure they don't become too long. No more than 5 should be good.
Anyways, your goals will help you to plan what to do. Morodiene, thanks for taking time to answer my post. Since the store I work for would be hosting the workshop, it is open to all ages, but it may be a good idea to narrow down the age category. Thanks for the suggestions about setting rules - I never would have thought of doing that. Unfortunately, we only have access to one piano for me and one for the students to share. I realize that in order to have a truly effective workshop, there should be more keyboards than that available - as you said, as least two to a piano. Do you think my workshop outline is adequate? As far as offering a camp, I may consider that option when camp time arrives - in the summer. 
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I do these about 3x times a year in preparation for enrollment for new group piano classes. For me, they are very very successful, with about 70% of the students/parents who attend them enrolling for lessons.
I call them 'Demonstration Classes' and group kids by age (toddlers in one group, PreK-K in another group, 1st/2nd in another, etc...). I guess it would depend on the method you're using. I schedule mine every half hour or so. I do a nice variety of musical activities that are appropriate for the age group I have; I then answer questions and sign up students.
Is the store advertising the workshop? I mail out postcards and put the date in all of my local advertising.
Music School Owner
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Member of MTAC and Guild
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What is the age range? Having a class of 6th graders and 2nd graders probably won't work very well. Also, I think just having one class would not work out too well. You'll want to cover too much and not enough time for them to really build upon concepts. Why not do a camp where you can teach over a period of a week? questions! And your list of suggestions is extremely helpful. I might steal an idea or two.
Private Piano Teacher and MTAC Member
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Dumdumdiddle, thanks, I sent you a PM.
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What is the age range? Having a class of 6th graders and 2nd graders probably won't work very well. Also, I think just having one class would not work out too well. You'll want to cover too much and not enough time for them to really build upon concepts. Why not do a camp where you can teach over a period of a week? questions! And your list of suggestions is extremely helpful. I might steal an idea or two. Haha, feel free. Irene, this might go over very well then if you really limit the scope of what you teach. Think more about it being an introduction to piano rather than actually teaching them things, if that makes sense. This means you do the "best of" rather than more comprehensive and long-term building. Improvisation is always a lot of fun for kids, but since you only have two pianos to work with, you'll want to have other instruments. Have egg shakers (or home-made shakers made from empty water bottles filled with rice, bells, popcorn kernels, etc. - be sure to glue them shut so no one will open them up on the floor!), drums, woodblocks, etc. Then rotate so that each student gets to play on the piano. Just be sure that it's very short for each one, depending on the size of the class. If it's a really large class, you may want to make groups of 5 where you've got 4 on a percussion instrument and one on a piano, while you play a nice accompaniment. Something like that. For theory stuff, keep that to a minimum, focusing only on simple rhythms. In fact, you could have each percussion instrument have its own pattern to play over and over again, and the pianist gets to doodle on the black keys. Just some ideas here. It might be tough to have everyone learn 2 pieces if they can't all practice the piece at the same time. This means others will be waiting and listening/getting bored while a student or two are at the piano.
private piano/voice teacher FT
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Just following up to see what you decided to do, Irenev. It turns out I'll be teaching a piano camp this summer where I'm hoping to move to try and get new students down there. The theater that I'm doing this at wants a syllabus and specifics, so I'm thinking about what m goals should be and what activities we can do, how much time each class should be, etc.
I'm thinking I could easily have enough activities for 1.5 hrs per day for 5 days in a week (the camp would be one week long). I'd like to do an improv and/or composition activity each day, in addition to working on basic rhythms (smallest note value two 8th notes), note reading on the Grand Staff, some basics on technique, and have each child learn their own solo piece to perform in a mini-recital at the end of the week. We would also do a number of ensemble works (maybe a simple two-handed piece with half the group playing the LH and the other half doing RH).
I was also thinking about using some percussion instruments for the improv portion of things, maybe even a drum circle sort of activity which we might want to do at the recital as well.
The note reading and rhythms would be reinforced every day with a short game like musical bingo. Their solo pieces would be worked on right away from day 1 (probably short 8 measure things, one hand at a time but using both hands).
Do you think 1.5 hours would be enough time for these activities if I kept them to a limit? For example I don't want to play a game for only 5 minutes because not much could be learned in that time. I think I can say how long the class should be, but I'd like to keep it to only 5 days, that way the following week could be a different age group.
Which brings up the age group thing - how would this work?
-Grades Kindergarten & 1st grade
-Gr. 3-5
-Gr. 6-8
-Gr. 9-12
private piano/voice teacher FT
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Morodiene, wow that's an ambitious outline! I PM'd you.
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Any other comments or suggestions? Irene, I just responded, and I will take out the composition portion from the description and use it only if we have time.
Just the point out to everyone, the ensemble playing will be the main portion of the mini-recital at the end. Those that are capable will do solos, or perhaps they'll all have some kind of solo, but ones less confident will have just a phrase to play alone in the middle of an ensemble piece.
private piano/voice teacher FT
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Any other comments or suggestions? Irene, I just responded, and I will take out the composition portion from the description and use it only if we have time.
Just the point out to everyone, the ensemble playing will be the main portion of the mini-recital at the end. Those that are capable will do solos, or perhaps they'll all have some kind of solo, but ones less confident will have just a phrase to play alone in the middle of an ensemble piece. Just a note about your age grouping: I would keep Kindergartners separate and do 1st/2nd graders together. If you doing summer classes, then these would be incoming Kindergartners, right? There really is a huge difference between those who have just finished K and those who are about to begin K.
Music School Owner
Early Childhood Music Teacher/Group Piano Teacher/Private Piano Teacher
Member of MTAC and Guild
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Any other comments or suggestions? Irene, I just responded, and I will take out the composition portion from the description and use it only if we have time.
Just the point out to everyone, the ensemble playing will be the main portion of the mini-recital at the end. Those that are capable will do solos, or perhaps they'll all have some kind of solo, but ones less confident will have just a phrase to play alone in the middle of an ensemble piece. Just a note about your age grouping: I would keep Kindergartners separate and do 1st/2nd graders together. If you doing summer classes, then these would be incoming Kindergartners, right? There really is a huge difference between those who have just finished K and those who are about to begin K. That's a good thought. I was thinking more like kids who just finished Kindergarten, going into 1st grade. I suppose I should clarify this by just stating Grades 1-2.
private piano/voice teacher FT
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