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Q: I have no musical training, but I’m expected to help my son practice between his lessons. I’m so scared that I’ll teach him wrong! Shouldn’t the teacher make sure that he knows what to do before assigning homework?

A: Your young child may or may not be learning from a piano course book. If he is, try to learn as he learns from the beginning. Most course books have drawings and helpful hints in every lesson, at least for the first few lessons in which many new things are being learned.

If he is learning from memory, he may play the pieces just splendidly in front of his instructor but forgets them all when he plays solo. If this is the case, you can still encourage his playing.

First, please accommodate yourself with the general layout of the keyboard. Notice that there are patterns in the black keys (groups of three and groups of two). Every group of three sounds like the other groups of three. The same goes for the groups of two.

Begin with two or three fingers of your child’s hand. Play a little pattern yourself, and ask him to copy your motion. You may want to begin with a simple, little melody of two or three tones. The purpose of this exercise is to develop and strengthen fine motor skills.

• Make up your own patterns.
• Try only one hand and then the other.
• Alternate hands to develop both hands equally.

While he may not necessarily be learning the pieces assigned by instructor, he is learning a little bit of muscle control and ear training, that is, tone recognition, which will go a long way, and his instructor will notice.

You know your child best and can predict when he’s ready to stop. Aim for ten minutes once or twice a day. If he wants to do more, keep going.

Most importantly, keep it happy. If you begin creating happy memories together, he’ll continue to want to learn.