Piano Lessons

Last week I signed Chloe up for piano lessons. This summer, she showed a big interest in playing and would sit down numerous times a day and play around on the keys. She was very interested in playing actual songs like "Mary had a little lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle little star" and would ask me to show her what notes to play to make that song. She soon had "Mary had a little lamb" memorized (and would play it loudly over, and over and over and over...)

With this new found interest, I decided now was the perfect time to sign her up for lessons, which she was absolutely thrilled about.

We found our teacher through a recommendation from a friend. One of the things that enticed me about this teacher was that she comes to your home to teach lessons, if you want to do early morning lessons before school. I originally thought this would be perfect for us, as all my kids are early risers, especially Chloe, so we would be up and going anyway. Another big perk- I wouldn't have to load all my kids up in the car to get her to her lessons. But after talking about it with Ben, we thought having lessons in our home might be distracting for Chloe with all the kids running around and being noisy. I would hate for Chloe's lesson to be overrun with loud siblings and ruin her special time. We opted for taking lessons at the teacher's house where it is quiet and distraction free, and I think going to someone's house teaches extra respect for the teacher and something special just for Chloe, away from home. (Although if we tire of taking her back and forth once a week, I'm sure we can always switch to having it our home and keeping the kids away from the piano for a half hour won't be hard).

Yesterday was her first lesson, and I dropped the younger kids off at a friend's house so I could go with her and get to know the teacher a little bit and see her teaching style in action.

Chloe sat right down with no hesitation and answered every question and did everything she was asked. The teacher was very sweet, patient and positive. She is fantastic with kids and so upbeat. Chloe kept saying "oops" in an apologetic way every time she made a mistake, and her teacher praised even her mistakes and calmly told her it takes time to get everything right and that she is just learning. I walked away being very impressed and feeling very excited about Chloe's future in piano.

Chloe came home from her lesson and immediately sat down and practiced her new songs for about 15 minutes.

She learned which fingers go on which keys today and she payed very careful attention to her finger work during each song.

This morning, as soon as the babies were awake, Chloe practiced again. She practiced so long that I had to insist that she stop to eat breakfast and get ready for school. Let's hope her desire to practice lasts.

Here is her first song she learned to play called "Recess," appropriately titled for one of her favorite activities at school.